Wanting to teach toddler Cantonese

Hi! Just looking for recommendations/suggestions. I have a two year old and we would love to start teaching him Cantonese as his English is just exploding right now. My husband is Chinese/speaks Cantonese with his family but I’m Caucasian and at home we only really speak English so he feels he’s losing his skill.

I’ve used dropps before but just wondering if anyone has any videos/apps/suggestions for helping us to introduce Cantonese to our toddler?

Thank you so much!

Peppa Pig in Cantonese - find it on YouTube !

Disney+ has some cartoons in Cantonese

Speak only Cantonese at home. When they respond, only listen to Cantonese. A year and you are done.

But by the time he plays outside with friends, he will be speaking whatever is spoken in the playground

The most important things is forcing them to respond in cantonese, instead of responding in English, and giving them actual feedback, as in responding when they speak. Watching Cantonese media wouldn’t work unless they have very solid grasp of the language. One method is for your husband to only speak Cantonese to them and only response if they speak it back, ignored when speaking English.

This person (cantonese4parents) has some helpful tips and just started a website! https://instagram.com/cantonese4parents?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Netflix also has Children’s programming in Cantonese.

Many bilingual children come from a household speaking the language at home and it is different from school. So speaking cantonese at home and having them speak/learn english outside will help them know both naturally at daily life levels. :slight_smile:

If you don’t know cantonese you could learn it together with your baby, after all having them start to use cantonese at home and not be able to communicate with you may create a conflict for the child (I’ve heard of similar issues but every child is different).

Hambaanglaang! I’d recommend buying their readers, but it’s all on YouTube and pdfs on their website too. It’s great especially if you don’t know how to read Chinese characters.

My ex and I have been using a ‘one parent one language’ model: I speak Danish, their mother speaks Cantonese, and then we speak English to eachother.

Our 8 year old masters all 3 languages quite well by now, our 3 year old seems to have figured out that if he just speak English, we all understand… In that case I simply repeat what he says in Danish and ask if that’s what he means.

Anyway, getting some Cantonese content helps a lot, for instance Peppa pig is easy to find the same episodes in all 3 languages, and since kids like repetition it’s just about shuffling up the languages a bit. I see in other comments that bluey is also available in Cantonese, and that show can usually keep our 3 year olds attention.

Disney has a lot of Cantonese dubs. I just watched Nightmare Before Christmas, Enchanted, and The Lion King in Cantonese. I’ve also watched Lonesome Ghosts (1937), Trick or Treat (1952), and The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949) in Cantonese on the app. The dubs are very accurate IMO. My husband (he’s white and I’m a native speaker from HK) watched them with me since they’re also English subbed.

if you’re from the commonwealth country, I recommend using a website called https://www.hkanime.com

its basically a website which reuploads a bunch of anime in cantonese and can boost his vocabulary through watching

I recommend showing Cantonese dubbed Ultraman, they upload their superhero vs monster shows onto their Cantonese YouTube Channel for free.

Though most of them are blocked inside North America, becauce of licensing laws. A vpn would circumvent that if you have one and it’s also on ViuTV, though that is a Hong Kong-Macau only service.

Our toddler has shown interest in Cantonese Thomas and Friends (https://youtube.com/@thomasandfriendscantonese2521) and Cantonese Hello Kitty (https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDwe1hVop-7d_nYwip_bGDRd62kyao0iC).

Great responses already! Get your husband to only speak Cantonese with your son so he associate it as such. Also check out some (Disney) Cantonese dubs — and compliment with Cantonese songs. :slight_smile:

Talk to him, take him with you as you talk with others in cantonese and thats it

Watch TVB with him too! Classic!

Can confirm. Bluey is available in Cantonese!

I’ve found nearly every cartoon I put on comes up in Cantonese in Disney plus, including all the movies almost!!! It’s a goldmine!

Only my husband will be able to do this at this point since I’m planning to learn along with my toddler but maybe at least he could do this! Thank you!