What Should I Know About This Dive?
Congrats!
You are thinking about pursuing (or continuing your pursuit of) Cantonese! Awesome you!
Chinese Mandarin is quite different from Cantonese. Many Chinese dialects are mutually difficult to understand, each with distinctive vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. In the case of Cantonese and Mandarin, they are not mutually intelligible in spoken form, and Cantonese’s writing is more traditional. Mandarin has only four tones per sound, while Cantonese has at least six (and can have up to nine). Mandarin and Cantonese also have different vowels and consonants. Learning more than just Mandarin can help you gain a better understanding of Mandarin and Classical Chinese.
Understanding Cantonese can help you interact with more people in the southeast corner of China, often in Guangdong Province (capital - Guangzhou, previously known as Canton, hence “Cantonese”) as well as in southern Guangxi Province to the west. Cantonese is also Hong Kong and Macau’s main language.
By learning Cantonese, your Chinese experience becomes more meaningful, and you will be able to communicate with more of the local population and learn about Chinese history and culture in ways that are inaccessible to Mandarin speakers.
A second language skill assists with traveling, career progression, business, entrepreneurship, customer service, and many more. Learning or improving your Cantonese is certainly a great educational investment of time and money, and no doubt, because it gives you a unique skill that sets you apart from others.
So in response to your question, the answer is yes, Yes, YES! Do learn Cantonese! We are proud to share with you this completely free online compendium of 10 resources to help you get started, improve, and ultimately master the Cantonese language. To that end, on the pages to come, you will find a bunch of truly helpful Cantonese language resources, each answering a key question you need the answer to. These Resources are broken down by levels: Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced, to ensure you get the support you need, no matter what level you currently find yourself.
Where do the resources come from? Our members and staff. We individually screen every resource prior to posting to ensure high quality and to verify the authenticity of each. If it's listed, it means a) one of our Break Diving members has used the resource and highly recommends it, and b) the listed resource has in some way supported the growth of Break Diving and believes in our mission (or at the very least, has not actively refused to support our mission). You can trust that each resource we list is legitimate, and has our Break Diving seal of approval. Although if you do have any issues with any of the resources listed, please reach out and let us know! That all being said, it's time to take a deep dive into Cantonese. Ready?