I was used to Mandarin tones. They're pretty straightfoward, easy to distinguish... and a lot of neutral tones ( Read more... )

I have no idea how many Mandarin words I know. But it seems like I know more than I thought I did ( Read more... )

I've been studying Cantonese for five days now. It's been very exciting. Some things are similar enough to Mandarin that my brain is a little confused right now ( Read more... )

I remember my early impressions of tones in Mandarin. I was very intimidated, and it took a lot of listening to people speaking slowly in recordings before it really started to sink in, so that I wasn't thinking "Oh this tone moves upward in that way so it's second tone" so much as "this feels like second tone", which eventually leads to hearing 学 ( Read more... )

I have no idea how many Cantonese learning podcasts I just downloaded. Apparently I was serious.

I've decided to listen to some basic Cantonese lessons. Something in me is troubled by the fact that my mind can't seem to catch hold of any sounds. When I listen to Mandarin, or even Korean (which I've never really studied), some basic things get in my head. Cantonese is somehow like water flowing past me and there's nothing I can grab onto. ( Read more... )