Learning Cantonese

How do I learn Cantonese?

By using ideas, methods,and tools outlined on Khatzumoto’s website:All Japanese All The Time,and Steve Kaufmann’s website:The Linguist. All that means is a lot of listening to comprehensible input over and over and over. Trying to notice things in the language that you didn’t notice the first time around, and most importantly, having fun while doing it!

I use a bunch of books and study materials but started with:

  • Teach Yourself Cantonese by Hugh Baker,
  • Remembering Tradtitional Hanzi by James W. Heisig, and
  • A Practical Cantonese-English Dictionary by Sidney Lau.

I have other books and dictionaries, but those are the ones that I use most often and keep coming back to again and again.

For software I use:

Aiya! That’s the largest amount of links I’ve seen in one place! Hopefully that helped someone.

I’d also like to point out that I do not learn Mandarin, or CCP characters (simplified). Any Mandarin I’ve picked up has been by accident from living in The People’s Republic of China.

Why not simplified characters?

You can see why here.

Why don’t I learn Mandarin?

Many reasons, but basically because I don’t like it. I don’t like the sound of it, I don’t like the movies that are made using it, I don’t like speaking/hearing it spoken, and I ESPECIALLY HATE BEING TOLD WHAT LANGUAGE I SHOULD LEARN by brainwashed people who know nothing about the world.