• Audio,  Kids,  Parents

    Talking to kids about racism

    I was listening to a podcast recently, where the interviewee raised the point that he would rather initiate a conversation about racism with his 4-year-old daughter, rather than wait for her to ask him about it. His rationale was that this meant that he could control her first exposure to the topic, and ensure that it was explained properly to her. It can be tricky to talk about these topics with your child (and definitely a personal decision as to when you wish to do so), so I thought it may be helpful do list some basic vocabulary and sentences with Jyutping translations. The sentences are a bit simplistic but…

  • Audio,  Kids

    Musical Instruments 樂器 (ngok6 hei3)

    Here is the audio accompaniment to the set of 12 flashcards on musical instruments. To use in a sentence, you would add the following verbs: 吹 ceoi1 = to blow (used for flute, harmonica, saxophone, trumpet)打 daa1 = to hit/strike (used for drums)拉 laai1 = to pull (used for cello, violin) 彈 taan4 = to play (used for guitar, harp, piano, ukulele, xylophone)

  • Audio,  Kids

    Medicine 醫科 (ji1 fo1)

    Some basic medical terms in a set of 12 flashcards. Two of the terms (doctor and nurse) are also in the occupations set, but I didn’t want to leave these out! 醫生 ji1 sang1doctor

  • Audio,  Kids

    Occupations 職業 (zik1 jip6)

    This audio goes with the set of 12 occupations flashcards. There will be at least one follow-up set with more occupations covered. Apologies if your occupation is not covered in this set!

  • Audio,  Kids

    Animals 動物 (dung6 mat6)

    Back to basics! Here are some animal flashcards useful for babies/toddlers/kids of all ages. I’ve always found that most kids absolutely adore animals and that children particularly engage with real-life pictures. These are covered in the First Words and Animals books so can be used to help revise/reinforce vocab. Most of the phrases are used in formal Chinese as well. The exceptions are: 羊 joeng4 sheep – formally this is 綿羊 min4 joeng2雀仔 zoek3 zai2 bird – formally this is 鳥 niu5⽑⽑蟲 mou4 mou4 cung4 caterpillar – also more simply called ⽑蟲 mou4 cung4 狗 gau2dog

  • Audio,  Kids

    More feelings 情感 (cing4 gam2)

    This was a special request from Carolyn at CCCNJ. There is a previously published post with audio covering nine basic feelings (including happy, sad, shy etc) that you can download here. These flashcards cover different and more nuanced feelings suitable for older children. Four of the feelings have been covered in the emotions/feelings wheel but I’ve used photos here to hopefully convey a better idea of the emotion for kids. Please bear in mind that some of the vocabulary is very colloquial and only used in informal conversations, in particular: 矇查查 (mung4 caa4 caa4) confused開心到傻咗 (hoi1 sam1 dou3 so4 zo2) happy as a fool笑到轆地 siu3 dou3 luk1 dei6 rolling on the floor…

  • Audio,  Kids

    Emotions/feelings in Cantonese

    Emotions are a difficult topic to discuss in any language. I have created a simple emotion wheel with illustrations that you can use with your kids. Here is the audio to go with the simple emotions/feelings wheel, which you can download by clicking the button below: 興奮 hing1 fan5excited