Author Archive
Sunday, August 30th, 2009
Why can’t Caucasians learn Cantonese?
I hate when people tell me “your Cantonese is very good” but say it in English. Finally, all my built up frustration over the years can be explained by this video…
A while back, someone on the Cantonese learning forum described:
There are two Hong Kong’s.
Hong Kong (香港,香講) and Hong (m) Kong (香唔港, 香唔講).
“Heung Gong” (香港,香講) […]
10 Comments » - Posted in Language, Learning, Cantonese by 馬先生
Sunday, August 16th, 2009
Discrimination and Chinese Language
I came across an article (少數族裔不懂中文搵工難 - siu2 sou3 zuk6 jeoi6 bat1 dung2 zung1 man4 wan2 gung1 naan4) in Yahoo about Ethnic Minorities finding it difficult to find work in Hong Kong. The article describes a young man Mohammad, which I previously met briefly last month.
He tells the story that he can speak fluent […]
3 Comments » - Posted in Language by 馬先生
Tuesday, August 4th, 2009
I am very happy to meet John Wakefield
I am very happy that last saturday I met John Wakefield (莊域飛) in Sha Tin. John and his wife were super nice and I learnt a lot about his life, Cantonese and other aspects of life.
My wife agreed that John now speaks like a 100% Native Hong Kong person. Pretty happy […]
1 Comment » - Posted in Hong Kong by 馬先生
Sunday, August 2nd, 2009
American speaking Fluent Chinese
Iranian American Speaking Fluent Chinese (both Cantonese and Mandarin) Started learning Chinese at 19 and now speaks perfect Chinese in both Cantonese and Mandarin, and what’s more incredible he has never been to China or Hong Kong.
I think he is naturally gifted in languages and speaking in general. He didn’t even have one “ummm” […]
2 Comments » - Posted in Cantonese by 馬先生
Tuesday, July 7th, 2009
Pretty happy with my Cantonese Today
Today I presented a 2 hour presentation in 100% Cantonese, even the technical vocabulary to a Mainland outsourcing company. I had to study tons of technical computer vocabulary before the meeting and get fluent in professional sounding Cantonese like (鑒於上述我所講嘅原因 / gaam3 jyu1 soeng6 seot6 ngo5 so2 gong2 ge3 jyun4 jan1 / in light of […]
9 Comments » - Posted in Learning by 馬先生
Friday, June 5th, 2009
Monologue: Light at the end of the tunnel
Download - 00:28min
Produced & Transcribed by: 馬太太
Translated by: 馬先生
柳暗花明又一村
lau5 am3 faa1 ming4 jau6 jat1 cyun1
There’s a Light at the end of the tunnel
呢句古詩，而家成為左廣泛流傳嘅成語，
ni1 geoi3 gu2 si1, ji4 gaa1 sing4 wai6 zo2 gwong2 faan6 lau4 cyun4 ge3 sing4 jyu5,
This old verse has now become a wide spread idiom,
啲人用柳暗花明呢四個字比喻喺困難之中遇到轉機。
di1 jan4 jung6 lau5 am3 faa1 ming4 ni1 sei3 […]
9 Comments » - Posted in MP3 - Monologues by 馬先生
Monday, May 25th, 2009
3.5 years learning
Hope you can understand… just talking out of my head without any rehearsal. I know I sound very foreign, but at least I tried.
7 Comments » - Posted in Learning by 馬先生
Tuesday, May 19th, 2009
Greg Smith - Cantonese speaking Westerner
I don’t normally watch Pearl, however, I unintentionally came across a great video of Greg Smith who has lived in Hong Kong for 2 decades. After watching it on TV, I downloaded it from RTHK website, and then uploaded to Youtube for your enjoyment. Coincidentally, I think he looks like 大山 a famous Beijing […]
Hong Kong