Imagine falling in love with someone, but not speaking the same language as their extended family. This is the case for Gabriel, the narrator of this textbook, who is an American boy learning Cantonese to impress his girlfriend's mom. In this book, you will join Gabriel in his first meeting with Jenny's mother and the rest of her family, all of whom are from Hong Kong and can only speak Cantonese. From having dim sum to describing his favorite pastimes, Gabriel will teach you everything you need to know to master basic conversational Cantonese.
Is this the right course for me? This new and improved Edition of Complete Cantonese will take you effortlessly from beginner to confident speaker. Whether you are starting from scratch, or are just out of practice, Complete Cantonese will guarantee success! It is fully updated to make your language experience fun and interactive. You can still rely on the benefits of a top language teacher with years of teaching experience, but now with added learning features within the course and online. The course is structured in thematic units and the emphasis is placed on communication, so that you effortlessly progress from introducing yourself and dealing with everyday situations to using the phone and talking about work. This course uses the widely-accepted Yale Romanisation system and includes a helpful pronunciation guide at the beginning of the textbook. By the end of this course, you will be at Level B2 of the Common European Framework for Languages: can deal with most situations likely to arise whilst travelling in an area where the language is spoken. Learn effortlessly with a new easy-to-read page design and interactive features: Not got much time? One, five and ten-minute introductions to key principles to get you started Author insights Lots of instant help with common problems and quick tips for success, based on the author's many years of experience. Grammar tips Easy-to-follow building blocks to give you a clear understanding. Useful vocabulary Easy to find and learn, to build a solid foundation for speaking. Dialogues Read and listen to everyday dialogues to help you speak and understand fast. Pronunciation Don't sound like a tourist! Perfect your pronunciation before you go. Test yourself Tests in the book and online to keep track of your progress Extend your knowledge Extra online articles at to give you a richer understanding of the culture and history of China. Try this Innovative exercises illustrate what you've learnt and how to use it.
It is not easy to leave one's comfort zone to learn a new language and adapt to a new culture, as you might have learned from Gabriel in Book 1. In Book 2 of the Learn to Speak Cantonese series, meet Ben, a polar bear, who's starting an adventure with his best friend, Stormy, a Pomeranian dog. Together, the two are traveling to Hong Kong to advocate for green living!In this book, you will join Ben and Stormy as they spend twelve months living in Hong Kong and learning how to use Cantonese in everyday life. These two characters will take you around the city and cover practical skills, such as bargaining, acing a job interview, advocating for environmental sustainability, and more! Follow Ben and Stormy as they teach you about Hong Kong's culture and everything you need to communicate in Cantonese. Free audio downloadable from www.inspirlang.com/resource.
This Grammar and Workbook is ideal for learners of Cantonese wishing to take their knowledge of the language beyond the elementary level. Its twenty-eight units highlight the key building blocks of sentence structure and comprise a structured introduction to essential grammar points. Each unit also features exercises, focusing on the communicative language, devised to perfect the students knowledge of these grammar points. Its clear presentation and lack of jargon mean that it can be used in conjunction with a language course or for independent study. It will also prove invaluable for revision and reference. Featuring an introduction to the language, full key to exercises and a glossary of grammatical terms, the Grammar and Workbook provides a firm foundation on which to build proficiency and confidence in speaking, reading and writing Cantonese.
Speak Cantonese, Book Three, is one of a series of books that teaches the modern spoken language of Cantonese, one of the major dialects of Chinese. As appropriate for a text of its kind, it is entirely in romaniation. This volume is the last of the Speak Cantonese series. It emphasizes introducing more idiomatic expressions heard in daily-life situations- a chat in a teahouse, an argument on a bus, a skit broadcast on the radio, etc.
It is not easy to leave one’s comfort zone to learn a new language and adapt to a new culture, as you might have learned from Gabriel in Book 1. In Book 2 of the Learn to Speak Cantonese series, meet Ben, a polar bear, who’s starting an adventure with his best friend, Stormy, a Pomeranian dog. Together, the two are traveling to Hong Kong to advocate for green living! In this book, you will join Ben and Stormy as they spend twelve months living in Hong Kong and learning how to use Cantonese in everyday life. These two characters will take you around the city and cover practical skills, such as bargaining, acing a job interview, advocating for environmental sustainability, and more! Follow Ben and Stormy as they teach you about Hong Kong’s culture and everything you need to communicate in Cantonese.
Cantonese is a language from southern China that is spoken by roughly 70 million people worldwide. It is the language of Hong Kong cinema and has traditionally been the most prominent language spoken in Chinatowns around the world. People choose to learn Cantonese for a variety of social and economic reasons: because it is a heritage language that one’s relatives speak; because it is the language of one’s partner and monolingual in-laws; because it is necessary for living and working in Hong Kong, Macau, Guangzhou, or other Cantonese-speaking communities; because it is the bridge to fully appreciating and understanding Cantonese culture; or simply because it is an irresistible challenge. Whatever the motivation, more and more people are choosing to learn Cantonese as an additional language. This book discusses many issues related to both acquiring and teaching Cantonese. If you are a learner of Cantonese, this long overdue volume is essential to understanding both the grammatical and the social issues involved with learning this notoriously difficult language. If you are a teacher, this book will be invaluable to gaining insight into your students’ motivations and needs. And finally, if you are an applied linguist, the unique aspects related to the acquisition of Cantonese offer a fascinating contribution to the literature.
Imagine you have found your dream job at a company that is located in a different country, but you don’t speak the language of that country. This is the case for An An, the narrator of this textbook. An An is a brave panda from Washington, D.C. who learned Mandarin and traveled across the world to Beijing for his dream job interview. In this book, you will join An An for 10 hours (chapters) for his first day in Beijing going to his job interview and learning to speak Chinese in a variety of settings. An An will teach you everything you need to know to master basic conversational Mandarin. Follow along as he introduces himself to the job interviewer, describes his favorite pastimes, and as he meets his dream significant other, panda Ping Ping.Ranging from asking for directions, to communicating with the taxi driver in Mandarin while learning how to count, each lesson combines cultural insights about Chinese traditions and customs alongside basic language instruction. Free audio and flashcards are downloadable from www.inspirlang.com/resource.
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • For anyone who wants to learn a foreign language, this is the method that will finally make the words stick. “A brilliant and thoroughly modern guide to learning new languages.”—Gary Marcus, cognitive psychologist and author of the New York Times bestseller Guitar Zero At thirty years old, Gabriel Wyner speaks six languages fluently. He didn’t learn them in school—who does? Rather, he learned them in the past few years, working on his own and practicing on the subway, using simple techniques and free online resources—and here he wants to show others what he’s discovered. Starting with pronunciation, you’ll learn how to rewire your ears and turn foreign sounds into familiar sounds. You’ll retrain your tongue to produce those sounds accurately, using tricks from opera singers and actors. Next, you’ll begin to tackle words, and connect sounds and spellings to imagery rather than translations, which will enable you to think in a foreign language. And with the help of sophisticated spaced-repetition techniques, you’ll be able to memorize hundreds of words a month in minutes every day. This is brain hacking at its most exciting, taking what we know about neuroscience and linguistics and using it to create the most efficient and enjoyable way to learn a foreign language in the spare minutes of your day.
