How To Find Cantonese Subtitle Videos to Learn Cantonese

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Find Cantonese Subtitle YouTube Videos to Learn Cantonese

If you are learning Cantonese like me, chances are you have come across the issue of not being able to find enough Cantonese resources and content. One problem I had, in particular, was that I wanted to find videos with Cantonese subtitles to practice connecting spoken Cantonese with some written characters. What made it extremely difficult was that there were so few videos of such kind. Most Cantonese content with subtitles had subtitles in Standard Written Chinese or English, not in Written Cantonese.

Through my struggles, I was able to find a neat hack to finally find Cantonese videos with Cantonese subtitles. After doing so, I was able to find a lot more useful resources to help me self-study Cantonese.

In this blog post, I’ll share my secret trick to discover Cantonese subtitle videos on YouTube, helping you in your journey to learn Cantonese.

Some Context: Cantonese Subtitles in Cantonese Media Are Not What You Think

If you’ve ever watched Hong Kong movies or TV shows with subtitles, you might have noticed that sometimes the subtitles don’t seem to match the words that come out of the actors’ mouths. If this has ever happened to you, that is because the Chinese subtitles of a lot of Cantonese media are in Standard Written Chinese.

If you are just starting off learning Cantonese, this might surprise you, as you might expect that the subtitles would be in Cantonese. Read ahead to understand the difference between Standard Written Chinese and Written Cantonese.

Standard Written Chinese vs Written Cantonese

Standard Written Chinese generally follows current-day Mandarin, which is why you see the phenomenon where Cantonese media has spoken lines that do not match up with the subtitles. For example, in a Cantonese movie with subtitles, sometimes the text does not line up exactly with what the actor is saying.

For example, take the phrase: I like to eat in English.

This would be the equivalent of 我鍾意食飯 (ngo5 zung1 ji3 sik6 faan6) in Written Cantonese.

However, the Standard Written Chinese version of this phrase has a different word for both 鍾意 (to like) as well as a different version to say 食 (to eat).

The Standard Written Chinese version of this phrase would be 我喜歡吃飯 (ngo5 hei2 fun1 hek3 faan6).

Notice the difference in word choice:

鍾意 (zung1 ji3) becomes 喜歡 (hei2 fun1)
食飯 (sik6 faan6) becomes 吃飯 (hek3 faan6)

As you can see, the change of word choice can be very confusing for someone who is still learning Cantonese and needs to correlate spoken Cantonese sounds with Chinese Characters.

Lack of Cantonese Subtitles in Cantonese Content

As a Cantonese learner, the lack of Cantonese Subtitles for Cantonese content can be frustrating. More often than not, subtitles are not provided in general. However, whether we are talking about mainstream media or online platforms such as YouTube, not having Written Cantonese subtitles can make learning Cantonese more difficult than it needs to be.

When I study Cantonese, I want to not only watch videos with a native speaker speaking Cantonese but also get reading practice by matching the audio to Cantonese Chinese characters. This audio-to-script mental mapping that I do when I’m watching videos with subtitles helps me internalize and acquire new vocabulary faster.

Is Reading Cantonese Subtitles Helpful For Learning Cantonese

In my opinion, reading Written Cantonese subtitles is incredibly helpful for those of us learning Cantonese. Even if you completely understand spoken Cantonese, having the subtitles appear will help you better recognize Chinese characters. Written Cantonese is better than Standard Written Chinese for Cantonese students because you can do a 1-to-1 mapping from the sound of a word with its written form.

Becoming familiar with Cantonese characters will unlock a lot of new avenues for you when it comes to learning and using Cantonese.

For one, it will allow you to consume more Cantonese content. When you can recognize Chinese characters – and particularly Cantonese characters – you will be able to browse internet forums in Cantonese and write messages to Native Cantonese speakers via messaging apps or text messages.

Getting a stronger grasp on Chinese characters also unlocks the ability for you to write better notes, as now you have a way of capturing ideas and new learnings with not only your native language but also in Chinese.

How to Find Cantonese Videos with Cantonese Subtitles

Now that we have a better understanding of the common struggles and difficulties that come with Cantonese subtitles, how do we go about overcoming them?

As mentioned earlier, Cantonese learners often encounter the challenge of only finding Cantonese content with subtitles written in standard Chinese, which doesn’t match the spoken words. To bridge this gap, we’ll explore my strategy for finding Cantonese content with Cantonese subtitles.

This quick and unconventional method depends on using one of my personal favorite online tools for learning foreign languages: YouGlish.

How to Use YouGlish to Learn Cantonese

YouGlish is a fantastic tool for finding words and phrases in context within YouTube videos. It scans through videos to locate the word or phrase you search for, making it an excellent resource for language learners. To find Cantonese subtitle videos, follow these steps:

Search for a Cantonese-Specific Word: Let’s take the word “點解” (dim2 gaai2) as an example. Copy this word and visit YouGlish’s Chinese version.
Select Hong Kong (HK): Choose Hong Kong as your preferred region, as it’s more likely to feature Cantonese content.
Start the Search: Paste the word “點解” into the search bar and click on the “Search” button.
Skip over videos that are not speaking Cantonese: There are limitations of YouGlish in that it does not directly separate Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese searches. However, more likely than not, the majority of videos you encounter will be in Cantonese thanks to what we completed in Step 1.
Browse through videos until you find one interesting to you: YouGlish doesn’t curate content for your personal tastes. You may need to spend some time scrolling through videos until you find a topic interesting for you. Once you find one, I recommend that you check out the YouTuber’s other videos as chances are, if they included Cantonese subtitles in one video, they’ll likely include them in another as well.

Why Cantonese-Specific Characters?

If we followed the above steps, we might have seen some videos with the word “點解” in them.

An important thing to point out is that YouGlish will only display videos containing the word “點解”. Since it’s a Cantonese-specific word, you’re even more likely to find videos with Cantonese subtitles. If you had used some other word that may also exist in Mandarin, you’ll have a lot more content to filter through until you find a Cantonese-speaking video.

My suggestion is that you click on any video that interests you to watch and learn from it.

How to find Cantonese-Specific Characters?

To begin, you’ll need Cantonese-specific characters. These characters are distinct from the Cantonese language and will help narrow down your search. Some examples of Cantonese-specific characters include 冇 (mou), 係 (hai), and 佢 (keoi). Some other examples of Cantonese Characters and words: 冇, 係呀, 唔該,點解，呢度，唔晒，佢，瞓覺，乜嘢，畀，靚.

If these lists aren’t enough for you, we can try to look some more up on Wikipedia’s Written Cantonese page.

Benefits of YouGlish to Find Cantonese YouTube Videos

Using YouGlish to search for Cantonese-specific words offers several advantages:

Cantonese Subtitles: Since you’re searching for Cantonese-specific words, you’re more likely to discover videos with Cantonese subtitles, allowing you to both read and listen to the spoken dialogue.

Contextual Learning: YouGlish presents words and phrases in real-life contexts, helping you grasp their usage and pronunciation within sentences.

Diverse Content: We can explore a wide range of videos online on YouTube. YouTube has such a wide variety of types of videos you will find that surely you will find something up your alley there.

Conclusion

Learning Cantonese is a rewarding journey, and having access to Cantonese subtitle videos can significantly accelerate your progress. By using YouGlish and searching for Cantonese-specific words, you can discover content that can act as a tool to progress your Cantonese language goals. So, whether you’re a beginner or an intermediate learner, I recommend that you start applying this trick to find Cantonese subtitle videos!

There you have it!

With this handy trick, you’ll be able to dive deep into some great new Cantonese content to enhance your understanding of the language. Hope you find it useful!