Good evening from Singapore!
I am pleased to let you know that I have just shot and uploaded my second video in Mandarin Chinese on YouTube.
Please check out this video:
For those of you who do not speak Mandarin, in this video I am talking about my recent decision to resume studying Cantonese, and about how I became interested in this language.
My only regret is that throughout the video I had to speak exclusively in Mandarin, because I am still way too shy to talk Cantonese in front of my viewers!
Previously, I studied Cantonese off and on for a few years, but only to a limited degree of success. Up until now, in terms of proficiency and fluency, my Mandarin Chinese is far better than my Cantonese, in which I can barely stumble along.
However, I really love learning Cantonese, not least because I love the Hong Kong pop culture, including Canto pop music, and Hong Kong movies.
Phonetic wise, I also love the sound of it, in comparison with some of the other Chinese dialects, including Shanghainese and Taiwanese. To me Cantonese sounds not only music-like, but also downright sexy!
What with my other language learning commitments and all (mainly my French studies), I had not studied Cantonese for quite some time.
But recently, I've decided to take up my Cantonese studies again, simply because I just couldn't resist the temptation!
Given my solid foundation in Mandarin (if I say so myself), I already have an advantage over other learners of Cantonese with no knowledge of Chinese, so if I really put my heart into learning Cantonese, I think I stand a decent chance of becoming fluent in the dialect in the not-so-distant future.
As for my method of learning Cantonese, I am making use of the audio podcast of RTHK's One Minute Reading column, where I can find tons of Chinese texts read aloud in Cantonese by the author of these articles. I download the related audio files from the Internet, and listen to and repeat after them over and over again to improve my Cantonese accent.
I hope my Cantonese can become good enough in the near future, such that I can gain enough confidence to shoot some Cantonese videos on YouTube. When that happens, I will make sure to let you know!
By the way, for those of you who understand Chinese, please do let me know what you think of this latest video, so I can improve myself.
Enjoy the rest of the weekend.
Talk to you again soon!
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13 comments:
Hi Uncle Polyglot! Great to see another post from you!
what perfect accent...
but more than that, a very natural vocabulary and spoken pace...
Hi Keith,
It's great to hear from you as always!
I hope you've found my latest video in Mandarin somehow relevant to your Chinese studies.
I will be posting more videos going forward, so please keep a lookout!
By the way, I haven't seen your blog post or YouTube video for quite some time. How have you been doing? I'm looking forward to reading your blog post again soon!
Cheers,
Uncle Polyglot
Ciao Tetsu!
Nice to hear from you, as always!
A million thanks for your compliment! Getting a kind comment from you always makes my day!
As I've mentioned in this blog post and my video, I've decided to take up Cantonese again after a long hiatus.
This might very well turn out to be a good decision, because I have quite a good shot at becoming fluent in Cantonese if I put in some effort.
Having said that, French will continue to be my first priority, and I'm determined to work hard at it in the coming years. I hope to be able to converse with you in French some day!
Talk to you again soon!
Cheers,
Uncle Polyglot
Hi Uncle polyglot san,
sugoi,,,, you speak Mandarin more clearly than my parents in law from Chongqing, China.
what is more, as I listened to your speeches in Chinese, I found myself learning a lot from your excellent Chinese, especially with the help of the subtiles you bothered to make on Youtube.
So, whenever you feel like it, could you please give any talks in Mandarin? Any subjects that interest you will help.
it is of great help to me in learning more about it.
Keep it up.
Cozy
Hi Uncle polyglot san,
sugoi,,,, you speak Mandarin more clearly than my parents in law from Chongqing, China.
what is more, as I listened to your speeches in Chinese, I found myself learning a lot from your excellent Chinese, especially with the help of the subtiles you bothered to make on Youtube.
So, whenever you feel like it, could you please give any talks in Mandarin? Any subjects that interest you will help.
it is of great help to me in learning more about it.
Keep it up.
Cozy
Hi Cozy,
Thanks a lot for checking out my latest YouTube video!
It's great to know that you've found my Mandarin accent clear and easy to understand! In this video I've taken special care to speak with a correct Chinese accent, so I'm really encouraged by your kind comment!
I'm also glad that you've found the Chinese subtitles helpful for your language learning.
I will continue to shoot and upload videos on YouTube in multiple languages including Mandarin, so please keep a lookout!
Talk to you again soon!
Cheers,
Uncle Polyglot
Hi there,
I feel you have such a talent in mastering different accents and even dialects. I also read that you learned Shanghainese, my native tongue. What do you think of its difficulty? Any plans of making a video in Shanghainese? haha
cheers
Charlie
你的普通话说得很好！
我也在新加坡，虽然广东话不怎么样，但是如果你需要谈话的对象我很乐意
To me you sound like a native Mandarin Chinese speaker!
I've been studying Mandarin for 3,5 years now (first 1,5 years in Finland) and recently decided to learn some Cantonese too because I live in Guangzhou. I watched you're other video too and your Cantonese seems great too! I only understood a little bit from it, but hope to learn atleast the basics in Cantonese.
Hi Sara,
Thanks a lot for watching my Mandarin and Cantonese videos.
Obviously, I'm far more advanced in Mandarin than in Cantonese, but I love studying both of them.
Since you're living in Guangzhou I'm sure that learning Cantonese will make your life far more enjoyable than before. Good luck on your Cantonese learning!
As for myself, I've been spending little time on Cantonese in the past few weeks as I've gotten busier with my CFA studying, but I will resume my Cantonese learning in the latter half of this year.
Will continue to upload language-learning videos on my YouTube channel, so please keep a lookout! :-)
You speaks even better than many other native mandarin speaker..oh my god, it really inspires me the power of determination will make all things work and even better.
Thanks Uncle Polyglot!
Hi Anonymous,
Thanks a million for your kind comment!
I don't presume to be able to speak Chinese as well as native speakers, but it's true that I love the language. I like learning both Mandarin and Cantonese, and I hope to become more fluent in the future.
I'm delighted that this YouTube video has given you some inspiration for learning languages. I aspire to become a well-known polyglot on YouTube in the future, and will continue to post language-learning videos to demonstrate my progress. Please make sure to watch them when they come out!
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