I'm learning Cantonese because I'm studying in Hong Kong and I really like the language. Whenever I come to a country and stay for a longer time, I will learn the native language. Especially in Hong Kong it is fun. People are always surprised and happy when you speak some Cantonese to them, besides m goi and lei hou. So that is really motivating. I try to use Cantonese as often as possible, but most of the time I use it to order food or ask for the way. When I'm chatting with my friends on the phone, I use Cantonese whenever I know to say it in Cantonese. The difficult part about Cantonese is the lack of resources. There is no class at my university. (We have a lot of German classes for foreign students at my university, including a 2 weeks intense workshop). I couldn't find a proper textbook yet. They often use a mix of spoken and written Cantonese without telling you and sometimes have weird romanisation. Another problem is that native think it is impossible to learn Cantonese and no foreigner can speak it. So they expect me as a foreigner not to know how to speak it. Well I don't blame the locals, because I'm the only one who learns Cantonese out of my western friends at university. Like I said, I usually order my food in Cantonese, but they will never answer in Cantonese. So during my 3 months in Hong Kong I never had a conversation in Cantonese, except some staged ones for practice. Also quite troublesome is the difference between written and spoken Cantonese. Especially in the beginning I learned a lot of written Cantonese, because I didn't know the difference.

I think explaining the difference between spoken and 'singing' Cantonese help. I wanted to learn how to sing songs at first, but then found out apart for a few bands (LMF, which I don't recommand teaching most people:P), most pop singers use "literary" Cantonese when singing. I also wish more movies used Cantonese subtitles so the sound spoken have a written counterpart, this is what slows down my learning a lot. Someone once decided to stop using Canto characters subtitles and it really makes it hard now...

1) Why would you like to learn Cantonese? Mainly due to culturally reasons, I am a 3rd generation Chinese so would love to learn Cantonese fluently. Plus Cantonese is just a fun and expressive language! 2) How often do you use this language? And in what situations (In a classroom? When interacting with Cantonese speakers?)? Basic Cantonese with my parents, however my parents are not native speakers (their level is about the same as mine) so it is hard to improve. 3) What is the most difficult part of learning Cantonese? Similar to what Chris said, the hardest part is when I bring in Mandarin vocabulary and tones. It can get really confusing! Also the lack of teaching material, I am more or less self teaching myself from watching movies and speaking on italki as there are hardly any up to date books for intermediate level.

Hi! I live in Sydney Australia and there is a large Cantonese speaking community here. I have background knowledge of Mandarin so learning Cantonese has been slightly accelerated (and really fun!), however I also struggle with the written and spoken varieties. Sometimes i bring in Mandarin vocabulary with Cantonese pronunciation and more often than not sound strange or misunderstood.

Learner SC, It is an interesting approach! I believe the Lau romanisation was invented by Sydney Lau (劉錫詳). Later on, a couple of romanisations were invented or introduced: WSL proposal, HKIEd proposal (based on WSL proposal), LSHK (or Jyutping developed by Linguist Society of Hong Kong), etc. And some textbooks take the liberty to further adjust the symbols or tones based on them. I called them "proposals" because HK Government almost never made any of them official. In my opinion, it should be an interesting read but you should also be aware of the changes of pronunciation, the choice of words and expressions by native speakers over the time, since Lau's romanisation was created in the 60s, and Cantonese, no matter in Hong Kong or Guangzhou or all over the world, already changed tremendously, needless to say the effects of IT which changes our life upside down (or it is impossible for us share our thoughts here now :-D), so I may suggest you to have a look at the "new" romanisation systems, which i think reflect the current pronunciation better.