I’ve been meaning to post for a while, but I always find some reason not to. As planned, I finished Teach Yourself Cantonese at the end of February, and I’ve been working on Colloquial Cantonese while listening to Cantonese radio and watching Canto TV, i.e. the ATV live stream. I guess part of the reason I haven’t posted in a while is that I felt I had to write a review of both books, but nobody reads this blog anyway so I don’t know what I was worried about.
Teach Yourself Cantonese was a pretty decent book, it taught me a lot of high-level vocabulary by the end, and it used hanzi all the way through so I could enter things into my SRS. Colloquial Cantonese is a near-total waste of money. It barely teaches anything over 15 worthless lessons, and barely teaches any characters at all. The one great thing I learned from the whole book is how to understand weather reports. And those Hong Kongers love their weather reports, they’re always going on about it. Now I can understand when they’re talking about clear skies, or relative humidity, or advising people to wear more clothing because it will be cold.
I was just listening to an announcer going on about it on RTHK 2 just now, and I was so chuffed when I understood every single word that I came over here to post about it. 😀 Up next I’m going to mine the Lonely Planet Cantonese guide for more sentences while continuing to grab vocabulary from Cantonese news broadcasts. I learn about 20 new compounds from each news broadcast, just by following the Mandarin subs closely while listening to their words. It’s hard to explain, but if you’ve studied Japanese and a bit of Mandarin before, it shouldn’t be too hard. I get the gist of each news item mainly because of that prior background. Here’s what I’ve learned today:
接力 zip3 lik6 – relay
走勢 zau2 sai3 – tendency
出現 ceot1 jin6 – to appear; to emerge; to arise
動作 dung6 zok3 – action; movement
表明 biu2 ming4 – to clarify
要求 jiu1 kau4 – request
估計 gu2 gai3 – to estimate
投資者 tau4 zi1 ze2 – investor
完全 jyun4 cyun4 – completely
薪金 san1 gam1 – salary; wage; pay
討論 tou2 leon6 – to discuss; to talk over; to debate; discussion; talk; debate
休息 jau1 sik1 – to rest; to take a break; recess; a rest; a break
答案 daap3 on3 – [n] answer
出發 ceot1 faat3 – to set off (on a journey)
海水 hoi2 seoi2 – [n] seawater
質疑 zat1 ji4 – call into question (truth or validity)
功能 gung1 nang4 – function
重開 cung4 hoi1 – to reopen
範圍 faan6 wai4 – range, scope, limit
輻射 fuk1 se6 – radiation, irradiation
反擊 faan2 gik1 – to hit back
