Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great program for learning Cantonese, May 27, 2004
Among the few books and courses available for learning Cantonese, this one is will help you to develop a solid foundation of the language. If you are absolute beginner, you may want to get Pimsleur's Cantonese I and work with it before moving on to Teach Yourself Cantonese. This program does contain 2 tapes, but you'll find it easier to step into the waters of speaking Cantonese with confidence if you begin with Pimsleur's program. Learning Cantonese will be million times more easier and more fun, and then you'll find working with Teach Yourself Cantonese much more productive.
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A brilliant book - if you have a Cantonese speaking friend, July 7, 1999
By A Customer
If you don't have a friend who can speak Cantonese, then don't buy this book - but do buy the Book + Audio Cassette version instead.Used on its own, i.e. without the cassette, it provides a good lesson structure which you can follow with the help of a Cantonese speaking friend. I think that knowing a native speaker is pretty much a requirement to learn such a precise language anyway, as a small change in pronounciation makes a whole load of difference to the meaning. The book uses funny dialogs and cartoons to help you learn, and also has exercises in each chapter to make certain you have understood everything that was taught. For example, making a meaningful sentance out of a 'jubbled up' one. To further check your progress there are revision chapters throughout the book, which are there to consolidate all of what you have been taught so far. In summary, this book will not do a brilliant job of teaching you to speak Cantonese IF you intend to use it on its own. BUT like I've said, if you have a Cantonese speaking friend to teach you pronounciation then it provides a very good lesson plan for you to work from. Highly Recommended.
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent value!, January 14, 2005
What is good about the book?
1. The 2 CDs that come with the book make learning much easier. In the beginning, I was not used to the Cantonese pronunciation, so it was very helpful to listen to the pronunciation guide section and the new words repeatedly. Once you master the pronunciation of the vowels and consonants from the first few lessons, you should be able to pronounce the new words correctly from its romanization. But if you still don't feel confident, you can always isolate individual words from the dialogue on the CD, and play those words over and over again (very easy with Cd on a computer).
2. The pronunciation on the CDs is authentic and realistic.
3. It uses the Yale system for romanization. Many other books and dictionaries use the Yale system. So, it would be easy for you to cross-reference.
4. Its explanation about grammar and cultural background is excellent. And it really captures the humor of Cantonese people. This is the only book that I have seen that manages to capture the real local flavor.
5. The conversations and new vocabulary are written out in Chinese characters, as well as romanization. Even if you don't read Chinese, this is still very helpful -- when you ask Cantonese people to practice the dialogue with you, it will be much easier for them to read off the Chinese characters than the romanization. And perhaps you will even learn to write Chinese some day.
6. Excellent exercises.
What is bad about the book?
1. They only have English translation of the new vocabulary, but there is no English translation of the dialogue. That means you need to really remember the new vocabulary as well as the words you learned in earlier lessons before you can make sense of the conversation.
(The vocabulary list at the back of the book is helpful if you no longer remember the vocabulary from an earlier lesson).
2 You do learn a lot about the cultural and humor, but that is not immediately useful in daily conversation. What is lacking is the practical vocabulary you would need in daily conversation. For example, in the lesson about eating out I learned how to say four foods -- beef, lobster, soup, and salad. I didn't learn how to say chicken, pork, lamb, fish, shrimp, vegetables, noodles, etc. Also, I did not learn how to say any of the fruits. The lesson on eating out would not be very helpful to me when I eat out. In my opinion, even if the authors could not cover those in the regular dialogue, they should have covered those in the vocabulary section or exercise section for eating out.
Overall, I think the book (with CD) is excellent value for the price!
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