My New Cantonese Blog
I always find language learner’s materials artificial and boring. I always want to access real-life contents in the languages I am learning.
There are of course a lot of real-life contents I can find today, especially on the Internet. However, most of them are either in written forms, or only available in audio or video format. Sometimes, I can find audio with someone reading some texts. As far as transcripts of real-life conversations are concerned, there are just not many of them around. At one point in time, I was so frustrated that I wanted to hire someone to transcribe for me. But then I figured out it could be quite expensive to do so.
What can I do? May be I will start by providing transcripts for learners in languages I am fluent in. Perhaps I will start with Cantonese first, which is my mother tongue.
So here it is. Ladies and Gentlemen … my new blog dedicated to all lovers (and potential lovers) of the Cantonese language: Cantophilia.
It could be that I am spawning this new blog out of my own frustration due to the lack of Cantonese transcripts out there. It could be that I am not happy with the fact that no Cantonese speaker is doing it. In fact, I can find only find 2 websites containing Cantonese transcripts, one from Milan and another from Marcelo, both are learners of the language. Where are the native-speakers?! (Besides their Cantonese friends who did the transcripts behind the scene of course).
My main reason of creating the blog though, is that I want to promote my own language. I already have this in mind for a while. Finally, I am putting it into action.
Tower of Confusion is still going to be my primary blog for language learning and multiculturalism. I still have a lot to talk about on these topics.
November 25th, 2007 at 2:52 am
I have bookmarked your Cantophillia site.
November 25th, 2007 at 6:16 am
Edwin,
When I was in California, I used to get the International Channel. On there I could watch a program from Vancouver, BC that had music videos in Cantonese and Mandarin. The women singers had such beautiful voices. I just loved to listen to them. But I didn’t write down any names and now I don’t know how to find those beautiful voices again.
Do you know how a guy could find those songs?
November 25th, 2007 at 8:15 am
Thanks Keith.
The HK Music industry has been going downhill since the last 90’s. Since then the life-cycles of the pop songs has become very short. Apart from some outstanding ones, most songs only last for a few months if not a few weeks. And some mediocre singers might not last long either.
I guess you can start by googling “HK Pop” and find those sites with the pictures of the singers. If you can identify the singers, you can narrow down the search.
November 26th, 2007 at 11:24 pm
Edwin, I love your Cantonese blog. The transcripts are good, however, you occassionally make some tone and pronunication mistakes in your jyutping.
The good thing with your transcripts is that they are authentic. I particurly like the news script. Lots of new words for me.
Thanks Very Much. Saves me work.
November 26th, 2007 at 11:34 pm
Milan, thanks for going through the transcripts. Please post comments to the posts and let me know where the typos are. Thanks!
December 15th, 2007 at 5:39 pm
very interesting, but I don’t agree with you
Idetrorce
December 15th, 2007 at 5:48 pm
On what?