Welcome to my blog dedicated to the correct pronunciation of Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese. I appreciate your visit!
This blog began in 2017 as a collection of weekly insights about the Chinese language learning process in general, and contained all weekly class updates for the two 1 year-long intro courses that I taught during the 2017-2018 academic year at ALESN in NYC: Cantonese I and Mandarin I. Due to my work schedule at the time, I needed to stop teaching halfway through that particular academic year. The remainder of my classes were covered by other ALESN teachers.
From September, 2018 through February, 2019, I populated this blog with straight copies of my weekly update emails written to my ALESN students in NYC. Once each class reached the point where I had stopped teaching the previous year due to my work schedule, I continued with brand new blog entries, also copied from my email updates to my students at the time.
I did not teach Chinese during the 2019-2020 academic year, but rather taught absolute beginner level ESL to Cantonese and Mandarin speakers in NYC's Chinatown as a member of the YMCA's New American's Initiative at MS131. I hope to eventually blog a bit about my experiences teaching basic English in Cantonese and Mandarin to new immigrants in NYC's Chinatown community.
I did not teach Chinese during the 2019-2020 academic year, but rather taught absolute beginner level ESL to Cantonese and Mandarin speakers in NYC's Chinatown as a member of the YMCA's New American's Initiative at MS131. I hope to eventually blog a bit about my experiences teaching basic English in Cantonese and Mandarin to new immigrants in NYC's Chinatown community.
After almost 2 years away from my Chinese studies during the first part of the Pandemic here in NYC, I am finally back, and am currently adding new content for my two 2021-2022 beginner classes that I am once again teaching in Manhattan's Chinatown --
BUT, BUT BUT...
Due to shortsightedness on my part in 2017 when I initially set up this blog, ALL CURRENT POSTINGS ARE STILL [INCORRECTLY] CLASSIFIED AS EITHER CANTONESE OR MANDARIN "2017-2018."
SORRY FOR THAT!!!
I will not have time to go back in and change all of the hundreds of posting labels to properly archive older entries from years past, nor to relocate my older postings to archive folders and then rename any current lessons as "2021" onward -- so please pardon the incorrectly labeled years for my recent and current Cantonese I and Mandarin I postings...
Please check out www.ALESN.org for more information on the amazing FREE language and culture outreach program here in NYC where I studied and taught Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese. Besides being a teacher at this school for 5 years and a student for 7, I was also Associate Director of the program as well as a member of the Board of Directors for ALESN's 501 (c)(3).
In addition to 2017-2019 and 2021-2022 weekly posts directed towards my beginning in-person Cantonese and Mandarin students here in NYC, this blog also supports my private tutoring services that I offer in-person and online, which have, for the most part, been on hiatus due to the Pandemic. If you are interested, please contact me, as I do offer Zoom and Facetime lessons.
Unlike most Cantonese and Mandarin teachers and tutors in NYC, I exclusively focus on beginner level pronunciation and tones and offer "clean-up" services to help students fix major pronunciation and tone errors, bringing their spoken Chinese to within an acceptable window of what would be understood by a native speaker without forcing that native speaker to play charades in order to understand what the hell the student is trying to say.
For new readers of this blog who are not studying with me here in NYC, please check out the oldest posts for my Cantonese I and Mandarin I classes for the 2017-2018 academic year, in which I explain my "no nonsense" teaching philosophy.
DISCLAIMER: I want to be clear that I am not fluent in either Cantonese or Mandarin, and I have never claimed to be. I pronounce both dialects with a thick "white person" accent, and I still have A LOT to learn vocabulary-wise in both dialects...BUT, when I go to Hong Kong and China and I open my mouth, real, understandable, functional basic Cantonese and Mandarin sounds come out. There is no need for charades, and if I don't know how to say something, I am able to ask in Cantonese or Mandarin how to say the thing that I don't know the words for...and then the conversation continues. I am usually understood the very first time I speak, by people who don't know me, who are in a hurry, who don't give a shit about my life or what I am trying to ask them or talk about.
Please click on any of the categories in the navigation bar up top or on the right hand side of your screen to get started -- or to read your weekly class emails and homework assignments if you are one of my students.
Thanks for reading and good luck with your own Chinese Language Learning Adventure!
Please check out www.ALESN.org for more information on the amazing FREE language and culture outreach program here in NYC where I studied and taught Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese. Besides being a teacher at this school for 5 years and a student for 7, I was also Associate Director of the program as well as a member of the Board of Directors for ALESN's 501 (c)(3).
In addition to 2017-2019 and 2021-2022 weekly posts directed towards my beginning in-person Cantonese and Mandarin students here in NYC, this blog also supports my private tutoring services that I offer in-person and online, which have, for the most part, been on hiatus due to the Pandemic. If you are interested, please contact me, as I do offer Zoom and Facetime lessons.
Unlike most Cantonese and Mandarin teachers and tutors in NYC, I exclusively focus on beginner level pronunciation and tones and offer "clean-up" services to help students fix major pronunciation and tone errors, bringing their spoken Chinese to within an acceptable window of what would be understood by a native speaker without forcing that native speaker to play charades in order to understand what the hell the student is trying to say.
For new readers of this blog who are not studying with me here in NYC, please check out the oldest posts for my Cantonese I and Mandarin I classes for the 2017-2018 academic year, in which I explain my "no nonsense" teaching philosophy.
DISCLAIMER: I want to be clear that I am not fluent in either Cantonese or Mandarin, and I have never claimed to be. I pronounce both dialects with a thick "white person" accent, and I still have A LOT to learn vocabulary-wise in both dialects...BUT, when I go to Hong Kong and China and I open my mouth, real, understandable, functional basic Cantonese and Mandarin sounds come out. There is no need for charades, and if I don't know how to say something, I am able to ask in Cantonese or Mandarin how to say the thing that I don't know the words for...and then the conversation continues. I am usually understood the very first time I speak, by people who don't know me, who are in a hurry, who don't give a shit about my life or what I am trying to ask them or talk about.
Please click on any of the categories in the navigation bar up top or on the right hand side of your screen to get started -- or to read your weekly class emails and homework assignments if you are one of my students.
Thanks for reading and good luck with your own Chinese Language Learning Adventure!
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