Chinese characters - why I DON'T think you should learn them

[@kct9439]

Wow, young man your Cantonese is amazing. Despite the accent I can still understand most of what you say. It just flows and flows without stuttering. Good job, I would treat you to dim sum one of these days. What are your future career plans?

[@ericleung1578]

That makes sense. It’s just like how beginners learn Japanese or Mandarin. Learn the sounds first, then the Chinese characters.

[@kevin102506]

Lots of HongKongers planning to move to the UK recently, you could make a video to give some suggestions to Hong Kongers or share your life in the UK from a Brit perspective 😀

[@darrellwong4097]

Nice video Alex. Great to see you speaking Cantonese. I remember when started to learn Cantonese I was inspired by one of your earlier videos. I still can’t read or write but can speak ok ... certainly no expert! In the past couple of years, for Mandarin, I’ve learned pingyin but still no reading or writing characters. I can converse but native speakers speaking fast still stump me! Keep up the videos! Merry Christmas mate.

[@AlexHarris1094]

Keep up the hard work mate! Sounds like you’ve already made it a fair way

[@debbiewong456]

Thank you for your effort in learning Cantonese! I really feel proud of you!

[@karinawong5063]

Your Cantonese is getting more and more fluent ! 👍👍👍

[@TheMacyyu920]

講得啱, 其實講同寫係好唔同，如果淨係溝通根本唔需要學點寫

[@loudandproudkitcheng8172]

Thank you @AlexHarris1094 for sharing your knowledge and experiences with learning Cantonese here. Well done. 💪🥇🙏👏🥳👍🎉 Could you please make a video of what you experienced when you flew back to HK after you spent Christmas with your family. Thank you 🙏

[@VictoriaZaaiTalk]

well done Alex. I am Hongkonger but I also use pinyin to input Chinese characters. I don't know other input method.

[@stormmeansnowork]

This video reminds me how a friend from UK of mine learned Cantonese during his one year student exchange in a Hong Kong university. He basically just learned all the "words" with Cantonese pinyin, and at the end, his oral exam requires him to pretend to rob someone, and I helped him practice. At first he said 唔好郁, 俾晒啲錢我 (do not move, give me all [of your] money), to which I quickly corrected him "This is not how you rob somebody, you should have just say '咪郁! 打劫!' (freeze! Robbery!)". After that I realized that classroom teaching in the end, is still some distance from real life, but your video is a lot more helpful in understanding their difficulties than my own observation as a local. Speaking of real life Cantonese, if a foreigner ever lived in a less accessible area of Hong Kong, he would most likely know the phrase 唔該有落 (stop please), which is a must when signalling the minibus drivers to let you get off the vehicle. While one may escape from speaking Cantonese at a supermarket or a local restaurant, minibus remains the only scenario where there's no alternative.

[@genechan]

Thanks for sharing! May I ask how you improved your vocabulary? I'd say that's the biggest standout from your Cantonese from me. I think your range of words is beyond intermediate level to me. It's easy for non-native Cantonese speakers to lean on english for nouns or adjectives, especially since it's so acceptable in normal conversation. I had thought the key to improving vocab that was reading, but it sounds like you were able to find another way!

[@AlexHarris1094]

Good question Gee. I should probably do a vid on this actually. I initially spent a huge amount of time watching videos in Cantonese (especially blogs and short movies on KZbin) and especially those with Chinese subtitles. Then I would use an OCR scanner app (like Pleco) on my iphone in which you could hover the camera over the characters and the software would recognise them and give you the pinyin, meaning etc. So basically spent a ridiculous amount of time watching videos and pausing the videos to look up the vocab that I didn’t know... Most people would probably find it veeery tedious but it was a great way of working on my listening and finding new useful vocabulary at once. I then rote-memorised the vocab that I wrote down and tried to use it as soon as possible in conversation

[@genechan]

@@AlexHarris1094 Wow this sounds like dedication :) That's a pretty cool way, did you have a set of blogs/vlogs and short movies that were particularly helpful?

[@happyboy2607]

勁。好叻💪🏾💪🏾💪🏾

[@loveyanyee]

thanks for sharing with us 🤗

[@EricLeung-hk]

This is the way that we learn our languages. You might aware that 同字異音(each character uses different tones for different meaning). And you should be able to use advanced learner dictionary (辭典) now. Sometimes we play with these for fun and write something like : "行行行行行行行, 長長長長長長長; 樂樂樂樂樂樂樂, 朝朝朝朝朝朝朝.

[@raylin8914]

I am really impressed....well done... keep it up 😄👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[@exp8all]

Your Cantonese is more fluent in this video than the videos from 8 months ago. 👍

[@funkycute7482]

Just got acquainted to your channel. HKer , but moved to London since the 90s. Just wanna say well done with your Cantonese, and one of these days you should show off your Cantonese with some 急口令. Also, your trainspotting poster reminded me that I had a hard time understanding what they're on about with their Glaswegian accent. Maybe I should re-watch now to see if I can do better.

[@Aucngai1026]

I ve been subscribe your channel for so long,and see you improve a lot.i live in hk too wish to meet you in person oneday

[@AlexHarris1094]

I’m sure you can. I used togo to the language exchange event at The Hive in Central on Saturdays sometimes. Although it’s been cancelled because of covid and I’m stuck in England until flights restart 🙈

[@kit-shingtse1222]

Hi Alex, I'm so glad that I stumbled across your extremely insightful channel! :D Even my major isn't Linguistics (Graphic Design), but I'm always fascinated by how non-Cantonese speakers see our identity. Probably because there're about 600 characters are in the pictogram, and also I believe I'm a tactile learner (always struggle with learning something conceptional, such as a new language!). I'm so amazed that you're SOOO spot on that most of the Hong Kongers know nothing about the Cantonese romanization system. Do you know why? Because I'm OOONE of them LMAO!! :D But do you know why? Well, based on what I've heard, it has a lot to do with history and politics (hints: Korean War) Finally, based on you could figure out how to learn Cantonese without learning the characters, I believe you're probably an auditory learner. Stay Safe and Cheers Mate!! :)

[@AlexHarris1094]

I think I most likely am an auditory learner but I’d never given it much thought until I randomly saw your comment. Thanks for your insights!

[@andgo1946]

Great video! I'm really impressed by your cantonese! I was raised bilingual german-cantonese, but i would love to improve my cantonese and maybe learn to write Do you have any more tips? :)

[@penguinshifu09]

Damn, your Cantonese is perfect!

[@chisung1034]

Your accent is prefect! That encouraged me

[@danielfung1003]

keep up the good work!

[@kevin102506]

Your Cantonese is perfect!!!

[@ianchan5415]

Thanks for your vid! You inspired me to learn another language!!!

[@lamesther6618]

SOUND GOOD !!

[@dmva1357]

we are missing you a lot!!!!

[@katherinenuedling]

would have never told that it's a Brit speaking if i listened with closed eyes, well done! are you also on instagram?

[@AlexHarris1094]

Haha thanks for your comment Katherine. Nope, I don’t really do any social media... I’m not really a huge fan tbh. I just use Whatsapp. A few people have managed to track me on LinkedIn though

[@SatyrG]

U sound super fluent man!!!

[@suetfunc827]

Hello Alex I wonder know how you learn to pronounce I in Cantonese? I tried to teach my husband ( British) it is so hard to explain the 鼻音😭 thank you and stay safe 💪💪

[@AlexHarris1094]

Haha it is hard. I spent hours with recordings of people saying things... playing, pausing, trying to say it, re-listening, trying to say it again... Even to this day my pronunciation is definitely the weakest aspect of my Chinese. I mess up pronunciation and tones all the time but I don’t think it’s important as long as people can understand you

[@hakanakile2462]

I am a Cantonese speaker live overseas,to me it is also difficult to explain the words with 後鼻音 to my three and half year old baby.For example , 雅 she would pronounce 那 ......No matter how many times I pronounce, she still could not get it. So I ask her open the mouth like a number 0 first, (not just o in English vowel ), then let the tongue stay relax and flat, don’t move it ,then pronounce the word, at the same time make the number 0 shape bigger and bigger(that means drop the jaw more and more) and 翁起個鼻 together (sorry I don’t know how to say this in English, I think the feeling like you say eeeeew like a child), exhale hard at the same time.......as a Cantonese speaker, I think we do all these steps at the same time..... Of course , my daughter is still a baby , I play all these things part by part like games with her day by day , her words with 後鼻音 is better and better. 唔教過， 唔知咁難。。。。。我哋唔係聽聽吓就識㗎咩？

[@mrtsiqsin2290]

Hi Alex. I'm so surprised to hear you'll come back to HK soon. Are you actually working in HK? Why do you choose to come back here even during the pandemic?

[@AlexHarris1094]

I’ve been living in HK from late 2019. I came back to the UK for Christmas with my family... didn’t realise I would get stuck 🤦🏼‍♂️

[@randoiman]

Your from the UK and ur stuck in Hong Kong I'm from Hong Kong and I'm stuck in the UK Covid is messing with our lives

[@jimf8047]

He has a job in Hong Kong that he mentioned in a previous video.

[@Haaaaaaaaaa0122]

睇咗你最新果2條片 知道你好有恆心咁學廣東話 真係好開心 加油呀！！！支持你💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻 Btw我都想加強英文嘅口語能力 有無咩好提議？ Thanks Alex Sir🙇🏻‍♀️🙇🏻‍♀️🙏🏻🙏🏻

[@Haaaaaaaaaa0122]

唔記得講 希望你平安返嚟香港 健健康康 期待你嘅新片 Ps. 我深信你應該唔使再用字典check我嘅廣東話留言，right ??😏😏😏

[@AlexHarris1094]

哈哈哈 唔洗啦 我已經學咗咁耐 😉 其實我冇咩特別嘅意見或者竅門。。我建議你多聽多講 你可以睇Ted Talks或者去一啲語言交流活動搵native speaker傾計 只要你主動d學就得架啦 同埋你睇美國電影嘅時候冇開中文字幕!

[@Haaaaaaaaaa0122]

@@AlexHarris1094 嘩！好地道嘅廣東話🥰🥰🥰好勁！！！好多謝你嘅回覆，好surprise😏等我宜家就去Netflix到睇下有咩新劇先👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[@camrenkennedy64]

hey do you have any tips to some one that is trying to learn cantonese im starting to learn from my grandma but she doesnt exaclty know how to teach me perfectly besides speaking to me and im not around her alot which is very hard on me since im not able to be around cantonese speakers alot any tips on how you learned besides being in HK

[@kennedyjohnson3868]

watch Cantonese tv show.. there are a lot of Japanese animation (e.g., Keroro) with Cantonese voiceover

[@camrenkennedy64]

@@kennedyjohnson3868 do you have any recommendations on the shows

[@kennedyjohnson3868]

@@camrenkennedy64 Highly recommend "我們這一家 粵語" and "keroro 粵語" on KZbin. I think I have watched all of them! Some have subtitles, some don't. My advice is to ignore the subtitle and focus on the speech.

[@kennedyjohnson3868]

agree 100%

[@s070076100]

Hey Alex:) do you have any other social media handles ?

[@agneswong2635]

I want to learn English. Haha....

[@Divalady2010]

Are you from Essex?

[@sebastianlifoon]

add oil

[@charlotteuk3334]

我都係英國 有興趣language exchange??哈哈

[@richelleturner7343]

这是很有意思的视频。我花了很多时间学汉字，所以我写字，看书比听力和说话好。当然有的时候语法写错了。我订阅你的Channel。我也有KZbin channel 关于学中文。如果你有兴趣，kzbin.info/www/bejne/oZK6koGVmbKDmMk

[@bartyboy6502]

Trust me, the best way to learn a foreign language is to have a partner (girlfriend or boyfriend) who speaks that foreign language. Are you still in the UK btw? :p

[@AlexHarris1094]

Couldn’t agree more. Yup, Im stuck here

[@bartyboy6502]

@@AlexHarris1094 I am stuck here too and it's only half way of the 3rd lockdown... sighs

[@bartyboy6502]

@@AlexHarris1094 so what is your chinese name? and how do you practise cantonese these days? :p

[@Yiran]

The "我" pronounced as "o" is lazy pronunciation, the proper pronunciation is "ngo"

[@jimf8047]

Yes, but most Hong Kongers pronounce it the "lazy" way.