A forum for all Memrise Cantonese students and course creators. Or, better yet, a Category for Cantonese if the Memrise Staff would be so kind
Until then, are there any other Cantonese students (or masters) and or teachers out there? I am sure that you would have amassed a vast array of resources to aid you in your quest. (OK, that was a bit facetious - there are not actually that many resources when compared to many other languages, and, Canto resources can be drowned out by it’s simplified younger cousin.)
Besides memrise:
Hanping - http://hanpingchinese.com/ - have excellent Chinese language apps (for Android only) including (why can’t I nest bullet points?):
Pleco - https://www.pleco.com/ also a purveyor of excellent Chinese language apps across the gamut of modern popular personal devices. They have a large number of installable dictionaries including Cantonese and a range of other add-on features such as a medical terminology dictionary, a Buddhist and a tea terminology dictionary as well. The team at Pleco have also created the open source and free online dictionary CC-Canto: http://cantonese.org/ or http://cccanto.org/
Cantodict: http://cantonese.sheik.co.uk/ is another excellent online resource. The Cantodict dictionary is still being faithfully maintained and they are always looking for people to help. There is a reasonably active forum there as well;
would be nice if you could post some links to Cantonese courses with audio + without asking for pesky numbers ! I take two, but thought you know more
about pesky numbers: I will not spend one moment more of my life in learning by heart numbers for pinyin (sorry, i forgot how it is that called, for the case of cantonese). liang3 hui2 shi4, xiang3 fang1 she4 fa3 - oh really…
Hey @Hydroptere, I do still have some more resources bookmarked away that I have not posted yet (thanks for the memory tug); but on-line Cantonese courses?! If your searching proves more fruitful than mine was then please post here at your earliest convenience!
There really isn’t (OK, wasn’t. I have not really searched too much since I found memrise sometime late last year.) a great many courses out there. It has made learning quite a challenge. Audio has also proven diffucult to locate.
There are some references out there that appear to be translated Mandarin as the terms that they are using are not the Cantonese vernacular. This is also the case with courses found on memrise and especially when I am learning a word or phrase for the first time, I will often check with Hanping, Pleco and Cantodict to determine whether it is commonly used Cantonese or not.
And yes, the numbers to frequently appear in courses but at least with memrise you can ignore them You may wish to learn the Jyutping numbers at least once though as they are pronounced quite differently to their Mandarin equivalents:
I’m developing a course which uses audio prompts in Cantonese, and the user selects the corresponding Chinese character(s) or English translation. No typing!
The approach I’m going for is a bit different.
Each unit starts by introducing individual Chinese characters with their sound and meaning in English.
Next, you’ll learning some compound words using those characters.
Finally, the unit closes by using those components to teach phrases, along with different variations.
The notion I have is to apply what I know about comprehensible input – only learning one new thing at a time from what you already know – and learn how to manipulate the language.
And because some characters form so many different compounds, I want to prepare learners to comprehend more advanced words and phrases as they progress with their Cantonese.
Finally, I’m making the course specific to verbal Cantonese spoken in Hong Kong – many definitions we find on Cantodict or Pleco are written-only, are obscure and not in common use, or are just flat-out inaccurate.
Hope you check it out, and let me know what you’d like to see in the course!
no, I am not using the app - i keep my phones for phoning
I am using just the web version, on a (windows) laptop
(and on one tablet, sometimes also on a second laptop with linux).
On the old laptop that is the most used for memrising, i’m trying all possible IME combinations, but did not find the best one - they are terrible, these traditional keyboards…
Not sure what to recommend. The iPhone has a good cangjie keyboard. My laptop is a Chromebook, but I haven’t tried to type Chinese characters (I copy and paste everything)…
thanks… It is really driving me mad… all these IMEs for traditional look seem very difficult to use, in comparison with the ones for simplified characters… i guess i have no solution, but to avoid typing traditional…
Hi there, you tired … mixed … earthling … population (this from earthling to earthling)
cantodict is great - two things however missing: 1 audio; 2: paid staff, to clarify entries such as “
狼毒 long4 duk6 = radices euphorbiae lantu”. Huh?
Yes, it is a little unfortunate that the site admin is MIA for this particular web site of his and unresponsive to any queries about it. (This is overlooking the Hanping dictionary which has licensed it for use. There is obviously an open comms channel there.) There are many complaints about the paid membership (it is not a burdensome amount) not being acted upon nor are refunds forthcoming. My twelve month subscription would have expired yesterday had it ever been acted upon.
That said, I personally found the site content to be a great help in my earlier days of this journey.
The first thing that came to mind was wolfbane … but I am not sure now … OK, Pleco has three dictionaries that concur:
You may wish to learn the Jyutping numbers at least once though as they are pronounced quite differently to their Mandarin equivalents:
. God to know that was about a (venomous?) plant. I could not make sense of “langdu”.