Popup Cantonese

Meh? In any other language it would be an expression of boredom or contempt. Which goes to show what living on an island will get you, because in Cantonese people have elevated this sound to a critical part of everyday language. And we guarantee that it doesn't mean what you think....

Learning Cantonese? Our third critical verbs lesson introduces verbs you can use to express your emotions and desires. By the time this lesson is over you'll be able to tell others what you like, what you want and how you feel too. And for extra measure we also practice two new types of questions: making yes/no questions by repeating multi-character verbs and practicing the all-powerful "meh-sentence". So listen up. You'll master this stuff in no time.

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Learning Cantonese? Today Brendan and Nicole introduce four key verbs you'll need to talk about speaking Cantonese. You'll have heard some of these before, which is why we move fairly quickly through the basics and throw some more difficult sentences your way. These review putting statements into the negative and asking questions, and then move on to the present progressive tense. This is the tense you'll use to tell someone what you are studying, or in any other situation where the action is ongoing.

If you're completely new to Cantonese, chances are this lesson is too difficult for you. Start instead with our four Critical Phrases lessons and come back when you've covered the materials there. Our goal with this series is to introduce some basic sentences structures you'll hear again and again when using verbs in Cantonese. And by the time this series is done, you'll be ready to move on to our more advanced dialogue-based lessons.

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Want to learn Cantonese? Our earlier lessons managed to cover the life essentials: food, water and flirting. But after two weeks in Hong Kong it's probably about time you learned some verbs. After all, success rates inviting strangers to dinner plummet alarmingly when your only way of asking them is to repeat the word for restaurant over and over again. Time to get some verbs in your repertoire.

The final series in our Critical Cantonese lessons focuses on Critical Verbs. Our goal in this series is to introduce the most important verbs in the Cantonese language, but also learn some simple grammar patterns we'll run into again and again. In this lesson we learn the verbs "to be" and "to have", and learn how to make them negative and then ask simple questions. Once you know how to do this, you'll wonder how you ever got along without it.

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My attorney resembled nothing so much as a madman, half-crazed under the Hong Kong sun, and gesticulating wildly as he tried to convince the cab driver to take us to the best hotel on the island, or - failing that - any hotel at all. The exact cause of his distress was lost on his skeptical subject, although any English speaker within earshot would have grokked his meaning almost instantly, if only from the stressed repetition of the single word "washroom"....

Learning Cantonese? Join us for this podcast and in the next eight minutes we'll teach you some must-have vocabulary for your next trip to Hong Kong, including the following high-frequency words: hotels (and cheap ones at that), restaurants and the ever-essential washroom. Some of our sample sentences in this lesson are also pretty tricky, so if you have trouble following along take a deep breath and make sure you've started from the beginning. And send questions or comments to us anytime at [email protected].

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Learning Cantonese? Our third Cantonese listening test ramps up the difficulty level a degree. Now that we're nearing the end of our introductory series, we expect you to be starting to piece things together, which is why we throw you into the deep end today with questions that combine and build upon everything we've covered to date. The fifteen questions we present today are designed to reinforce your memory of key vocab and grammar structures.

If you're new to Cantonese and don't do well on this listening test, we recommend starting with our first critical phrases lesson. It will introduce you to the tones and get you familiar with the basics of the language. You'll be ready to take this test in no-time.

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Learning Cantonese? We've all heard the horror stories, of friends of friends who came to Hong Kong for a nice beach vacation only to find themselves trapped at Hong Kong Disney for two weeks straight, shocked at the general lack of English on the island and unable to muster the courage to find their way to the closest subway, bus or taxi....

While we'll leave finding the beach as a self-study exercise, in this lesson we are going to solve your transportation issues once and for all. Join Brendan and Nicole as they cover the key modes of transportation in Hong Kong. We'll learn how to say the words for subway, bus and taxi and practice ways to ask for them by name. Everything is here except for "limousine", which is our way of telling you big spenders to sign up for our university program....

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Learning Cantonese? By this point we're a bit over an hour into our series for learning the Cantonese language. We've covered the tones, learned some of the most critical phrases in the Cantonese, and reviewed how to make simple sentences with adjectives. We've also had a single lesson teaching all of the important pronouns and how to make them plural.

In this lesson, we extend our knowledge to countries, nationalities and languages. We cover some of the major place-names in the Cantonese-speaking world and learn how to turn country names into nationalities. Then we cover the names of some major languages and review how to request others speak Cantonese to you, or English. So take a listen and by the end of this podcast you'll be set to explain where you are from and what language you speak. This is Cantonese the easy way....

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Ever wanted to tell someone you didn't understand anything they said, and then realized that required speaking Cantonese yourself? This sort of communicative slip-up happens all the time to those new to Hong Kong or the Cantonese language. And that's why our first Critical Nouns lesson reviews the six most important pronouns in the Cantonese language. Because no matter what you want to say, we want to make sure you know at least the first word....

Learning Cantonese? Our Critical Nouns series picks up where our Critical Phrases and Critical Adjectives lessons left off. These Cantonese lessons review the absolute basics and help you build up your proficiency with the Cantonese tones. We hope you enjoy them, and please remember: if you have any questions or comments please write us anytime at [email protected].

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Could they do it, we could hear you thinking? Could the geniuses behind Popup Cantonese come up with yet another lesson on adjectives? And could it be just as essential for our continued survival as a species as our previous lessons? We think the answer is yes. So join Brendan and Nicole today for this podcast as we put an end to constant hunger and fatigue by learning three more super useful adjectives: tired, hungry and thirsty.

In this series of Cantonese lessons for total beginners to Cantonese, we focus on the most high-frequency adjectives in the language. If you're just starting to learn Cantonese, start with our critical phrases lessons and move on to this series when you're done. Each subsequent lesson is designed to review key words and phrases to reinforce what you've learned. And if you have any questions or tech problems, let us know anytime by leaving a comment in the discussion section below, or writing us at [email protected].

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Stories of the time you pantomimed the "iceman dance" at the Kowloon Star ferry terminal are still being told in bars throughout the New Territories. So while we know people speak quickly in Hong Kong, this is a lesson on preserving dignity. In it, we'll teach you how to get people to calm down and speak more slowly, without the need for theatrics.

In our third Critical Adjectives lesson we cover all the Cantonese you need to get the frenetic citizens of Hong Kong to slow down and speak at a more comprehensible speed. We'll teach you how to say fast, slow and busy, and cover some high frequency sentences containing these adjectives. And as a bonus, we'll also cover the basics of asking questions with adjectives. Much like scientific experiments which slow the speed of light, this podcast traps the Cantonese language in a form suitable for study and reflection. We hope you like it.

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