dklyde

certainly not an easy language to learn for a beginning

there's a pretty good video on common cantonese phrases

http://www.geobeats.com/videoclips/c...-local-phrases

rkkwan

Not too bad for Cantonese, but Number 6 "gow meng ah" is not "help". It means "save my life" and should be only be used in life-threatening situation. Like if you fall into Victoria Harbor and don't know how to swim; or you are trapped in a burning building.

Also, Number 8 is unnecessary. When we say "goodbye" in Hong Kong, we say "bye bye". We also hardly use terms like "good afternoon" or "good evening"; no need to learn those. Just use "lei ho" is fine.

One problem that many people learning Cantonese have is "Thank you". There are two totally separate phrases in Cantonese. When someone give you a gift, you say "dor je"; when someone help you with something, you say "ng goi".

easytraveler

rkkwan: Not being a native Cantonese speaker, it still appeared that her tones were off, too.

It appears that in a moment of excitement and with fractured pronunciation and the wrong tones, "Help!" could turn out to be "dog's name is..." LOL!

Sorry, I just have this weird sense of humor about Chinese tones. Grew up in a family that was constantly making word jokes.

rkkwan

Yes, her tones are off. But if she comes up to me in Hong Kong and uses those phrases, I can figure out what she's trying to say. Meaning, it's good enough.

DAX

Bookmarking.

Great thread for me as I did 32 sessions of Chinese class a couple years ago and I'm surprised that I still recognize all the words being discussed here. I hope to go back into learning it again someday.

Leburta

I'm fifth generation Chinese American and don't believe that there are really Chinese phrases for "is it free" or "lower the price". Chinese? Nah, non-existent!

Shanghainese

Leburta -- you need them when you travel in China, or you can resort to the universal body language!

Leburta

What I meant was that we Chinese don't give anything away free, do we?

travelinphotog

Personally, I went far with learning how to say "beautiful." It makes the locals smile when you complement their country. My pronounciation of it sounds like Pee-ow-li-ang. I used it quite a bit while over there. Also, learning to count. When we would do photos or ask someone to take our picture and I would count yi,er,sahn (1-2-3) people would smile.

ggreen

travelinphotog, I found the same thing with yi, er, sahn - only it was a disadvantage, because the photo-taker would find it so surprising and funny they couldn't hold the camera still!

easytraveler

Leburta: If you're fifth generation that means your folks came over about 1900 or before.

Also your knowledge of the Chinese language is, shall we say, very strange.

I must conclude that your knowledge of what is Chinese and what is China is either very ancient or very incomplete.

Why not go to China on a trip and find out for yourself whether or not they have phrases that mean "lower the price" and whether they are of the mentality of "not giving anything away".

There's nothing like personal knowledge, which is what most people on this board are sharing, to substitute for broad generalizations covering 1/4 of the world's population.

Shanghainese

Leburta -- well, hopefully the tea at restaurants is still free.

My non-chinese speaking DH likes to use the modifier + prefix that Cicerone mentioned. Popular ones start with "hao" + xxx, Hao Kan (4) = good looking, Hao Chi (1) = tasty, Hao Ting (1) = good sounding, Hao Wan (2) = entertaining, Hao Guai (1) = well behaved, Hao Kuai (4) = it's fast, Hao Man (4) = it's slow, Hao Re (4) = it's hot, Hao Leng (3) = it's cold, Hao Ren (2) = good person, Hao Dongxi (1,1) = good item and Bu Hao = no good or not good. He even learned to say them in shanghainese!

baaj

Cheers shanghainese!

Hao qingchu!

Leburta

I"m being facetious. But you are right, easytraveller, I am far removed from the mother country in distance and culture. I have been to Hong Kong many, many times, but to other parts of China (and my home village) only twice.

While my paternal grandmother only spoke Chinese, the village dialect is not a common spoken one, so even my limited Chinese is not useful except among family and those from the village. I took Mandarin in college, but have never mastered the spoken language, so I hope to study it seriously enough to communicate in future. After all, there are millions of us Changs in the world and we all call each other "cousins"!

DAX

Perhaps some of you can clarify:
Is it true that Chang and Chen are actually the same last name in chinese character but just pronounced differently due to regional dialect? I surmised it's the same with Wong & Wang.

rkkwan

Not necessarily. Chan and Chen are usually the same last name. Chang can be the same as Zhang (mainland China spelling) and Cheung (Hong Kong), etc.

Wong (Hong Kong) can be two different last names. One is the same as Wang in mainland China and Taiwan. The other is the same as Huang (China).

Shanghainese

And Chen can be Zhen, Cheng, Zheng, Tseng ...... and more

DAX

Thanks for the explanations.
I remember going to a fancy chinese restaurant saying to the well dressed middle aged hostess who seated us: Ta chieh hen piao liang. She smiled and turned completely red!

Someday I hope to learn more chinese before going to Shanghai & Beijing. It's memorizing those characters that made me give up.

easytraveler

Leburta: Thanks for the explanation!

I'd hazard a guess that your grandmother spoke a version of "sze yip" dialect of Cantonese.

Yes, please do visit China sometime and I wish you a happy journey of discovery there! Good luck too with your Mandarin studies!

Leburta

easytraveller:

I believe so, although my brother, who posts on the Fodor's forums as "pakeporkchop" is our family Chinese expert. We speak a dialect call Sam Heong.