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Cantonese for English Speakers  

 

Cantonese for English Speakers is a self contained package developed by Mr. Woo to  learn Cantonese. It introduces the Musical Approach Concept to teach Cantonese. The package comprises:  

 

  (1)   A text book

  (2)   A computer software called “the Spokesperson”

  (3)   Two audio CDs.

 

We assure our students that using the new method, the process for learning Cantonese is simplified and time is saved. With the software coming with the package, there is no word you cannot pronounce all by yourself.

For additional information, please see below.

 

Additional Information

  1. Explanatory Introduction

  2. The Musical Approach Concept

  3. The Spokesperson

  4. A new simple phonetic system explaining what are Finals and Initials

  5. The Tones - 3 cartoons to demo

  6. The Author

  7. An Interview

  8. Book Order  

  9. Important Notice

 

 

(1) Explanatory Introduction

 

Cantonese is one of the major dialects of the Chinese Language. It is the most predominant dialect used in Southern China including Hong Kong. Because of the pre-eminence of Hong Kong as a commercial, financial, manufacturing and trading center, the importance of Cantonese should not be under estimated. According to the statistics, over 60 million people in China speak Cantonese. Added to this figure is the number of overseas Chinese living in communities in places like Canada, USA, the UK, Australia and in South East Asia.

Cantonese is monosyllabic. The sound of each syllable is made up of two parts -- an Initial (being the part consisting of the initial consonant) and a Final which includes the vowel to indicate what the sound is like.

Cantonese is a tonal language in the sense that if we use the wrong tone, what we want to say is totally unintelligible. At the very least, confusion will arise if the wrong tone is used.

The new system used in Cantonese for English Speakers has two innovative features:

(1)  The inventor treats the tones as musical notes. He arranges these notes

      from high to low. The students would find it much easier to commit these

      tones into memory.

 

(2)  The inventor adopts a new set of phonetic symbols. These symbols are user

      friendly. Anyone accustomed to English will be able to correctly guess what

      the pronunciation is like.

 

 

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(2) The Musical Approach Concept

There are basically six tones in Cantonese. Here we provide a sample word for each tone. Great care was taken to ensure that the sample word is familiar to the English ear. Our students are asked to memorize these sample words or sounds. It constitutes a “Magic Formula” to demonstrate what each tone is like. 

 The “Magic Formula” is:-

si1     si2     mi3     fa4     ho5    ti6

 

 

si1

as in: I see, or the deep blue sea.

si2

as in: You see! Here he comes!

mi3

as you sing: doh-re-mee

fa4

as you sing: …… Far, a long long way to run (taken from the musical – The Sounds of Music)

ho5

as in: hotel

ti6

as in: society

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(3) The Spokesperson

 

A unique feature that we offer is a computer software we developed called “The Spokesperson”. This software program converts text to speech, giving you the convenience to check and practice accurate tone of any Cantonese word at any time anywhere.  You can type in any phonetic symbol, or a string of symbols, the computer will then read out the word(s) in perfect Cantonese with absolute clarity. This is immensely helpful when the teacher is not around. The software, which can be installed in a few simple steps, is compatible with English Windows environment. You can see how it works as indicated below.

 

Steps:

1.     Users can run the program after installation in the computer successfully;

2.     Type any phonetic symbol or a string of symbols in the left-handed box as illustrated;

3.     Press Play to listen the pronunciation; 

4.     Cantonese in perfect tone will be read out clearly;

5.     User can also download a word file in phonetic symbols by pressing Add File at right corner.

Example:  gam1  yat5  tin1  hei3  ho3  ,  daai5  ga1  yat1  chai6  hui3  lui4  hang6  

                                            ,    大      家            齊              

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(4) A New Simple Phonetic System explaining the Finals and Initials

A new set of phonetic symbols has been carefully selected for the system. It is user friendly to those who are accustomed to English. You can correctly guess what each symbol pronounced. There are together 53 finals and 19 initials as listed below.

The Symbols for the Finals:

No.

Final

English Comparison

Often Used Examples

Phonetic Symbols

Meaning

1

a

barber

ba1

father

2

aai

High

gaai1

street

3

aak

bark

baak5

white

4

aam

Palm

saam1

Three

5

aan

Aunt

naan6

difficult

6

aang

Sound(ng)

laang4

Cold

7

aap

harp

ngaap3

Duck

8

aat

art

baat3

eight

9

aau

How

gaau3

to teach

10

ai

Item

jai2

Son

11

ak

duck

dak1

Can

12

am

come

sam1

heart

13

an

gun

san1

New

14

ang

hungry

dang1

Lamp

15

ap

up

sap1

Wet

16

at

Utter

yat1

One

17

au

Outer

tau6

Head

18

e

yellow

che1

Car

19

ei

Faith

fei1

to fly

20

ek

check

sek5

Rock

21

eng

Length

leng3

beautiful

22

euh

her

heuh1

Boot

23

euk

jerk

geuk3

Leg

24

eung

err + ng

cheung6

Long

25

i

see

si1

poem

26

ik

liquor

sik5

to eat

27

im

Limit

tim6

sweet

28

in

dinner

chin2

money

29

ing

Finger

sing1

Star

30

ip

lip

yip5

Leaf

31

it

lit

yit5

Hot

32

iu

windowsill

siu2

small

33

m

Mmm

m6

Not

34

ng

sing

ng4

Five

35

o

low

go1

Tall

36

oh

Saw

goh1

Song

37

oi

oil

hoi2

Sea

38

ok

Rock

gok3

Horn

39

on

bond

hon6

chilly

40

ong

song

bong1

to help

41

oo

Wool

foo2

Tiger

42

ooi

oo + I

booi1

Cup

43

oon

soon

moon5

boring

44

oot

boot

foot3

Wide

45

ot

hot

hot3

thirsty

46

ue

sh….

yue4

Rain

47

uen

ue + in

yuen4

Far

48

uet

ue + t

yuet5

Month

49

ui

err + I

hui3

to go

50

uk

look

nguk1

House

51

un

action

sun3

Letter

52

ung

Lonely

lung6

Dragon

53

Ut

Richard

chut1

Out

  

The Symbols for the Initials :

No.

Initial

English Comparison

1

B

Barber

2

Ch

Charcoal

3

D

Darling

4

F

Father

5

G

Garden

6

Gw

gwendoline

7

H

Harbour

8

J

Jaw

9

K

king

10

Kw

Queen

11

L

Lamma

12

M

Market

13

N

No

14

Ng

singer ("er" is representated by the symbol "nga")

15

P

Par

16

S

See

17

T

Team

18

W

Win

19

Y

Yes

Using the new Musical Approach Concept, the process of learning Cantonese is simplified, and the time it takes is drastically reduced.

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(5) The Tones

Please see the explanation provided in the Musical Approach Concept above.

Demonstrations:

This time he’d Lo1 Ye4, winning the Mark Six.

The lady in red addresses her father-in-law as Lo4 Ye6.

The lady calls her elderly companion Lo4 Ye4.

The syllable “Lo Ye” is same, but the tone conveys a totally different meaning. Learning Cantonese is considered relatively difficult as compared to other spoken languages, e.g. English mainly because of the number of tones it has.

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(6) The Author

Mr. Edward P.H. Woo is the author of the book. He is also the Director of the Center for Linguistics (Tonal) Studies and the person who invented the Musical Approach Concept on tonal studies.

 

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(7) An Interview

Please click on the Audio Interview File [click to download] to listen an interview about the Musical Approach Concept.

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(8) Book Order

Please click on Book Order to download the book order form.

 

(9) IMPORTANT NOTICE

We wish to advise that in additional to the Musical Approach Concept, our Mr. Woo has also advanced a very important theory about a ‘Hexatave’ in speech in a manner similar to an Octave in music. Please refer to two Papers written by Mr. Woo.

     (1) The Musical Approach Concept in the Study of Languages; [click to download]

     (2) Speech Analysis and the Hexatave. [click to download]

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