Cartoons!!!

I am now watching random chinese teaching cartoons on youtube. :p lol Although I rather not be caught watching these, I must admit that they are pretty helpful. This one is so kindergarten’ish, but it’s helping me see how the sounds are pronounce with the different tones. .. loL *hides*

Goodmorning 早晨 Jóusàhn !

Yay, there’s some good news! First of all, I’m registered for my intensive Chinese courses during summer.  It’s a 15credit full-term summer course which will be Chinese 101,102,&103. It sounds really tough, but it’s the only time I have to start learning Chinese formally. I’m excited.

Last night, I got in about 30minutes of Cantonese practice!! It was with a Skype language exchange buddy, Eason. He’s from Guongzhou. He was teaching me common phrases through typing and voice chat.  We typed informally, but understood eachother pretty well. Since he’s an Econ major and I’m an Accounting/Law&Policy major/minor & basically just a business student overall, we had much to talk about, especially the comparison between China’s way of business vs. that in the U.S. Other than that, this was what I learned from Eason last night.

[Informal lesson 1 _ 05/01/11]

My family has 6 people. // Ngoh okay yao lok go ren.

My dad, my mom, 3 older brother. // Ngoh baba, mama, sahm go gor gor

I am the youngest one. // Ngoh hai mei gok yahn.

How much is it? // Gei dou cheen yaht gkum?

Why this?! // Diem guy ah?

Who are you? // Lei hai Been gol ah

Which one? // Been yo wai ah

Can someone help me correct the romanization and any other errors that will help me learn it properly? I’m so glad that I heard the pronunciation to these phrases and had a chance to practice saying it back by imitation. ^_^V Thank You Eason!

Also, Eason suggested the site italki.com to find more language exchange friends. I registered right away and made a few Skype and MSN language exchange partners. So, far it was a success. I’m glad to say that I actually met one from Hong Kong who currently resides in the states! This will be interesting and pleasant since we live in the same time zone.  As for the other girls and guys that I’ve met, it shouldn’t be too much of a problem as I stay up late to study for school anyways and it is usually China’s day time when it is my time zone’s night time.

From this introduction session last night, one of the language exchange buddy, Wai Ki, made a short voice clip for me saying, “Lei Ho Ma.” Today, I will put that on my ipod and keep listening to it, imitating, and practicing, until I can pronounce it right comfortably. Thanks  Wai Ki (:

Anyways, this is the only nice and sunny day in my area today. It’s rare and so I will go enjoy the sunshine before I continue to study for midterms for my Statistics and Law & Policy class. ] :

ByeBye!! Thanks everyone for their help. It was nice meeting you all.

bayB StrawBerry

Spring 2011 update!

Lei ho ma?! ^_^ Hey world !

Wow, it’s been awhile since I’ve updated.  I think that I’ve been caught up trying to raise my grades in school.  It’s going well this quarter! I’ve made some good friends, but still not a lot. .. ]: I haven’t made any Chinese friends yet *sigh* I wonder where they’re all at? loL. .. <3

I just took my survey for an add-code to take Chinese 101,102, & 103 courses this summer at UW-Seattle.  I hope they reply soon so that I can register.  It is not Cantonese (& yes I’m sad), but I heard that it’s okay to learn Mandarin because then I can learn the writing system.  I have a feeling a lot of it will be simplified characters? I’m not sure how it’s taught at the University level, but I’ll try to learn Traditional characters on my own if the teacher doesn’t emphasize on it. I heard that’s how Cantonese read Chinese characters?

Overall, learning Cantonese has been a SLOW PROCESS._ .;; I haven’t found anything effective yet. ..I’m reading other bloggers sites related to Canton stuff that I see through MakMak’s link pages !! That will keep me busy for a little..

Does anybody know any good links to learn Cantonese beside Sheik and a suggestion on how to record myself so that I can upload it to my blog for others to hear and comment on so that I can improve? Thanks !

ENJOY YOUR SPRING TIME & SMILE <3 !

bayB StrawBerry

Learning Cantonese: 6 tones

My friend MakMak pointed out to me a possible way of learning and remembering the Cantonese 6 tones.  It is through repetition and this phrase that includes all 6 tones.  I thought it was pretty creative and I am definitely going to be drilling that into my head from now on for practice.  I have also created a Flash Card deck for this method located under the Downloads Page.  You can see the word and try to pronounce the word and then double check the answer which is the correct way of pronouncing the tones. (: Awesome stuff. ..

香港細城市大

heung1 gong2 sai3 sing4 si5 daai6

Translation: Hong Kong is small, but a big city.
bayB StrawBerry

Hello world!

This is cute.  “Hello World!” I’m going to keep that default as this is my first post and edit it from there.  You can get a little details about me under About Me section somewhere in my profile.  My aim is to create a blog here (mainly for personal use) is to track down my Cantonese learning journey.  I plan to record myself and hope to get feedback to help me improve.  I find that I really lack any sense differentiating the 6+ Cantonese tones and so I find it helpful if I can have native/fluent speakers help point out where my problem lies.  I will keep practicing!  I hope that I can make more Cantonese speaking friends and maybe we can do some kind of language exchange by having conversations in English/Cantonese (I’m not there yet.  I’m still learning vocabularies) and helping each other pronounce words. ..I would also appreciate it if anybody could help suggest/lead me to how I can start learning this language more efficiently and effectively.  I hope I am going on the right track so far. ..

I was rambling to my boyF on Gchat today about what I am learning about Cantonese so far. He totally took a different aim on it! I think it was cute how he wanted to show me a part of Cantonese history happening in his neighborhood. My boyfriend, Ryan D., showed me an interesting video found on YouTube that really opened my eyes (it made me a little more scared of course), but like he said to me, “Learn about SF babe.” I watched it and it is interesting.  I love the fighting and stories about Triads and etc. in HK action related movies, but I feel indifferent when seeing that it happens in reality too. ..I am learning a lot so far!

So, check out this documentary video at this link:
Chinatown Mafia (hung moon? 洪門 = triad organization)

This is also a blog that I am following:
Canton 168
definitely some cute news. ..~_^ I read about Chatjik (equilvalent to Valentine’s Day) at the site today!

bayB StrawBerry
~If you have passion — You will find time for it.~