How to find a Cantonese Tutor

[wannabeafreak]

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[geraldc]

Ask in Chinatown where the Chinese school is. There should be one for the kids to learn to read and write.

Try contacting some of the people listed here

https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/eas/commlang/schoolfinder/chinese-cm.html

(I know nothing of Australia's geography so I apologise if the links aren't relevant)

Also try putting ads up at your local university, there should be quite a few students who could teach you Cantonese.

[geek_frappa]

did you try Skype?

[wai ming]

Wannabeafreak, you're an intermediate level learner if I remember correctly?

Maybe what you could try doing is getting some intermediate level textbooks and combine them with a language exchange partner? If you can find a good textbook, that should handle most of the grammar/seemingly 'inexplicable' parts of the language, leaving things like pronunciation, dialogue practice, extra examples and correction to a native speaker, which hopefully they can manage.

Generally I find it's a lot easier to find someone to 'teach' you when you provide them with materials. After all, most native speakers of a language aren't teachers It also means you can direct your learning more to suit what you want to learn, rather than what your tutor thinks you would be interested in or should learn.

I've found a couple of intermediate-level textbooks/materials which I'd like to use in the future:

- 'Living Cantonese for Intermediate Learners' (Esther Chow & Conrad Chan, Greenwood Press 1997, includes 2 cassettes)

- 'Intermediate Cantonese: Themes for Listening and Speaking' (Phillip Yungkin Lee, Greenwood Press 2002, includes 3 CDs)

- 'Learning Cantonese Through Stories: The Story of Minami' (Cedric Siu-Lun Lee & Masumi Tanaka, Greenwood Press 2002, includes 1 CD)

- 'Wedding Bells: Chinese Reading Material for Intermediate & Advanced Learners' (Yin-ping Cream Lee & Shin Kataoka, Greenwood Press 2002, includes 1 CD)

- Intermediate Cantonese Vols 1 & 2 (Sidney Lau, HK Government Information Service 1975)

I'll be picking up 'Living Cantonese for Intermediate Learners' when I go home for the mid-year break, and I should be receiving 'Intermediate Cantonese Vol 1' (Sidney Lau) soon, so I could write up a couple of reviews later if you're interested.

Hope that helps

[geek_frappa]

i have cantonese lesson mp3s if anybody is interesting... if so, i can upload them somewhere for download... let me know.

[wai ming]

That would be great, geek_frappa!

[Quest]

No matter how accurate I pronounced the tones, my accent could be heard in every single word.

Tones are tricky and they are among the first elements a native speaker can easily detect as inaccurate, if you mispronounce them. Then it comes the vowels, the long and short a's in particular. Then it's the t, p, k endings, the non existence of, the mispronuncing, or the over emphasizing by a non native speaker.

I think it would help to write down every day sentences in Cantonese pinyin and tone marks, practice reading them to your wife, and ask her to mark where you need improvement. Or you can always post your recordings here, we have plenty of Cantonese speakers here to help you. Also, don't be embarrassed of your accent! It's never embarrassing to be corrected.

[hinyinlam]

if you use skype, you can go to http://www.xlingo.com/

which is a language exchange website.

My name is hinyinlam, I am a native Cantonese speaker~ feel free to find me:wink:

[calibre2001]

Hi wai ming,

Could you update us on your progress. I'm contemplating 'Living Cantonese for Intermediate Learners' but the only thing that puts me off is the fact a CD version is not available.