Download Part 1 - 01:10min

Download Part 2 - 01:14min

今日個題目係蔬果。
gam1 jat6 go3 tai4 muk6 hai6 so1 gwo2.
Today’s topic is fruit and vegetables.

每一日食五種唔同顏色嘅蔬果係非常之重要嘅。
mui5 jat1 jat6 sik6 ng5 zung2 m4 tung2 ngaan4 sik1 ge3 so1 gwo2 hai6 fei1 soeng4 zi1 zung6 jiu3 ge3.
It’s extremely important to eat 5 types of different-coloured fruits and vegetables everyday.

噉，究竟係邊五種顏色呢？
gam2, gau3 ging2 hai6 bin1 ng5 zung2 ngaan4 sik1 ne1?
So, which 5 colours are they?

第一，係藍色，紫色。
dai6 jat1, hai6 laam4 sik1, zi2 sik1.
First is blue and purple.

第二係綠色。
dai6 ji6 hai6 luk6 sik1.
Second is green.

第三係白色。
dai6 saam1 hai6 baak6 sik1.
Third is white.

第四係黃色同橙色。
dai6 sei3 hai6 wong4 sik1 tung4 caang2 sik1.
Fourth is yellow and orange.

第五係紅色。
dai6 ng5 hai6 hung4 sik1.
Fifth is red.

第一種係藍色同埋紫色。
dai6 jat1 zung2 hai6 laam4 sik1 tung4 maai4 zi2 sik1.
The first type is blue and purple.

噉，有乜嘢蔬果係藍色同埋紫色嘅呢？
gam2, jau5 mat1 je5 so1 gwo2 hai6 laam4 sik1 tung4 maai4 zi2 sik1 ge3 ne1?
So, what fruits and vegetables and blue and purple?

例如藍莓，黑加侖子， 提子，同埋矮瓜。
lai6 jyu4 laam4 mui4*2, hak1 gaa1 leon4 zi2, tai4 zi2, tung4 maai4 ai2 gwa1.
For example blueberries, blackcurrants, grapes and eggplants.

佢嘅好處係可以幫助小便系統健康啲，同埋記憶好啲。
keoi5 ge3 hou2 cyu3 hai6 ho2 ji5 bong1 zo6 siu2 bin6 hai6 tung2 gin6 hong1 di1, tung4 maai4 gei3 jik1 hou2 di1.
Its benefits are that it can help your urinary system be healthier and improve your memory.

第二種係綠色，例如牛油果，青蘋果，奇異果，西蘭花，青豆, 芹菜同埋蔥都係屬於綠色嘅蔬果。
dai6 ji6 zung2 hai6 luk6 sik1, lai6 jyu4 ngau4 jau4 gwo2, ceng1 ping4 gwo2, kei4 ji6 gwo2, sai1 laan4 faa1, ceng1 dau2, kan4 coi3 tung4 maai4 cung1 dou1 hai6 suk6 jyu1 luk6 sik1 ge3 so1 gwo2.
The second type is green, for example, avocados, green apples, kiwi fruit, broccoli, green peas, celery, and onions all belong to (the category of) green fruit and vegetables.

佢嘅好處係可以令到視力健康啲，骨質同埋牙齒強壯啲。
keoi5 ge3 hou2 cyu3 hai6 ho2 ji5 ling6 dou3 si6 lik6 gin6 hong1 di1, gwat1 zat1 tung4 maai4 ngaa4 ci2 koeng4 zong3 di1.
Its benefits are that it can make your eyesight healthier, and make your bones and teeth stronger.

第三種係白色， 例如香蕉，椰菜花，蒜頭，薑，洋蔥都係屬於白色嘅蔬果。
dai6 saam1 zung2 hai6 baak6 sik1, lai6 jyu4 hoeng1 ziu1, je4 coi3 faa1, syun3 tau4, goeng1, joeng4 cung1 dou1 hai6 suk6 jyu1 baak6 sik1 ge3 so1 gwo2.
The third type is white, for example bananas, cauliflowers, garlic, ginger and onions all belong to (the category of) white fruit and vegetables.

佢嘅好處係可以維持已經係健康嘅膽固醇水平。
keoi5 ge3 hou2 cyu3 hai6 ho2 ji5 wai4 ci4 ji5 ging1 hai6 gin6 hong1 ge3 daam2 gu3 seon4 seoi2 ping4.
Its benefits are that it can maintain an already healthy level of cholesterol.

第四種係黃色同埋橙色。
dai6 sei3 zung2 hai6 wong4 sik1 tung4 maai4 caang2 sik1.
The fourth type is yellow and orange.

例如檸檬，芒果，橙，蘿蔔，南瓜同埋番薯。
lai6 jyu4 ning4 mung4*1, mong4*1 gwo2, caang2, lo4 baak6, naam4 gwa1 tung4 maai4 faan1 syu2.
For example lemons, mangoes, oranges, radishes, pumpkins and sweet potatoes.

佢嘅好處係可以令到免疫系統健康啲。
keoi5 ge3 hou2 cyu3 hai6 ho2 ji5 ling6 dou3 min5 jik6 hai6 tung2 gin6 hong1 di1.
Its benefits are it can make your immune system healthier.

最後一種係紅色，例如紅蘋果，車厘子，士多啤梨，西瓜同埋番茄。
zeoi3 hau6 jat1 zung2 hai6 hung4 sik1, lai6 jyu4 hung4 ping4 gwo2, ce1 lei4 zi2, si6 do1 be1 lei4, sai1 gwa1 tung4 maai4 faan1 ke2.
The last type is red, for example red apples, cherries, strawberries, watermelons and tomatoes.

佢嘅好處係可以令到心臟健康啲，記憶功能好啲，同埋小便系統健康啲。
keoi5 ge3 hou2 cyu3 hai6 ho2 ji5 ling6 dou3 sam1 zong6 gin6 hong1 di1, gei3 jik1 gung1 nang4 hou2 di1, tung4 maai4 siu2 bin6 hai6 tung2 gin6 hong1 di1.
Its benefits are that it can make your heart healthier, your memory (function) better, and your urinary system healthier.

呢五種唔同顏色嘅蔬果都有共通嘅好處，就係可以預防老化，減低癌症嘅機會同埋心臟嘅疾病。
ni1 ng5 zung2 m4 tung4 ngaan4 sik1 ge3 so1 gwo2 dou1 jau5 gung6 tung1 ge3 hou2 cyu3, zau6 hai6 ho2 ji5 jyu6 fong4 lou5 faa3, gaam2 dai1 ngaam4 zing3 ge3 gei1 wui6 tung4 maai4 sam1 zong6 ge3 zat6 beng6.
These 5 types of different-coloured fruit and vegetables all have common benefits, which are that they can prevent ageing, and decrease the risk of cancer and heart disease.

Created and Recorded by my wife, and Transcribed by Wai Ming. Thanks everyone.

I thought it would be quite beneficial to start uploading mini-podcasts for additional audio stimulus for my blog visitors. Though, I doubt I’ll ever make a Cantonese Chinesepod.com in the near future, I do believe these dialogues would be useful for some people. My wife made the recordings and I sourced the content from Wai Ming’s blog. I’d like to know if people think its worth uploading dialogues on a regular basis, I really don’t know if there is demand for audio dialogues.

Download

我嘅網上日記:
呢個係我嘅廣東話網上日記。我想喺呢度練習寫口語廣東話，而且將我學過嘅嘢寫落嚟。我舊年年尾先開始學廣東話，所以我講廣東話講得唔好，如果我寫得唔啱嘅話，請幫我改正一下。我希望有一日會講得同香港人一樣咁好。不過要日日都練習先得丫嘛! 如果唔係，點樣講得咁好呢? 講畀我聽啦! 我都想知喎~

ngo5 ge3 mong5 soeng6 jat6 gei3:
ni1 go3 hai6 ngo5 ge3 gwong2 dung1 waa2 mong5 soeng6 jat6 gei3. ngo5 soeng2 hai2 ni1 dou6 lin6 zaap6 se2 hau2 jyu5 gwong2 dung1 waa2, ji4 ce2 zoeng1 ngo5 hok6 gwo3 ge3 je5 se2 lok6 lei4. ngo5 gau6 nin2 nin4 mei5 sin1 hoi1 ci5 hok6 gwong2 dung1 waa2, so2 ji5 ngo5 gong2 gwong2 dung1 waa2 gong2 dak1 m4 hou2, jyu4 gwo2 ngo5 se2 dak1 m4 ngaam1 ge3 waa2, ceng2 bong1 ngo5 goi2 zing3 jat1 haa5. ngo5 hei1 mong6 jau5 jat1 jat6 wui2 gong2 dak1 tung4 hoeng1 gong2 jan4 jat1 joeng6 gam3 hou2. bat1 gwo3 jiu3 jat6 jat6 dou1 lin6 zaap6 sin1 dak1 aa1 ma3! jyu4 gwo2 m4 hai6, dim2 joeng2 gong2 dak1 gam3 hou2 ne1? gong2 bei2 ngo5 teng1 laa1! ngo5 dou1 soeng2 zi1 wo3~

—–
而且將我學過嘅嘢寫落嚟
ji4 ce2 zoeng1 ngo5 hok6 gwo3 ge3 je5 se2 lok6 lei4.
furthermore, write down everything I’ve learnt

Steve Kaufmann who can speak 9 languages fluently is interviewed in both Mandarin and English about learning languages.

Part 1: 08:16min	Part 2: 09:56min	Part 3: 09:32min

Very informative interview (English part), however, I couldn’t understand any of the Mandarin.

How can a school be teaching dodgy romanisations of Cantonese characters? I often see junk like “Ngorr maai boujee” and “lay haai joong gock yaan” all over chat sites or forums. Its actually amazing that people are able to read this rubbish, but the worst is a school that teaches made-up romanised words. A school teaching “Ngorr maai boujee” demonstrates to me they are not capable of teaching correct Cantonese.

In Australia, I spent 20 hours of study at a Cantonese school. I remember the teacher told students to make up their own romanisation because “Cantonese is an oral dialect, so its better to write each word down the way you hear it. There is no proper romanisation system” blah blah rubbish talk. I remember trying to read my notes weeks after and was not able to pronounce what I wrote. In addition, my teacher was not able to specify the correct tone for any words. There are so many native Hongkies (Hong Kong People) around who believe they can teach Cantonese. Some of these “wannabe” teachers demand handsome payment for zero experience, no tone or romanisation knowledge and not capable of constructing a lesson plan. I remember teaching one of my previous tutors the 6 tones and how to romanise Chinese characters. What a teacher, I had to pay and teach him!

Those who think they can learn Cantonese with not knowing any romanisation system is fooling themselves. I believe this potentially can harm your progress by not being able to review previously learnt words, and it slows down the acquisition of vocabulary as learners tend not to hear words clearly. With many words sounding nearly the same such as 怪 gwaai3 = strange and 貴 gwai3 = expensive, I think it is valuable to learn how to write and read a standardised romansiation system. I tend to mispronounce words if I don’t see the exact spelling because certain words have short or long sounds, and end with different characters -p -t -k that sounds the same in rapid speech. I feel that it is hard to learn and distinguish if listening is your only mode of input.

I think the best Cantonese Romanisation developed is JYUTPING 粵拼 jyut6 ping3. The Cantonese Dictionary uses Jyutping and most learners of Jyutping tend to have better pronunciation than those who make up their own romanisation. Some people insist it’s not necessary to learn Jyutping or any other form of romanisation, though I strongly disagree. Learners and teachers who are deadly serious in improving or providing effective delivery of Cantonese must take the 30 minutes to learn the Jyutping pronunciation rules.

Regarding Jyutping, many learners and/or teachers complain about the use of “J” to represent the English sound “Y”. I really don’t like whingers that can’t accept that “J” is pronounced as English “Y”. You only need a short period to get used to it, and besides I’ve never met a German learner who complains that Germans use “J” when pronouncing the sound English sound “Y”. Learning Jyutping has been one of the best investments I’ve made in improving my Cantonese so rapidly.

I found on RTHK, a programme about promoting better pronunciation of Cantonese in Hong Kong. I’ve noticed my listening skills improving greatly, as I was able to understand much of the show. After watching the programme, I corrected some of my pronunciation mistakes. I hope you enjoy.

Part 1: 06:11min	Part 2: 04:35min	Part 3: 05:38min	Part 4: 04:27min

Found some interesting HKATV documentaries on Non-Chinese people speaking Cantonese in Hong Kong:

Norwegian
Part 1: 03:24min	Part 2: 07:17min	Part 3: 09:39min

Indian
Part 1: 04:38min	Part 2: 06:01min	Part 3: 09:49min

New Zealand / Australian
Part 1: 09:17min	Part 2: 05:30min	Part 3: 05:14min

American
Part 1: 09:25min	Part 2: 05:29min	Part 3: 05:20min

I know it’s none of my business, but I just want to rant about something that disgusts me.

I once caught a Sydney train back home from work and witnessed a Chinese woman speaking extremely broken and beginner level English to her children that were about 5 and 7 years old. This normally wouldn’t cause a problem for me until I heard her kids reply back in ridiculously poor English. Their grammar and pronunciation sounded like a 2 year old child.

A fellow curious commuter asked the mother if her kids could speak Chinese, and the woman replied with a heavy accent “no Chinese, just English… No need Chinese”. Well, not only will her kids grow up with poor communication skills, they may grow up despising their parents for not teaching Chinese. What’s this woman thinking? When her kids grow up, they won’t be able to have any meaningful discussions with their mother. I think they would most likely need a translator to discuss anything interesting with their mother.

I remember discussing this incident with a work colleague, and he told me that his 15 year old son had to go to speech therapy because his Japanese wife refused to speak Japanese to the boy. This caused his son to speak English like his mother, developing bad speaking habits and inaccurate pronunciation of many English words.

I guess some parents think it will help their children speak better English if they speak English all the time to them. Though there are plenty of ABC’s who speak native sounding Cantonese and English. Despite this, some of my Australian born friends can only speak 1 language (i.e. English) with a foreign accent.

Can you imagine a native English speaker who only speaks broken and toneless Cantonese to their children in Hong Kong? What a disaster!

I guess I’m lucky to live with a native Cantonese person; my learning of Cantonese has improved extremely fast. Since starting my Cantonese studies, I have learnt and can recognise hundreds of fixed grammatical patterns. These are so important because they are frequently used in communication. These grammar structures remain fixed, while you are able to substitute different words to convey the appropriate meaning within context.

Perhaps for some people they are able to automatically understand the definitions of all conjunctions, but for me I struggle to understand their meanings in English. Some conjunctions like “so, but, because” are extremely basic and I was able to learn them from listening. However, words like “even though, even if, even when and although” have slightly different meanings. When I speak in English, my brain is able to automatically select the correct conjunction in real-time without thinking. I don’t know why I chose “even when” instead of “even if”, but I am able to consistently identify the correct one to use instantly. It is extremely important to choose the correct word, as it will cause misunderstanding of the sentence meaning. When I speak in Cantonese I ONLY think in Cantonese. I don’t retreat into English, think of the sentence and do translations like some of my foreign friends do when they speak in English. So before learning a new conjunction in Cantonese, I think you should know what some of the more difficult ones mean first in English, in order to learn how to use them correctly.

Speaking Cantonese all day helps improve fluency, but sometimes it doesn’t help in expanding your actual proficiency of the language. When I speak Cantonese, I always use familiar grammatical patterns so not to hesitate in my speech; however, sometimes you cannot get your meaning across effectively or accurately without using a particular pattern.

The following MP3 was made by my wife to teach me the following Cantonese pattern:
“除非 ceoi4 fei1…否則 fau2 zak1…” which means in English “unless …, ……………” (eg. Unless you do your homework everyday, you won’t get any pocket money).

除非 ceoi4 fei1 = unless
否則 fau2 zak1 = otherwise

When I learnt this pattern, I ignored why Cantonese people use “否則 fau2 zak1″ in the sentence. I simply learnt the pattern as a whole, and didn’t question why I need to say “否則 fau2 zak1″. Also, I never debated its purpose by saying to my wife “in english you can’t say otherwise after unless in the same sentence”. Another pattern I can quickly think of is “雖然 seoi1 jin4 …, 但係 daan6 hai6 ……” meaning in English “Although …, ……………”. I ignored the reason why “但係 daan6 hai6 = but” is required, and simply memorised the pattern.

After 15 minutes of repetitve listening to the same MP3, the pattern became permanently burnt into my brain. I can now automatically say the structure without thinking when I speak.