광동어 예약 및 사전 검토– Books, Tapes, & CD’s for Learning 광동어 Chinese | | |||||||||||||
Rationale:I have been learning 광동어 on-and-off for a few years. This page contains reviews of the 광동어 courses that I own or have read. These reviews will help you in choosing courses to self-study 광동어 Chinese. How I’ve Rated The Courses And Dictionaries:I’ve given each a rating from 1 to 5 stars. The more stars the better. I value audio (cassettes, CDs, etc.) very highly, after all how can someone learn to speak properly if they never hear the language?! I like a sensible lesson ordering – starting with simple commonly-used speech in the first few lessons, then increasing in complexity as the lessons progress. I like course books which perfectly match the audio. I like books without typing mistakes. I like sensible Romanizations. | ||||||||||||||
Listening & Speaking 광동어 ChineseCOURSES: | ||||||||||||||
Title - Author(s), Original publish date (Version date), ISBN (Comments). | ||||||||||||||
Level | Rating | Good Points | Bad Points | |||||||||||
Functional Cantonese - Martha Lam & Stanley Po, 1988, ISBN 0958802602, 10 (Cassettes). | ||||||||||||||
Basic. | **** | - Sensible lesson ordering. - Good opening explanation of tones and pronunciation variations. - Romanization used is that of Sidney Lau - the best one I’ve seen. - Comes with around 1½ hours of audio. | - A few typos here and there. | |||||||||||
Everyday Cantonese - CUHK, 1985 (1993), ISBN 9622220010 (Cassettes). | ||||||||||||||
Basic to Intermediate. | **** | - Nice explanation of the course, tones, and pronunciation variations. - Reasonable lesson ordering. - Good topic coverage. - Having the drills of each lesson on the audio is excellent! - Comes with over 4½ hours of audio! | - The Yale System of Romanization is an abomination. - Almost every page has a typo. - Language usage is out-of-date in parts. - Sometimes the words on the cassettes don’t match the words in the book. | |||||||||||
Elementary Cantonese, Vol I - Sidney Lau, 1972 (1987), ISBN n/a (Government Printer Hong Kong). Elementary Cantonese, Vol II - Sidney Lau, 1972 (1987), ISBN n/a (Government Printer Hong Kong). Elementary Cantonese Glossary - Sidney Lau, 1973 (1985), ISBN n/a (Government Printer Hong Kong). Intermediate Cantonese, Vol I - Sidney Lau, 1969 (1984), ISBN n/a (Government Printer Hong Kong). Intermediate Cantonese, Vol II - Sidney Lau, 1972 (1984), ISBN n/a (Government Printer Hong Kong). Intermediate Cantonese Glossary - Sidney Lau, 1973 (1984), ISBN n/a (Government Printer Hong Kong). Advanced Cantonese, Vol I - Sidney Lau, 1975 (1987), ISBN n/a (Government Printer Hong Kong). Advanced Cantonese, Vol II - Sidney Lau, 1975 (1987), ISBN n/a (Government Printer Hong Kong). A Practical Cantonese-English Dictionary (實用粵英詞典) - Sidney Lau (劉錫祥), 1977, ISBN n/a (Govt. Printer HK). | ||||||||||||||
Click to Preview | Basic, Intermediate, & Advanced. | ***½ | - Simply the best, most comprehensive 광동어 course ever written. - The Romanization is logical, intuitive, and easily the best one I’ve seen. - Extensive use of Chinese characters allows you to ‘pick them up’ without really trying. | - To my knowledge, no audio is available. - Language usage is out-of-date in parts. - A few typos here and there. | ||||||||||
Teach Yourself Cantonese, A Complete Course for Beginners - Hugh Baker & P. K. Ho, 1995, ISBN 0340620919 (Cassettes) / 2003 (CD’s). | ||||||||||||||
Basic to Intermediate. | **½ (Review in progress) | - Comes with around 1½ hours of audio. | - The order of the lessons is a bit illogical. - Language usage is out-of-date in parts. - (1995 edition only) The Romanization used is even worse than Yale! - (2003 edition only) The Yale System of Romanization is an abomination. | |||||||||||
Colloquial Cantonese - Keith S. T. Tong & Gregory James, 1994 (1995), ISBN 0415082048 (Cassettes). | ||||||||||||||
Basic. | **½ | - Tapes are decent - clearly spoken and well paced. - Grammar explanations in the book are quite good. - Comes with around 1¾ hours of audio. | - The order of the lessons is illogical - complex things such as counting and prices should not be in the first lesson. Lesson 1 ‘Shopping’ should be moved to lesson 5. - Excessive use of the word ‘listen’ on the tapes can drive you crazy! - Would be much better if the dialogues had Chinese characters too. - The Yale System of Romanization is an abomination. - Sometimes the words on the cassettes don’t match the words in the book. - A few typos here and there. | |||||||||||
Elementary Cantonese Conversation - Jenny Lee & Shiu Chiu Yeung, 1989 (Cassettes). | ||||||||||||||
Basic. | * | - Tapes are Ok to listen to for someone with a bit of 광동어 knowledge. | - Bad structure and very primitive compared to all the other books. I don’t think anyone could really learn to speak from this book. | |||||||||||
Language Learning Cantonese, Speak a Chinese Dialect CD ROM - Laser Publishing Group, 1997 (CD ROM). | ||||||||||||||
Basic. | * | N/A. | - Bad structure and very primitive interface. I don’t think anyone could really learn to speak from this CD. - Riddled with Romanization errors and pronunciation errors. - Tedious click-to-speak interface gives you RSI in 5 minutes! | |||||||||||
Intermediate Cantonese: Themes for Listening and Speaking - Philip Yungkin Lee, 2001 (Oct), ISBN 9622792022 (3 CDs). | ||||||||||||||
Intermediate to Advanced. | Review in progress. | - Comes with over 3 hours of audio! | - Some words in the dialogues are not listed in the glossaries. - The ‘Tapescript’ section should also (1) have the dialogues in Chinese characters, and (2) have English translations. Actually I’d merge the whole ‘Tapescript’ section into the ‘Unit’ sections themselves. Having to flick back and forth between the Units and Tapescript is tedious. - Pronunciation variations such as ngoh/oh should not be written everywhere. It’s too hard to read dialogues written that way, plus it has introduced many typos into the book. Only the most correct pronunciation should be given. - The CD’s are too quiet (or mine are faulty). - The Yale System of Romanization is an abomination. - The odd typo here and there. | |||||||||||
Learning Cantonese Through Stories, The Story of Minami - Siu-lun Cedric Lee & Masumi Tanaka, 2002 (Jan), ISBN 9622792065 (1 CD). | ||||||||||||||
Intermediate to Advanced. | Review in progress. | - Comes with over 1 hour of audio. | - The Yale System of Romanization is an abomination. - The odd typo here and there. | |||||||||||
Wedding Bells - Yin-Ping Cream Lee & Shin Kataoka, 2001 (Sep), ISBN 9622792030 (1 CD). | ||||||||||||||
Intermediate to Advanced. | Review in progress. | - Comes with 41 minutes of audio. | - The Yale System of Romanization is an abomination. - The odd typo here and there. | |||||||||||
DICTIONARIES: | ||||||||||||||
Title - Author(s), Original publish date (Version date), ISBN (Comments). | ||||||||||||||
Level | Rating | Good Points | Bad Points | |||||||||||
A Practical Cantonese-English Dictionary (實用粵英詞典) - Sidney Lau (劉錫祥), 1977, ISBN n/a (Govt. Printer HK). | ||||||||||||||
Click to Preview | Advanced. | **** | - Possibly the best 광동어 dictionary ever written. - The Romanization is logical, intuitive, and easily the best one I’ve seen. - This is a Romanization-to-Character-and-English dictionary. i.e. The dictionary entries are ordered alphabetically using the romanization. Entries contain chinese characters for all words and phrases, plus the English meaning(s). - 3,600 head entries. - 1,000 pages. | - A few typos here and there. - Has never been updated, so modern words and phrases (e.g. “mobile phone”) are not covered. - Has no stroke index. | ||||||||||
Elementary Cantonese Glossary - Sidney Lau, 1973 (1985), ISBN n/a (Government Printer Hong Kong). Intermediate Cantonese Glossary - Sidney Lau, 1973 (1984), ISBN n/a (Government Printer Hong Kong). | ||||||||||||||
Basic & Intermediate. | *** | - These glossaries cover the words used in the corresponding Sidney Lau Cantonese course books. - The Romanization is logical, intuitive, and easily the best one I’ve seen. - Each book is a Romanization-to-Character-and-English dictionary plus an English-to-Romanization-and-Character dictionary. - Each book is 220+ pages and contains 1500+ words. | - A few typos here and there. - There is no glossary for the advanced books. - Has never been updated, so modern words and phrases (e.g. “mobile phone”) are not covered. - Has no stroke index. | |||||||||||
A Practical English-Chinese Pronouncing Dictionary - Janey Chen, 1970 (1994), ISBN 0804818770. | ||||||||||||||
Advanced. | *** | - Characters, and 북경어 and 광동어 pronunciation are given for over 15,000 English words - useful for students of 광동어 and 북경어. | - The Yale System of Romanization is an abomination which is used for both 북경어 and 광동어. A table of conversions to PinYin (북경어) and other 광동어 Romanizations is given though. - The main dictionary, religious appendix, and military appendix should be combined. Such appendices are unnecessary and annoying. | |||||||||||
同音字彙 - 余秉昭, 1997, ISBN 9789628236053. | ||||||||||||||
Advanced. | ** | - 5,400 head entries. - 268 pages. - 광동어 Romanization used is similar to Sidney Lau’s but not identical. - Has a stroke index. - Small size (B5) makes it easy to carry around. | - Dictionary is totally in Chinese (except for the 광동어 Romanization) so it’s not that useful for English speakers unless you can read Chinese. | |||||||||||
香港粵語詞典 - 鄭定歐, 1977, ISBN 9787534329425. | ||||||||||||||
Advanced. | * | - 411 pages. | - Dictionary is totally in Chinese (except for the 광동어 Romanization) so it’s not that useful for English speakers unless you can read Chinese. - Entries are ordered by final sound, then alphabetical. Such an ordering may be useful for people writing song lyrics but I don’t think it’s good for a learner of 광동어. | |||||||||||
Reading & Writing 광동어 ChineseBOOKS: | ||||||||||||||
Title - Author(s), Original publish date (Version date), ISBN (Comments). | ||||||||||||||
Level | Rating | Good Points | Bad Points | |||||||||||
Reading and Writing Chinese - William McNaughton, 1979 (1991), ISBN 0804815846. | ||||||||||||||
Intermediate. | *** | - Over 1,000 characters are listed with their full-form stroke order (the simplified forms are also given when appropriate). | - The Yale System of Romanization is used instead of PinYin. - A few typos here and there. | |||||||||||
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