Learn Jyutping
Goal
You may speak English, the language that many pockets of the world aspires to master, but you already know it and perhaps you see that expanding your language repertoire could be useful in a world that’s increasingly interconnected through political and social channels via technology, or through economic channels via trade, skilled labor and foreign aid, or a whole plethora of other interconnectivity, too many to mention all in one sitting. In any case, with your knowledge of English, Cantonese is not as difficult as people fear, and definitely a worthy choice of language learning because the many millions of the multitudes in the Chinese diaspora spanning centuries in the world over–particularly those that speak Cantonese–means Cantonese is yet another language spoken on a global scale. The links on this page will introduce Jyutping, the key that opens the gates to your journey into learning to speak Cantonese. Enjoy the journey.
Cantonese is usually written in Han characters. You will need about 3000 characters to be functional in Cantonese. Sounds like a lot? Yes, that is a lot. That’s why we need a phonetic system while you catch up with the characters.
Cantonese has six tones which could be difficult to master. We provide an excercise to help you distinguish them.