Learning Cantonese - How I Went About It

It all happened around 11 years ago.
Timelines:
0:14 Lack of motivation to learn Cantonese.
1:19 Hacking Cantonese tones.
2:25 The reason I wasn’t motivated for Cantonese.
2:42 Simplified approach to Cantonese tones.
3:22 Mini Disc players and lots of listening.
5:20 Audio sources for Cantonese.
6:15 Debunking Raymond Chan.
8:23 Learning Cantonese stands at the origins of LingQ.
Learn a language at: www.lingq.com
Visit my blog: blog.thelinguis...

[@kankenkankenkanken]

The 3 cantonese sentences that you spoke in the video were so accurate in terms of the tones and feelings.. Cantonese is always informal and non-stop changing. As a native speaker living overseas, i need to update new slangs every once awhile so as to catch up with my friends. It is a real fun language i recommend to ppl who already had basic knowledge to Asian Language. (btw, i am now learning korean and english).

[@cccrsc]

bottom line - hard work. Whatever method you use, the one thing I noticed from your video is, you worked damn hard. There's just no way around it: hard work. And the truth is, most of us, myself included, simply don't wanna put the work in there. I think that's why people admire multi-linguial people because even more than talent, most of us lack the dedication and discipline.

[@injanhoi1]

+Iris Ng Totally agree with you. I like how Steve said "Motivaton, Time and Attentiveness!". I see so many foreigners living in countries like Japan or China for long years yet are poor at the local language. Many simply don't study.

[@LanguageBoost01]

Thanks Steve, i really appreciate this video. As a Dutch who is learing Cantonese this video gave me a lot of inspiration. All the best from Hong Kong. Jan

[@manlingc7053]

Thank you for making this video sharing your story of learning Cantonese. As a cantonese speaker, I cannot thank enough for you, as a foreigner, go out so much effort to learn this language, especially when this language is despised by so many others, including the locals HongKongers. Thank you again. Look forward to see more and more videos of you speaking cantonese.

[@eb.3764]

what Cantonese hates their own language wtf?

[@AndySang94]

Cantonese at Lingq would be amazing

[@handybanana2274]

It has it, partially.

[@SailorRocket]

I've always thought that Cantonese was prettier than Mandarin. *.* That's another language I want to learn...

[@jasonNguyen618]

I am a vietnamese person and i find it easy to learn cantonese because its similar in tones. I never was afraid of the so called 9 tones. Vietnamese has 5 tones and i personally think cantonese is doable in 6 tones, not 9 .

[@Thelinguist]

@Guitarstratdude I don't speak modern Greek, but there is a good chance that Modern Greek will be added as a language on LingQ quite soon, since it is near the top on our Facebook page poll on which languages to add to LingQ. How big is the difference between Modern and Ancient Greek. Is the writing system the same. Could both be added on the same platform and just identified as "dialects" of the same language? Does anyone know?

[@jonboy700]

Its really important to me to know the retention rate will be consistent. Given the multiple languages you have studied, are you able to maintain functionality with all of those languages? How much have you lost in some of those languages? Thanks for your informative videos.

[@figureskatingbug]

Sir, I absolutely respect you :) I've been trying to learn Japanese in Hong Kong for a long time, but recently quit my lessons because of time constraints. You have officially inspired me to use much more different and less time time consuming methods in getting around to learn the language :))

[@Thelinguist]

@paisleyyama At the beginning I listen over and over, and I read and review the new vocabulary. I move on when I feel like it, and in the beginning this means that I move on even though I really don't understand, have an imperfect sense of the meaning. I know that things will eventually clear up.

[@antoniatarnaroutskaya6401]

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer me :) It was helpful to me :)

[@anim604]

wow. lot's of respect to you sir! here I thought you were still living in perhaps HK or a Southern Chinese region but to find that you live in Vancouver, where I also live, I was pleasantly surprised! Glad you were able to make this video and good work~!

[@Thelinguist]

Thanks for dropping by.

[@Thelinguist]

@TheSeductiveArts Mandarin pronunciation is easy. The tones are a problem but you just get better over time. Language learning is mostly about attitude.

[@Thelinguist]

@paisleyyama I listen casually, not studiously. I could not listen at a desk taking notes, I think I would get tired quickly. I listen while doing other things, running, the dishes, driving etc. I rarely try to repeat or speak along nor deliberately try to guess what they will say next. I listen when I have the chance, car, work out, take out the garbage, whatever.

[@Ray888z]

Steve, many people are not aware that, as you say, English has tones too. I often give this example: You're in an elevator next to push buttons; door opens; someone comes in. You ask "which floor?" He says "2". You say "I'm going to 2 too". "To two too" are 3 different tones for the same sound. You are free to use this example.

[@Rulza]

I really hope we'll see Cantonese at LingQ some day!

[@Thelinguist]

@heloizyjhenifer Whether the same people study them is not a consideration. The question is only whether the same language slot at LingQ can be used for both. Is the writing system the same?

[@equillez]

You mention learning vocab via reading, and needing ~2000 hanzi, but how did you go about learning hanzi to begin with? I studied Japanese for a few years, and only know a few hundred. I would write out news articles in JA, then go through the new vocab and 漢字 but it didn't stick. I will be going to HK soon, and wanted to start Cantonese. So, to learn through reading, what's a good way to learn Cantonese via hanzi? There's so many books and methods (Heisig, etc.) I don't know how best to learn:(

[@luf4rall]

Vancouver is basically Hongkouver.

[@Thelinguist]

@amanogawamakoto I have made some in the past and will do another one soon if there is interest.

[@shk00design]

The best reason for learning Cantonese is that you are not on the Mainland. Recently watched documentaries from HK. After the handover, China wanted to bring HK closer to the family while HK wanted to maintain a "distinct" status much like Quebec & "le reste du Canada". The locals are very picky about using "Traditional" char. in signs. If they see even 1 "Simplified" char. in a sign or restaurant menu they'd complain. Next door in Shenzhen (Mainland) you can get by in Mandarin but not in HK.

[@DavidNgCantonese]

maybe not these days?

[@shk00design]

​ @user-ij6pg7zh2b In HK kids do learn Mandarin as a second language in school. The level of fluency varies. In China the core subjects including as Reading, Writing & Arithmetic are taught in Mandarin. Teaching your local dialect is up to to your parents. In Hong Kong the younger generation is becoming fluent in Mandarin. It's a language the locals would use when speaking to a Chinese Mainlander or a Taiwanese but you hardly ever hear a local speak Mandarin to each other.

[@DavidNgCantonese]

@@shk00design sorry, I had HK mixed up in my mind with Guangzhou. Seems like these days Cantonese is dwindling over there

[@shk00design]

​@@DavidNgCantonese Grangzhou and even Shenzhen when is next door to Hong Kong there are a lot more Mandarin speakers mainly because of migrant labor from other parts of China. So far Hong Kong & Macau hasn't removed the border crossing into China. After the crackdown on the protests 4 years ago with many locals emigrated abroad, the city is much more friendly and open to Chinese Mainlanders. During the protests that lasted for 7 mths, Chinese Mainlanders in Hong Kong were afraid to speak Mandarin on the street. There were instances of Mandarin speakers attacked by locals reported on the news. Today the locals don't usually talk to each other in Mandarin unless someone in the group is from Mainland China or Taiwan.

[@Thelinguist]

@heloizyjhenifer OK but if we start Modern Greek, and someone wants to add some lessons that consist of some texts in Ancient Greek, with a recording pronounced by someone, could it work. Is the writing the same? Could we add one dictionary for Modern Greek and one for Ancient Greek?

[@Thelinguist]

@koppollie I will look for the minidisk but no promises.

[@gemeinhardt8412]

key: getting your brain used to the patterns of the new language, be it Chinese, computer programming, scientific experiments, financial literacy, etc. etc. everything we do requires a 'language' or a bridge between us and the task at hand. the more we exercise the use of the language the more fluent and adept or or 'muscle memory' we become aka practice makes perfect. don't like MMO because of grindfest? guess what... Life IS a grindfest... but doesn't mean you have to get stuck on that reality, so much to learn, so rewarding to masterfully execute our languages, the act of performing that which we are confident that we can perform is perhapsy the number one motivation behind everything we do. GRIND AHEAD!

[@Sybok51288]

My God you learned cantonese.... respect. thanks for uploading this it makes me feel cantonese is not as impossible as i first thought (but still seems like it'll be really hard! lol)

[@daglug1]

I'm really enjoying this "How I went about learning___" series. It's really interesting! Please keep the videos coming. :D

[@wgh999]

You're very talented! I see Cantonese isn't the only foreign language you can speak.

[@Thelinguist]

@AndresJC777 I don't get confused in so far as thinking is concerned, but I do confuse similar languages at first when switching. I think in a mixture. The better I speak the language the less I think in English.

[@Thelinguist]

@eugrus I have no idea about how close they are. My only question is whether someone studying Ancient Greek could use the same slot as Modern Greek in the LingQ system. I guess we will find out when we start Greek.

[@Thelinguist]

@daglug1 will do

[@Thelinguist]

@Vacher12 Will do.

[@chlinnz]

Oh my Gosh I have a lot of respect of u for being able to learn so many languages. I can speak 2 or 3 I wanted to learn one more language but I don't have a strong motivation now

[@Thelinguist]

@SummerKingdom Will do.

[@Thelinguist]

@Dacud Great to hear from you and I see you already have quite a few languages including Mandarin under your belt. Good luck.

[@tkox1z]

You sir are a nice storyteller yourself. It was nice listening. Thank you for the motivational tips.

[@Thelinguist]

@koolibrii OK lo hare despues.

[@Thelinguist]

What I need is transcripts of Korean audio content, that I can copy and import into LingQ, similar to the wealth of material available from Echo Moskvi for Russian and Ceskyrozhlas for Czech. If you know of such sources I would greatly appreciate hearing about them.

[@Thelinguist]

@paisleyyama I like shorter lessons when I start out, but once I am past the beginner stage 10 and eventually 30 minutes and longer are fine. it is more the length of the piece I need to read, to create LingQs (save words) that limits the length. 5-10 minutes is good.

[@Thelinguist]

@zerocool900 I am moving in the direction of the Middle East, so to speak. I think I will start with Turkish since the alphabet is easier and it is widely spoken. Maybe I will start in April. Then I will go after Arabic, maybe the following year but I am a little wary of the writing system. I find learning writing systems, and reading in other scripts, the most tiring part of language learning.

[@陈兔-z1n]

Cantonese sounds better than Mandarin especially when reading an ancient poem.

[@kaiyuanhe9248]

I prefer Mandarin

[@eb.3764]

@@kaiyuanhe9248 I prefer Taiwanese Hokkien

[@ghostland8646]

@@kaiyuanhe9248 I prefer Vietnamese

[@modelstatue]

Hey Steve, your Cantonese is great. From someone whose family speaks Cantonese (but I am a first generation American), I can communicate and converse decently (though I understand way more than I speak), but when it comes to understanding the news, I am horrible. Something about the news makes it so hard to understand. I think it might be the formality. Do you understand the Hong Kong news? What is the key to improve my understanding of the news? I know you emphasize the acquisition of more vocabulary, so is that the key here as well? I would love to get to a level of understanding the news! :D Also, my conversational skills are OK, but I want to get better. My family talks to me in Cantonese, but somehow, I still would not categorize myself as fluent in either speaking or understanding. Since I always have access to a native speaker to talk to, I am trying to reflect upon what my missing link is. Perhaps it is because I don't listen or read much? Perhaps it is due to a lack of a more extensive vocabulary? Any thoughts?

[@Thelinguist]

+modelstatue to me the key is vocabulary. To increase your vocabulary in Chinese, and to understand the news, you will have to learn to read. This means learning the characters. I really recommend learning the characters. It takes a long time but it really gets you into Chinese culture.

[@RudeMania35]

I am so excited to learn chinese! i just don't know whether i should learn cantonese or mandarin! i am thinking mandarin is probably more useful since so many people speak it, but what do you suggest Steve?

[@Thelinguist]

There is a dearth of Korean content that is accessible to learners. If you know of some please tell me since I am going to start up Korean again in the fall. I need content with audio and transcript on subjects of interest, history, politics, or whatever, podcasts would be great. As to my wife, it is not a matter of aversion, but rather the language that we have the habit of communicating in.

[@Thelinguist]

@paisleyyama I listened over and over as I always do at the beginning. but not until I understood it. The exposure is good, and the brain is challenged to try to understand, and of course the repetition is good, but when I am tired of the content I move on. Whether I understand 50% or 80% does not really matter in my view.

[@rlouie05]

Hard work and priorities. Replaying a movie or show you love with closed captioning in the new language sometimes helps, as you also can apply what's happening on screen in your head in the new language. That's one of my current methods for Mandarin.

[@PassionForLanguage]

I think you are brilliant and inspiring. Thank you Lingo Steve!

[@ryladgleon]

I'm afraid not, check with other linguists. And just to be clear which sense of the word I'm referring to, the 'linguists' I refer to are "people who study linguistics" and not "people who speak several languages".

[@xiaotao216]

I truly enjoy your videos and you inspire me to keep up my language learning, especially now that I'm out of college! After watching this video, I was curious if you speak to your wife and her family in Cantonese at all now that you've been learning the language? Thank you again, Mr. Kaufmann!

[@petrova098y]

I have one doubt can you help me? I speak cantonese and my family too,but i don't know write. I was thinking in learn mandarin first (write and pronunciation) because is the official language in China and for working with business it would be great(China economy is growing a lot) but I don't know how start' I mean,I know the basic words and I can make phrases but there are many words i didn't learned. Now I'm learning both but I prefer focus in one only. Which I should choose? thx

[@Bonniebranch7]

Do you remember what radio station Zhang Mo Gei was on in Vancouver? He sounds like a great radio program to practice listening with!

[@Thelinguist]

There are 2 Cantonese stations in Vancouver 1230 1470 I think. He is probably retired now.

[@Bonniebranch7]

@@Thelinguist Thank you so much for your response! I really appreciate your time and yes he probably is at this point. Sounds like an amazing program back in the day though! What a blessing!

[@lzhang1490]

Will Lingq add Cantonese to its list of languages?

[@27069614]

Please do one on how you went about learning French, this would be very interesting.

[@Thelinguist]

@3510211 Will do, after the German one.

[@koppollie]

Would it be possible for you to upload that exchange you had with Raymond Chan?

[@dojunwai]

Do you have a link to that Cantonese radio host's show that you mentioned in the video? Thanks.

[@impuredeath2]

When I meet my language exchange friend to practice, how should I practice? What material and things to prepare? And I cannot find any Cantonese drama in English subtitle in KZbin.... Do you have any resource? Thanks!

[@hailhummus]

The radio station is Fairchild Radio, if that helps at all.

[@Thelinguist]

These were very poor quality and I no longer have them. However, I would suggest you either get on Rhinospike where you might get some recordings free of charge, or try eLance. I suggest you write up what you want recorded, in English or Chinese. i did this for Romanian. I wrote up about 150 basic sentences and had it translated and recorded using eLance to find native speakers. i listen to these over and over as well as more difficult and more interesting material. Good luck.

[@darkstar941]

Did you ever encounter times when learning Cantonese where you wouldn't know if a word you learnt was formal Cantonese (i.e. written Chinese) or spoken Cantonese?

[@Thelinguist]

@Hiroro111english Will do.

[@Neuroneos]

Those are captivating videos!

[@anatheistmyself]

Cantonese has nine tones. Southern Min (dialect) also has nine tones. They are both difficult for the language learner. But, if you put effort in it and learn it the right way, you will master it! *I speak both - Cantonese being way better than Southern Min.

[@temp___]

Ah, I think I see what you mean. There are not enough authentic materials with audio for the newcomers of Korean. I've heard professor Argüelles's bilingual Korean readers are good and they come with audio (a little on the expensive side). I think Hyunwoo Sun (youtube) is collaborating on a large Korean audiobook series as well. I suppose I understand how it might be best to revert to English for deep conversations, but I personally would still exploit her Cantonese speaking abilities. =P

[@imhellag]

Steve, as a polyglot and lifelong learner of languages, would you say that spoken Cantonese and Mandarin are different enough to be considered entirely different languages?

[@sunsunsatsat1]

Cantonese and Mandarin are quite different. Many Cantonese words are colloquial that they can not be found in Mandarin.

[@wenqiweiabcd]

You might want to read up on the issue. Wikipedia has a good article called "Varieties of Chinese" which is worth a reading.

[@imhellag]

To all: I am an American Born Chinese and speak English, Cantonese, and Mandarin.I know what my opinions are, just wanted Steve's. whose obviously had so much more experience in these topics!

[@TheMartikaa]

I could listen you all day because now I understand everything what you say!I understand every word and I´m enjoying it!I didn´t practiced writting that´s why I make mistakes!After 1.5 jears learning I don´t speak yet but I understand !I had been learning every day 5 hours mostly listening and reading !Am I stupid?

[@petros_adamopoulos]

@Guitarstratdude Are you learning greek at the moment, or are you a speaker already?

[@AndresJC777]

I have a random question steve, but I was wondering, do you think/reason in all the languages you speak? and if so, do you ever get confused?

[@jment34]

Is the musical approach book still sold online? I can't find it anywhere.

[@polyglotcouple9333]

How did you figure out how to learn the new vocab you had listened to from the radio? Do you have any tips? Thanks!

[@Thelinguist]

I knew the words in Mandarin and had a sense of how the sounds changed into Cantonese.

[@impuredeath2]

Hi Sir, I'm in HK since past 7 years but still cannot communicate in Chinese but this year I been trying to learn it as in past I didn't made any effort to learn it. I have been reading and listening to audio book but if I don't apply it then I will forget it later, I don't have any person speaking Cantonese at my work place and don't get to use it. I'm currently advanced beginner level, I have a friend who can help me but once a week and only 2 hour , how should I prepare myself to practice..

[@SteveKaufmann]

I will try to do one.

[@petros_adamopoulos]

@lingosteve As for the writing system being the same, short answer is : not anymore since 1982. Ancient greek is written with a complex system of diacritics (polytonic) which is now simplified in modern greek (monotonic). The latter is a subset of the former, however, technically, the unicode codepoints don't always match in practice, therefore it is a bad idea to mix the two. "On paper" it is possible but from my personal experience (manipulating corpuses of texts) it is a bad idea.

[@Vacher12]

would be great to hear your experience relating to French, Steve.

[@amanogawamakoto]

Steve, you should make a video in Cantonese some day. I'm curious.

[@08Pixel]

You're amazing!!!!

[@svenmnnn]

你好嗎？(how are you?) 幾多錢？(how much is this?):P You speak quite well :P I'm from Hong Kong and Cantonese is my mother tongue. I think that Cantonese itself is a more informal language and native English speakers will find Cantonese more difficult than mandarin since we have lots of informal words:| Hope you can see this :)

[@ayamdaniel]

i am learning Cantonese too. could you use Cantonese to share something such as how did you learn it? Thank you.

[@superhoops540]

I'd love to hear your argument on the radio... for learning purposes of course

[@olaramos4612]

Sir, thanks for shearing your experiences. I will like to know where and how to order that book and the audio version of it as you mentioned? I have hard time of communicating with my wife family. I really can't wait to start communicating with local Cantonese speaker. Thank you

[@sunsunsatsat1]

Do you wanna language exchange?

[@olaramos4612]

Yes

[@sunsunsatsat1]

Pls leave your email address here and you can delete after I read your msg. BTW: What language do you speak? English?

[@Thelinguist]

@LearningFrenchNow a) don't want to b) not feasible.

[@TCFung0101]

While I am very impressed with Steve's ability of speaking so many languages, with respect, I think the first language he should learn and master to speak should be Cantonese - this is his wife' mother tongue and he can simply speak/practice with her and her family everyday without any enrollment/finding a tutor in LingQ ! :)

[@Thelinguist]

First of all, my relationship with my wife is not based on language learning. Married people speak the language they are comfortable speaking. Language learning is not about "should" or obligation, it's about interest. My Cantonese is good enough for my purposes. There was a time I put a lot of effort into it. Now I am into other languages.

[@eleonorepelletier7609]

Steve Kaufmann, I downloaded your app LingQ to get going with learning Cantonese. But I can only find Mandarin. Am I missing something? :(

[@Thelinguist]

We don't yet have Cantonese, but I am hoping to get enough content so that we can start offering it. Sorry.

[@eb.3764]

There's a new Cantonese school online called Inspirlang. Very great school. I take classes with them.

[@sirenloud]

god bless you man your well harted i swair Canadians are the nices pepole on earth

[@Thelinguist]

@RudeMania35 Yes Mandarin is more useful and the place to start. Good luck!

[@Hoo88846]

I am a native speaker of Cantonese, Mandarin is my second language as most Chinese in mainland China are raised to speak both their local dialect and Mandarin in school, and English is my third language. Then in Boston Latin School, the oldest school established in 1635 in America, I had to take Latin, and also had taken electives on French and Japanese. For me, Cantonese pronunciations are more closely related to Japanese onyomi (the Chinese pronunciation of kanji), as Japanese culture is heavily influenced by Chinese culture. I agree with you that Cantonese has only six tones. If you already know enough kanji (hanja in Korean and hanzi in Mandarin), then the onyomi pronunciations should closely resemble Cantonese. During the Sui and Tang dynasties of China, the Japanese used to send envoys (kenzuishi and kentoushi) to the Chinese imperial court. The reason why one kanji can have multiple onyomi or even kunyomi pronunciations is that the Japanese went to China many times during different dynasties, and Chinese pronunciations evolved overtime and thus the same Chinese character is pronounced many different ways. Mandarin is more influenced by Mongol and Manchu rules during the Yuan Dynasty and Qing Dynasty, respectively, and is a relatively late comer. I have studied a bit of Korean as well as Korean hangul is so easy to learn, and I find Korean pronunciations can be a mix between Cantonese and Mandarin, as some words sound more like Mandarin, while others sound more like Cantonese. For example, the word "hurry" (bai li) sounds like Cantonese 快D (fai di). Cantonese evolved from Middle Chinese, which was spoken during the Tang Dynasty. It is a more ancient form of Chinese and uses a lot of classical Chinese expressions, and Japanese closely resembles that. For example, for "to drink", Mandarin uses the character 喝, but both Cantonese and Japanese use the character 饮 (yum2 in Cantonese, and nomimasu in Japanese). For "to eat", Mandarin uses the character 吃，while Cantonese and Japanese both use the character 食 (sik6 in Cantonese, and tabemasu in Japanese). For "to walk", Mandarin uses the character 走, but Cantonese and Japanese both use the character 行 (haang4 in Cantonese and ikimasu in Japanese). For both Cantonese and Japanese, to say "yes" is "hai", 系 in Cantonese, and はい in hiragana. For me, learning a new language for me is to start with the two foundations, pronunciations (phonics) and grammar, then the vocabulary can come from reading and watching videos with subtitles. I learned English this way. I was in a bilingual program for two years and didn't pick up much English, but half a year in full immersion in one of the best exam schools in the United States, Boston Latin School, and having to read all the English classical literature written by Shakespeare, Charlotte Bronte, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, et al., and my English became absolutely fluent. Anyways, nice to hear you share your language learning experience. I am trying to pick up some basics of Greek, Hebrew, Spanish and Italian, and improve my Latin, French and Japanese, which I started in high school. God bless.

[@Thelinguist]

I just had a quick look at what you wrote here, but given your name here, "Evolutionism is an anti-science lie", I am not inclined to spend much time reading what you have to say.

[@Hoo88846]

@@Thelinguist I am a pharmacist myself. If you want to discuss anything science, including evolution, let me know. But please start out with the discussion of the scientific method. Can you tell me what the scientific method is?

[@Hoo88846]

@@Thelinguist Incidentally, I can debunk the “Big Bang Theory” and “abiogenesis in the primordial soup theory” quickly. If you walk into the kitchen one day and find dishes laying on the table, do you suppose your wife doesn’t exist (atheism which is nonsense in science) just because she is not at home and cannot be seen making those dishes? Do you suppose a kitchen Big Bang created those dishes? As for the “abiogenesis” nonsense, please test it out according to the scientific method. Chop up a chicken or fish. Now you have all the organic material to make you a chicken or fish. Boil them in water (the primordial soup boiling up the first cell nonsense). You can boil for as long as you want with this soup (just remember to add more water due to evaporation). Do you think given “billions of years”, you can even boil any cells alive? Have you seen anything boiled alive before? Creationist and founder of microbiology Louis Pasteur debunked this abiogenesis (spontaneous generation) nonsense with his famous experiments before. This is why he invented the method of pasteurization, using heat to KILL microbes. This is why the Chinese love drinking hot water, because boiling water can KILL germs and disease-causing microbes. You don’t boil anything alive. Abiogenesis in the primordial soup is anti-science nonsense.

[@Hoo88846]

@@Thelinguist As for the evolution frog-turning-into-prince fairytale, please tell me, according to the scientific method, which distinguishes pseudoscience from real science, have you seen any fish turning into amphibians? Or reptiles turning into mammals before? You will say “oh, it doesn’t happen overnight. It takes billions of years to happen”. Ok, well, the supposed “billions of years” are in the past tense. Billions of years have already gone by. Given so much time in the past tense, if evolution were even remotely true, don’t you think we should be able to see some monkeys or chimpanzees walking out of the forest becoming bipedal human? Or some fish coming out of the ponds and rivers becoming frogs? The scientific method requires science to be OBSERVABLE and REPEATABLE and TESTABLE. This is why evolution is not science, because despite the supposed “billions of years” have gone by, none of their frog-turning-into-prince fairytale suppositions have ever been observed or repeated. The Bible in Genesis says organisms reproduce AFTER THEIR KINDS, that is fish begetting fish, human begetting human, frogs begetting frogs, etc. This is good science because this is what we observe on a daily basis throughout recorded human history. We can have a variety of fish, frogs, bears, chickens, dogs, etc., but that is NOT evolution. That is genetic variation. Take a course in genetics. We get different varieties of dogs and cats with selective breeding, including the ones with short legs and on the end of genetic extinction like the corgis and chihuahuas, but that is just selecting alleles from the gene pools of dogs, cats, or human. All the genes and alleles are already there. There is no evolution involved. It’s just genetic expression of alleles already in existence in the gene pools. If you are interested in Chinese history, do you know that the ancient Chinese also worshiped the same God Shang Di 上帝 as the Jews? Check out “God in Ancient China” 古代中国人的神 by Pastor Kong Hee from Singapore. It’s a two sermon series on KZbin. The first one is on Chinese characters and the second one is on the records of the most ancient Chinese scripts, such as 尚书， 诗经，史记. The Bible is historically, archaeologically and scientifically supported. Big Bang, abiogenesis in the primordial soup, and evolution are three big lies of science, and are neither historically nor scientifically supported. Check out Dr. Mark Armitage’s channel on KZbin. He does a lot of scientific research on soft tissues found in dinosaurs. There is no way for soft tissues to exist in dinosaurs if they had been killed with an asteroid hitting the earth 65 million years ago (evolutionists’ fairytale interpretation of how the dinosaurs died off). Yet repeatedly we find soft tissues in dinosaur fossils, which means that they did not die millions of years ago. They died relatively recently in Noah’s Global Flood about 4500 years ago. The Global Flood account can even be found in many ancient civilization records, such as in the Chinese (Nv Wa patching the sky with five colored stones 女娲用五彩石补青天） and Indian records (Natsya and Manu legend). Check out the lecture by Ken Ham, biologist and founder of Answers in Genesis, called “Tower of Babel and the Origin of Races”. The historical accounts in the Bible make more scientific, archaeological and historical sense. I was born an atheist in atheistic China, and I was brainwashed with evolution first, but hearing from the Creationists’ side, I find their explanations for the origin issues (origin of the universe, life, and biodiversity) more logical and scientific. I can go on and on with such discussions, but feel free to check out more of such great lectures exposing this false science on the KZbin channels “Is Genesis History”, “Answers in Genesis”, and “Creation Ministries International”.

[@Hoo88846]

@@Thelinguist Incidentally, the Tower of Babel historical event recorded in Genesis 11, was what created all the languages in the world, although some have evolved overtime not without human intelligence. The Chinese had a character created for this event, the character for “tower” 塔 tower = 土 mud + 艹 (the radical for grass or plant) + 人 people + 一 one + 口 mouth. And implanted in this character is the word for “unite” 合 = 人 people + 一 one + 口 mouth. So when people were speaking one language, they were United and built this tower with mud and grass. And the Chinese also had the character for the Noah’s Flood historical account, the character for “ship” 船 = 舟 boat + 八 eight + 口 mouths. The prototype of a big ship is Noah’s Ark, and my God-fearing Chinese ancestors remembered this global event. Noah’s Ark had exactly eight people on board = Noah, Noah’s wife, Noah’s three sons (Shem, Ham, Japheth), and Noah’s three daughters-in-law. So after the global flood, Shem (which means “name”) became the ancestor of the Asians mostly, Ham (which means “hot”) became the ancestor of the Africans, and Japheth (which means “extend”) became ancestor of the Europeans. All of us are distant relatives, with some inheriting more melanin under their skin so they appear darker. No one is “less evolved”, or “more ape-like”. Evolution has fuelled racism. It’s the religion of the Nazis, Fascists and Japanese Imperialists when they did genocide and ethnic cleansing of the supposedly “less evolved” and “more ape-like” people, trying to create more living space for the “more evolved” blond hair, blue eye Aryan people. The reason why we have so many ethnic groups in the world with distinct facial features is due to the Tower of Babel event, when language was confused (Babel means “confusion”, and is the root word for “babble” and “Babylon”). When people can no longer communicate due to language barriers, they separated and were forced to disperse all over the world, thus founding the ancient civilisations like Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, India and China. Language barrier is the reason why the original human gene pool got split up into many smaller and limited gene pools, thus creating the false sense of “races”. Chinese marrying Chinese, Japanese marrying Japanese, etc. are actually like inbreeding. This is why when Europeans (the supposed “white” people) marry the Asians (as in your case), they get more beautiful babies, because now the gene pool becomes larger and blended back. If we inherit two defective alleles from both parents due to inbreeding and close relationship marriage, we have a higher chance of expressing (phenotype) those faults. When the gene pool gets blended back and we have more distant cousins marrying (such as the descendants of Japheth, the Europeans, marrying the descendants of Shem, the Asians), there is a higher chance of a better gene covering up the defective gene (we get one copy of genes from our father and one copy of our genes from our mother, so we have 23 pairs of chromosomes and 46 chromosomes in total). That is why the supposed “interracial” marriages produce more beautiful babies, such as the ones who win Miss Hong Kong titles like Michelle Monique Reis, or your own children because your wife is a Hong Konger (descendant of Shem) while you are a “white” person (descendant of Japheth). In short, Biblical history makes much much more scientific sense. Check out the lectures by Dr. Nathaniel Jeanson and Dr. Kurt Wise. They are both PhD scientists from the most reputable university in the United States, Harvard University. Science supports the Bible and Biblical history, not “billions of years” of evolution. Incidentally, given the materialistic and naturalistic approach to the origin issues by evolutionists, how did languages “evolve”? Where did languages come from, coming strictly from a materialistic and naturalistic erroneous worldview? I think the Bible and Intelligent Design and Creation make more scientific, historical and logical sense. Have a good day. 🤗

[@Thelinguist]

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[@Thelinguist]

@27069614 In the future. The German request was first.

[@antoniatarnaroutskaya6401]

Hi:) Would you sell me the recordings you had made at the university of Vancouver in Cantonese? I would like to learn from them.

[@criskity]

9 tones: yin ping, yang ping, yin shang, yang shang, yin qu, yang qu, long yin ru, short yin ru, and yang ru. But: they can be distilled to 6 tone contours for practical purposes.

[@MuhammadKhalid-jw1gd]

Pronounciation is not the problem, the main problem is how to remember the tone combination of each word.....any video about that?

[@shk00design]

Living in Hong Kong in English depends on whether people are fluent and accommodating to foreigners so that you don't need to learn Cantonese. I've come across Punjabi Indians who lived in HK and speak fluent Cantonese. Came across a Norwegian living in HK: Cecilie Gamst Berg with a web-site Happy Jellyfish who is teaching foreigners to speak Cantonese and Chinese to speak English. Her accent isn't perfect but gets down to the basics of saying where you're from and doing shopping...

[@petros_adamopoulos]

@lingosteve Nope, you can't mix the two. While it's true that (somehow) knowing one definitely helps with the other, they're not mixable. Besides, you won't have the same people learning the one and the other, really.

[@carnivalcruisefanRR]

how many languages do you speak

[@kankenkankenkanken]

don't really understand which tone you refering to, can you give an example word?

[@laviebanale]

Steve, you're fucking amazing.

[@epsilon910]

May you do one on German please?

[@petros_adamopoulos]

@lingosteve I know! You also told me a year ago that Greek would be added soon, whatever :). Modern and ancient are quite different in many respects, the vocabulary is different, phonetics are different, orthography is different, grammar is different :), but they're similar, hehe. However, ancient greek is not one language, it's many epochs and as many languages one might say. In a sense this is why it's a dead language, nobody would know which one to speak/write, so it's only read, basically.

[@lifaru]

i spent 3 years in germany and 3 years in panama and i regret not learning german or spainish