Product Description

Colloquial Cantonese is easy to use and completely helpful. Specially written by an experienced teacher for self-study or class use, the course offers you a step-by-step approach to written and spoken Cantonese.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #654928 in Books
• Published on: 1997-04-03
• Formats: Audiobook, CD
• Original language: Chinese, English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Audio CD

Review
'Colloquial Cantonese is a must for China hands.' - South China Morning Post

From the Back Cover
Colloquial Cantonese is a practical course in everyday Cantonese requiring no prior knowledge of the language. It is ideal for anyone seeking to develop a sound command of contemporary Cantonese whether studying independently or with a teacher. The book is divided into 15 lessons which introduce you to the core functions you will need to communicate effectively in Cantonese, ranging from telling the time and ordering food to speaking on the telephone and discussing travel experiences. The course includes:
* a pronunciation guide
* idiomatic and up-to-date vocabulary situation-based conversations aspects of Cantonese culture and customs clear, concise grammar notes special reference to idiomatic expressions a wide variety of exercises with answer key introduction to Chinese characters a Cantonese-English and English-Cantonese glossary a grammar index
Two 60-minute cassettes recorded by native Cantonese speakers are available to accompany Colloquial Cantonese. These complement and reinforce the material covered in the book and will prove invaluable in helping you develop your pronunciation and listening comprehension skills.

Customer Reviews

as good a starting point as any
i've got about 30 cantonese learning books and would say this one, overall, is about as good as any beginners' book. on the plus side, it features: a passable glossary, clear presentation and covers most everyday situations. drawbacks are: no chinese characters, not enough repetition exercises. it seems to take approx 1 year for a beginners' class to get through the book (1.5hrs/wk tuition, along with other activities). the cassettes are crucial to get anything out of the course. Remember, the romanisation is only a means to an end (speaking). the book is geared to "situations" and as such may help to get you prepared for a short trip to HK, but it would not get you far for working or formal study. for the former, "A Cantonese Book" is more appropriate, whereas for the latter, the Sidney Lau series (difficult to get in Britain) remains, in my opinion, the best for those willing to invest the time. an excellent companion grammer is the Yip/Matthews.

"Colloquial" books are not suitable for beginners.
I would not advise anyone to use books from the "Colloquial" series if they wish to start learning a language. The learner is expected to absorb a very large vocabulary and learn a great many new structures at a far greater pace than the average person is able to do. This is hard enough for a language very similar to English, but for a difficult language like Chinese the approach used in this series is quite unsuitable for beginners.