Before I began working with this program, I worked with Pimsleur's Cantonese, which I found very helpful, together with attempting to pick words from watching numerous HK movies - so for me the beginning lessons in this course were relatively easy.
This course begins with extensive pronounciation drills, and given the fact that Cantonese is a tonal language, drills almost felt like singing lessons, which was fun.
FSI Cantonese program has two levels - each one comprises 15 lessons. The entire Cantonese text is romanized. Chinese characters are provided (handwritten) only in vocabulary lists. I am happy that they are provided, but in order for them to have any meaning for you, you'd have to get other books / programs for writing Chinese characters. Good beginner program for learning to read and write Chinese characters would be Easy Chinese Tutor.
This program does guide you through grammar, and the best part of the program are numerous drills - my favorite being "substitution exercises" which help to thoroughly assimilate the material covered in each lesson.
In all the years of learning numerous foreign languages and working with many different methods and courses, I have found the drills provided through FSI language programs, to lead to the fastest proficiency in mastering the language. |
FSI Cantonese Basic Lev. 2 Books In Print, Audio Books.