When I was a kid growing up in the 60s, 70s, the best sicama in the world was found at a little Los Angeles Chinatown bakery. Back in those days they had slivers of almond on the sicama that were as big as a man's thumb nail. Now with inflation, you barely get any almonds. There are many ways to write the word for sicama in Chinese. Seeing as it's a Manchurian word and many have attempted to replicate the Manchurian pronunciation of the word using the Chinese characters phonetically. They've even got them packaged for sale in Chinese/Asian supermarkets. I even found it once in a Chinese cafe far from Chinatown.

I've always said "ngaap", but googling seems to reveal that "aap" is the jyutping pronunciation.

Is it a regional thing? To me, "aap" feels like we got lazy with the pronunciation, but maybe I've been saying it wrong my whole life...

HELP!

Edit: Woah, thank you so much for all the replies - was glad to see that I'm not the only one saying ngaap! Historic background with the tone 1-3 not having ng- sound was super enlightening (as well as the trend to add ng- to make things sound "proper"!)

Thanks again for all replies!

I'm not an expert but from my understanding, 'colloquial' Cantonese and 'written' Cantonese are very different and b/c I know Mandarin, I could tell that the 'written' Cantonese was basically just 普通话 with maybe some differences that aren't bigger than British/American while using Cantonese readings of the word. But why did they choose to use Mandarin as the basis for standardized Cantonese instead of how Cantonese was actually spoken?

Sorry if this is a dumb question

Can people from Guangdong have romanized Cantonese names on their passports like people from Hong Kong? Or do they have to use Mandarin pinyin?

Hi,

During COVID lockdown I found a Cantonese learning group in WhatsApp and was wondering if anyone happened to know it or are still a member. I found it really useful. It seems to be US based and someone would once in a while post educational stuff or host chats etc.

I’m not certain this title translation is correct, for I simply know modern’s definition is 現代, or maybe 現代 shares the same definition to 新時代，please change my mind

Hi all,

As I have previously released a cantonese word of the day app. This app is finally available on Android.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eeffoc.coffee.speakcantonese&hl=en_SG

Please have a look and give feedback!

Edit: Also adding the link here to App Store

https://apps.apple.com/sg/app/speak-cantonese/id1660807886

Singapore Janice Vidal Fanpage – Calling all fans!

Hi everyone! I’m a big fan of Janice Vidal (衛蘭) from Singapore, and I recently created an Instagram fanpage to gather fellow fans and celebrate her music, voice, and journey together.

Her songs have helped me through tough times, and I know there must be others out there who feel the same. Since there isn’t a known SG-based fan club yet, I wanted to create a space for fans to connect, share song recommendations, edits, and memories!

I’ll be posting regularly—lyrics, edits, music moments, and concert updates. Would love for you to join me and follow the page: [@jvsquad_sg]

I found some fonts on my phone but those fonts are a little bit unreadable. Didnt find anything similar on Google hence the question for the mighty Redditors!

Thanks.

When I was a kid back in the 60s, 70s, we used to have something similar to what the guy ate at the beach all those years ago. In Los Angeles' Chinatown they had something called ah geuhk baoh, similar to what he described in the video, but, ours had a chunk of cha siu and a chunk of liver then the intestinal wrap around the duck feet.

Does anyone have any idea which nursing homes in Massachusetts that have Cantonese speaking program or staff besides South Cove Manor for my elderly mom? She doesn’t speak any English and South Cove Manor has a minimum 2 year waiting list for long term care.

NYC meet up for dim sum

Thank you very much for your patience.

Hi everyone,

so I have a small board game bought in Hong Kong, similar to snakes and ladders.

On some of the squares it has some indications like

"Jump to, Run fast to, slip back to, etc."

And I have been learning to read some cantonese so I have been helping myself out with google lens and figuring out how to read the characters I don't know.

However, this one line shown in the picture above, I think it's Mandarin (?) I recognize Bú (不）instead of the m (唔).

So, i got confused is this Mandarin? Is the whole game in mandarin just traditional character so they often made sense in Cantonese?

Or is this just another Cantonese character for a negation? I've seen it in 不過 before...

Can someone explain, I've just been learning to speak mostly and don't know much about writing/reading yet.

Thanks!

Squirrels like durian?!?!?!

My friend is coming back from Guangzhou and we are surprising her at the airport! We want to put up a poster saying "Welcome" or "Welcome back" but I don't want to write it wrong for her! Can someone help us?