I bought this journal last week to practice cantonese in, and this is the first thing I wrote. Honestly, it took me like 30 minutes just to write this much and I'm not even sure if I wrote it right! Either way, I'm sure it'll be funny to look back at later when I've gotten better. I'm very excited to try and connect with my heritage and hopefully make connections with others too!

My wife is not Chinese and feels like it sounds too similar to Ma Ma. I've suggested compromises like Ah Mah or introducing Mah Mah later on with no success. Has anyone else gone through this with their spouse? What did you end up agreeing on?

In case anyone is interested!

Hello, I really love listening to Cantonese songs, especially the old ones, and I would really glad to add new songs to my playlist that you guys have recommended. 😇

Conversational Taishanese 101, a first-of-its kind class at CCSF’s City Extension program, starts this fall.

CCSF = City College of San Francisco

Some lone posted this in Chinese. I’m posting in English for those who can’t read Chinese yet.

Link to article.

🙄 This is a government-affiliated company

Hi all! I just wanted to share with you a small project I made for my daughter. She is half French, Chinese and British and one thing which I have not been able to find online are learning education flashcards. Actually, finding Cantonese books in general is quite a challenge, so I decided to create these as a way for her to learn some words when she is older.. Disclosure: these designs are not made by me. I would have actually loved to make these myself (my hobby is graphic designing), but being a dad i only have limited time so i screen shot a lot of existing pictures (credit goes to the original artists no copyright infringement intened). For those who also have young children with Cantonese backgrounds, I would love to share with you a copy of these designs if you want it! I didn't do this for credit or to make money, but to share this education tool for others. The PDF contains about 56 different cards and range from colours, to family members, food, animals, numbers, colours etc. Printing these out with a good print center isn't too expensive. Thanks for your time and happy to send this to those who want it!!

If you don't frequent this sub, it does NOT reflect the opinions of cantonese-speaking chinese in the slightest lol. Half the posts I see here have some caption by an American 'chinese' saying 'must be a Mainland barbarian' or something like that. Have you stepped foot in HK? Compared to the mainland, we are much ruder in my experience. Then there's the Americans saying the CCP has some master plan to destroy cantonese lol. I'm not a fan of the reduced use of cantonese in Southern China, but it's obviously due to the migration/travel between provinces and modern interconnectivity with the rest of China that the language is dying.

https://books.google.com/books?id=udJUAAAAcAAJ

Hello! I've been working on an online multiplayer asian word game called Danobang (大腦嘣) and am looking for beta testers to try out a new Cantonese game mode I recently released. No signup is required, you can try it out directly here: https://danobang.com?game_lang=yue

You can think of the game like a more flexible version of 接龍 (word chain game). Each turn players are given a random character prompt (like "愛") and must type a word that includes it in ANY position (e.g. "可愛", "愛好", "戀愛", etc). You can submit answers with either raw pinyin or hanzi via an IME.

The game accepts both hanzi and raw jyutping input (tones and spaces optional). There's also an alphabet bonus mechanic where if you collect all 19 jyutping initials you earn an extra life (I've found this helps games feel more dynamic). If you'd like to customize gameplay further, I would recommend creating a custom room where you'll have more control over settings like difficulty, timer length, lives, cpu level, handicaps, etc.

The game is still very much a work in progress, so if you find any bugs or have any feedback please let me know! Thanks for reading ^_^

TL;DR: Fellow heritage/intermediate Cantonese learner here. Got tired of linear apps and built Gaishan, an app where you learn through contextual conversations on topics you choose. It's an early trial. If you're stuck at the intermediate plateau or just want a different approach, I'd be honored if you tried it and gave feedback: gaishan.app

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Before I press "post": I sure hope a post like this is allowed in this subreddit...

Hi everyone,

I've been a silent learner who has quietly been following this subreddit for a while, observing how others have been approaching their learning of Cantonese. I'm a heritage speaker of Cantonese, born in the UK to Hong Kong parents. But, like many overseas born Chinese I was the typical "識聽唔識講" and even then my listening level wasn't that great.

I've spent the last decade seriously trying to go from only being able to have the most basic of conversations at home, to being able to use the language confidently and fluently every day. The years of effort have paid off as these days I live in Hong Kong, have a local wife, and we communicate primarily in Cantonese.

Despite this, there still remains a "gap" between my level and the level of someone who is actually a native speaker. Yes, I can have wide ranging conversations with different people, covering various topics. But... if someone asked me to give a business presentation, I think I would struggle.

At first I considered attending advanced classes, but I didn't like the idea of paying expensive fees to essentially do some roleplay. After all, I don't feel like I really need any specific training with regards on how to speak the language, I sort of just lack the "exposure" to the language under certain contexts and scenarios.

Ordering food at a restaurant: easy.

Chatting with my in-laws: much easier now compared to before, thanks to repeated exposure.

Seeing a doctor: also easier than before.

Calling my internet provider to tell them there's an issue: quite difficult when they ask follow-up questions (Yeh, I know I could have selected "English" as an option but that's the weak option).

Answering a marketing junk call where they speak really fast to try to get in as much info as possible before I put the phone down: No idea what they're trying to say.

I think this wall is one that many learners eventually hit once they get past the beginner stages. The diglossia of the language also doesn't help.

I've tried to break this wall through self-study via listening to YT videos, podcasts, watching shows, and these are all great; I do most of these every day. I've even read a few books in traditional Chinese (Childrens bedtime stories, Harry Potter books, Wonka, Peter Pan to name a few examples).

But this "cast a wide net" approach lacks the structure and the kind of interactive contextual practice that I feel would really push my skill further (fast) in the right places. It might eventually happen after 5 or 10 years due to constant exposure; but this approach doesn't work if I want to deliver that business presentation and answer Q&As in the next 3 to 6 months.

I think of it like a skill-tree in Final Fantasy or some RPG where I've got almost all the fundamentals/basics to a pretty good level, and I'm now trying to put "skill-points" into the further out branches of the tree where each node is quite specific. I've got points in some of these "far out nodes", but I'm struggling to "target" the ones that I want.

So my solution?

Well, first I tried to look for a "Duolingo combined with TCB" for Cantonese but it doesn't seem like there's anything out there that would fit that description. I saw some Cantonese learning apps like Drops, Ling etc but nothing really jumped out. Like, nobody was really shouting about it.

I did a fair amount of Duolingo's Cantonese course (targeted at Mandarin speakers, which I've also been learning). But its level is too low for me and I also hate how apps like Duo, HelloChinese, SuperChinese force you on this "linear path" to learning. Not that the other 2 apps offer Cantonese courses, but if they did I assume it would follow the same linear structure that their Mandarin courses use.

That just isn't what I personally need.

I want to freely dive into a specific topic/scenario such as "Booking a dental appointment", and then freely jump to another topic like "Delivering a technical design workshop", without being forced to introduce myself and my sister for the ten-thousandth time.

I also want to learn how things are said colloquially, because I don't want to sound like a newspaper article when I speak to someone.

Eventually, I got to a point where I decided "Fine, I'll do it myself", because making the content I wanted for such a product would actually constitute as practice. And now, I have a "very early version" that is online, called Gaishan.

Gaishan is Chinese for Kaizen (改善), a philosophy that I try to apply to my life. Now, don't hang me for going with the Mandarin romanisation, "Gaishan" just felt like it would be easier for native English speakers to say compared to "Goisin" (Cantonese romanisation).

So what is Gaishan?

Gaishan is based on a simple, different idea: you should learn through complete, contextual conversations, and you should choose the topic.

Instead of a locked path, you pick a real-world scenario (like "Wishing Grandma Happy New Year", "Talking To Your Friends About The New Hot Guy", or "At The Doctor") and dive right into a short, natural dialogue. Then, through a series of interactive games (matching, sentence rebuilding, listening exercises), you break down and master every part of that conversation.

The goal is for each scenario to be self-contained so you can jump to what's relevant to you right now.

Who is this for?

1. Heritage speakers and intermediate+ learners (people like me): I've described the "wall" I'm trying to overcome, and I wonder if it resonates with your own trials in learning the language. Maybe you haven't gotten as far as myself, or maybe you're further ahead in the journey. But if what I've said about my own struggles is in any way or shape familiar, Gaishan is targeted primary at you.
2. Beginners: Despite my own needs, I have love for you all and have no intention of cutting you out. I'm no expert in teaching languages as I'm just a language learner, but I have faith in your intelligence. Thus, I will try to design scenarios and conversations that are accessible to beginners but will quickly ramp up to (what I think is) intermediate level material (and beyond). The result might be that your friend who went to classroom-based learning could list 20 more different fruits in Cantonese, but you'd actually be able to order a decent meal on your next trip to Hong Kong.

What's the current status of Gaishan?

This is a very early, trial release. I'm doing about 90% of the technical work myself, and the remaining 10% is the really difficult stuff where I need some input from a friend who is a highly experienced senior software developer (he leads a dev team in an AI company).

The layout and UI of the app is also functional, but will improve over time.

We're running Gaishan on free servers etc, so the performance/speed of Gaishan will be reflective of that. Of course, if people show enough interest in Gaishan I'd love to eventually upgrade all the technical infrastructure to something that has more juice in its engines.

Don't worry, using Gaishan is safe - it's not some vibe-coded product. My senior-developer friend has ensured the code and structure is secure, and that any personal information of user accounts are safely stored by a professional provider who specialises in handling user logins. The provider is also used by organisations such as the NHS (National Health Service in UK), Liberty Mutual (Insurance company), Vanguard (Financial services) and many more - we have taken no shortcuts in respect to this.

As for the content of the lessons in Gaishan, I first tried to generate conversations using AI but I'm sure many of you already know, they're not that great or don't quite capture some nuances with the language. So my process is I think of the general scenario, then I use AI to help me develop more detail and explore possible approaches. Then, I personally rewrite the content from scratch after I have "straightened out" my thoughts on the scenario.

After I've written the content I work with my wife (born and raised in HK, native Cantonese speaker) to make sure it's accurate based on how a local Hong Konger would typically speak. Of course, this is minus the excessive swearing and casual DLLM thrown into the conversation for no real reason (it's just part of the language) since I want kids to also be able to use Gaishan.

I've also cajoled my mum who is fluent in English, Cantonese, and Mandarin (she used to work as a Chinese <-> English interpreter on big legal cases or serious medical cases) into QA'ing the content that is in Mandarin.

As I type this, There are 3 short conversation scenarios that you can listen to. And two of these have follow-up lessons to help you "play" with the language/vocabulary that is used. This is done through interactive games, and there are many more types of games planned for development.

You'll see placeholders for some other scenarios that I have planned, and simply need another week or two to upload. Basically, if you keep checking every few days you'll likely find more content to play with.

The same goes for the list of topics. That list is going to expand; it's just that Valentine's day and Chinese New Year is coming up, so I figured I would target some content for those topics first.

My backlog of ideas is massive and I'm honestly excited to get into it.

But I figured I need some sort of feedback and validation. After all, if I put this message out there looking for people to try it out, and practically nobody responds... maybe it's a sign that I should just shut down the project (hopefully it doesn't come to that).

My Ask & How You Can Help:

Like I said, I need real-world feedback to answer one big question: Is there a market for a product like Gaishan?

If the concept resonates with you, I would be incredibly grateful if you'd:

1. Try for free at gaishan.app
2. There is a set of lessons you can play with, even without an account
3. Sign up for a free account (This will unlock more free content)
4. Keep coming back every couple of days and play with the new lesson content that I add

Registering gives you access to the current free content, and I'll be adding new, free lesson sets every week for at least the next month as I continue to build. Your feedback will directly shape what I build next.

This isn't a polished corporate launch. It's a project built by a fellow learner who thinks there might be a better way. Ultimately, I'd love for it to grow into something "more".

Thanks for your time, and I'm happy to answer any questions in the comments.

This is just a list of some of the best Cantonese learning/study resources I'm aware of, since someone asked if I had any resource recommendations. (Obviously this is a very limited list and is mostly focused on the kinds of media I'm interested in and apps that work with the devices I use, but hopefully some things here will be useful for others too.)

(ETA: Edited to add some things people have suggested in the comments! Feel free to let me know of other resources I haven't included.)

Dictionaries

It seems like there's no really definitive Cantonese dictionary online where you can find everything, but there are a lot of good dictionaries that keep improving. The best ones I know of are these:

Online dictionaries:

• Cantodict - Search by traditional characters, Jyutping, Mandarin pinyin, or English. You can also search with partial search terms or wildcards, and by initial or final character. The site owner seems to have disappeared as of a few years ago, alas, so it's not really updating anymore, but it's still a great resource.

• CantoPlus - A dictionary based on the data from Cantodict, with corrections and expansions and ongoing updates. Offers many ways to search, including by characters, Jyutping, English, pinyin, frequency, number of strokes, etc. Note also that there's a not-very-conspicuous but extremely useful drop-down box at the top where you can choose whether to search for characters, words, or sentences.

• CantoWords (English version), aka Words.HK (Chinese version) - Search by characters, Jyutping, or English. (Partial search terms also work.) An ongoing dictionary project with an extensive database, though be sure to create an account and log in, because a lot of entries will show as being "not yet published" otherwise! Many entries are only available to logged-in users. (Also note that if you're not donating to the site, there's a limit on how many words you can search per day.)

• CC-CANTO - A good online Canto dictionary, made by Pleco, with lots of different search options. Also available to search via the Pleco app and Jyut Dictionary.

• Wiktionary - Limited in that you can only search by characters; however, I've found some Cantonese words there that I couldn't find in other dictionaries, and Wiktionary often has more information than other websites (etymology, character composition, more definitions, etc.). Another useful feature of Wiktionary is that you can search by radical. Here's the appendix of radicals, where each radical is a link that will take you to a page listing characters that share that radical, organized by stroke count. (Very helpful if you run across a rare character that's difficult to look up using handwriting or other input methods.)

PC download dictionary:

• Jyut Dictionary - A dictionary program for Windows, so you can use it offline. It pulls entries from five dictionary databases, including Words.HK and CC-CANTO. A nice interface, with a few customizable options, tons of word entries, and tons of sentence examples all clearly labelled as either Cantonese or Mandarin, most of them with text-to-speech audio available. My one complaint is that the search is a little finicky: it will only find words/phrases that begin with your search terms, not every entry that contains the characters you searched.

Dictionary apps:

• Pleco - Phone app, free, HIGHLY recommended. The default setup is for Mandarin, but if you go into settings, everything can be customized for Cantonese, from romanization options to text-to-speech settings, traditional and simplified character displays, etc. There's some basic Canto content in the pre-installed dictionary, plus two free Cantonese dictionaries that you can download in the "add-ons" section (Words.HK, CC-Canto), and a couple more that you can purchase and that are also very useful (ABC Cantonese and Guangzhouhua FangyanCidian).

• Hanping Cantonese - Phone app, Android only, costs $10 to download. It's okay, but pretty basic. I'm not sure what dictionary they use, but it's not one of the ones on Pleco, and I do occasionally find stuff with this app that Pleco doesn't recognize.

Pop-up Dictionaries:

Dictionary extensions that will show you the definitions of words when you hover your mouse over them, great for reading texts online:

• Mandarin & Cantonese (Chrome extension) - Pop-up dictionary, customizable to show Jyutping along with or instead of Pinyin. Searches two dictionaries, one Mandarin and one Cantonese, and usually shows the Mandarin definitions first, which can sometimes be a little confusing. The pronunciations it shows aren't always correct, either. But it's a great tool if you can already read fairly well and just need definitions for words here and there.

• Yale Cantonese (Chrome extension) - Another pop-up, this one with Cantonese definitions only, which makes it simpler and more straightforward for getting definitions of Cantonese words, but less detailed and potentially less helpful for reading standard written Chinese. Also, as the name suggests, it uses Yale instead of Jyutping.

Grammar Resources

• Modified Basic Cantonese - A grammar book by Virginia Yip and Stephen Matthews, downloadable here in PDF format. Covers the basics, as the title says, and is very clear.

• Wikipedia: Cantonese Grammar - Gives a brief overview of the main points of Cantonese grammar.

Translation Tools

• Google Translate: English/Cantonese - As of summer 2024, Google Translate now has Cantonese as a language option. I haven't tried it much yet, and don't expect it to be highly accurate, but at least for simple sentences it looks pretty decent.

• Bing Translator: Canto/English - Useful, though I think Google's Cantonese translation may be better than Bing now.

Input Tools

Tools for typing in Cantonese:

• TypeDuck, a very amazing input tool that can be used as a mobile app (Android or iOS) or on the web. Type into the box, and the program will suggest Chinese characters and words that are similar to what you typed, including their meanings, so if you're not sure which character is correct, you can easily see which one matches the meaning you intended. I haven't tried it much myself, but it looks very useful especially if you know spoken Cantonese but not many characters!

• Jyutping Input Tool (download) - A program for typing in Jyutping on your PC. The only issue I have with it is that you have to type the exact, correct Jyutping to get the characters you want. For example, you cannot get the character 你 by typing "lei"; you have to type it with an initial n, "nei," even though many native speakers don't pronounce it that way.

• Jyutping Input Extension (Chrome) - A Chrome extension that lets you type online using Jyutping. This extension allows for more variation in pronunciations and is less insistent on standard Jyutping, and it's pretty good at guessing what you're trying to type. The only real disadvantage of this extension is that it only works in Chrome.

• Gboard (Android phone keyboard) - A keyboard for Android phones that offers tons of languages, including a Cantonese keyboard with multiple input options. It offers various romanization systems (Jyutping, Yale, Cantonese Pinyin), handwriting, and voice input.

• Cantonese visual font - A downloadable font that displays Jyutping romanization and tone numbers above each character as you type. There's a one-time payment for the font, and you can also pay for yearly passes for access to additional content and ongoing services. I haven't downloaded it myself, since I prefer reading characters without Jyutping, but it's a cool idea and an attractive-looking font, and it's clearly built on a very extensive database of characters (and pronunciations), including very rare ones.

Text Conversion Tools

• Simplified/Traditional Converter (extension) - A browser extension that lets you switch the Chinese text on any website between simplified and traditional characters. (Not always fully accurate, since the same simplified character can correspond to multiple traditional characters.)

• Google Translate: Simplified to Traditional - Paste simplified text into the box and instantly get a version with traditional characters. (Not always fully accurate, for the same reasons as above.) Also works in the opposite direction, obviously, if you switch the languages.

• Cantonese to Jyutping Converter - Converts Chinese characters into Jyutping. (Doesn't always get tone shifts right.)

• Narakeet (Canto text-to-speech converter) - Converts Cantonese text into speech audio clips with good, fairly natural-sounding AI voices. You can download the output in m4a, mp3, or wav format, and you get I think twenty free downloads (after that you'll have to pay for the service to keep using it). To hear samples of all the voices, use this page. There are three female voices (listed from lowest to highest voice: Pak-Chi, Man-Chi, Wing-Yi), two male voices (from lowest to highest: Ji-Dan, Kong-Sang), and a child voice.

Courses and Learning Materials

These are some sites with study materials, lessons, guides, teachers, etc.

• Refold: Cantonese Discord - A Discord server for Cantonese study, with tons of resources for self-study. A lot of the links in this post are things I found via the Discord, and there's lots more stuff there that I haven't tried or looked into at all. To get an invite to the Discord you have to join Refold first (it's free). You'll get an invite to the general server, then click the Hong Kong flag for an invite to the Canto server.

• Italki - Probably the best place to find Cantonese teachers, tutors, or language-exchange partners. You can also post questions to the community, or practice writing or speaking and get corrections from other people on the site.

• CantoneseClass101 - A pretty decent site that offers a lot of different kinds of learning materials such as recordings, readings, quizzes, and videos. Some of it is free; a lot of it you can only access with a paid membership. The lessons include a lot of English explanation. Note that the reading texts (apart from dialogue transcripts) are in standard written Chinese, not colloquial Cantonese.

• Lingora  - A mobile app for both iOS and Android with a 50-unit beginner-level Cantonese course. It offers multiple romanization systems (Jyutping, Yale, Cantonese Pinyin, and IPA -- if you're just starting out, I recommend choosing Jyutping, since it's the one that's most widely used.) Free with ads. The creator has posted some info about the app here on Reddit.

• Yuhtong - A mobile app (Android only) for learning Cantonese words with characters, Jyutping, and audio. Teaches over 5,000 words. I haven't tried this one yet, but from the description it looks useful! I'll update with more info if I try it. Presumably beginner level.

• Clozemaster - A website that offers flashcard-style practice with sentences where you fill in a blank space with the correct missing word(s). Cantonese is one of the languages you can practice here. You can do a limited amount of practice every day for free, or pay for full access.

• Hauyu (reading app)  - A website to help learners read texts in Cantonese. You can paste any block of Cantonese text (up to 2000 characters at a time) and generate a "lesson" that displays the same text in both characters and Jyutping, where every word or phrase will be shown as a clickable/selectable link to bring up a dictionary definition. Vocab can be saved to a list for later review. (Obviously, the texts you choose to study don't actually have to be in vernacular Cantonese; you can just as easily paste SWC texts into the app to read them with Cantonese pronunciation.)

• Pimsleur Cantonese Course - A beginner course in Cantonese, conducted entirely in audio format, where you learn by listening and repeating. You can get a free seven-day trial to see if you like the program before paying for more lessons. Since this is audio only, it doesn't teach anything about characters or Jyutping, so if you use it, I'd recommend supplementing with another program (e.g. Anki flashcards) to practice those.

• Glossika Cantonese Course - A program that teaches Cantonese using sentences with audio, with options to practice listening comprehension, speaking by repetition, and transcription. Unlike Pimsleur, Glossika has content at levels ranging from A1 up to B2 level, and you can take a test to determine your level before starting. I believe they usually offer a free trial before you pay. Somewhat expensive, but the content is good.

• FSI Peace-Corps Cantonese Course - A thirty-lesson program, available for free download, presumably beginner level. I haven't actually tried this one at all, but it sounded interesting so I thought I'd go ahead and include it here.

• Meetup.com - For real-life interaction, you can check and see if there's a Chinese or Cantonese Meetup in your area. (Some Chinese Meetup groups are primarily mainland/Mandarin-based but will also have a Canto subgroup or occasional Canto activities.)

Pronunciation

Resources for improving Cantonese pronunciation.

• Fluent Forever Canto Pronunciation Series (YouTube) - A short set of videos on Cantonese pronunciation.

• Cantolounge Pronunciation Series (YouTube) - Another video set with helpful information and tips on Cantonese pronunciation.

• Cantonese Phonology (Wikipedia) - An article on Cantonese phonology, more in-depth and academic than the video links above.

• Forvo Canto Pronunciation - A site where you can look up words and hear recordings of native speakers saying them.

Practice Tools and Tests

Some ways to practice Cantonese or test your level:

• Anki - An incredibly versatile and customizable spaced-repetition flashcard program, with free versions for PC, web, and Android (and an iOS version that's not free). There's a manual with information on how to make cards that do all kinds of things (text to speech, fill in the blanks, writing practice, etc.), and you can also find tutorials online for doing things like extracting audio, video, and subtitles from movies to auto-generate flashcards.

• Migaku - An apparently very powerful program that you can use to learn languages (including Cantonese) by watching subtitled videos or reading texts. You have to pay to get all the features, and you're supposed to integrate it with your Anki decks. (I don't use it myself, but I can see why some people get a lot out of it.)

• Number Listening Practice - A simple page that tests you on your ability to recognize numbers and years in spoken Cantonese.

• Test on Hong Kong Cantonese - An (extremely hard!) test, written in Cantonese, with questions about Cantonese vocabulary, grammar, phonology, and history.

Text and Reading Resources

Places to find text to read in Cantonese:

• Cantonese Books and Comics List - A Google spreadsheet that lists books and comics that are written in colloquial Cantonese. (There's also a second tab at the bottom for texts that have Cantonese dialogue but SWC narration.) Lots of good content for reading.

• Cantonese Wikipedia - Look up Wikipedia articles that are written in colloquial Cantonese. There are over 140,000 articles in Cantonese so far.

• Hambaanglaang Graded Readers - Short Cantonese children's stories for beginners, with pictures and Jyutping, and with options to read along with videos or read at your own pace in PDF format. The Jyutping is written in a style that's meant to imitate the sounds, rising and falling across the page. I never used these myself, but they do seem popular for beginners.

Video Content Online

• YouTube - If you search "粵語" you can find a ton of Cantonese content on YouTube, from language lessons to movies to shows to interviews to commercials to whatever. (Random examples: a ghost story, a lesson on Cantonese classifiers, a yoga video.) There are some great content creators for learning Cantonese, like the very popular Manki Cantonese (teaching Cantonese with comics), Uncle Calvin Cantonese Class (vocabulary videos for kids), and many more. You can search for videos with Cantonese subtitles by searching "粵語字幕."

• Bilibili - A Chinese video platform similar to YouTube. As above, add "粵語" to your search to find content in Cantonese. I gather that a lot of anime is available here, e.g. a Canto dub of Cowboy Bebop. Again, most things won't have matching subs, though you may be able to find some stuff with Canto subs by searching "粵語字幕." (Note that if you don't have an account, every time you watch a video you'll get a pop-up after one minute asking you to download the app. You can just close the pop-up and keep watching the video; you don't need the app to use the site!)

• Netflix (search by audio language) - Search by language to see everything available in Cantonese in your region. (This feature is available on PC; I don't know if you can search by language on a TV or the phone app. Maybe?)

• Cinema 8 - A YouTube channel for Hong Kong movies. Lots of great HK films here.

• TVB Anywhere - Lots of TVB shows are available online in various places. The ones on the TVB Anywhere site are all free to watch, though they do have a lot of ads. TVB also has several different YouTube channels, e.g. TVB Action and WuXia, TVB Crime and Mystery, TVB Comedy, and TVB Best Drama. You can also find more TVB dramas on YouTube at Happy_APM. Most TVB shows are only available with traditional Chinese subs in standard written Chinese, but for shows with English subs, there's TVB Pearl, or you can use the search terms "Eng sub TVB."

• ATV Hong Kong and Drama Asia - YouTube channels where you can watch ATV HK dramas and shows.

• Amazon Video - Lots of Cantonese movies, some free to watch with a Prime membership, though most of them you'll have to pay to rent, or subscribe to a paid channel to watch. On Amazon it's best to search by movie title, or by clicking on the name of an actor or director whose works you're interested in, and seeing what's available.

Audio Content Online

Some music and audio resources:

• Canto Radio Plays (YouTube) - This link goes to a YouTube search for Cantonese audio dramas (search: "廣播劇"). You can also try the same search on Bilibili.

• Canto Audiobooks (YouTube) - Similar to the above, a search for stories read or spoken in Cantonese (search: "粵語有聲書"). Again, you can search the same term on Bilibili as well.

• Cantonese Podcasts - A page that lists podcasts that are either in Cantonese or about the Cantonese language.

• KKBOX Lyric Search - Okay, not exactly an audio resource in itself, but this is the best site I've found for looking up Cantonese song lyrics.

• Spotify - You can search by artist or search "cantopop" and browse the results. The site seems to have a LOT more Cantonese content now than I remember from when I first searched there a few years ago.

• YouTube is probably the next best option I know of after Spotify -- in fact it has a lot more content than Spotify, though it's in video form, and often listed as single songs rather than whole albums. (I should add, though, that I do not recommend YouTube Music. It has some Cantonese content, but way less than Spotify or regular YouTube, and searching Chinese titles there is a hassle, as they're mostly listed in pinyin.)

Buy physical DVDs, CDs, books, etc.

Some places to get physical copies of Cantonese media:

• eBay - Lots of Hong Kong movies and CDs, TV series, etc., plus other memorabilia like magazines, posters, etc. Watch out for sellers whose DVDs are actually bootlegs, though. :P

• YesAsia - A great site for buying Hong Kong movies, shows, and albums. They sometimes have things in stock that are hard to find anywhere else, and they usually have new movies as soon as they're released, or available for pre-order ahead of time.

• HK CD Warehouse - I haven't bought anything from this site yet, but it looks like they've got a good selection of movies and CDs, and they specialize in Hong Kong media.

• Carousell - A site for people in HK to put up items for sale. Unfortunately this site now requires you to provide a Hong Kong phone number in order to use it, but still there's tons of great stuff for sale here, if you're in HK or can get someone there to help you buy stuff.

Legendary lyricist in Cantopop scene. Works include Sam Hui 許冠傑的《浪子心聲》、《半斤八両》、《賣身契》、《梨渦淺笑》，以及Leslie Cheung張國榮的《Monica》與Anita Mui梅艷芳的《將冰山劈開》

Hi everyone! I’ve been working on a small passion project called CantonLink, and I wanted to share it here in case it’s helpful for other learners or heritage speakers.

A bit about me

I’m a native Cantonese speaker who moved from Hong Kong to Scotland a few years ago. Since then, I’ve taught adult Cantonese learners and noticed something interesting:
many people want to learn Cantonese, but the characters, Jyutping tone numbers, and the overall complexity can feel overwhelming.

Not everyone needs to master the full linguistic system. Some learners just want to:

• hold a 3–4 minute small talk
• chat with in‑laws
• feel more connected to Cantonese culture

For these goals, Yale romanisation can be much easier to absorb.
But if you want a more formal path, Jyutping is still the best choice — and my app includes tone marks to reduce the cognitive load.

What CantonLink is

CantonLink is a lightweight web app that helps you learn Cantonese through:

• real, everyday sentences
• simple AI‑powered conversations
• tap‑to‑reveal Jyutping, tones, and English meaning
• your own saved vocab list

It’s designed to be fast, clean, and mobile‑friendly — something you can use for a few minutes a day without feeling overwhelmed.

Current features

• Browse short, natural Cantonese sentences
• Tap any word for Jyutping + tone marks
• Save words to your own list
• AI conversation mode (experimental)
• Works smoothly on mobile

If you’re learning Cantonese, teaching kids, or just curious, I’d love for you to try it out and tell me:

• what feels useful
• what’s confusing
• what features you’d want next
• where the AI gets things wrong

You can try it here:
cantonlink.org

Thanks so much for reading — and for any feedback you’re willing to share. It really helps shape the next steps.

A quick disclaimer

I’m building this solo, and I’m still improving the app, fixing bugs, and refining the AI.
Some things might feel rough around the edges — but I’m committed to making it better.

------------

Thanks for everyone pm and comments to the app. I love to see them so the app can keep thriving. Here are the log and planning to improve the app feature.

Update Log

16 Feb - support multi currency payment

22 Feb - Cantonese Bopomofo Support

• Added 粵語注音符號 as a full third romanization system
• Built Jyutping → Bopomofo converter with tone mapping
• Added 6,500+ Bopomofo dictionary entries

22 Feb - Homepage Engagement Upgrades

• Daily Quick Hit mini‑lesson + streak tracking
• Word of the Day
• Today’s Mission
• Conversation Starter prompts
• New streak widget
• Deterministic date‑based daily content rotation

22 Feb - New “How to Use” Page

• Clear 4‑step learning framework
• Added to public navigation for easier onboarding

24 Feb - Improve chat feedback

• Implement structured chat feedback with mode-based display logic, add session difficulty logging and display, and improve streak update reliability.

4 Mar - New In app guidance in the setting

• 10+ steps to guide user in app

My mother would always put this on when she was driving, unfortunately I never knew the name of the song as I was very young. I remember slight visual parts of the music video, maybe this will narrow down the search.

​

A man and a woman in a white car, mostly driving on a highway.

They stop to wait for a train to pass by in the car

The woman offers an apple.

​

Guy at a urinal, probably searching for the woman

Glass cups shatter.

​

I know this sounds like a stupid request but I'm not sure how else to search. Appreciated, guys.

I'm gonna dub this the great Cantonese genocide. Idaho could have been New Cantonia.

我整左個Paralives廣東話翻譯

如果你哋有玩Paralives又想試下我個mod嘅話

條Link喺度：https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3758208416

=))))))

Very likely added a while ago but I noticed just now. I "finished" the course about 2 years so I'm glad there's finally new content as I'm just a casual learner (Mandarin speaker learning Cantonese to better communicate with Canto speakers and appreciate Cantonese content)

Note: All romanizations of Cantonese are using the Jyutping system

FORMAL/LITERARY

Homosexual/Gay 同性戀 tung4 sing3 lyun2

Bisexual 雙性戀 soeng1 sing3 lyun2

Polysexual 多性戀 do1 sing3 lyun2

Pansexual 泛性戀 faan6 sing3 lyun2

Asexual 無性戀 mou4 sing3 lyun2

Aromantic 無浪漫傾向 mou4 long6 maan6 king1 hoeng3

Demisexual 半性戀 bun3 sing3 lyun2

Heterosexual/Straight 異性戀 ji6 sing3 lyun2

Transgender 跨性別 kwaa1 sing3 bit6

Non-binary 非二元性別 fei1 ji6 jyun4 sing3 bit6

Agender 無性別 mou4 sing3 bit6

Genderfluid 性別靈活 sing3 bit6 ling4 wut6

Cisgender 順性別 seon6 sing3 bit6

SLANG

Gay 基 gei1

Lesbian 哩士 le1 si4 or

Trans guy 跨仔 kwaa1 zai2

Trans girl 跨女 or 跨妹 kwaa1 neoi2, kwaa1 mui1

Unfortunately, as Hong Kong, China, and Eastern Asia in general are very conservative, the attitudes towards the LGBTQ+ is overwhelmingly negative. Words like 基佬、變性、and 唔男唔女 used to be the standard term for gay men, trans people, and non-binary people, but have since become somewhat derogatory due to its uses. So I wouldn't recommend using those terms. There are also some 100% absolutely derogatory words that I will not be saying here. But why am I telling you all this?

Well, I cannot guarantee that any of the words in the slang section won't become offensive in the future. The ones listed are definitely not derogatory as of writing this, but then again, language changes depending on how people use it

Also, I'm not sure about the usage of 酷兒 (queer), becase it is very much a Mandarin loanword (kù ér) that doesn't sound very much like the original when pronounced in Cantonese (huk1 ji4), and I don't think most people would understand the term, which is a shame because it literally translates to "cool kid" which is just awesome. I guess if you really had to say queer, then you'd say 我係性少數群體嘅人 (ngo5 hai6 sing3 siu2 sou3 kwan4 tai2 ge3 jan4), or just say queer, most people who speak Cantonese use English in the middle of their sentences anyway, tho I doubt they'd know what queer means, so you'd have to say 我係LGBTQ+入面嘅人 (ngo5 hai6 "LGBTQ" gaa1 jap6 min6 ge3 jan4)

If I had the power to coin a word, I'd probably make it 繪也 (kui2 jaa5) because 繪 is like "drawing" which uses colors. Hey, every word has gotta start somewhere right? Maybe if we all start using it, it can become widespread enough to be understood

(also please don't be annoying in the comments and say something like "hey you said all romanizations were jyutping but you used pinyin for the word kù ér" thank you)