Free Cantonese lesson

[chikakeru]

Is there any place around central that provides basic cantonese lesson, my wife is looking to attend a class, twice a week, preferably if the price is cheap for basic introduction of Cantonese.

Chikakeru

[froggie]

Central
They teach Mandarin and Cantonese:
New Concept Mandarin
505 China Merchants Building
152-155 Connaught Road, Central
Tel: 2850 4332
http://www.newconceptmandarin.com/
(very expensive, they want $280 per hour if you are in a group and $550 per hour for one-on-one -- not sure they do trial course)

Wan Chai:

HK Language Learning Centre (HKLLC)
16/F Emperor Group Building
288 Hennessey Road, Wan Chai
They want about $120 per hour in a group. I went there for a while. The teachers are not bad, but everything else about this place is terrible (except the $5 coffee). They have bad facilities and a very bad attitude (money, money, money...). They don't use any teaching material except their badly photocopied booklets (and they give you an audio CD that is no good). If you sign up there, be sure to ask about their "hidden rules/costs". After you pay, they tell you things like, if there are not more than X number of students, you will get 20% less hours etc. They are very tricky about this.

One other place that has a great reputation, good young, qualified teachers and they offer a free trial:
They are in the same building as the HKLLC, I don't know the name of the place.
6th Floor Emperor Group Building
288 Hennessey Road, Wan Chai
(at the corner of Hennessey Road and Johnston Road)

Hope this helps. Good luck!

If you find a good place, please be sure to post your findings and experience here, so others can benefit from it.

[lazarus]

They have bad facilities and a very bad attitude (money, money, money...)

In Hong Kong the motto is No Money, No Talk

Other people tell me to either get used to it, or leave.
Which i think it's fair enough. I got used to it now.

[shri]

I think thats a very pre-97 attitude. You'd be surprised on how much people are willing to bend over backwards and forwards, several times over, these days for business.

The no money no talk attitude remains only with the investment bankers and TST electronics sales people.

[tutor_hk]

Hi there. I really agreed hk ppl is very money eye sometimes. Myself is a private Chinese tutor. Yes, my tuition is rather high, bit it worths as u will learn the language sucessfully. My student is taking one to one or one to 2 , the learning schedule is set by me, everybody is different due to their learning progress n' also their need. my work is much much more than those XX centre. What you do in those centre is just to complete the course. Maybe at last u only know how to say Nei ho, do je. If u are only a tourist or short stay in HK, yes it's ok to take those course.

well, recently doing some language exchange. It's a good idea, but for those exchanger who know a bit of each other's language. Would be hard to do it if both side don't know much about the other side's language. My partner is lucky, coz my english is not bad. I think it really helps with his Cantonese . As one can hear more different ppl speak Cantonese , will help to get him more familiar with the language.

Btw if u guys got any problem about Chinese, feel free to email me or send me a private msg (email is better)

Good luck in learning Chinese-the most difficult n' funniest language!!~~

[lazarus]

Good luck in learning Chinese-the most difficult n' funniest language!!

aiya! xiao se la! hahaha!!
guang dong hua mh may gum lan hok la!
Lei man man, bay sing gay hok!
and everything will be OK!

[Gillig Phantom]

aiya! xiao se la! hahaha!!
guang dong hua mh may gum lan hok la!
Lei man man, bay sing gay hok!
and everything will be OK!

Oh! Piece of cake! hahaha!!
Cantonese isn't that hard to learn!
Slowly(should be "man man Lei"), work hard to learn!
and everything will be OK!

[lazarus]

Actually, in speech "Lei man man, bay sing gay hok!" is also right.

means: You slowly learn with commitment

How about this?

[biothermus]

My advice would be go for private teachers (Yea I'm one too but that's not the). My reasons are: 1. those schools charge you a lot, while you can have maybe two lessons with the price of one if you go for private teachers. 2. You'd have more flexible schedule and if you don't like how classes are going, most probably you can just stop attending any classes (instead of having to get into long commitments with those schools). 3. Not all schools are good and could be tailor-made for you, so the important part is to make sure things could be tailor-made to suit your needs. Just my ideas anyway.

P.S. "Actually, in speech "Lei man man, bay sing gay hok!" is also right. means: You slowly learn with commitment", just wondering, would it be closer to the Cantonese if it was "Maan maan lei, bei sum gei hok", meaning, "take it slow, put your heart into it"?

[Max]

How about joining the language exchange?.....Just a thought of course.