Tag: Canadian English

Hong Kong Cantonese VS Guangzhou Cantonese

Yidan

As a big fan of Hong Kong TV dramas, movies and songs, I always admire people from Guangdong province where Cantonese is a major lingua franca. They understand Hong Kong Cantonese dramas without subtitles, sing Cantonese songs and communicate with people from Hong Kong without any barrier. According to Norman, Cantonese is considered the prestige variety of Yue Chinese variants, based on the dialect of Guangzhou City (Canto) and the surrounding areas including Guangdong and Guangxi province, Hong Kong and Macau (p.215, 1988). However, a question has always lingered in my mind: is there any difference between Hong Kong Cantonese and Guangzhou Cantonese? After research and observation, I find that there are mainly two differences to help distinguish Hong Kong and Guangzhou Cantonese. 

Continue reading “Hong Kong Cantonese VS Guangzhou Cantonese”

Do Canadians Close Their Mouths More While Speaking Because It’s Cold?

Brian

You have no idea how many hours I have spent in the classroom teaching, listening to, and analyzing American English pronunciation. Actually, I have no idea either. We would go over all of the sounds, especially vowels, figuring out the differences between bat, bet, and bit, and between bot and but.

As I corrected my students’ pronunciation, and attempted to model it myself, I started to realize something: while my students were repeating the sounds accurately, it didn’t sound natural. But it was me that didn’t sound like the recording. In order to teach the lessons, I had to speak differently, which meant moving my jaw and opening my mouth more than I was used to.

Continue reading “Do Canadians Close Their Mouths More While Speaking Because It’s Cold?”
css.php