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Basic Cantonese: A Grammar and Workbook (Routledge Grammars)
 
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Basic Cantonese: A Grammar and Workbook (Routledge Grammars) (Paperback)

by Virginia Yip (Author), Stephen Matthews (Author)
3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
RRP: £21.99
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Product details

  • Paperback: 192 pages
  • Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (14 Oct 1999)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0415193850
  • ISBN-13: 978-0415193856
  • Product Dimensions: 23 x 15.4 x 1.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 291,283 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #13 in  Books > Languages > By Language > Chinese > Cantonese
    #15 in  Books > Languages > By Language > Chinese > By Publisher > Routledge
    #18 in  Books > Languages > By Language > Chinese > Level > Introduction

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Product Description

Product Description

This book introduces the essentials of Cantonese grammar in a straightforward and systematic way. Special attention is paid to topics which differ from English and European language structures. It is ideal for students new to the language.


From the Back Cover

Basic Cantonese introduces the essentials of Cantonese grammar in a straightforward and systematic way. Each of the 28 units deals with a grammatical point and provides associated exercises, devised to perfect communication skills. Special attention is paid to topics which differ from English and European language structures.
Features include:
* clear, accessible format
* Lively examples to illustrate each grammar point
* full key to exercises
* glossary of grammatical terms.
Basic Cantonese is ideal for students new to the language. Together with its sister volume, Intermediate Cantonese, it forms a compendium of the essentials of Cantonese grammar.

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Customer Reviews

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Average Customer Review
3.8 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A must-have for students of Cantonese, 7 Oct 2000
By A Customer
This book is a must-have for any student of Cantonese language. The book relies heavily on linguistic/grammatical terms to get each grammar point across to the reader, but as compensation, a glossary of grammatical terms is provided.

The essential elements of Cantonese grammar are introduced and explained in separate units, there are 18 units altogether. Each grammar point is explained as straight-forwardly as possible, with an accompanying example in Cantonese (Yale romanisation). At the end of each unit a test is provided.

A slight let-down is the exclusion of Chinese characters. This book just briefly touches the grammar and semantics of the language, for further info read: Intermediate Cantonese, and Cantonese: A Comprehensive Grammar, by the same Authors, and publishers.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars no-script WORKbook, 20 Feb 2009
By Richard Almasi "TheHunn" (Europa) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
For a language/dialect spoken by 100 million people or so, there is disproportionately little material for studying it, at least in the West and in English.

Reasons why I think learners should get this book:

1. many varied exercises

2. extensive pronunciation exercises

3. short chapters for smoother progress

4. clearly explained in non-technical manner

5. alot of examples

There is no script used in this book, everything is in romanization.
The pronunciation is covered in the first chapters, with many exercises.
Also, keep in mind that this is first and foremost a workbook, not a reference book - the chapters are are sequential to a high degree.

The excercises cover: translations, adding the right particle into a sentence, and a couple of other chapter-based grammar excercises.

I do have two complaints though, which prevent me from giving it 5/5:
i) there are too many new words in each chapter
ii)there is no vocabulary list for each chapter

It is difficult for the beginner to assimilate so many new words: there are new words in almost every sentence.
I think they should have followed the same format as in the books
'Basic Korean: A Grammar and Workbook' and 'Basic Chinese: A Grammar and Workbook' by the same publisher.
The vocabulary format in both those other books are much better than in this one.

So, for learning new vocabulary this book gets a low score from me.
In teaching grammar it gets 5/5.

Do I still recommend this book?
Well, before finding this book, how many other Cantonese grammar-books that includes excercises did you find out there ?
Your answer is probably the same as mine was: none really.
So for lack of other options this book is as good as it gets.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars A missed opportunity, 11 Oct 2009
I've had this book for a little while now, but it (sadly) hasn't really helped very much. This is a shame, as for a reference grammar it has a lot going for it - plenty of examples, enough exercises to get to grips with the language, and explanations that really aren't bad at all.

No, the big problem is the lack of Chinese characters. There is a wide variety of vocabulary used, and literal translations are not always given - leaving the student floundering, having to look up each word, when the inclusion of the characters would make the task infinitely easier for anyone who knew them.

In any case, it's not like it's difficult to learn the writings (see James Heisig's books), and when learnt, all of Chinese falls nicely into place. You can feasibly understand anything written in just a few months, and excluding them means that literacy is that much further away from all students. Yes, Cantonese is primarily a spoken language - but being able to read and write lets you build up word-power in it very quickly. Without... and you're just stringing together apparently disparate, orphaned sounds.

That said, the resources out there for learning Cantonese are few and far between, and it's not bad for getting a feel of the language - it's just disappointing that the authors decided to omit the characters, and this sadly renders the book a lot less helpful than it could have been.
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