LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Cantonese: Colloquial Cantonese
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People who can understand only either Mandarin or Cantonese can communicate with each other by writing because they use the same written characters with a few exceptions. The Chinese words were united by Emporer Qing Shihuang around 221B.C. (more than 2220 years ago) in China. But the colloquial Cantonese written down in words is sometimes hard to understand for Mandarin speaking people because Cantonese use lots of different expressions in their daily oral Cantonese. This is why Taiwanese and other Mandarin speaking people prefer World Journal to Singtao. Both newpapers are the most popular daily Chinese newspapers in the United States and Canada while Singtao has more Cantonese readers and World Journal more Mandarin speaking readers.
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Cantonese has appeared in writing since the 19th century. It is used mainly in personal correspondence, diaries, comics, poetry, advertising, popular newspapers, magazines and to some extent in literature. There are two standard ways of written Cantonese: a formal version and a colloquial version. The formal version is quite different from spoken Cantonese but very similiar to Standard Chinese and can be understood by Mandarin speakers without too much difficulty. The colloquial version is much closer to spoken Cantonese and largely unintelligible to Mandarin speakers.
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Historically, written Cantonese has been used in Hong Kong for legal proceedings in order to write down the exact spoken testimony of a witness, instead of paraphrasing spoken Cantonese into standard written Chinese. Newspapers have ... done likewise to capture more exact quotes. Its popularity and usage has been rising in the last two decades, the late Wong Jim being one of the pioneers of its use as an effective written language. Written colloquial Cantonese has become quite popular in certain tabloids, online chat rooms, and instant messaging. Some tabloids like Apple Daily write colloquial Cantonese; papers may contain editorials that contain Cantonese; and Cantonese-specific characters can be increasingly seen on advertisements and billboards. Written Cantonese remains limited outside of Hong Kong, even in other Cantonese-speaking areas such as Guangdong, where the use of colloquial writing is discouraged.
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This conversational Cantonese course is designed to build a very strong foundation of vocabulary for anyone interested in modern colloquial Cantonese by teaching students very commonly used as well as practical words, sentence structure and basic sentences/phrases. Students will learn through listening, speaking, practicing and studying words and phrases. Upon completion of this course, students will be familiar with over 1000 words and will be able to create and identify basic sentences/phrases.
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With the advent of the computer and standardization of character sets specifically for Cantonese, many printed materials in predominantly Cantonese speaking areas of the world are written to cater to their population with these written Cantonese characters. As a result, mainstream media such as newspapers and magazines have become progressively less conservative and more colloquial in their dissemination of ideas. Generally speaking, some of the older generation of Cantonese speakers regard this trend as a step "backwards" and away from tradition. This tension between the "old" and "new" is a reflection of a transition that is being undergone by the Cantonese speaking population.
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Cantonese is mainly an oral language. People in Hong Kong use standard Chinese (putonghua) when they read and write. They speak Cantonese in their daily interactions with people. As a colloquial language, Cantonese is full of slang and non-standard usage. The language of youth is rapidly evolving, and new slang and trendy expressions are constantly emerging.
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Colloquial Cantonese