Learn By Doing

Here is Peter (ah-Dak) who’s been taking Canto lessons with me for some months now. When we went on our first trip to Guangdong province together at the end of last year, he immediately went off by himself, saying “being thrown in at the deep end is the best way to learn languages.” His Cantonese improved immeasurably after that, and now he’s swanning around the blessed province every time he gets the chance, picking up Canto like a dog picks up fleas.

However, this particular holiday isn’t in Guangdong, but in the north of China, whose transport hub is Lanzhou, Gansu province. Of course Canto is no good here, so Peter has to learn Mandarin. And above you can see his first lesson: “How to buy plane tickets.” That’s right: Get a phrase book and sit down and jolly well buy the tickets. Learn by doing! It’s the only way. Here he is in another practical exercise: “How to order iced water while wearing sunglasses.”

By the way, there’s a big demonstration today to protect the Cantonese language. I think it’s at 2 in Wan Chai. I can’t get back to HK in time, so can you stand in for me please?

Save Cantonese AND irritate the HK and Chinese governments. That’s what I call an excellent double whammy.

Cantonese – The Movie

Fortune Cookie Express

Don’t Joke on the Stairs – The Movie

Special: Going Native and Cantonese – The Movie

That! 嗰個！

Here’s a word, short, unassuming, that often creates trouble for my clients (“victims”). It’s 嗰 (go – that.)
Now, the word this is never a problem for any of my clients. It’s all 呢個(li go – this thing, this piece) this, li go that, all day long with them. Without any problems at all! But when it comes to the word THAT that’s trouble. I’d like to show you to use it through examples. Take the photo above.
嗰個人瞓覺(go go yan fen gau – that piece person sleep[that person’s sleeping])

嗰個人唔係差人 (go go yan m hai chai yan – that piece person not is messenger person [that person’s not a police officer. Yes, the one to the left]).

If you’re pointing to or talking about something that doesn’t have 個 (go – piece, item, thing) as classifier, you just put the other classifier after 嗰(go – that). As in the photo above: 嗰隻水牛游水 (go JEK seoi au yau seoi – that [classifier for animals] water cow swim water; that water buffalo is swimming).

Get it? Tomorrow: PLURAL!!!!!! I’ve said and said that there’s no plural in Cantonese and that’s true. And yet – there is.

Here is the ultimate way to learn about that: Through the medium of bluegrass!

Learn more about this and that by taking a 2 hour crash course in Cantonese this summer! You’ll thank me for it later.

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