Listen to Podcast | Cantonese: How Do You Say “Can You Teach Me?”

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Podcast Transcript | Cantonese: How Do You Say “Can You Teach Me?”

Hello everyone, 你好, 食咗未? Welcome back to our Cantonese – How Do You Say Podcast on LearnDialect.sg.

我個名叫 Eugene and today, I will teach you a phrase that will come in very handy when you are asking for help in learning Cantonese. This phrase is 我個廣東話唔好, 你可唔可以教我?

Breaking it down into 2 parts:

• The first part – 我個廣東話唔好 – translates into “My Cantonese is not good” and;
• The second part – 你可唔可以教我? – means “Can you teach me?”

Are you ready? Ok, let’s go!

The first part, 我個廣東話唔好. “My Cantonese is not good”.

好 refers to “good”, so 唔好 refers to “not good”. So if you were to say that your Cantonese is not good, you would say 我個廣東話唔好.

Now pause the audio and give this first part a try. 我個廣東話唔好.

Good! Now let’s move on to the second part of the phrase, 你可唔可以教我? “Can you teach me?”

可唔可以 refers to “can or cannot” while 教 refers to “teach”. So 你可唔可以教我? translates very literally into “You can or cannot teach me?”

Now pause the audio again and give it a try – 你可唔可以教我?

Great! Now, let’s combine both parts together – 我個廣東話唔好, 你可唔可以教我?

One more time and this time, say it with a smile! 我個廣東話唔好, 你可唔可以教我?

Great! Don’t you think this is a good opening line to start a conversation with Cantonese speakers? I am sure many Cantonese speakers would be more than willing to help you.

Well, in fact, if you have specific phrases that you’ll like to learn, we want to be the first to help! Please leave us a comment on our Facebook page. Who knows, the next podcast may be dedicated to you!

Thank you for listening into our Cantonese – How Do You Say Podcast on LearnDialect.sg. My name is Eugene and see you the next time!

Love what you are reading? We’ve got lots more to share during our Hokkien, Teochew and Cantonese express workshops. Join us to pick up words and phrases for everyday use in Singapore. More importantly, you can help to keep these languages alive!

Our Philosophy for Learning Cantonese in Singapore

At LearnDialect.sg, we want to make learning Cantonese fun, easy and practical for daily conversations in Singapore. As such, rather than figuring out which of the 10 or more Cantonese romanization system to use (e.g. Jyutping, Yale or Cantonese Pinyin etc.), we encourage you to form your own phonics, so that you make an association with these Cantonese words in the quickest way possible. To illustrate, the romanization of the English word, “eat”, is “Sik” using Jyutping and “Sihk” using Yale. However, in our “Have You Eaten?” podcast transcript, you’ll find that we use “sek”, which we think relates to us better. That said, you may use other romanization (e.g “sake”, “xig”, etc), as long as it helps you to make sense of what you hear.