need some advice

[soonHKguy]

Hi, l'am an engineer student from sweden and will soon finish all courses and want to do my final examework here in hk, any suggestion what l shall do becasue l will study cantonese fulltime, l'am pretty serious on learning chinese. I have contacted some school but its difference much in prices for the tuition fee. But l prefer of cos kvalite. CUHK sounds nice but little expensive not for speaking about hk university HO HO GWAI. I was contacted some language school in wan chai but dont know about the kvalite, they seemed pretty eager to get me in to study courses

What you think guy and girls any advice for me

Niklas in TST to 26 july:D

[bamboo]

Mr Sweden, you must outline some things you want to do with Cantonese. Go into the movies? Kung Fu Panda vs Wing Chun Viking part IV ? Just kidding there.. [Panda uses the Northern style whilst you use the Southern or Bruce Lee version..] How long have you been in Hong Kong? How long do you intend to stay? What levels of Cantonese do you foresee reaching? Guai Lows do not need to speak Cantonese. Cantonese is also not as well "documented" as Mandarin for foreigners to learn, nevertheless the course at CUHK is top-class.

Assuming you are a "fresh" beginner, only knowing how to get by with a few words in Hong Kong, Gei Duo Chin 機多錢? before you can see results is kind of meaningless. Well CUHK course is very drilling at least for the first 2 years (-no characters encountered), After that I have noticed a mix bag of results. Some learners are quite fluent, whilst others have the usual difficulties in listening or understanding, just as you would if you were learning French or Mandarin. Even more telling is the inevitable hard to get passable pronunciation.. Most foreigners of Mandarin have this foreigner's accent... With Cantonese ho ho... its even harder to have a 'standard' acceptable pronunciation. But if you don't care about sounding like a foreigner than its OK...

Hong Kong is good because everything can be in Cantonese, you switch on the TV, the radio, the girlfriend, your buddies..you couldn't ask for a more Cantonese enriched environment. If after 3 years of CUHK and you still cannot communicate at an acceptable level of Cantonese for work purposes, I suggest you give up..

Most other language centers offering intensive Cantonese are also good and in my opinion they can better cater for individual needs. You can progress as fast or as slow as you want and you won't be held back by a bunch of GweiLos or very well intentioned foreigners who have been in Hong Kong for years and still can't speak the language properly!!!

[yonglin]

With Cantonese ho ho... its even harder to have a 'standard' acceptable pronunciation. But if you don't care about sounding like a foreigner than its OK...

I actually think that it's a lot easier to pick up a good accent in Cantonese than in Mandarin, especially for Scandinavians. None of the sounds in Cantonese should be difficult to pick up for a Swedish-speaker, although some work on tones would be required.

[bamboo]

I used to care a lot about what people thought of my accent whether Cantonese or Putonghua until I got upgraded! But the most important thing is to understand what others are saying to you (听力), then getting yourself understood comes second level importance. If you care too much about your own accent, you end up spoiling your whole speaking ability.

To get upgraded means, if you are speaking Putonghua or Mandarin, they assume immediately from your accent that you must be from "Hong Kong" (from the sound of your accent) to you must be from Taiwan..or Singapore. [Your Putonghua is just too good to be from Hong Kong! Wow...] In Cantonese I sound like I am from Guangzhou(广州) which is less sophisticated than the Hong Kong version, but no one in Hong Kong is going to say it's not "passable".. Don't really know why I got labeled as a Guangzhou accent, never lived there for more than a few days.. The Starbucks next to Guangzhou train station have difficulty understand 'Coffee of the Day' in Cantonese. Maybe they should send a couple of Hong Kong people over to Guangzhou and teach them how to respond in their mother tongue!

At CUHK if I am still correct, they are still using the Yale pinyinisation for romanizing Cantonese words. I find this less accurate than Hanyu Pinyin 漢語拼音 for Putonghua. I find this a handicap if your only source of written sound reference is from Yale pinyin. I don't know how accurate JyuetPing 粵拼 is but this is not widely used. Sidney Lau is similar to Yale in my opinion.

There is a blond Danish woman teaching Cantonese in Hong Kong, You might meet her in a coffee shop somewhere near central gardens i think If Scandinavian sounds are close maybe she should invent a more precise romanisation from the Scandinavian,/Danish,/Swedish language. Don't really know how effect this will be. Then getting the dictionary or language books published in Guangzhou would be a breeze..

[soonHKguy]

Bamboo thanks for you reply much to me

I was check-out cuhk with my gf today, seemed good think l will join their 2 years program in january. I have been in hk 1 month now, around 3 weeks more to l have to go home and finish up my last courses at the university in linköping. So yes l'am at the beginners level :o).. My gf say l talk to much about cantonese, she gets little bored so l look forward to january. Before l studied little mandarin, know the basics but not more than so. I move here in december for study and get a decent work related to my education. Cantonese l learn for my chinese interest, gf family, friends and her and for some communication in future work. I know all speak about hk noneed cantonese, but how fun is it only speak english, then l can never go alone to my favourite restaurants thats their as you call it, NO "guai los" eat :o), speak with my gf family or my new friends that doesnt speak a word english and for the ppl l know who can speak english rather choose to speak cantonese all the time-_-. I think l can say that swedish peoples english is better than hk ppl of my own experience. But if ppl move to sweden of cos they want to learn the country languages thats swedish.

Dont know how easy for scandinavians to learn cantonese, but many work l have easy to pronounce thanks to some simular sounds. Now my level is so l can buy food and talk with my gf some easy sentences. But beginning is never fun, most ho muna was when l was at caroeke with my gf and her sisters bf. I sat like a stupid sheep. just wanted to go home hehe.

l'am all new to this forum also, and l like it very much already