Check out MtzCherry - tinyurl.com/hjz8n7r

You guys are a real inspiration to my Cantonese learning journey. I am a white British girl and my boyfriend is a British born Chinese man whose family speak little English and he would readily admit that his Chinese isn't as good as he would like it to be. It can be really hard at times and its such a difficult language to pick up so its so nice to watch your channel to see two people in the same situation!! Keep posting :-)

Steve and I are on the same boat! Jordan, keep up the good work! I admire and respect you.

3 other Cantonese learners talking about their Cantonese experience: a) Alex Harris (UK) comments about learning Mandarin vs Cantonese kzfaq.info/get/bejne/jK-TjamH3Zjak6M.html b) Mao (Taiwanese dad & HK mom) on challenges in learning Cantonese kzfaq.info/get/bejne/kNiJqqmevafegnk.html c) Brittany, a Chinese-Canadian on her learning resources kzfaq.info/get/bejne/eqmgoK5mrdmXd6s.html d) A talk show with a HK-based Chilean, Lucas & a Brit, Luke Truman kzfaq.info/get/bejne/fdSmf81imq3FqJs.html

Pronunciation is very tricky, i agree with that! I once muttered "mah gwai fahn" or rather 'you're very annoying' in response to something my husband said, and he mimicked me, but because he couldn't pronounce the tones correctly, he ended up saying "mai gwaai fahn" ie 'buy expensive rice' 😅

Funny, I'm brought up in New Zealand and my Cantonese sound just like yours. I pronounce fork the same way..

Steve and Jordan check this out if you can say this sentence in Cantonese then you pass the sentence is 嗰個哥哥高過嗰個哥哥 this is one of the tongue twister in Cantonese try to practice it I’m sure Steve parent know it !

Hey, how come you guys don't do any more videos?

Just for reference. The Cantonese never roll their tongue. So no words use "L".

You have to watch out how you pronounce the Cantonese numbers such as 2, 3, 4, especially 7 and 9 because when you say it just a little bit off it will sound like the swear wards of the male private part. The no. 2 sound like the word easy, 3 sound close to the word live, 4 sound like the word dead, 8 sound like getting rich. That is why Cantonese always want to pick their phone numbers or license plate numbers when they have the chance to do so.

奶奶..廣東話口語化是妳丈夫的母親。

𨳊...

Steven lots of how you say in Cantonese are all wrong. Especially you say Orange. I didn’t have a clue what you said before. You said orange fruit but people never call it like that.

i am a little concerned with what Cherry said about Cantonese is being pushed to extinction because of Mandarin-speaking immigrants. Language is a cultural DNA. I can't stress enough how a language defines its people. For us who aren't Chinese -- Mandarin, Cantonese, Fookien -- sounds the same. But as a language student, I value the uniqueness of each because it separates the identities of its owners. Individuality is vital for a culture to survive. I think Cherry does not want to lose her identity as a Hong Kong-er. She is happy to be identified as Chinese, but she wants to be identified as an "original Hong Kong citizen" who speaks Cantonese. Her language is her heritage. that's something to be very proud of. professor Lyle Campbell once said, "The wisdom of humanity is coded in language."

I believe she said: "Yat1 wun2 sai3 ngaau4 naam5 min6" very helpful with this.

Well, that was fun finding Cherry here. She has done some pretty good instructional videos.

Hi Jordan and Steve, I watched your first video that was filming at home and family dining at the Chinese restaurant. It was fun. The kids so cute! The Second video that you guys had a real good Chinese Tudor. It’s so interesting. Woow, Jordan you’re so good in speaking and real quick leaner! I really enjoy you guys!!!

Well done Jordan and Steve. Non Cantonese speakers can improve significantly if they follow and practise your sharing for three months. I believe vocabulary and correct tones for commonly used words is the key for beginners.

I do agree her Cantonese is fantastic..I love the way she speaks

Stumbled on this channel. AMWF here in the same boat and love that you guys are trying to better your Cantonese. It's difficult to learn more in my area as there aren't many speakers. Don't worry about tones as much at first just listen and repeat.

Oh my. I'm so glad you guys addressed the "nei" vs "lei" versions of the word "you". It bugs me when native speakers say it's lei when the proper version is nei. I think it's just been slanged in Hong Kong so people started to think that was the proper way of saying it. Keep up the great work!

Just discovered this channel! I'm having a lot of fun watching the videos. Keep up the good work. This is a fun way for me to refresh my Catonese. I'm an ABC :P

I'm a Cantonese speaker and my mum tried to teach me mandarin and we were in a Chinese restaurant and I tried to order something of the menu and ended up calling the waiter a dog... my mother tried to deny knowing me lol

It's really refreshing hearing you guys speak a mix of English and Cantonese, as well as pronouncing certain words slightly wrong, because, as an American-born, that's exactly how I speak. :)

Wow congrats on the 20K+ views on the previous video! Good job making a catchy and searchable title too :)!

Wow!! Jordan said gum yun. ...thankful. I speak fluent Cantonese & would never think of using gum yun. Good for you Jordan!!!!! : )

You guys should watch some TVB dramas, it will help you get familiar with the tones and pronunciation 😊

Guys! I can't get enough of your videos! "Gau" made me laugh because, depending on your inflection, it can be 9, dog, old, or enough, and it never dawned on me until listening to you two ask about it.

I have enjoyed watching this video a lot! I am Cantonese from southern China, I teach Mandarin here in the UK. If you ask me to teach Cantonese, I wouldn't have a clue! I love speaking Cantonese, because it's my mother tongue. You guys are so nice, I wish I could speak Cantonese with you two. As for the fear from some Hong Hong people worrying Cantonese could die out, they might worry too much in a way. If you look at southern Chinese, we have spoken Cantonese and Cantonese like dialects(some village dialects) for a long time, we also learn Mandarin at school, like the the Hong Hong kids now. The southern Chinese people are not going to stop using their Cantonese and village dialects just because they learn Mandarin at school.It's like-- Why don't you worry about HK people speak more English instead of Chinese, because they have to learn/use English so much in schools in HK. I think the main complaint in Hong Kong is the politics, they have got used to the British way of democracy so much, they don't want to be under the thumb of the Chinese party. I don't know if you know that Cantonese people have a reputation of speaking Mandarin in a Cantonese accent. I am not proud of my Cantonese accent when I speak Mandarin. I try my best to prounounce the Mandarin tones better. I have found the young generation of Hong Kongers, their Mandarin pronounciations are so much better than the older generation. Anyway, I love all your videos!! Carry on to produce more! Good luck with your 2nd baby soon, hope everything will go well.

一碗細牛腩麵!! wow !! canto-speaker learning something new here =)

You guys mentioned about watching TVB as a way to learn cantonese. Maybe you guys could make a video about the type of show you guys like to watch? Any favourite HK celebs you follow? Have you guys visited HK?

nice video! keep making these please!

Hello, as a Cantonese speaker , i really appreciated you two learning Cantonese, and making these videos which are also beneficial to one who also want to learn Cantonese. It is a good way to use "yat1 wun2 sai3 ngaau3 naam4 min6" or simply to use "1 2 3 4 5 6" in Cantonese (easier to remember) to tune and improve the pronounciations.

To both - it's cool to see your efforts and your current skills. I can only recommend you guys to listen to an expert (or watch Canto vids) and have them repeat the tones including the start and endings slowly so you can hear how it sounds and repeat after them - you'll get the hang of it.. I'm able to understand (as to which words you want to say) both of you knowing how English speakers would pronounce Cantonese from that reference frame. Good luck. (Yes, right now, the dude is more accurate on tones on average, the girl tends to be more accurate on the starting and endings of the words. Just practice and practice.)

hi,i'm from Hong Kong. interesting vid! just wanna give a small advice to wife, when she said his mother it's like his paternal nana. appreciate wife's effort on learning canto, enjoy =]

I'm super intrigued by you guys. My aunt is Russian (100%) and she sounds exactly like you (the lady), it's actually eery - she now lives in China and is a teacher at some university in Beijing. The lady may not 'sound' like a HK person and not all your words are correct (yet I presume) but your cantonese is overall better. The best way to look at it is at even in the US or UK, there are large swathes of the indigenous population who have poor english

Just found your channel today! My husband speaks Toisan and I'm trying to get our little family (including our 3 and 2 yr olds) to learn Cantonese from my MIL. I speak Tagalog and my parents are teaching the kids that too. Hoping for some polyglot kids!!! Congrats on the new baby also!

Wow the vid is so clear! I should learn from you guys to use multiple camera and combine it next time @v@ 加油呀～

Hey you two, I do agree with Cherry that Jordan's Cantonese pronunciation is better than Steve's one. However, Steve knows more words than her - maybe because of his parents. Keep recording new videos, please. I really enjoy watching your videos. Really entertaining and quite educational :)

Just found out your channel today, u guys are awesome, I have to say Jordan's Cantonese is a bit better (again) LOL. saw another video about visiting the Pacific Mall, hope u guys will come visit again! oh ya, I'm from Hong Kong and living in Toronto. Keep up the good work!

LMAO idk why I'm looking at these Cantonese videos when I'm a Spanish speaker. Lol. I don't understand anything.

多謝晒! 佢係有幫助

The boy is better at the tones, while the girl is better at pronunciation (for instance the difference between "ch" and "c")

You guys are brave. Keep it up! Steve, I want to point out that it is much harder to correct then it is to learn; which is why I think Jordan has an advantage. With that said, here are four words for both of you to practice. 相信 and 郵箱 Have fun, I hope you can figure out why I chose these words.

my friend from hongkong taught me some Cantonese years ago , she taught me to counr in cantanese and I learned in under 5 minutes.

Thumbs up for both of you trying!!!LOL!!!! You know how athlete have muscle memories? Like watching Curry's 3 pointers??? Well, speaking Cantonese is the same. The tongue's muscle memories of pronunciation will always hinder some pronunciations. Try to have an Asian born immigrant pronounce red and lead or red rock roof. it's a challenge to some. Again, both speak well. Just Jordan, the wife? seem to be a little better because, as an HK'nese, I am impress of her trying to enunciate and is hitting the mark. Good Job!!! Whole yeah!!!

I died at the orange part. Thank you.

He sounds so much natural and he respects more the tones. Is not that he speaks bad Is just that he has kind of like an accent but I can understand him more

You guys are so cute!! Keep it up! You should visit Hong Kong when you get a chance!!! Ga Yao!!

I think Steve's Cantonese is a bit better than Jordan's; however, I think Steve's Cantonese is influenced by Taishanese (台山话). My parents are Taishanese so I kinda hear a bit of the accents from Steve. I am not sure if I am right but that's what I hear. Especially when the way he said "orange", I can totally tell he most probably is Taishanese. That is how they say organges (caang gwo). I do have to say Jordan's Cantonese is pretty good considering that she does not live in or live close by a Cantonese community. There is only a handful of foreigners (in comparision to Mandarin speaking foreigners) who are willing to learn Cantonese. Bravo, Jordan! Keep it up! And Steve is so nice to see you learning and speaking Cantonese because I see a lot of American born Chinese don't even bother to learn any Chinese. I am not nationalistic at all but I think it is good to learn another language and why not start with the language your parents speak. In my opinion some of the Mandarin speaking Chinese think Cantonese is a "lower class" dialect than Mandarin and some foreigners think Mandarin sounds better than the rough Cantonese dialect/language. I have to agree some of the Cantonese do speak roughly but so are some of the Mandarin who can speak roughly and loudly too. So I think it is the way that person was brought up and speaks. I heard some of the foreigners who tried to speak Cantonese and they emphesized so much on the endings "gala, ga, ah, etc" of each sentence that they kinda make the laugage sound rough and loud. I often tell them you speak like folks who work at a construction site... :) No offfens to those who work at a construction site. (My brother is one of those :) ) I am sorry your friend from Hong Kong may speak Cantonese correctly but she definitely does not know how to teach the tones. She bearly explained how the tones work. When asked how the tones goes up and down by using her gestures, she was pretending she knows the tones by moving her hands, which was totally incorrect. Here are the charts for the 6 tones. images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?p=cantonese+tones+chart&fr=yset_widemail_chr_win&imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fcantoneseeveryday.files.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F11%2Fe69caae591bde5908d2.jpg#id=3&iurl=https%3A%2F%2Fcantoneseeveryday.files.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F11%2Fe69caae591bde5908d2.jpg&action=click images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?p=cantonese+tones+chart&fr=yset_widemail_chr_win&imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fcantoneseeveryday.files.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F11%2Fe69caae591bde5908d2.jpg#id=8&iurl=http%3A%2F%2Fclevercantonese.files.wordpress.com%2F2013%2F04%2F6-tones-in-cantonese.png&action=click Singing the tones does help to identify the tones. I am still trying to master the tones.

Personally i think the difference of "L" and "N" as in "ni hao" is insignificant, even the local Hong Kong people don't pay attention to that (of coz the linguist or chinese professors do), so i guess you may omit it. There are tons of areas that you should pay attention to rather than this one! Actually I am Mr "Lee", and i guess even ppl pronounce it as "nee", I won't pay attention to it. But it should be noted that Hong Kong ppl tend to change N to L becoz of laziness, but not vice versa. Enjoyed the video, keep it up!

Cantonese is a very complicated language which is also not very systematic. I still remember how I learned my Cantonese/Chinese at kindergarten, elementary school and high school. During the period of kindergarten, we learned the pronunciations of some basic and easy words such as 好 (good), 我們 (We), 美麗 (Beautiful)...etc We also needed to practise the writing as well. As for the elementary school and high school, we had to do dictation of every chapter we learn from the text book. Of course, the teacher would also randomly pick some student to read those chapter out loud in the class. At High School, we basically need to do the same thing. Teacher never teach us the intonation of Cantonese because if he had to do it, we'd probably finish high school at 22/23 or even longer... I don't know XD

btw, "faan yik" means translation. i think Steve is trying to say pronunciation which is "faat yum"

you guys are such a cute couple!

Dude, come out to San Francisco's Chinatown--Cantonese speakers everywhere and we have like really good Cantonese food. Have you ever gone to yum cha?

Thank goodness, someone young actually gets the missing (lazy) nasal tone! That's one of the "missing" tones! Also, the back throat tone. Kind of like German.

I'm a bit confused. Apparently they are from the Detroit area, but then they show a video of the MR growing up in Markham. Did he study in Michigan and end up living there. Very rare for Canadians to go down to the States for school.

né or lé nai nai or lai lai Both are acceptable. Don't get too hung up on it. It's like "tree fiddy" vs "three fifty" lol. The above analogy is not quite perfect though because "tree fiddy" is ghetto whereas lé or lai lai is not looked upon the same way. Again, either one is ok. Personally, I use "l" and not "n" because the use of "l" seems to be more common even though "n" is the correct consonant if you want to get pedantic. Like I said, don't get too hung up on "l" or "n". Seriously. lol To the wife (sorry I don't know your names...), I often confuse doje and mmkoi (both "thank you") as well... haha! So, don't feel bad. Delightful video, btw. Thank you for sharing!

Do you guys ever plan to move to hk? c:

how u two know each other? is there a link or make a video??

"Nei" is definitely the right way. In recent years a lot of Cantonese speaking people picked up the "lazy" tone of "l". Even reporters on Tv use these "lazy" tones. Yes people understand the lazy tones because it is quite common now. To native speaker who grow up with proper Cantonese it is really hard to accept.

jordan looks like a white geo from jkproduction. yall are cute, keep them videos coming

Im laughing at the "orange "😂😂

but efforts good I appreciate.

Denasalization isn't "lazy" pronunciation. It's modern Cantonese. If someone tells you otherwise they are falling into a prescriptivist mindset which leads to goofy pronunciation. For example, modern cantonese has done away with "ng-" initials, however prescriptivism recommends to use ng initials so, "o5" is "ngo5". This fine however, it leads to hypercorrection where "ng" initials are added where they never were to begin with such as in "oi3" becoming "ngoi3".

Cherry is so cute

One more question: how/why did the girl pick up Cantonese so quickly?

When you learn English you don't really pay attention to tones. You just imitate and repeat. I say potatoes you say potatas. NaiNai is southern Chinese and Lai Lai is infused with Shanghainese or more central China accents. If you would refer to My Cousin Vinnie where the judge was flabbagasted by joe Pesci 's youse. For youths.

I was taking notes throughout the vid.... Nobody says 'çhaang2 gwo2' hehe... (chaang2 jap1) (OJ) is used though ;) Locals (HK locals) know very little about their language. Cause it is their mother tongue. My Chinese grammar is way stronger then my English grammar cause i had to learn it. 'Leih5 (you) is the way 98% of the population pronounce it. Even the word 'number', which locals have borrowed from English, they will say 'lum bar'. Even now when i speak English, just to mess around a bit, I will mix up 'l' and 'n'. English does vary too like you guys say. A lot of Americans will say VeHicle, and pronounce the H. In Australia, it is silent. If you want to learn the tones, the 'Çhinese husband' on cha mh do '(more or less/almost) 9:21 , the do1 is a high tones. His tone is excellent on this word and correct. Tones = 'sing1 diuh6' 1 =high flat 6 = low flat chat1 = seven (high flat) chaht6 (low flat) = ??? I dont know this word! (I purposely dont learn the bad words due to lack of interest). gau2 = dog gau2 = 9 (middle rising tone) (both are same tone but gau3 = enough (middle flat tone) cha1 (fork) = high flat (chah4) low falling tone (just a low tone is fine though i have found) When she says 'no h sound', the 'h'' sound is far softer than Steve is doing. But there is a slight 'h' sound. Otherwise 'caa' when you read in phonetics sounds like ' car' so for us native English speakers, the 'h 'sound is there but its far softer than what Steve is doing. Same as 'jung yi' (like), the 'j' is lighter. English grammar is a million times harder than Chinese. Cantonese will continue to decline in the States, GB and Australia, etc. In HK its as strong as ever. You only hear Cantonese on the streets (except the mainlanders). Also HK see themselves as different to the mainlanders, and their language helps set them apart. So Cantonese will always be strong in HK. Where as in time it will disappear in western countries, it will remain strong in HK. I dont know about southern China. Great vid!

in malaysia..our cantonese is a bit difference with HK

Cha is Toisan. Your Cantonese has some Toisan tonations.

They're almost the same, since she is a foreigner and he's an ABC. Both have accent and will be exposed in HK immediately by Hong Kong people.

what correct

The man's Cantonese is better.

native cantonese speaker here... his intonation is better but he tends to speak without pauses between words she is better pronunciation-wise

The tonation difference (missing) is not the same as different "dialects" of English in America.

Definitely nei is the correct pronunciation, lei is just people don't want to pronounce the n sound cause n sound is harder to be pronounced. I actually hate people using lei, doesn't sound great at all.

We Cantonese always say n to l, nai nai > lai lai. Nai nai is right but we Cantonese will pronunciation lai lai

Cantonese has many dialects. u steven r speaking the Toisan dialect with an ABC accent. Jordan is speaking more of the Cantonese Hong Kong dialect.

In my point of view, the "tone" in English is not exactly equal to 聲調 in Chinese. Tone can be equivalent to 調 only. We have to understand the exact meaning or definition of 聲調. And I insist that Cantonese has nine 聲調, not six tones. You can use the numbers 394052786 (saam1 gau2 sei3 ling4 ng5 ji6 cat1 baat3 luk6) to get the feeling first. Then put in any sounds to the first six tones, say the sound si. You can easily speak the six tones of 詩 史 試 時 市 是. In musical point of view, Cantonese has only 4 tones!

Even though your friend insists that there are no L sounds, only N sounds, she still pronounces beef stomach with a pretty hard L.

This is a good website that has recordings of the Cantonese pronunciation of all words: humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/pho-rel.php?initial=c&final=aang&tone= for example "Orange" = "caang2" Also if interested, I have a Twitter account for random Chinese/Cantonese words: (@random_chinese): twitter.com/random_chinese?s=09 I'm a CBC (Canadian born Chinese), so my Chinese isn't prefect either, but was able to learn in Vancouver which has a large Chinese population. Good luck in your learning!

This is why 廣東話好難 LOL Nice Chinglishh

Head vs hat; foot vs food; live vs life; bet vs bat; etc. are hopeless for most Cantonese to pronounce. Also, since Cantonese is not a phonetic dialect/language (depending on who you ask), the consonants of "L" and "N" are quite interchangeable to most cantos. Hong Kong authorities have been trying to standardize the pronunciations of most words but have encountered huge backlash due to various reasons.

'Ne hoi sum gum yut = U have a good day', is probably closest. but yeah you wouldn't really use it normally.

yes ,nei or lei it is problems

Bring the American wife shopping in Chinatown , and eating more dim sum in restaurants so that she can practice more Cantonese!

...

hahaha, nobody says tsang-go for orange, it's like saying "orange fruit", they just say orange.

I guess Cherry didn't know what 'cha gor (茶果)'

The Cantonese dialect does not use any words that sound like L....curling of the tongue. For example, that's why a Cantonese speaking person has trouble saying street.

So why did you choose to learn cantonese instead of mandarin?

Most people use "leih"

Practice,p,p,p,p,practice only would make perfect for Cantonese.

Lai Lai ? Nai Nai means Grandma in Mandarin

5:04 Don't believe what everybody says on KZfaq. LOL

There goes the N and L sound...LOL.I tell you definately NAY （you）and NAI NAI（mother in law）are lazy pronounciations，in Canton(Guangzhou) most of the people pronounces LAY and LAI LAI...but Hong Kong people have a lot lazy sound in Cantonese, why is it lazy sound? Which one you think open your mouth wider and use your tougue harder? Though it's just different habits not about correct or not any more. Love ur videos!

7 and 9 said in wrong tone in cantonese is a vulgar swear word equivalent to co*k/d*ck in English. Even though it can be used to describe someone who is "silly" or when they do something silly, it is a swear word and not just a rude word as your friend describes.

I guess Cherry didn't know what 'cha gor (茶果)' is because of her age. Cherry is correct, "奶奶''、你' should be pronounced with 'n' sound. The last name of Lee'李' is with 'l' sound. Why people can't pronounce well? It's because many young people didn't know they pronounced words incorrectly. Another reason is teacher don't teacher students the correct pronunciation even the teacher who has lazy sound

that was difficult to watch, plus did Jordy put Lipstick on you? color of your lips was bright! LOL