How's my Cantonese?

[wannabeafreak]

I'd like to get your thoughts on my Cantonese...

March 2006 (3 months study): http://cantonese.hk/wp/audio/3_months.mp3

September 2007 (1 year 5.5 months later): http://cantonese.hk/wp/audio/18-09-2007.mp3

I have another mp3 on my blog which you might like to listen too: http://cantonese.hk/wp/?p=72

PS: please note I have asked on Sheik's forum but would also like to get Chinese-Forums' members opinion's too.

[Quest]

Your 07 recordings are very good. If I were you I'd be satisfied with that level of accent, just work on fluency a bit more.

If you really want to be 吹毛求疵, I will let you know where I can hear you are not a native speaker:

係: please be aware of the difference between 係 (hai) and 械(haai)

同: I heard toing

感想: weird tone

歡迎: weird tone

廣東話: weird tone

(replaced 鞋 with 械 for tone consistency)

[Aunty]

Even though I've only been learning Cantonese for a few days, I recognise those words that Quest listed.

Could it be that the words we learn to mispronounce in the earliest period of study become the ones that are the most difficult for us to hear the errors in later on?

[zozzen]

You've shown drastic improvements and demonstrate that a cantonese learner can acquire good accent! Keep it up.

in http://cantonese.hk/wp/audio/18-09-2007.mp3,

- 經驗 (experience) : you pronounced "經營".

- you didn't say your name clearly. Did you say 米蘭?

in http://cantonese.hk/wp/audio/25-8-2007.mp3,

- 不嬲 : tone is 1 -1 , but you said "不漏" (不漏度拉...? )

- when you said "不" like "不嬲" 、"不過"、"周不時", you made a sound too strong, that's more like Vietnamese rather than Cantonese.

- 聽得明九成 (90% ): i thought that you said "舊城"

- "同埋我d 通詞" : What's "通詞"?

[zozzen]

and it seems to me that you can speak most sounds now, except "入聲字" (short sound word) . In the sentence like "吃不到的葡萄是酸的" , you made mistakes in many "short sound words" and i had to listen third time to understand what you actually meant when you said "hit but to sik".

[wannabeafreak]

- 經驗 (experience) : you pronounced "經營".

I swear I didn't intentionally pronounce like 經營. But I'll try to speak this clearer next time.

- you didn't say your name clearly. Did you say 米蘭?

Yes. That's my name.

- 不嬲 : tone is 1 -1 , but you said "不漏" (不漏度拉...? )

Thanks. I'll pay more attention. I think I have problems when 2 (tone 1) characters are together. Its hard to maintain the high tone level.

- 聽得明九成 (90% ): i thought that you said "舊城"

-

Thanks for pointing that out.

"同埋我d 通詞" : What's "通詞"?

I wanted to say 同事. I don't think I said 詞. I can't hear my pronunciation mistake. I only hear a tone mistake.

Could it be that the words we learn to mispronounce in the earliest period of study become the ones that are the most difficult for us to hear the errors in later on?

My problem was that I tried to be a hero and learned to speak before learning to listen clearly. Another issue is that my wife and family have already fully adapted to my accent and pronunciation and never correct me anymore. They simply understand what I'm saying first time and to improve, I need to talk to different people. My family are only useful in terms of fluency, even vocabulary is becoming restricted now. So I've been trying to jump out of my comfort zone and meet new people, but its hard at first as they require time to get used to my accent or sometimes need to repeat a few times before they understand 100%.

Thanks all.

[zozzen]

Another issue is that my wife and family have already fully adapted to my accent and pronunciation and never correct me anymore. They simply understand what I'm saying first time and to improve, I need to talk to different people. My family are only useful in terms of fluency, even vocabulary is becoming restricted now. So I've been trying to jump out of my comfort zone and meet new people, but its hard at first as they require time to get used to my accent or sometimes need to repeat a few times before they understand 100%.

It really takes a lot of patience to correct every mistakes and in my experience of learning Vietnamese, unless I kept making a new friend every hour, most people lost their patience to correct my mistakes in 5-30 mins. But i think you've passed the most difficult obstacles in pronunciation (good to hear that you made 'ng' sound very well) and all you need is just big effort to memorize so many sounds and tones.

If chinese characters is no problem for you, try to listen to RTHK news report, read their transcript (not a complete one) and repeat sound exactly like them. Hmm, just a pimsleur's way to learn language.

[soonHKguy]

is it you didnt know any other chinese language before you started to study cantonese, l asking for l will start to study cantonese and my gf whos hk ppl said you improved good.

soo keep up the good work:D

[Hofmann]

Congratulations on coming so far. I can understand everything, and the parts I cannot understand, I think are my fault because my vocabulary sucks.

In your 1 year 8 month speech:

Make sure that, when you say a syllable with an ending consonant, at least end it with your mouth in that shape. For example, the stops on 覺得 are too hidden. Also make sure they're the right consonant; I heard 不過 as 北過.

I guess if a Hong Konger is teaching you, you can't help but pick up some lazy sounds. Most noticeably you say 廣東話 as 趕東話. 好難 became 好爛.

...and as others have pointed out, some tones are wrong.

Edited July 15, 2008 at 04:59 AM by Hofmann
specifying which recording