My Cantonese Lexicon Series
- SZK
- 17 déc. 2018
- 2 min de lecture
Dernière mise à jour : 23 mai 2023
I started learning a little Cantonese back in 2012. Ever since, I have been learning it on and off. One of the most difficult aspects of Cantonese for me has been the lack of resources for someone who is trying to teach themselves. I have found some good text books, which have been great, but the word lists in the text books are limited. If I can't find the word in the books I have, I look for it online, but there are several problems I have come across in doing so.
1. There are many options for the word I am looking for (This is, of course, often the case in most languages. One needs to really see the word in a sentence before one can know if it is the right word.)
2. I find a word that translates, but, depending on the source, there are different tone markings. (I'm not referring to jyutping or yale here. I'm talking about a tone being given to a sound in one source, but in another source, the tone is different.)
3. Some words are used only in written Cantonese and not spoken and visa versa.
I believe that it is these three problems that have been responsible for my waxing and waning motivation for learning the Cantonese language. It really frustrates me when I can't trust the resources I am using. I feel so demotivated because nothing is telling me if the word is used in written Cantonese or in spoken Cantonese.
Of course, in an ideal world, I would learn both so that I am able to recognise the word in written and spoken Cantonese. This is too hard and would require too much of my energy. After all, my main focus is on spoken Cantonese and the characters associated with spoken Cantonese.
So, that brings me to my reason for writing this introduction. Over the next few months, I hope to create a fairly basic, theme-based lexicon of words that a Cantonese language learner might want to learn - words that are used in spoken Cantonese. (Really, this is just a resource for me - to practice and organise my notes. If it helps others, great!)
I am writing lists of words and using a website called Lang-8 (now HiNative). Some lovely, generous Cantonese speakers have been helping me. They correct my lists, so I end up with a list of spoken Cantonese words.
If you speak Cantonese and notice any errors, I am happy to receive your feedback and corrections. : )
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