I finally found a tool that can speak Cantonese to me!
I can speak and understand Cantonese, but I sadly cannot read and write Chinese characters. My reading and writing knowledge of Chinese is probably equivalent to that of a third grade student. Disappointing, I know, especially to my parents who put me through Chinese school for 12 years.
Sometimes I can read half of a full sentence at best, but need help filling in the blanks. Since my parents aren’t around, and since I don’t have many Cantonese speaking friends, I must rely on Google Translate to help me out, but it reads it back to me in Mandarin so I can’t fully connect the dots because I am not as familiar with Mandarin as I am to Cantonese.
Enter this tool! The latest idiom I learned from reading some articles around Chinese language is 順其自然 , which means “go with the flow.” I feel I’ve heard it before from my parents, but certainly not in Mandarin. CU Vocal read it back to me in Cantonese, and I had that a-ha moment. Because I recognize the speech, because I’ve heard it before in Cantonese, because I can speak Cantonese, the idiom is now stored in my memory to where I’m sure I will be able to recall it later.
Anyway, I find myself having to learn more Mandarin these days as most of my friends who are Chinese speak Mandarin, and my housemates are from Taiwan so I hear a lot of Mandarin in the house. However, for anyone like me, an ABC (American Born Chinese) who speaks/understands Cantonese only, this link can help bridge any gaps between the dialects.