ABSTRACT
The mastery of Cantonese romanization systems is one of the first and major obstacles for many learners of Cantonese. In this chapter, four systems used in Cantonese textbooks, namely the Guangzhou romanization scheme, Yale system, ILE system, and Jyutping, are chosen for comparison. We first compare them with IPA and the Hong Kong Government Cantonese romanization that is generally used in Hong Kong place names and discuss some major challenges that may be faced by Cantonese learners due to the romanization systems. We then offer some teaching and learning hints for mastering Cantonese pronunciations using Jyutping. Since many learners of Cantonese have prior knowledge of Mandarin, we then introduce EdUHK’s newly developed Cantonese self-learning platform and show how this platform can be used by Mandarin-speaking learners to effectively learn the phonological correspondence between Cantonese and Mandarin. Lastly, we propose a number of ways to use the platform’s search engine to make exercises based on each learner’s needs.
