Start Learning Cantonese Today!
Refold’s (abridged) guide to (starting to) learning a language.
In this guide, you will be guided through how to begin learning a language. This guide is an excellent starting point, but after a few days/weeks of learning, you’ll want more!
Be sure to join the Refold Discord Community for more tips, tricks, and advice.
Join the discord servers:
The Refold Method
If you’ve found Refold, then you’ve probably already tried to learn a language, and you probably didn’t achieve the results you wanted.
We used to struggle too! Which is why we started Refold. We were tired of struggling for months, only to hardly be able to hold a basic conversation.
Our method focuses on two things:
- Learner success rate
- High level fluency
That first goal we solve by focusing on sustainable learning habits and having fun with learning. Once you’re able to have FUN in a language, you’ll never want to stop! You can enjoy YouTube, Netflix, podcasts, and novels.
And the second goal, of high level fluency, we achieve by ignoring traditional language learning advice. With the Refold method, you won’t be doing:
- Grammar Drilling
- Conjugation Charts
- Themed (and boring) Vocab Lists
- Translation
- Stressful Speaking Practice
These methods are okay if your goal is to pass a class and to get a passing knowledge about the language. But if you want to be able to naturally and easily speak, they won’t be much help.
Instead, we focus on building an instinct for the language, so that you understand easily and can imitate what native speakers say. You’ll sound much more natural and fluent.
We do this through immersion in the language, in the comfort of your own home, and becoming comfortable understanding the language, not through speaking and writing. You’ll do this by watching TV or videos in the language, listening to podcasts, reading books and whatever else you can find!
To get a better idea of the entire Refold method, here’s a 10-minute video which goes over the entire process!
The Basics of Cantonese
Phonetics (Sounds)
Cantonese Phonetics
Cantonese Script
Cantonese Vocab
Free Recommended Resources
Cantonese Most Common 1000 Words
A basic Anki deck organized by oral word frequency.
Grammar (Sentences)
Cantonese Grammar
Cantonese Video Grammar Course
Being a Beginner
Priming
Priming is what we call “studying things about the language.” We call it priming, since you’re only preparing yourself to learn those ideas and concepts during immersion.
If you learn a new word, for example, but you never see it in the real world, your brain will forget it very quickly, because it’s not useful. But if you see that word often and in context, your brain will realize it’s important, and store that information for the future.
Here’s a (slightly long) video diving into how we learn words (watching is optional):
For now, your priming should be learning the first 1,000 words of the language. We recommend using Anki for this, since it works on all platforms and doesn’t overwhelm you with tons of ads, paywalls and lets you focus on learning.
If you’re not interested in using Anki or you already have an app you like, you can continue with that. There are dozens of potential options like Memrise, Clozemaster, Lingvist, Duolingo, Buusuu, Fluent Forever, etc. Each have different benefits (and disadvantages) and support different languages.
Once you have your vocab priming tool ready to go, all you need to do is study every day!
Easy Materials
We also recommend beginning to immerse with very easy content. This is sometimes called “Comprehensible Input” or “Beginner Content” or “Learner Content.”
The main purpose of content like this is to make it easier to understand, even if you’re brand new to learning a language.
Here’s a tutorial on how to start using content from your very first day learning a language:
We recommend using YouTube to find content. There are thousands of hours of materials that you can access totally for free. But, don’t continue to use a YouTube account you already have in your native language.
It’s too easy to get distracted and end up not spending time with the language. Here’s a tutorial on how to set up an “immersion account.”
Beginner Content
Learning basic words and immersing in easy content can take you very far! You will struggle to understand things in the beginning, but with time, it gets much easier.
Immersion Tools
You could just use simple content and some priming, but there are a few additional tools that can make your life MUCH easier.
These tools allow you to easily look up new words you find and help you to understand immersion materials.
Language Reactor
Language Reactor is a Chrome extension which helps you to watch videos on YouTube and Netflix while quickly looking up words.
It’s optional, but we recommend you try it and see if you like it!
Popup Dictionary
A popup dictionary is a dictionary that you always have with you and opens to the right page, right away. We recommend Definer (available for Firefox and Chromium).
When you click on a word, it will be looked up and translated automatically!
Once you install the extension from the web store, it will work with no configuration, but if you’d like more detailed definitions, you can add more languages or dictionary sources.
Using tools like Language Reactor and Definer will help you to understand more of the language early on in the process.
Setting Yourself Up for Success
The final, and potentially most important, part of this guide is focused on your future. There are a lot of great language learning apps and resources on the internet, but great materials don’t matter if you don’t have a learning system.
Your learning system is how you approach your language learning. It’s a combination of your habits, routine, materials, mindset and many other things.
Systems Beat Motivation
You’re likely very excited to start learning a new language right now, but that motivation will fade. When it does, you need to have a daily system in place to carry you to success. Take a moment right now to plan your system.
At the beginning of your learning process, you should keep things as simple as you can.
Here’s a video talking about making your language plan.
Daily Minimums
Your motivation will fade. There will be days when you don’t feel like studying. On these days, the most important thing is to do ANYTHING in your target language, even if that just means 2 minutes of immersion.
This helps you build the habit and makes it easier to immerse the next day.
2 minutes is infinitely more than 0 minutes. So do 2 minutes, and call it a win.
Accountability Buddies
Conclusion
That’s the end of the Quickstart guide!
Save this page so that you can come back in the future.
If you need more support on your learning journey, check out our “Teach Yourself a Language Course” for a guided, coach supported learning journey.
