This week we talk about two more important SFPs, gaa3 (㗎) and laa3 (喇). Raymond has examples aplenty, while Cameron seems to have air conditioning on his mind.

Vocabulary and transcript

Following up on the last episode about Cantonese stand-up comedy, Raymond challenges Cameron with some Cantonese "爛gag," or anti-humor jokes. Word play and facepalming abound.

Vocabulary and transcript

This week features the second half of our discussion with Vivek Mahbubani, a bilingual stand-up comedian from Hong Kong who performs in both Cantonese and English. He has appeared in local film, TV, and radio, and he also co-hosts the podcast Ho Ho Hong Kong. This week we look into Vivek’s tips for learning Cantonese, and the role that humor can play in language acquisition.

Vivek's website
Cantonese Alliance of North America
Cantonese Creators Collective
Cantonese Language Association
粵語長片台

Episode transcript and vocabulary

This week features the first half of our discussion with Vivek Mahbubani, a bilingual stand-up comedian from Hong Kong who performs in both Cantonese and English. He has appeared in local film, TV, and radio, and he also co-hosts the podcast Ho Ho Hong Kong. This week’s portion touches on his experience growing up in Hong Kong, linguistic specificity in comedy, and why he never drinks a beer before going on stage. 

In the first of a series of episodes on Sentence Final Particles (SFPs), we look at how just one syllable can change the feeling of a Cantonese sentence. Using aa as an example, we run through how shifts in the tone of that syllable can further impact how the sentence is received. SFPs can be a bit of a challenge, but they are also part of what makes speaking Cantonese so much fun.

Link to vocabulary and transcript

Have you ever watched an old movie and wondered if some of the lines might be spoken differently today? This week, Cameron challenges Raymond to a game where he has to take lines from Cantonese movies from the 50s and 60s and update them for a contemporary audience. Some of the lines include phrases that are used less in contemporary Hong Kong, while other phrases are still in use yet also have newer, trendier versions. 

If you listen to the episode and think of relevant slang, be share to share with us on Twitter!

This episode features the second part of our interview with Dr. Lau, Chaakming, a long-term researcher and proponent of Cantonese in Hong Kong, his previous projects include words.hk and HamBaangLaang, and now he's also developing various other language resources. Dr Lau is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Linguistics and Modern Language Studies at the Education University of Hong Kong, with a research focus on digital humanities and linguistics. If you did not hear the first part of our discussion, make sure to check out the previous episode.

Hambaanglaang ETPR lessons

Vocabulary and transcript

This episode features the first part of our interview with Dr. Lau, Chaakming, a long-term researcher and proponent of Cantonese in Hong Kong, his previous projects include words.hk and HamBaangLaang, and now he's also developing various other language resources. Dr Lau is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Linguistics and Modern Language Studies at the Education University of Hong Kong, with a research focus on digital humanities and linguistics. Make sure to also tune in next week for the second part of our discussion.

Transcript and translation

Cantonese is rich with vowel sounds, but some of them can be difficult for non-native speakers. One of the biggest challenges in this realm is differentiating between the "a" and "aa" sounds (with the classic example being gai1 (雞, chicken) vs. gaai1 (街, street)). Luckily, Raymond has three great tips for how to create more distinction between how you pronounce the two.

Vocabulary and transcript

UBC Cantonese pronunciation modules

Are there any foods that you love to eat when it gets cold out? Today we chat about a Cantonese winter staple, claypot rice (煲仔飯 bou1 zai2 faan6), and the types of Hong Kong shops that specialize in making just one dish. That brings us to the phrase 獨沽一味 (duk6 gu1 jat1 mei2).

Episode transcript and vocabulary