An excellent attempt! It’d have been even better if you could pay attention to some often-neglected details, such as one should pronounce「廣」as “Gwong” instead of “Gong”. This is a mistake that many people make, even for native HKers lol. Cheers mate!
I’m a Hongkonger. I think you pronounce so well! You only learned Cantonese for 7 days, but you can say many different vocabulary. It means you already know many voacbulary from your family member, but didn’t use them before. Language is a tool, we use it to do something what we want to do. Don’t mind too much for your Cantonese is fluent or not!
Oh my god, finally someone who has the same problem!! I grew up in the UK and I have the same issue as you. I can speak a little Cantonese, but I probably have less vocabulary than a primary school kid! I've been trying to find a way to get myself to learn Cantonese, but felt so unmotivated from shame, and my relationship with my family. It gives me a lot of hope to see you improve so much in 7 days!
You can do this, it may take a while to find a permanent motivation but don't make it a chore type of thing try to make it as fun as you can because I'm struggling af but I'm starting to get the hang of it a lot better now
same! i was born and raised in australia, and there are so many videos from my childhood when i was able to speak fluent cantonese. to be honest, when we call my grandparents in hong kong, i feel ashamed that i can barely maintain a conversation with them, and lately i've been seeing so many videos on cantonese and learning it, and it's motivated me to try relearning it. i don't want my mother tongue to die out, and i really hope i can also keep it alive for my children.
This was honestly so heart warming to watch. As a CBC who can speak, read and write fluently, I’ve always found myself to purposely speak more English so I don’t seem too “fobby” bc I’ve had CBC friends who made fun of me. As I got older, I’ve realized it’s actually something I’m super proud of because it gave me an advantage at some job interviews, I can fully communicate with my non English speaking parents and I stayed connected to my culture. And seeing your video boosted that pridefulness even more bc it shows others who are trying to connect to their canto culture even when you’re so mainstream- that it’s not lame to wanna learn our mother tongue! I love these videos because it helps us connect to other parts of us that some of us may never be able to discover bc we grew up here (kinda like what your mom said about being afraid you not getting along with other kiddos if you went to Chinese school). She’s also right about Chinese school LOL. I went to mando school for 14 years and I learned all my mando and canto from hk and tw dramas growing up 😂 maybe in the future, you can try videos with a bunch of diff CBCs doing a series of tests to see how gold their Chinese is etc. (Been watching too many of those videos lately that it’s kinda getting addicting lol). ANYWAYS, after the long rant, I just wanna say keep up the good work and thank you. It really means a lot seeing our representation being put up there 😌🥰🙏🏼
Love your comment :) Growing up I hated how much Chinese I spoke at home. I ended up not learning or speaking it for five years because all the other CBC kids would bully me. I regret those years. Over the last five years I've worked hard at learning more Cantonese and teaching myself Mandarin. Like you I am also proud of the strong base my parents gave me. Though I used to hate them for making me speak Cantonese, I'm very thankful now.
Never give up Jensen! I am also Chinese American and I am lucky because my parents didn't speak English at all so I was forced to speak Cantonese at home. Now I am 30 years old and starting to learn Mandarin slowly. 加油!
I speak Cantonese natively. At first, I thought the video is a click bait as there is no way anyone can learn Cantonese in 7 days. But hearing your conversation with your mum proved me wrong, and your Cantonese was truly impressive. Keep up the good work!
Whoa! I just stumbled on your video and was surprised to see myself at 1:55! Kudos to you for putting yourself on this challenge and setting a goal to be fluent in 2021! I think you did great :) You touched on so many important points about why Cantonese is so difficult to learn especially for those of us who were born overseas. As someone who makes content in Cantonese, I've found it hard to find suitable resources to share with my followers. But the process has been really fulfilling, and I'm constantly learning about this beautiful and expressive language of ours. I'm really looking forward to Part 2 of this video! Liked & subscribed! 加油!
6:20 as someone who's also a HongKonger and isn't fluent in the language, I relate to this a lot and I remember feeling a lot of shame and guilt for not being able to speak it properly. I would always get comments about me not being able to speak cantonese fluently and it discouraged me from learning. But your video really motivated me and now I'm trying to learn the language
I have to tell you, as I'm teaching my 5 y/o how to speak, read, and (kind of) write Cantonese, that what you're doing almost brought a tear to my eye. It is NEVER too late to learn anything, let alone a language. Cantonese is HARD. Unless you have someone to practice with, and to correct you, it is almost impossible to speak it "right". When you're talking to your mom, it is quite obvious that you're still thinking in English and translating it to Cantonese as you speak. This is probably the BIGGEST obstacle to speaking fluent Cantonese - you HAVE to think in Cantonese, otherwise you will either use the wrong words/phrase, or you'll be pausing a lot trying to pick the correct word to use after the translation. I was born in HK and moved here when I was 9, I'm still fluent and is still able to think in Cantonese, but I can feel it starting to leave me as I don't really have someone to converse with in Cantonese. Teaching my son has really brought it back for me and perhaps trying to teach it to a friend will help you too. Keep up the good work, it was AWESOME to see your progress!!
Bro I’m in the same exact situation as you. My parents always speak cantonese but I could never learn to speak it. I could listen perfectly fine but end up speaking in fragments or absolutely can’t find the right words
that's me with tagalog, i'm filipino but i know mandarin and cantonese while not knowing my own native language btw people in macau and hk actually do type in cantonese like it's written, like they will write 佢食飯 and not 他吃飯
Dude, I think I've been in "the dip" for like 6 years now with Spanish. I want to be able to have a conversation with my grandma in Peru though. She's turning 94 this year.
_Don’t_ use “sounds like” association 5:14 in learning new words-it gums up the process with extra steps: _gaai² sik¹ 解釋 → guy who’s sick → explain_ _and_ it’s just something you have to unlearn later. It’s better to use prompts (like pictures with various situations) in which you can use _gaai² sik¹_ 解釋 appropriately in a sentence so that you learn the word in a _context_ in which it might be used. I’ve come to the conclusion that language learning is much more like playing an instrument or playing a sport than it is like studying a subject like history. The bottom line strategy is to _do_ it: to get better at speaking, you have to *speak* (thinking to yourself counts as a form of speaking), to get better at listening, you have to *listen,* to get better at writing, you have to *write,* and to get better at reading, you have to *read.* Those aren’t sufficient-obviously, you have to learn vocabulary, grammar, etc.-but they are necessary.
As a British born Chinese i can relate a lot as my canto isn’t the best either and I’m also wanting to improve and i wish you the best, you have earned a new subscriber
I am also a CBC and in the same boat as you! You've inspired me to re-learn my mother tongue. I want to talk to my cousins, parents, and grandparents in more depth in Cantonese! And then pass it down to my future kids.
Hey Jensen! Thanks for this video. I'm also a Canadian born Cantonese person and I 100% feel your struggle here. I've always felt so much shame for not being fluent in Cantonese (especially reading). I def faced the same issues you have with family speaking English / environments. I'm trying to learn on my own but it's hard. But I'm really glad to have found this video, because maybe there is still hope for me
When seeing the part of the conversation with your mum, my tears dropped as I’m so proud of you. If I were your mum, I am so touched to see my son saying Cantonese to me. Keep it going. From the one just sitting in HK over the screen.
The increase of ABC's and CBC's wanting to be more fluent in Cantonese is really encouraging to me. I always thought it was odd that I was one of very few kids (even in a Cantonese American community) that learned Cantonese fairly well from just growing up in a Cantonese household. Then, I realized, it was because my mom fostered a love for classic cantonese movies in me (Her fatal ways series is my favorite) and always told me that I need to reply in the language that I was being spoken to. Hopefully, they're concepts that I can pass to my kids in the future. Thanks for the entertaining video! PS. Your cantonese had amazing improvement...would just use different phrases for a more natural conversation. Cantonese is just a bunch of "you can say it that way, but it sounds better this way because no one says it like the other way."
As a CBC who can't even speak canto at the level of a toddler, this video caught my attention lol. It's also my goal this new year to improve my cantonese and this video brought up some good tips I'll be sure to try them. Good luck to your learning adventure and I'll be subscribing and can't wait to see the progress vid at the end of the year!
I'm a Hong Konger!! I clicked on the video since cantonese is my native language, yet I speak english more comfortably now, so I related with your thumbnail a little bit haha,, BUT! I was actually really impressed at the end as you were able to communicate your thoughts and maintain a conversation only after 7 days of practicing! I wish you the best! Add oil ga yau ga yau *^^*
It's so amazing how he takes some practice speaking Cantonese so fluently in 7 days, in fact Cantonese is probably the hardest language to learn and he still learnt it so well
hi! as a hongkonger I found the way you pronounce me as “ngor” as very unnatural and strong, we pronounce it like “oaw” or “aoww”. I do appreciate all the hard work you put in to study Cantonese so far!! It’s definitely not too late to improve your Cantonese, and it’s not that bad so far!! keep going :) as a Canadian Chinese who grew up in HK in an international school and living in Canada now, I’m definitely very fortunate to be trilingual :) I kind of sense an heavy accent from another dialect when your mum speaks Cantonese though, maybe that’s why it might have influenced how you speak.
i believe some canto speaking regions other than hk pronounce the ng in words like your example as well as pronouncing words with an n sound instead of an l (an example of this is milk), so that may be where he's getting the ng- from. like you said, his mom does have a non-hk accent so that could be the reason
i've heard some people here in macau and some guangdong people pronounce the ng, although it's not very strong and very easy to miss if you're not paying attention
Two things that stood out to me about his mom's accent: 1. The way she says 英文 (Jensen's pronunciation of 文 is what I'm more used to) @8:51 2. 想 as having an "si-" sort of sound at the beginning @8:10
So cool to see that you were able to pick up some new words but you also seemed more comfortable speaking even if you messed up. Looking forward to Pt.2!!
Keep at it mate. I wish you luck. I'm a 61 year old who emigrated to England at the age of 5 and never went to Chinese School but fortunately, my parents didn't speak English so I had to speak Cantonese. I think I can get by quite well. Strange thing is, my older brother and sister who also came over at the same time can't speak for toffee.
I'm a Singaporean and I learn English and Chinese Mandarin in school, at home, my mum speaks to me in Cantonese (even though it is not our dialect group but she loves TVB dramas, I'm Hokkien which follows my dad and she's Hakka, but we also speak a certain amount of Hokkien and Hakka) and that's how I grew up mastering all 3 at the same time, it also gave me the confidence to pick up Japanese on my own as my 4th language. Cantonese is an important and useful language especially when you want to communicate with the older generation. Your Cantonese is good and I hope you continue to master it!
Hongkonger here. It's so cool to see you put in the effort to learn Canto! I really love how versatile Cantonese is - it can be vulgar and powerful, but it can also be gentle and deep at the same time. I'd love to see more of you enjoy the process of learning it.
this is crazy bc im in the exact same situation in toronto!! my parents are from hong kong, and growing up they would speak to me in cantonese and i'd answer back in english (so our cantonese language skills are around the same level! im definitely trying to better my cantonese and mandarin for family and business purposes and this video has really inspired me) thanks for the great content!! excited to see your part 2 / improvement in a year!
This was so heartwarming to watch. I have a similar background to you in regards to Cantonese. It honestly hurts that I can't communicate fluently with my grandparents. Thank you for this encouragement. I want to try harder to learn Cantonese again!!
so cool to see you and your mum talking together! She looks so excited for you and I can see your love for each other - good luck with your Cantonese studies!
I happened to stumble upon this video and I don't regret it. I'm from Vietnamese descent and the only American born child in my entire immigrant family so I also had quite some difficulty with Vietnamese. And man, I really felt something when you said you were ashamed of not being able to speak your native language. I think, back then, I hated being so different, for not being able to pronunciate like a native, and not being able to act like a Vietnamese person, but now I realize that it wasn't my fault for where I was born, or my diversity of belief, and acceptance of multicultures in America. To be honest, I feel proud that I hadn't let the haters lose my language lol well I guess it's just an asian way of tough love and maybe some jeolousy but I guess I'm just glad I had overcome that roadblock and been able to bridge American and Vietnamese cultures.
You have already done a very good job in attempting Cantonese! A suggestion for Canto pop with conversational Cantonese: My Little Airport, a band in Hong Kong that write songs with Cantonese words that you will speak in day to day life.
@@jensentung be sure to checkout rap music from Hong Kong which also written in spoken cantonese such as youngqueenz JB and doughboy, theyre pretty lit 🔥
I've been learning cantonese with songs and there are very good songs and singers in HK. They've been so creative during this last year. JB was one of my first "teacher" . I really like Novel Friday, but also BMW, and the YPU. Seanie P, Novel Flash, Y5, Heyo, Geniuz F... So many good things. But really good ! I'm a little bit sad that girls are out of the game ( except Luna is a beep, Alexandria, and the girl of A#minor ) Where are they in rap music ? I usually can't listen to cantopop. People said "after one year of cantonese, you will listen and like it" but...no.Thanks. But...Namawee have good songs and i'm in love with faiology from On Chan. Jensen Tung: Have a look to my playlist. I'm sure you will find something you'll like. ua-cam.com/play/PLGZhMulp6ylsagQlUOrlzLXR-r_iqgFlu.html
@@cecilwaro974 u got a really good taste ngl, people here dont listen to most of your list’s song just becz those songs are indie songs. (u know that alternate cringe style) keep it on! Ga yau
If HKers don't want Cantonese to die, I think the first steps should be standardizing 粵文 and some sort of system to learn the characters. As of right now, a lot of Cantonese speakers have their own way of transliterating Cantonese so it's a bit inconsistent. I don't see it being standardized in HK itself so it probably has to happen overseas.
It's really not dying my friend. As a hongkonger myself, everyone here (and I really do mean everyone) speaks Cantonese. What else would we really speak?
@@PatheticTV it dying at a very fast rate, the young Hongkongers are forced to learn mandarin in Hong Kong, and the younger generation who speak Cantonese aren’t teaching their kids Cantonese
That's pretty impressive! I am born and raised in Hong Kong, and have then lived half of my life overseas . My struggle is slightly different from yours - I can never sound native in English no matter how well I speak! Cantonese, with the tones (up to 9 tones for some sounds) is really hard to learn but I can understand what you say. It's a beautiful language that has been endangered. Keep it up bro!
Good for you man, you seemed to have learned really well during that week! Born in Canada as well, I struggled and felt embarrased to speak Punjabi with my parents because they would make fun of my pronunciations. But, my parents' English not being the best worked out in my favor 😂. They always spoke to my siblings and I in Punjabi and we're now decently fluent in it. I can now comfortably speak to my grandparents in the language that they feel most comfortable with, which means the world to me. Keep it up! I'm sure you'll make your goal of being fluent by next year 🤗
This really struck a chord with me - I'm half-Chinese, half-white. My a mah came to the US from Hong Kong as a teenager, and I grew up never being able to hold anything resembling a conversation with my gong gong and poh poh beyond just a "ngo seong tai din si" so I could go watch cartoons. I've tried to pick it up a few times, and have been to the motherland once, but I never really put down the time beyond listening to tutorial videos on my commute. All I can really do is sub in words on the family whatsapp chat, but most of my vocab is more colorful than would be acceptable there. Hou wan, Jensen. ngo hei mong errrrrr you get there.
You did very well! I was also born and raised in Vancouver but the difference is my family spoke Cantonese to me at home and I watched a lot of Cantonese dubbed cartoons so I was able to keep it with me. I took Mandarin classes as well but like most of your friends who never retained anything, I too retained very little of it. I second the immersion part. Even if you can't travel to the country that speaks your target language, you could create a group for learning and make new friends as a part of that. That's how I learned Korean in Vancouver, by creating and immersing myself into a group of friends to learn from each other. If you're interested in creating a group, I'll be more than happy to help out. I find that after a while of not speaking a certain language, even if you are fluent in it, you could start to lose it too. When learning Korean, I felt like my Cantonese and English has taken a tiny step back even though I grew up with those 2 languages. So continuous practice is also a must as well!
I was the same as you. My mom is Korean but speaks English really well so even when she used Korean/Konglish with me I just replied solely in English. But as I got older I wanted to learn to speak but couldn't never get passed just understanding, so i did what you mentioned and moved to the motherland. Been here for 3 years and can finally get around without having to use any English! Don't give up!
I subscribe to your channel for over a year and I wonder how I missed this video earlier. I'm born and raised in San Francisco but in Chinatown so people told me my Cantonese sound like I'm actually from Guangzhou or Hong Kong where my parents came from. I hear that your Cantonese sounds great and you sound exactly like you're a fluent speaker of Cantonese to me! I still believe our Cantonese skills has to do with how much each of us were exposed to that speaking environment. I have "ABC" friends raised outside of Chinatown in San Francisco who don't speak Cantonese as well as I do despite their parents speak Cantonese natively. I strongly credit the fact that everywhere I went in Chinatown, while growing up, were all Cantonese-speaking environment that really helped me inherit Cantonese pretty well. :)
I was born and raised in the UK and have been living in HK for 9 years but tbh I feel people here are hard to judge Asian people who cannot speak Cantonese. I don't judge anyone who can't speak English properly yet I get sh*t from some local people for understanding but not speaking even though most people like to communicate with me in English. Bear in mind I arrived in HK in my mid-20's, never had lessons and am not even Chinese! The funny twist is that I can actually speak quite OK, especially with strangers or those that have no English ability. I find the issue is with those that feel their English is good (even if it's not) or studied overseas and therefore have some snobbery over a foreigner speaking their language. Sorry, just sharing some thoughts, but I should say kudos to both you and Brittany for the great content!
Damn the timing of this video is crazy lol. Im also cantonese and my parents keep telling me to learn it coz i cant speak or write it at all. I can understand some of it tho. Great video btw. Also watched ur playground workout video and ur content is amazing!
As a Hong Konger living in Canada, I'm very happy to see people get interested in learning or improving their Cantonese! It is a language that is very reflective of our culture, especially our humor expressed in our play of words. Hope you can keep on going!
Thanks for making such a well thought out video! I experienced the same issue when I returned to Hong Kong in high school. It was such a shameful experience not being able to speak the language of our home. But throughout the years having more friends who didn’t judge me I freely spoke more canto! Now I am 95% fluent so there’s hope! Thanks for sharing your experience excited for you!
Dude this is amazing, your dedication to learning canto inspires me to do the same with other languages. At the end of the day, your fluency does't matter that much honestly, as long as your are able communicate ideas, people will understand you and see the amount if effort you've put into the language and think that you're amazing as well!
It's really impressive that you made such great progress in only 7 days! Not perfect but absolutely clear and understandable enough for communication from a native speaker's view. Keep it up, and we're all looking forward to your part 2 vid ;-)
Thanks so much for providing the spreadsheet! Finding easy to use/understand Cantonese resources has always been extremely hard to find, but this is so immensely helpful!
Most important thing is, you have to believe in yourself that you can do it. Learned that lesson from a guy on youtube, who taught me how to do the most amazing haircut myself. Gotta tell you, guy was 100% right.
Oh my goodness. As Chinese-Filipino born in America, your situation and mine are so relatable. When I was young, I was able to speak Tagalog (Filipino) fluently, but my parents stopped speaking it to me when I started school because I ended up speaking Taglish (mix of Tagalog and English) in my class even to my teachers. I lost the ability to speak it but can understand most casual conversations okay. It's mainly a problem trying to recall words. I have always wanted to learn the language, but my parents used to discourage me because they thought the language was not beneficial and that I should learn a language like Spanish or Chinese that is more widely spoken. I am almost an adult, and this video really gave me the motivation that I need to push through "the dip" and continue on my way to master one of my ancestral tongues one day. Thank you so much!!
I think you speak Cantonese pretty well. (Maybe not fluent but it feels quite accurate to me) Your mom seems very sweet and encouraging as well. I’ve always found Canadian has their own kind of Cantonese which is a little different from ours and it is quite unique.
Very impressive, I got into Cantonese a long time ago although I've always been pretty basic in my knowledge, I found everytime I went to HK it really helped my vocab and confiednce to a certain extent because as live, breath and think the language! I started out singing in Chinese and was very well known for being "The Black guy that sang Chinese" and getting over 1M views on my first Canto singing video, this is like 15 years ago lol over the past year, even more so the past few months I've really wanted to get back into Cantonese so it's very inspiring to see videos like this! well done, you did really well 👏🏾
I’m in the same boat as you man! For me, my grandmother took care of me and my sister which I would’ve thought would surround me with Cantonese. While she was taking care of us however, she wanted to learn English so majority of the time we wouldn’t hear her speak in Cantonese. It sucked, I felt that shame of not knowing our native language. This video moved me a lot to hopefully be able to speak closer to fluent or at least be able to understand what my family is saying to me! Love it!
Dang Jensen, great on you to learn more Cantonese and it sounds good! Definitely listening to Cantonese music and watching Cantonese shows/movies helped me a lot in learning the language as well. 😄
Pretty much in the same situation as you. I'm a CBC born in Vancouver with extremely broken and basic Cantonese skills. I'd speak English back to my HK immigrant parents growing up. I'm finally trying to relearn Cantonese more fluently as a grown adult and it's a long, slow and difficult journey. I lost part of my roots when I ignored speaking in Cantonese at home and didn't think that much of my Chinese heritage. I think my parents also wanted what they thought the best for me by encouraging me to speak English as well so I'd fit in at school and into North American society in general with perfect English, that they wished I wouldn't experience as much racism as they did experienced immigrating here decades earlier. Best of luck on your journey, great to see you so wholeheartedly embracing learning the Cantonese language.
As someone trying to learn Japanese my advice is consistency over quantity or quality! You obviously put in a lot of work over the seven days, but don't hold yourself to that standard of trying to put in hours everyday then also giving up after a day/week/month. Best of luck!
I feel u, I just watched some “educational” Cantonese videos and I’m already struggling. I go to mother tongue lessons but i don’t understand anything my teacher says, I just nod and act like I know what she’s saying. This video gave me motivation to learn Cantonese😺
I, too, have a similar story and share the same feelings as you did regarding my inability to fluently speak canto, despite my lifelong exposure to it. I've felt motivated in the past to learn it but I wasn't persistent. I feel compelled to continue where I left off after watching this video. Would you be able to share/recommend the same resources you used: dictionaries, types of shows+music, etc? It'd really be appreciated. Keep up the work 🙌
Thanks for sharing, I could totally identify with this! My family moved from HK to Singapore and you'll be surprised - many first generation Hong Kong Singaporeans can't speak Cantonese well (this is me still even after spending 1 year in a HK university!). Cantonese is more than just a language, it represents heritage, where we come from, and a part of our identity. Very heart warming to see this! 😁
Oh man. CBC here also and my canto is even worse than your canto at the start of the video. But I believe I can learn it eventually. Simply gotta do it 😁 And your video definately gave me the motivation to start doing it!
I can't wait to watch the 2nd part in one year. Keep believing in yourself! As a Vietnamese growing up in Germany, I have also been insecure about speaking Vietnamese and received many discouraging comments, so your video reminded me that we don't need to be great to start, but we need to start to be great. Therefore, I also want to challenge myself. Thanks, Jensen!
I'm 13 and I've lived in Hong Kong since I was born. Cantonese is my mother tongue yet I didn't purposely "learn" the language much as the environment I live in just shaped and helped develop the language. I also speak English and Mandarin because of school curriculums and cultural development, also I've briefly studied some other languages (Latin, Spanish, German), and I must admit that Cantonese is best developed when immersed in the environment! I admire how you're willing to get to know more about your roots, 加油! :D
I definitely agree with you about being shamed by relatives. I’m half Laotian and Chinese and the more I’m ridiculed, the less motivated I am to be fluent. I understand it’s all out of love, but I can’t help but let it affect me.
As a half canto, I completely felt every struggle you've listed. I never had to respond or think in canto in my household. I feel so much guilt and slow progress learning the language. I hold it against my mom for letting me quit chinese classes. I hope one day I can conquer this as well.
Same, I never felt the need to speak or learn Cantonese since my dad knew nothing and my mom just used English most of the time (other than like saying good morning). She tried to get us to learn it but didn't really make an effort into teaching or talking to us (my twin and I) in the language. I've always been scared of saying something wrong if I do learn bc I didn't grow up learning it and I don't want to awkwardly fumble my way through it especially around her side of the family so I just stuck to English. I've just decided I really want to try to get into learning it again and to not let that get to me too much because ik it's going to be slow going since 1. I'm not a child anymore and 2. I'm not a linguistic genius. Anywho, I hope you're doing well in your progress and good luck with any language endeavors ^^
For music, I would recommend My Little Airport, they are an indie pop duo and their lyrics are written in spoken Cantonese. Their songs also reflect young hongkonger’s life authentically which I love so much.
This is amazing and super encouraging!!! There are so many CBCs and ABCs, including myself, who can relate. Thank you for sharing your experience and your excel sheet too!!
@@imedul Usually, when speakers of other languages learn Cantonese, they try really hard to learn the "ng" sound but turned out to pronounce the "n" sound. Native Cantonese speakers do not really pronounce the "ng" sound at all (because we are lazy? lol) unless you are a news reporter. So if you are not comfortable making the "ng" sound, just drop it and you will actually sound more native.
@@kori228 我ngo5，眼ngaan5，銀ngan4，牛ngau4，鈎ngau1，噏ngap1，牙nga4，韌ngan6 and depending on the speaker 屋*uk1(I don't think uk1 has the ng sound)，鴨 ngaap3，暗am3* (not this one either)，愛 oi6 (nope) For people who can't read Chinese characters..
@@pikapikaxi which is why I said those last few depend on the speaker. Formally they don't have the "ng" initial consonant, but for those who consistently pronounce "ng" initials in other words, they tend to also be pronounced in these words as well. If you ever watch late 90s early 2000s TVB dramas or listen to older Cantonese songs, many pronounce 愛 as ngoi3 (i.e. 海闊天空 from Beyond, 鐵血丹心 from the opening of the 1982/1983 TVB adaptation of Legend of the Condor Heroes). Half the examples on YT alone use ngoi3 (search "I love you in Cantonese" on here). Technically speaking, 鴨 doesn't have "ng" either, but even you got it confused. It historically didn't have it, but it's common enough that whatever dictionary you searched had it (if you look it up on Cantodict or wiktionary, it won't show the "ng" form). The presence of "ng" initial falls in 2 main categories: those who pronounce it in most if not all contexts, including in null initial words (words that don't start with a consonant); those who drop it in most if not all contexts even for words that are supposed to have it. If you really want to be specific, they are up to 6 different ways to pronounce 我愛你 based on what gets dropped/changed or not. "correct" / common pronunciation 我 ngo5/o5 愛 oi3/ngoi3 你 nei5/lei5 You won't really find someone who drops ngo5 to o5, but pronounces ngoi3 though.
As somebody who is in the same position as you I can’t say much about it, but you actually really helped me when I just sat there listening to your conversation I could understand it all and I was really surprised, so thanks! I think you’ve done really well!
Hello Jensen - Thank you for this video. I watched it with my half-Hongkonger (my half) and half-Irish-Scot American daughter. She is almost six and since she was born I have been trying to get her to learn Cantonese. Your experience confirms my believe that having my girl ANSWER in Cantonese is key, because this helps her learn vocabulary in ways that simply listening won't. She watched with rapt attention and was excited whenever you spoke Cantonese. I think you have inspired her to use Cantonese more! Thank you so much. A bit of information (it's not a correction): Hongkongers have actually been writing Cantonese more in the past 6 or 7 years, in an attempt to preserve the language. When I communicate with my family and friends in Hong Kong, we use written Cantonese more than anything. The added bonus is that Google or Facebook translates do not understand written Cantonese so it's really like a secret code LOL
You can do it!!! Please keep learning it because I think it’s a really beautiful language. It has a really long history and I am really sad that Cantonese speakers are becoming less and less. I hope Cantonese will not disappear.
so much appreciation and respect to you for making the effort to learn Canto, and this avery nice video introducing Cantonese learning especially intercepting all these local Hong Kong scenes! I think you made a lot of progress and it is fluent enough to make conversations with any native~ you did great!!
Canto was my mother tongue but since I started learning English in preschool, my vocabulary has remained there. Hence, it is really hard for me to communicate with people as well, especially my grandparents who cannot speak a lot of English. This video was really relatable, so thanks
I tried ONLY speaking Cantonese in HONG KONG: ua-cam.com/video/KOe91ylj5tY/v-deo.html
From canada too i really love your content keep it up man
@@ZoeyTangCRE Just posted it in the video description!
@@Aymen2_9 Thank you!
Tip watch see see tvb :) The tone stuff is easier when you get Canto puns :)
An excellent attempt! It’d have been even better if you could pay attention to some often-neglected details, such as one should pronounce「廣」as “Gwong” instead of “Gong”. This is a mistake that many people make, even for native HKers lol. Cheers mate!
I’m a Hongkonger. I think you pronounce so well! You only learned Cantonese for 7 days, but you can say many different vocabulary. It means you already know many voacbulary from your family member, but didn’t use them before. Language is a tool, we use it to do something what we want to do. Don’t mind too much for your Cantonese is fluent or not!
Hong Kong is China!!!
@@compashinpei lol true.
@@compashinpei China is Hong Kong
@@compashinpei relax
@@compashinpei don't embarrass yourself
Oh my god, finally someone who has the same problem!!
I grew up in the UK and I have the same issue as you. I can speak a little Cantonese, but I probably have less vocabulary than a primary school kid!
I've been trying to find a way to get myself to learn Cantonese, but felt so unmotivated from shame, and my relationship with my family.
It gives me a lot of hope to see you improve so much in 7 days!
You can do this, it may take a while to find a permanent motivation but don't make it a chore type of thing try to make it as fun as you can because I'm struggling af but I'm starting to get the hang of it a lot better now
same! i was born and raised in australia, and there are so many videos from my childhood when i was able to speak fluent cantonese. to be honest, when we call my grandparents in hong kong, i feel ashamed that i can barely maintain a conversation with them, and lately i've been seeing so many videos on cantonese and learning it, and it's motivated me to try relearning it.
i don't want my mother tongue to die out, and i really hope i can also keep it alive for my children.
Same with me
@@shu-lynlee184 Update
Bruh so relatable. I'm UK too. At the moment I'm just doing a bit at a time and not commiting too much so I get demotivated.
In HK, We write actual Cantonese when we’re texting FYI
@@kaitlynfung_ wah yuen loi gor gor dou hai gum
@@haargaan ying goi ho dor yun dou hai gum
We also sometimes use chinglish or jyut ping as well
@@kaitlynfung_ ikr so jeng
@@kaitlynfung_ D comment zan hai hou lan jeng! ngo geng yin tai dak meng hahahaha
This was honestly so heart warming to watch. As a CBC who can speak, read and write fluently, I’ve always found myself to purposely speak more English so I don’t seem too “fobby” bc I’ve had CBC friends who made fun of me. As I got older, I’ve realized it’s actually something I’m super proud of because it gave me an advantage at some job interviews, I can fully communicate with my non English speaking parents and I stayed connected to my culture. And seeing your video boosted that pridefulness even more bc it shows others who are trying to connect to their canto culture even when you’re so mainstream- that it’s not lame to wanna learn our mother tongue! I love these videos because it helps us connect to other parts of us that some of us may never be able to discover bc we grew up here (kinda like what your mom said about being afraid you not getting along with other kiddos if you went to Chinese school). She’s also right about Chinese school LOL. I went to mando school for 14 years and I learned all my mando and canto from hk and tw dramas growing up 😂 maybe in the future, you can try videos with a bunch of diff CBCs doing a series of tests to see how gold their Chinese is etc. (Been watching too many of those videos lately that it’s kinda getting addicting lol). ANYWAYS, after the long rant, I just wanna say keep up the good work and thank you. It really means a lot seeing our representation being put up there 😌🥰🙏🏼
What is CBC?
@@damien_bfg7033 canadian born chinese i guess
Being a FOB is nothing to be ashamed of - it's part of your culture
I'm born and bred in Hong Kong though so I might see things differently
Love your comment :)
Growing up I hated how much Chinese I spoke at home. I ended up not learning or speaking it for five years because all the other CBC kids would bully me. I regret those years. Over the last five years I've worked hard at learning more Cantonese and teaching myself Mandarin. Like you I am also proud of the strong base my parents gave me. Though I used to hate them for making me speak Cantonese, I'm very thankful now.
Never give up Jensen! I am also Chinese American and I am lucky because my parents didn't speak English at all so I was forced to speak Cantonese at home. Now I am 30 years old and starting to learn Mandarin slowly. 加油!
as a Hong Konger, you sound great!
Thank you!
Same!
Gwailo accent Cantonese! HK people like this accent, it’s funny ... at least you are trying to improve 👍
I speak Cantonese natively. At first, I thought the video is a click bait as there is no way anyone can learn Cantonese in 7 days. But hearing your conversation with your mum proved me wrong, and your Cantonese was truly impressive. Keep up the good work!
U have to take into account that he didn't start from scratch + that he grew up around people who speak the language but it is still impressive:)
Whoa! I just stumbled on your video and was surprised to see myself at 1:55! Kudos to you for putting yourself on this challenge and setting a goal to be fluent in 2021! I think you did great :) You touched on so many important points about why Cantonese is so difficult to learn especially for those of us who were born overseas. As someone who makes content in Cantonese, I've found it hard to find suitable resources to share with my followers. But the process has been really fulfilling, and I'm constantly learning about this beautiful and expressive language of ours. I'm really looking forward to Part 2 of this video! Liked & subscribed! 加油!
Thank you for making such great Cantonese content and sharing the language and culture to the world!
6:20 as someone who's also a HongKonger and isn't fluent in the language, I relate to this a lot and I remember feeling a lot of shame and guilt for not being able to speak it properly. I would always get comments about me not being able to speak cantonese fluently and it discouraged me from learning. But your video really motivated me and now I'm trying to learn the language
These videos are always so high quality
Thank you dude!
Mad respect for putting your cantonese convo on video for the world to see, that takes a lot of bravery I don't think I have!
I have to tell you, as I'm teaching my 5 y/o how to speak, read, and (kind of) write Cantonese, that what you're doing almost brought a tear to my eye. It is NEVER too late to learn anything, let alone a language. Cantonese is HARD. Unless you have someone to practice with, and to correct you, it is almost impossible to speak it "right". When you're talking to your mom, it is quite obvious that you're still thinking in English and translating it to Cantonese as you speak. This is probably the BIGGEST obstacle to speaking fluent Cantonese - you HAVE to think in Cantonese, otherwise you will either use the wrong words/phrase, or you'll be pausing a lot trying to pick the correct word to use after the translation. I was born in HK and moved here when I was 9, I'm still fluent and is still able to think in Cantonese, but I can feel it starting to leave me as I don't really have someone to converse with in Cantonese. Teaching my son has really brought it back for me and perhaps trying to teach it to a friend will help you too. Keep up the good work, it was AWESOME to see your progress!!
Bro I’m in the same exact situation as you. My parents always speak cantonese but I could never learn to speak it. I could listen perfectly fine but end up speaking in fragments or absolutely can’t find the right words
CBC struggles man. We're in the power to change it!
that's me with tagalog, i'm filipino but i know mandarin and cantonese while not knowing my own native language
btw people in macau and hk actually do type in cantonese like it's written, like they will write 佢食飯 and not 他吃飯
@@chocomint8261wow, did you live in HongKong since child? I am a Filipino, want to learn Cantonese
Dude, I think I've been in "the dip" for like 6 years now with Spanish. I want to be able to have a conversation with my grandma in Peru though. She's turning 94 this year.
_Don’t_ use “sounds like” association 5:14 in learning new words-it gums up the process with extra steps: _gaai² sik¹ 解釋 → guy who’s sick → explain_ _and_ it’s just something you have to unlearn later. It’s better to use prompts (like pictures with various situations) in which you can use _gaai² sik¹_ 解釋 appropriately in a sentence so that you learn the word in a _context_ in which it might be used.
I’ve come to the conclusion that language learning is much more like playing an instrument or playing a sport than it is like studying a subject like history. The bottom line strategy is to _do_ it: to get better at speaking, you have to *speak* (thinking to yourself counts as a form of speaking), to get better at listening, you have to *listen,* to get better at writing, you have to *write,* and to get better at reading, you have to *read.* Those aren’t sufficient-obviously, you have to learn vocabulary, grammar, etc.-but they are necessary.
as a local from hong kong i can tell you its pretty hard to learn cantonese, you nailed it
As a British born Chinese i can relate a lot as my canto isn’t the best either and I’m also wanting to improve and i wish you the best, you have earned a new subscriber
I am also a CBC and in the same boat as you! You've inspired me to re-learn my mother tongue. I want to talk to my cousins, parents, and grandparents in more depth in Cantonese! And then pass it down to my future kids.
Hey Jensen! Thanks for this video. I'm also a Canadian born Cantonese person and I 100% feel your struggle here. I've always felt so much shame for not being fluent in Cantonese (especially reading). I def faced the same issues you have with family speaking English / environments. I'm trying to learn on my own but it's hard. But I'm really glad to have found this video, because maybe there is still hope for me
When seeing the part of the conversation with your mum, my tears dropped as I’m so proud of you. If I were your mum, I am so touched to see my son saying Cantonese to me. Keep it going.
From the one just sitting in HK over the screen.
The increase of ABC's and CBC's wanting to be more fluent in Cantonese is really encouraging to me. I always thought it was odd that I was one of very few kids (even in a Cantonese American community) that learned Cantonese fairly well from just growing up in a Cantonese household. Then, I realized, it was because my mom fostered a love for classic cantonese movies in me (Her fatal ways series is my favorite) and always told me that I need to reply in the language that I was being spoken to. Hopefully, they're concepts that I can pass to my kids in the future. Thanks for the entertaining video!
PS. Your cantonese had amazing improvement...would just use different phrases for a more natural conversation. Cantonese is just a bunch of "you can say it that way, but it sounds better this way because no one says it like the other way."
Mom is awesome, she is proud of you and that is visible with how she looks at you, and you have provoked me to want to learn. Great Video, Thanks.
As a CBC who can't even speak canto at the level of a toddler, this video caught my attention lol. It's also my goal this new year to improve my cantonese and this video brought up some good tips I'll be sure to try them. Good luck to your learning adventure and I'll be subscribing and can't wait to see the progress vid at the end of the year!
I'm a Hong Konger!! I clicked on the video since cantonese is my native language, yet I speak english more comfortably now, so I related with your thumbnail a little bit haha,, BUT! I was actually really impressed at the end as you were able to communicate your thoughts and maintain a conversation only after 7 days of practicing! I wish you the best! Add oil ga yau ga yau *^^*
It's so amazing how he takes some practice speaking Cantonese so fluently in 7 days, in fact Cantonese is probably the hardest language to learn and he still learnt it so well
hi! as a hongkonger I found the way you pronounce me as “ngor” as very unnatural and strong, we pronounce it like “oaw” or “aoww”. I do appreciate all the hard work you put in to study Cantonese so far!! It’s definitely not too late to improve your Cantonese, and it’s not that bad so far!! keep going :) as a Canadian Chinese who grew up in HK in an international school and living in Canada now, I’m definitely very fortunate to be trilingual :) I kind of sense an heavy accent from another dialect when your mum speaks Cantonese though, maybe that’s why it might have influenced how you speak.
i believe some canto speaking regions other than hk pronounce the ng in words like your example as well as pronouncing words with an n sound instead of an l (an example of this is milk), so that may be where he's getting the ng- from. like you said, his mom does have a non-hk accent so that could be the reason
i've heard some people here in macau and some guangdong people pronounce the ng, although it's not very strong and very easy to miss if you're not paying attention
Yea hehe
Yes it’s strong but it’s fine. People need to stop using “lazy” tones...and actually “chew” the words.
Two things that stood out to me about his mom's accent:
1. The way she says 英文 (Jensen's pronunciation of 文 is what I'm more used to) @8:51
2. 想 as having an "si-" sort of sound at the beginning @8:10
So cool to see that you were able to pick up some new words but you also seemed more comfortable speaking even if you messed up. Looking forward to Pt.2!!
Thanks Lily!
Jensen is gonna be absolutely huge on UA-cam, I can tell already
Agreed. Guy is soo wholesome!!
🙏🙏🙏 Thank you brother
I am from Hong Kong and you spoke really well imo!
I tried! Thank you!
Keep at it mate. I wish you luck. I'm a 61 year old who emigrated to England at the age of 5 and never went to Chinese School but fortunately, my parents didn't speak English so I had to speak Cantonese. I think I can get by quite well. Strange thing is, my older brother and sister who also came over at the same time can't speak for toffee.
As a CBC, my Cantonese sucks too 😂
We're in this together! ahaha
Same and ive been living here my whole life😂
加油，中文唔難學
@@ailo8964 ？
@@ailo8964 我唔信！
I'm a Singaporean and I learn English and Chinese Mandarin in school, at home, my mum speaks to me in Cantonese (even though it is not our dialect group but she loves TVB dramas, I'm Hokkien which follows my dad and she's Hakka, but we also speak a certain amount of Hokkien and Hakka) and that's how I grew up mastering all 3 at the same time, it also gave me the confidence to pick up Japanese on my own as my 4th language. Cantonese is an important and useful language especially when you want to communicate with the older generation. Your Cantonese is good and I hope you continue to master it!
Awesome video Jensen! Keep grinding!!!
Thanks you two!
Hongkonger here. It's so cool to see you put in the effort to learn Canto! I really love how versatile Cantonese is - it can be vulgar and powerful, but it can also be gentle and deep at the same time. I'd love to see more of you enjoy the process of learning it.
Growing up with a grandma here in foreign country but going there is different than watching tv
i reALLY love youre content keep grinding
Thanks bro!
this is crazy bc im in the exact same situation in toronto!! my parents are from hong kong, and growing up they would speak to me in cantonese and i'd answer back in english (so our cantonese language skills are around the same level! im definitely trying to better my cantonese and mandarin for family and business purposes and this video has really inspired me) thanks for the great content!! excited to see your part 2 / improvement in a year!
This was so heartwarming to watch. I have a similar background to you in regards to Cantonese.
It honestly hurts that I can't communicate fluently with my grandparents.
Thank you for this encouragement. I want to try harder to learn Cantonese again!!
so cool to see you and your mum talking together! She looks so excited for you and I can see your love for each other - good luck with your Cantonese studies!
I happened to stumble upon this video and I don't regret it. I'm from Vietnamese descent and the only American born child in my entire immigrant family so I also had quite some difficulty with Vietnamese. And man, I really felt something when you said you were ashamed of not being able to speak your native language. I think, back then, I hated being so different, for not being able to pronunciate like a native, and not being able to act like a Vietnamese person, but now I realize that it wasn't my fault for where I was born, or my diversity of belief, and acceptance of multicultures in America. To be honest, I feel proud that I hadn't let the haters lose my language lol well I guess it's just an asian way of tough love and maybe some jeolousy but I guess I'm just glad I had overcome that roadblock and been able to bridge American and Vietnamese cultures.
You have already done a very good job in attempting Cantonese! A suggestion for Canto pop with conversational Cantonese: My Little Airport, a band in Hong Kong that write songs with Cantonese words that you will speak in day to day life.
I'll check them out!
@@jensentung be sure to checkout rap music from Hong Kong which also written in spoken cantonese such as youngqueenz JB and doughboy, theyre pretty lit 🔥
mla fans here!!! my fav is 邊一個發明了返工～
I've been learning cantonese with songs and there are very good songs and singers in HK. They've been so creative during this last year. JB was one of my first "teacher" . I really like Novel Friday, but also BMW, and the YPU. Seanie P, Novel Flash, Y5, Heyo, Geniuz F... So many good things. But really good ! I'm a little bit sad that girls are out of the game ( except Luna is a beep, Alexandria, and the girl of A#minor ) Where are they in rap music ?
I usually can't listen to cantopop. People said "after one year of cantonese, you will listen and like it" but...no.Thanks. But...Namawee have good songs and i'm in love with faiology from On Chan.
Jensen Tung: Have a look to my playlist. I'm sure you will find something you'll like.
ua-cam.com/play/PLGZhMulp6ylsagQlUOrlzLXR-r_iqgFlu.html
@@cecilwaro974 u got a really good taste ngl, people here dont listen to most of your list’s song just becz those songs are indie songs. (u know that alternate cringe style) keep it on! Ga yau
Pls promote Cantonese more!! dun let it die so soon...:(
If HKers don't want Cantonese to die, I think the first steps should be standardizing 粵文 and some sort of system to learn the characters. As of right now, a lot of Cantonese speakers have their own way of transliterating Cantonese so it's a bit inconsistent.
I don't see it being standardized in HK itself so it probably has to happen overseas.
It's really not dying my friend. As a hongkonger myself, everyone here (and I really do mean everyone) speaks Cantonese. What else would we really speak?
@@PatheticTV it dying at a very fast rate, the young Hongkongers are forced to learn mandarin in Hong Kong, and the younger generation who speak Cantonese aren’t teaching their kids Cantonese
Cantonese is a traditional .it is a beautiful language.i know Hongkong now belong to china but just keep it ,don't give up Hongkongers 🎉🎉🎉
No you can't give up.we must keep this traditional.
That's pretty impressive! I am born and raised in Hong Kong, and have then lived half of my life overseas . My struggle is slightly different from yours - I can never sound native in English no matter how well I speak! Cantonese, with the tones (up to 9 tones for some sounds) is really hard to learn but I can understand what you say. It's a beautiful language that has been endangered. Keep it up bro!
Good for you man, you seemed to have learned really well during that week! Born in Canada as well, I struggled and felt embarrased to speak Punjabi with my parents because they would make fun of my pronunciations. But, my parents' English not being the best worked out in my favor 😂. They always spoke to my siblings and I in Punjabi and we're now decently fluent in it. I can now comfortably speak to my grandparents in the language that they feel most comfortable with, which means the world to me. Keep it up! I'm sure you'll make your goal of being fluent by next year 🤗
Funny how life works! Thanks for relating and your support!
This really struck a chord with me - I'm half-Chinese, half-white. My a mah came to the US from Hong Kong as a teenager, and I grew up never being able to hold anything resembling a conversation with my gong gong and poh poh beyond just a "ngo seong tai din si" so I could go watch cartoons. I've tried to pick it up a few times, and have been to the motherland once, but I never really put down the time beyond listening to tutorial videos on my commute. All I can really do is sub in words on the family whatsapp chat, but most of my vocab is more colorful than would be acceptable there. Hou wan, Jensen. ngo hei mong errrrrr you get there.
You spoke really good Cantonese in just 7 days! KA YAU! 💪
You did very well!
I was also born and raised in Vancouver but the difference is my family spoke Cantonese to me at home and I watched a lot of Cantonese dubbed cartoons so I was able to keep it with me. I took Mandarin classes as well but like most of your friends who never retained anything, I too retained very little of it.
I second the immersion part. Even if you can't travel to the country that speaks your target language, you could create a group for learning and make new friends as a part of that. That's how I learned Korean in Vancouver, by creating and immersing myself into a group of friends to learn from each other. If you're interested in creating a group, I'll be more than happy to help out.
I find that after a while of not speaking a certain language, even if you are fluent in it, you could start to lose it too. When learning Korean, I felt like my Cantonese and English has taken a tiny step back even though I grew up with those 2 languages. So continuous practice is also a must as well!
I was the same as you. My mom is Korean but speaks English really well so even when she used Korean/Konglish with me I just replied solely in English. But as I got older I wanted to learn to speak but couldn't never get passed just understanding, so i did what you mentioned and moved to the motherland. Been here for 3 years and can finally get around without having to use any English! Don't give up!
I subscribe to your channel for over a year and I wonder how I missed this video earlier. I'm born and raised in San Francisco but in Chinatown so people told me my Cantonese sound like I'm actually from Guangzhou or Hong Kong where my parents came from. I hear that your Cantonese sounds great and you sound exactly like you're a fluent speaker of Cantonese to me! I still believe our Cantonese skills has to do with how much each of us were exposed to that speaking environment. I have "ABC" friends raised outside of Chinatown in San Francisco who don't speak Cantonese as well as I do despite their parents speak Cantonese natively. I strongly credit the fact that everywhere I went in Chinatown, while growing up, were all Cantonese-speaking environment that really helped me inherit Cantonese pretty well. :)
I was born and raised in the UK and have been living in HK for 9 years but tbh I feel people here are hard to judge Asian people who cannot speak Cantonese. I don't judge anyone who can't speak English properly yet I get sh*t from some local people for understanding but not speaking even though most people like to communicate with me in English. Bear in mind I arrived in HK in my mid-20's, never had lessons and am not even Chinese! The funny twist is that I can actually speak quite OK, especially with strangers or those that have no English ability. I find the issue is with those that feel their English is good (even if it's not) or studied overseas and therefore have some snobbery over a foreigner speaking their language. Sorry, just sharing some thoughts, but I should say kudos to both you and Brittany for the great content!
Aw this was great! You did really well, and I'm sure your mom is proud that you're taking the steps to learn Cantonese 😃
aweeee you improved so much Jensen I feel so proud!! also, your mom is gorgeous!!!!
I'll show her this comment LOL thank you!
Completely underrated videos ,this guy deserve more attention for this high quality videos .
Damn the timing of this video is crazy lol. Im also cantonese and my parents keep telling me to learn it coz i cant speak or write it at all. I can understand some of it tho.
Great video btw. Also watched ur playground workout video and ur content is amazing!
As a Hong Konger living in Canada, I'm very happy to see people get interested in learning or improving their Cantonese! It is a language that is very reflective of our culture, especially our humor expressed in our play of words. Hope you can keep on going!
Thanks for making such a well thought out video! I experienced the same issue when I returned to Hong Kong in high school. It was such a shameful experience not being able to speak the language of our home. But throughout the years having more friends who didn’t judge me I freely spoke more canto! Now I am 95% fluent so there’s hope! Thanks for sharing your experience excited for you!
That's so awesome! You've given me hope haha
Dude this is amazing, your dedication to learning canto inspires me to do the same with other languages. At the end of the day, your fluency does't matter that much honestly, as long as your are able communicate ideas, people will understand you and see the amount if effort you've put into the language and think that you're amazing as well!
Love this video!
It's really impressive that you made such great progress in only 7 days! Not perfect but absolutely clear and understandable enough for communication from a native speaker's view. Keep it up, and we're all looking forward to your part 2 vid ;-)
Canton actually consists of 9 tones🤣but I really appreciate your endeavor, it's amazing!!!
Thanks so much for providing the spreadsheet! Finding easy to use/understand Cantonese resources has always been extremely hard to find, but this is so immensely helpful!
Most important thing is, you have to believe in yourself that you can do it. Learned that lesson from a guy on youtube, who taught me how to do the most amazing haircut myself. Gotta tell you, guy was 100% right.
Believe and you will achieve, that's the motto!
Oh my goodness. As Chinese-Filipino born in America, your situation and mine are so relatable. When I was young, I was able to speak Tagalog (Filipino) fluently, but my parents stopped speaking it to me when I started school because I ended up speaking Taglish (mix of Tagalog and English) in my class even to my teachers. I lost the ability to speak it but can understand most casual conversations okay. It's mainly a problem trying to recall words. I have always wanted to learn the language, but my parents used to discourage me because they thought the language was not beneficial and that I should learn a language like Spanish or Chinese that is more widely spoken. I am almost an adult, and this video really gave me the motivation that I need to push through "the dip" and continue on my way to master one of my ancestral tongues one day. Thank you so much!!
I live in Canada and my Cantonese is pretty fluent.
I think you speak Cantonese pretty well. (Maybe not fluent but it feels quite accurate to me) Your mom seems very sweet and encouraging as well. I’ve always found Canadian has their own kind of Cantonese which is a little different from ours and it is quite unique.
Very impressive, I got into Cantonese a long time ago although I've always been pretty basic in my knowledge, I found everytime I went to HK it really helped my vocab and confiednce to a certain extent because as live, breath and think the language!
I started out singing in Chinese and was very well known for being "The Black guy that sang Chinese" and getting over 1M views on my first Canto singing video, this is like 15 years ago lol over the past year, even more so the past few months I've really wanted to get back into Cantonese so it's very inspiring to see videos like this! well done, you did really well 👏🏾
nice
I’m in the same boat as you man! For me, my grandmother took care of me and my sister which I would’ve thought would surround me with Cantonese. While she was taking care of us however, she wanted to learn English so majority of the time we wouldn’t hear her speak in Cantonese. It sucked, I felt that shame of not knowing our native language. This video moved me a lot to hopefully be able to speak closer to fluent or at least be able to understand what my family is saying to me! Love it!
Dang Jensen, great on you to learn more Cantonese and it sounds good! Definitely listening to Cantonese music and watching Cantonese shows/movies helped me a lot in learning the language as well. 😄
Thanks man! Time to start binge watching haha
Pretty much in the same situation as you. I'm a CBC born in Vancouver with extremely broken and basic Cantonese skills. I'd speak English back to my HK immigrant parents growing up. I'm finally trying to relearn Cantonese more fluently as a grown adult and it's a long, slow and difficult journey. I lost part of my roots when I ignored speaking in Cantonese at home and didn't think that much of my Chinese heritage. I think my parents also wanted what they thought the best for me by encouraging me to speak English as well so I'd fit in at school and into North American society in general with perfect English, that they wished I wouldn't experience as much racism as they did experienced immigrating here decades earlier. Best of luck on your journey, great to see you so wholeheartedly embracing learning the Cantonese language.
As someone trying to learn Japanese my advice is consistency over quantity or quality! You obviously put in a lot of work over the seven days, but don't hold yourself to that standard of trying to put in hours everyday then also giving up after a day/week/month. Best of luck!
Thank you so much for trying. Really appreciate your attempt to try as it helps all kids growing up overseas.
I feel u, I just watched some “educational” Cantonese videos and I’m already struggling. I go to mother tongue lessons but i don’t understand anything my teacher says, I just nod and act like I know what she’s saying.
This video gave me motivation to learn Cantonese😺
You have done a good job bro!
Thank you for saying Cantonese is an important language!
Hope you enjoy this language and become as better as you mum😉
I, too, have a similar story and share the same feelings as you did regarding my inability to fluently speak canto, despite my lifelong exposure to it. I've felt motivated in the past to learn it but I wasn't persistent. I feel compelled to continue where I left off after watching this video. Would you be able to share/recommend the same resources you used: dictionaries, types of shows+music, etc? It'd really be appreciated. Keep up the work 🙌
Thanks for sharing, I could totally identify with this! My family moved from HK to Singapore and you'll be surprised - many first generation Hong Kong Singaporeans can't speak Cantonese well (this is me still even after spending 1 year in a HK university!). Cantonese is more than just a language, it represents heritage, where we come from, and a part of our identity. Very heart warming to see this! 😁
Oh man. CBC here also and my canto is even worse than your canto at the start of the video. But I believe I can learn it eventually. Simply gotta do it 😁 And your video definately gave me the motivation to start doing it!
It's our time! You got this.
I can't wait to watch the 2nd part in one year. Keep believing in yourself!
As a Vietnamese growing up in Germany, I have also been insecure about speaking Vietnamese and received many discouraging comments, so your video reminded me that we don't need to be great to start, but we need to start to be great. Therefore, I also want to challenge myself. Thanks, Jensen!
Loved the idea and the effort Jensen! Your canto is great 💪 keep it up and can't wait to see your progress by the end of year!
I'm 13 and I've lived in Hong Kong since I was born. Cantonese is my mother tongue yet I didn't purposely "learn" the language much as the environment I live in just shaped and helped develop the language. I also speak English and Mandarin because of school curriculums and cultural development, also I've briefly studied some other languages (Latin, Spanish, German), and I must admit that Cantonese is best developed when immersed in the environment! I admire how you're willing to get to know more about your roots, 加油! :D
I definitely agree with you about being shamed by relatives. I’m half Laotian and Chinese and the more I’m ridiculed, the less motivated I am to be fluent. I understand it’s all out of love, but I can’t help but let it affect me.
I hope you can tell how proud your mom is of you! Even before the conversation, it's very obvious she's very proud of who you are!
As a half canto, I completely felt every struggle you've listed. I never had to respond or think in canto in my household. I feel so much guilt and slow progress learning the language. I hold it against my mom for letting me quit chinese classes. I hope one day I can conquer this as well.
Same, I never felt the need to speak or learn Cantonese since my dad knew nothing and my mom just used English most of the time (other than like saying good morning). She tried to get us to learn it but didn't really make an effort into teaching or talking to us (my twin and I) in the language. I've always been scared of saying something wrong if I do learn bc I didn't grow up learning it and I don't want to awkwardly fumble my way through it especially around her side of the family so I just stuck to English. I've just decided I really want to try to get into learning it again and to not let that get to me too much because ik it's going to be slow going since 1. I'm not a child anymore and 2. I'm not a linguistic genius. Anywho, I hope you're doing well in your progress and good luck with any language endeavors ^^
For music, I would recommend My Little Airport, they are an indie pop duo and their lyrics are written in spoken Cantonese. Their songs also reflect young hongkonger’s life authentically which I love so much.
dang, i couldnt even learn canto in 6 months HAHA good stuff fam
I tried my best! Thanks bro!
This is amazing and super encouraging!!! There are so many CBCs and ABCs, including myself, who can relate. Thank you for sharing your experience and your excel sheet too!!
work on that "ng" sound at the beginning of syllables. Or drop it, don't make it an "n" sound.
what's a word with the "ng" sound in it? Can you list examples?
@@imedul
我，眼，銀，牛，鈎，噏，牙，韌
and depending on the speaker
屋，鴨，暗，愛
@@imedul Usually, when speakers of other languages learn Cantonese, they try really hard to learn the "ng" sound but turned out to pronounce the "n" sound. Native Cantonese speakers do not really pronounce the "ng" sound at all (because we are lazy? lol) unless you are a news reporter. So if you are not comfortable making the "ng" sound, just drop it and you will actually sound more native.
@@kori228 我ngo5，眼ngaan5，銀ngan4，牛ngau4，鈎ngau1，噏ngap1，牙nga4，韌ngan6
and depending on the speaker
屋*uk1(I don't think uk1 has the ng sound)，鴨 ngaap3，暗am3* (not this one either)，愛 oi6 (nope)
For people who can't read Chinese characters..
@@pikapikaxi which is why I said those last few depend on the speaker. Formally they don't have the "ng" initial consonant, but for those who consistently pronounce "ng" initials in other words, they tend to also be pronounced in these words as well.
If you ever watch late 90s early 2000s TVB dramas or listen to older Cantonese songs, many pronounce 愛 as ngoi3 (i.e. 海闊天空 from Beyond, 鐵血丹心 from the opening of the 1982/1983 TVB adaptation of Legend of the Condor Heroes). Half the examples on YT alone use ngoi3 (search "I love you in Cantonese" on here).
Technically speaking, 鴨 doesn't have "ng" either, but even you got it confused. It historically didn't have it, but it's common enough that whatever dictionary you searched had it (if you look it up on Cantodict or wiktionary, it won't show the "ng" form).
The presence of "ng" initial falls in 2 main categories: those who pronounce it in most if not all contexts, including in null initial words (words that don't start with a consonant);
those who drop it in most if not all contexts even for words that are supposed to have it.
If you really want to be specific, they are up to 6 different ways to pronounce 我愛你 based on what gets dropped/changed or not.
"correct" / common pronunciation
我 ngo5/o5
愛 oi3/ngoi3
你 nei5/lei5
You won't really find someone who drops ngo5 to o5, but pronounces ngoi3 though.
As a native Cantonese speaker (born and raised in HK) I’d say you did PRETTY WELL !!!! 🤩 Keep it up!!!
I believe in you Jensen! (May I just say, your mom is so pretty!😍)
Thank you! I'll show this comment to my mom haha
As somebody who is in the same position as you I can’t say much about it, but you actually really helped me when I just sat there listening to your conversation I could understand it all and I was really surprised, so thanks! I think you’ve done really well!
I was born in Australia, and I speak Cantonese fluently due to my parents only speak Cantonese at home
Same, I'm also an ABC
Hello Jensen - Thank you for this video. I watched it with my half-Hongkonger (my half) and half-Irish-Scot American daughter. She is almost six and since she was born I have been trying to get her to learn Cantonese. Your experience confirms my believe that having my girl ANSWER in Cantonese is key, because this helps her learn vocabulary in ways that simply listening won't. She watched with rapt attention and was excited whenever you spoke Cantonese. I think you have inspired her to use Cantonese more! Thank you so much.
A bit of information (it's not a correction): Hongkongers have actually been writing Cantonese more in the past 6 or 7 years, in an attempt to preserve the language. When I communicate with my family and friends in Hong Kong, we use written Cantonese more than anything. The added bonus is that Google or Facebook translates do not understand written Cantonese so it's really like a secret code LOL
As a Hong Konger, I can say your Cantonese is pretty decent, at least I understand what you said. Good job!!!🎊🎊
You can do it!!! Please keep learning it because I think it’s a really beautiful language. It has a really long history and I am really sad that Cantonese speakers are becoming less and less. I hope Cantonese will not disappear.
i'm early! i'm looking forward to part 2 haha
Time for me to get to studying LOL thank you!
I am from Hong Kong, and I can tell you are doing really good job.
while you're learning Cantonese, I'm learning English from your videos 😂
Love it!
so much appreciation and respect to you for making the effort to learn Canto, and this avery nice video introducing Cantonese learning especially intercepting all these local Hong Kong scenes! I think you made a lot of progress and it is fluent enough to make conversations with any native~ you did great!!
That's great man. Seem to be doing great. I need to get back to my studies as I guess I hit the dip and dipped out.... ;/
I've dipped out my fair share of times too. Just gotta keep pushing!
Canto was my mother tongue but since I started learning English in preschool, my vocabulary has remained there. Hence, it is really hard for me to communicate with people as well, especially my grandparents who cannot speak a lot of English. This video was really relatable, so thanks
Who was the cantonese speaking youtuber at 1:56? I'd like to start watching some and the jyutping being there would make a huge difference
Cantonese with Brittany!
As a HongKonger, I will say your Cantonese is pretty good! Keep it up.
If you want to go further, learn those word that you speak. It will help a lot.