Whether you require an intensive one-to-one Cantonese course at our London training centre or an in-company Cantonese training course at your offices, Communicaid can provide you and your organisation with a language course that meets your needs. With training schools in London, Paris, Frankfurt and New York providing countrywide coverage and partner organisations worldwide, Communicaid is uniquely placed to be your local, national and international training partner for Cantonese language courses / lessons.
Our Cantonese courses / lessons are highly personalised and designed to improve your Cantonese communication skills, whether your focus is social, business, financial, diplomatic or legal.
Benefits of our Cantonese language course
A Communicaid Cantonese course / lesson will provide you with the ability to:
- Demonstrate goodwill and facilitate international communication at both a personal and
organisational level
- Interact more confidently when visiting Cantonese-speaking regions or dealing with
Cantonese speakers
- Build rapport and strengthen relationships with Cantonese-speaking colleagues and clients
through a show of interest in the Cantonese language and culture
Who should attend our Cantonese school
A Communicaid Cantonese language course is suitable for:
- Anyone planning to relocate to a Cantonese-speaking region and wishing to attend an
Cantonese course in order to prepare in advance for their assignment
- Business professionals conducting business regularly with Cantonese speakers who wish to
build rapport and strengthen relationships by attending a Cantonese course
- Government and non-governmental agency representatives working in Cantonese-speaking
regions who need to be able to communicate at all levels
Cantonese course content
The content and format of your Cantonese course will depend on your profession, proficiency in Cantonese and objectives. Whether beginner, survival, intermediate or advanced, key areas covered in all our Cantonese courses include:
- Speaking and listening skills
- Reading skills
- Using the telephone in Cantonese
- Email and writing skills in Cantonese
- Sector-specific terminology
- Presentation & negotiation skills Approach
Cantonese language training is available seven days a week, 365 days a year for those who want to learn Cantonese. Our Cantonese classes take place between 08:00 and 20:00 although training is also available outside of these hours upon request.
Suitable tailored and published materials will be used throughout your course, with recommendations on self-study material and extra reading made at the beginning and throughout the duration of your course.
We offer a variety of training formats for your Cantonese course – from intensive, weeklong courses to extensive, modular lessons. Appropriate formats will be discussed during your diagnostic consultancy (please click here to read more about our approach).
Cantonese course trainer
All Communicaid Cantonese trainers are native speakers with at least 3 years’ professional Cantonese training experience. In addition to relevant academic and linguistic qualifications and experience, many of our Cantonese trainers also possess considerable exposure and expertise in the professional world.
Your Cantonese trainer will be assigned to you following the results of your diagnostic consultancy according to your objectives and areas of focus. Detailed below is a sample profile of a member of our Cantonese training team who will take the Cantonese class.
ML
A native Cantonese speaker, originally from Hong Kong, ML has moved from a career in the finance sector to freelancing as a Cantonese language trainer and interpreter. Since joining Communicaid in 2004, ML has worked with individuals who require Cantonese for business purposes. Owing to the lack of published materials to support Cantonese language training, ML also designs and develops her own programme materials to teach the Cantonese class.
ML possesses a Bachelors degree in Finance and Accounting and a further one in Language Education.
粵語; 粤语 – Facts about the Cantonese language
Cantonese is an official language of Hong Kong and Macau. It is spoken by approximately 66 million people around the world, with the largest concentrations of Cantonese-speaking communities in China and South-east Asia. Outside of Asia, significant size communities are located in North America and New Zealand, formed as result of mass emigration.
Cantonese is a Chinese language of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages. It resides in the same group as Mandarin but while many Mandarin speakers may speak Cantonese or vice versa, the two languages are not mutually intelligible. There are at least four major dialect groups of Cantonese: Yuehai, which includes the dialect spoken in Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Macau, Sìyì which used to be ubiquitous in American Chinatowns before 1970; Gaoyang, as spoken in Yangjiang; and Guinan (Nanning dialect) spoken widely in Guangxi. However, Cantonese generally refers to the Yuehai dialect.
Cantonese can be written in two different forms.
(1) A formal version which is essentially formal Standard Mandarin in written form but that does not accurately represent the spoken language
(2) A colloquial standard version that is reflects spoken Cantonese more closely and is written in a mixture of standard Chinese characters and hundreds of extra characters specifically adapted to represent spoken Cantonese.
The Chinese written language employs Chinese characters, a system based on logograms, where each symbol represents a morpheme (a meaningful unit of language). With the language constantly evolving, the number of characters in existence is a changing figure. Latest count is estimated at approximately 49,000. |
Language Courses
+ 44 (0)20 3370 8580
