Ok, here goes nothing.

Since I am not about to be learning Cantonese characters, I am just going to write words as they sound to me. I am sure I am going to be WAAAAAAY off on a lot of them so if there are any Cantonese speakers out there I am all ears!

This is hard because I can't illustrate the different tones that are meant to be spoken. But it is still a good reference for me and I like to document because I am a visual learner.

I will probably do each lesson at least twice a day. I just completed the first and this is NOT easy at all...

1. Excuse Me - Saing Mon
2. English - Yaing Mon
3. You Can Understand - Nay Sec Tang
4. Can't Understand - Um Sec Tang
5. You Can't Understand - Nay Um Sec Tang
6. Can You Understand? - Nay Sec Um Sec Tang Ah
7. Excuse Me Miss - Saing Mon (Seautsay) I think?
8. Can You Understand English? - Nay Sec Um Sec Tang Yaing Mon Ah
9. I Can Understand – Maw Sec Tang
10. Cantonese – Gwong Tong Wa
11. I Can’t Understand Cantonese – Maw Um Sec Tang Gwong Tong Wa
12. A Little (Some) – Ya Tea
13. I Can Understand A Little English – Maw Sec Tang Ya Tea Yaing Mon
14. American (United States) – May Gwa
15. People (Person) – Yon
16. To Be – Hi
17. I am – Maw Hi
18. You are – Nay Hi
19. You are American – Nay Hi May Gwa Yon
20. I am not – Maw Um Hi
21. Are you? – Nay Hi Um Hi Ah (Literally: You are, aren’t?)
21. Are you American? – Nay Hi Um Hi May Gwa Yon Ah
22. Yes – Hi
23. Yes. I am American – Hi. Maw Hi May Gwa Yon

Wow Xen, I've got to tip my hat off to you. Cantonese is considered by many linguists to be the world's most difficult mainstream language to learn. Those nine tones are so hard, that most Mandarin speakers can't understand it. Every time I try to pronounce Cantonese with my friends who speak it, they break into titters and tell me to give it up. Good luck on this one!

I am sure I am going to butcher the language when I speak it, but I have got to try. We'll see how it goes.

Xen

Brings back all kinds of bad memories. My Thai ex-wife spoke fluent Cantonese. Turns out she had been the mia noi of a major Hong Kong businessman for 5 years before I met her.
She was a great help when we were in HK, but almost got us arrested in mainland China several times . She would get severely pissed off that no one could understand what she was saying and would start major fights in restaurants that would have the owners threatening to call the police !

If you want to practice Cantonese-- I'll be glad to introduce you to her !!

I did this unit again and noticed things I didn't notice the first time around. The biggest thing I noticed was the pronunciation of "I." It should really be "ngaw."

I am going to try and listen to each unit twice a day. It should work out perfect for my trip if I can stick to it every day between now and then.

KM, thanks for the offer.