Cantonese Conversations Review 2025: The Course That Launched Me Into Intermediate
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Table of Contents
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Course Overview
- 3. Who is Cantonese Conversations For?
- 4. What Makes This Course Unique?
- 5. Detailed Content Review
- 6. How I Personally Used Cantonese Conversations (Step-by-Step)
- 7. Pros and Cons
- 8. Pricing and Value
- 9. What to Do After Cantonese Conversations?
- 10. Quick FAQs
- 11. Final Recommendation
1. Introduction
After 7 years of speaking Cantonese, I still find myself using phrases I first learned from one specific course: Cantonese Conversations.
I got this course in early 2018, 6-7 months into my Cantonese learning journey. I wasn’t progressing any longer with beginner material and needed something to jumpstart my ability to learn to understand fast, native Cantonese speech. Because, aside from writing Chinese characters by hand, Cantonese listening comprehension is the most challenging aspect of the language—not speaking, not even reading.
I still remember sitting in my room in Norway with a cup of coffee, looking at the beautiful fjords in the mornings and working through the course. Ah, such great memories.
This course was a game-changer on my journey to learn Cantonese. It not only boosted my level but taught me how to improve my listening skills. It was course the course that dragged me from beginner to intermediate. Before starting it, I struggled to understand anything beyond beginner material. After completing it, I had the confidence to tackle authentic content—TV shows, movies, YouTube videos.
My speaking ability improved dramatically too, because authentic expressions I learned made me sound more "Hong Kong-like"—something that never fails to surprise and impress locals.
Why write this Cantonese Conversations review in 2025, 7 years later? Because good Cantonese learning resources are still hard to find, and this remains the best Cantonese course available. And since Storylearning stopped creating Cantonese materials years ago, this course might not be around forever. This review will help you decide while you still can.
2. Course Overview
Unlike StoryLearning's other Conversation courses (available in 8 languages, see them here), Cantonese Conversations is a unique one-off creation. When Olly Richards was learning Cantonese himself, he became frustrated with the lack of quality materials and decided to create this course to fill the gap.
What You Get: Cantonese Conversations is a course that contains 29 authentic conversations total—18 video conversations, plus 11 audio-only. The videos feature six native Hong Kong speakers (three men, three women) in different combinations, having spontaneous 3-4-minute discussions about real topics like working as a photographer in Hong Kong, navigating long-distance relationships, and hiking around the city’s beautiful mountains.
Instead of watered-down "textbook language", these are unscripted conversations between people— natural speech patterns, slang, and the lightning fast of real Hong Kong Cantonese.
The Learning Materials: Every conversation comes with word-for-word transcripts featuring Chinese characters, jyutping romanization, and English translations. Crucially, the Chinese transcriptions match exactly what's spoken in Cantonese—not the Standard Written Chinese you'd see in movie subtitles. This gives you authentic spoken Cantonese in written form, providing a way to achieve 100% comprehension of these authentic Cantonese dialogues.
3. Who is Cantonese Conversations For?
This course is for learners stuck between beginner materials and real Cantonese. You've got the basics down but native speech feels impossible. Here's the thing: you're probably ready for this challenge even if you don't think so. I certainly didn’t think I was ready for it and had been putting it off. I kept drilling beginner content until someone advised me I just need to jump in—and I’m so glad I did.
The courses bridges the gap from beginner materials to Cantonese intermediate comprehension, helping you understand Hong Kong TV shows, movies, and actual conversations with native speakers.
Even Intermediate Cantonese learners will benefit in by learning practical vocabulary and expressions sharpening listening skills .
Who is it NOT For?
Completely beginners — It's too challenging without foundational vocabulary. I suggest to build up roughly around 500-1,000 basic words first (See my post How I Learned Cantonese From Scratch - Part 1 (Year 1) for beginner recommendations.)
Learners focused on reading/writing — It emphasizes listening and understanding spoken Cantonese, not literacy (for reading and writing, check out my post The Smartest Way to Learn to Read & Write Chinese.)
Advanced learners already comfortable with native content — If can follow roughly 70-80% of Hong Kong media and conversations, you’ve outgrown its core purpose, though it’s still useful. Refold's Listening course to improve for advanced skills & methods (see my detailed review “Level Up Your Listening”—Refold Course Review for more details.)
People seeking grammar instruction or pronunciation training — It focuses on comprehension, not grammar or speaking skills.
4. What Makes This Course Unique?
When you watch Hong Kong movies or TV shows, the subtitles are in Standard Written Chinese (which is basically Mandarin), but people don't actually speak that way in Cantonese. They use different words, particles, and expressions that are rarely written down since Cantonese is first and foremost a spoken language.
Cantonese Conversation screenshot (from Storylearning’s sales page)
Most Cantonese learning resources feature a watered down textbook-approach to learning Cantonese—not this course. It uses completely natural dialogues between native Hong Kongers.
The conversations are completely unscripted and there’s no slowing down their speech for learners—just real colloquial Cantonese.
What’s so valuable about Cantonese Conversations is that gives you word-for-word transcripts of exactly what the native speakers say.
This includes all the "la", "ge", "ah" particles and natural speech patterns that make Cantonese sound so unique. Each conversation is transribed exactly as spoken: in Chinese characters and jyutping romanization. This is especially valuable for Cantonese learners since the nature of the language—short words, spoken very fast—are difficult to pick up through listening alone until you reach an advanced level of listening.
All the conversations have English translations too, which is surprisingly hard to find for authentic Cantonese resources and content. The combination of transcripts and translations makes 100% comprehension achievable, something nearly impossible with other Cantonese resources.
5. Detailed Content Review
Cantonese Conversations offers a package of 29 authentic conversations—18 videos and 11 audio-only—designed to boost your Cantonese listening skills. Let’s take a look at the content, the quality, and how it’s organized.
Content and Format
This Cantonese course features 18 videos with six native Hong Kong speakers (three men, three women) discussing real-life topics. These 3-4-minute unscripted conversations capture natural Cantonese, complete with slang and expressions used in everyday speech.
Example of transcript format (from StoryLearning's sales page)
Conversations topics include:
• Hiking in Hong Kong
• Cultural Differences Between UK & HK
• Love Trouble
• The Joys (And Nightmares) Of Being A Tutor
• What Do HK'ers Do During Holidays
• Snow's Year In The Netherlands
All conversations have word-for-word transcripts in Traditional Chinese Characters and jyutping romanization, plus English translations.
At the end of each transcript is a helpful ‘Vocabulary List’, with tricky vocabulary and expressions from the conversation (a pre-made Anki deck with this vocab is included so you can import all of it in one go).
The 11 audio-only lesson cover similar everyday topics. All materials, including videos, audio, and transcripts, can be accessed online via StoryLearning’s platform or downloaded for offline use.
Audio-only versions of the video conversations are included for on-the-go-listening.
Olly’s Method
An introductory video by Olly Richards guides you on how to get the most out the course. The fact that one of the reason he made this course was to improve his own Cantonese makes it feel believable and trustworthy.
Olly recommends listening multiple times before using transcripts to really train your ears, then selecting key vocabulary for review (e.g., via a flashcard app). This method, based on his own Cantonese journey, helps you gradually comprehend these native conversations.
Technical Quality
Cantonese Conversation screenshot (from Storylearning’s sales page)
The videos are clear but simple, filmed in a basic setting which looks like the back wall of an arts studio.
Audio quality is dated as they seem to have used room mics rather than close micing, and there’s a minor echo and some noise in two of the audio-only lessons.
All in all, it’s clear enough for learning (I didn’t think it was bad seven years ago) but not up to modern standards.
Content Difficulty
The course lacks a structured progression (i.e., easy → hard). The first conversation is quite tough, while the second one is easier. So be prepared to spend more time on some lessons than others. This can be confusing if you’re expecting a steady climb, but it does prepare you for for real-life conversations, where complexity can vary a lot depending on the topic.
6. How I Personally Used Cantonese Conversations (Step-by-Step)
This course threw me into the deep end from day one. The native Hong Kong speakers rattled off dialogues at breakneck speed, loaded with local slang and expressions. It was very tough to keep up and I could barely catch every three words.
Because of this, I came up with my way of studying using this course that not only made it more manageable but also turned out to be very effective.
Here are some key things I did:
Splitting it up audio smaller chunks — Listening and repeating 30-45 seconds at a time made digesting the content a lot less overwhelming and more manageable.
Slowing down specific parts & looping it — Some parts went by so fast my ears couldn’t even process it, even after listening multiple times. Slowing down the audio of specific parts and looping it gave my ears and brain a chance to pick it up. When I then went back to normal speed my ears were able to hear it and process it, even though it was fast.
Made my own pure jyutping transcript — Instead of reading along with a transcript that had all of them—Chinese Characters, jyutping, and English—I decided to copy-paste to make a pure jyutping transcript. That way I could follow along with as little distraction as possible, as well as highlight words I didn’t know and wanted to learn.
The material is challenging, but that's exactly what you need for a language like Cantonese. As you push through the lessons you start hearing actual words and phrases instead of drowning in the speed. If you can just get past the first lesson, you’ll be fine!
This process took me several months, but that's completely normal. Good listening comprehension doesn't develop overnight—especially for Cantonese. The key is patience and celebrating small wins along the way. Just stay with those native speaker dialogues even when they feel overwhelming, because it’s the consistent exposure that will make the language finally click—a feeling you definitely don’t wanna miss out on!
Want more specific steps how to use Cantonese Conversations effectively? Check out my guide:
Get My Free 7-Step Guide to Master Cantonese Conversations!
Unlock the secrets to getting the most out of the Cantonese Conversations course with my free 6-step process—download now at lingtuitive.com/cantonese-conversations-guide!
7. Pros and Cons
✅ Pros
Unique spoken focus — The only Cantonese course I know with authentic, unscripted conversations.
Engaging content — Honest, personal discussions on topics like love and culture keep you hooked.
Authentic transcripts —- Word-for-word Cantonese transcript with jyutping and English, rare for spoken content.
Visual learning — Video conversations show gestures and expressions, boosting comprehension.
Practical and lasting — Everyday expressions you’ll use for years (I still do!).
Flexible access —Downloadable videos, audio, and transcripts for offline learning.
Bonus tools — Pre-made Anki deck and 30-day refund guarantee add value.
❌ Cons
Dated audio: Sound quality is clear but below modern standards, with minor echo on one speak on two tracks.
No video subtitles: Transcripts are separate, not embedded in videos.
Varying difficulty: No structured progression; some conversations are tougher.
Desktop only: No dedicated app for mobile access.
No standalone jyutping: Transcripts combine jyutping, Chinese, and English (need to manually copy-paste to a document for jyutping-only).
The only course that bridges beginner to intermediate Cantonese through authentic conversations
8. Pricing and Value
Cantonese Conversations costs $97 for lifetime access—half the $197 price of other StoryLearning Conversation courses.
Why It’s a Steal: The lower price reflects its unique format: 29 raw, authentic conversations without the story arcs or updates over the years. You get downloadable videos, audio, word-for-word transcripts, word lists with tricky vocab & idioms, a pre-made Anki deck, and at least 50-100 hours of practice—far more than four $25/hour tutor lessons. It’s valuable learning content at a budget-friendly price.
Despite dated audio, the authentic content delivers unmatched value at $97.
Why Act Now: This 8-year-old course hasn’t been updated, and StoryLearning’s lack of new Cantonese content means it may not be available forever. Secure lifetime access to Cantonese Conversations now.
Risk-free: Get a 100% refund with 30-day money-back guarantee if not satisfied (email support@storylearning.com).
Less than $3.50 per conversation • Lifetime access • Instant download
9. What to Do After Cantonese Conversations?
Here are some tips that based on my personal experience I recommend to do after Cantonese Conversations.
Further Level up Your Cantonese listening Comprehension: I highly recommend Refold’s course Level Up Your Listening as it teaches super useful techniques and tools for how to use any and content to improve your listening comprehension. See my in-depth course review here and how it revolutionized my Cantonese learning: “Level Up Your Listening”—Refold Course Review.
Get a teacher Cantonese is a spoken language—so it’s important to use it in speaking! Plus, having conversation practice lessons with native speakers is very motivating a great way to develop your Cantonese. Weekly lessons helps you stay on track. I recommend using either of these platforms:
LanguaTalk → my favorite learning platform for language lessons due to its sleek design, great support, and high quality tutors (some even offer a Free 30-minute trial lesson)
iTalki → has more Cantonese tutors available (get $10 extra credits after your first purchase using my link)
Learn to read Chinese Characters: I highly recommend that you learn to read Chinese characters, as that will significantly help you learn Cantonese. I wrote a post about my method for how I’ve learned to read books in Chinese: The Smartest Way to Learn to Read & Write Chinese. Beyond expanding your vocabulary, reading skills let you use subtitles as a listening comprehension tool—you can instantly verify what you think you heard.
10. Quick FAQs
Q: Will this help me understand Hong Kong movies/TV shows?
Learning to understanding authentic content from Hong Kong takes a long time. But Cantonese Conversations is a key first step toward being able to access this type of content.
Q: How often should I review the same conversations?
As often as you need to understand them without the transcript.
Q: Should I watch with or without transcripts first?
Definitely without first, to stretch your listening as much as possible (for more tips → download my free Cantonese Conversations guide)
Q: Can I download the content for offline use?
Yes. Everything (audios, videos, and transcripts) is downloadable.
Q: How Long Does Cantonese Conversations Take to Complete?
It's hard to give an exact timeframe since it depends heavily on your current level. An upper beginner/lower intermediate learner spending 30-45 minutes daily might complete it in roughly 90 days, but might take longer to reach 100% comprehension.
Q: Is this suitable for complete beginners?
No. The level is very challenging, even for upper beginners. I recommend checking out my post How I Learned Cantonese From Scratch - Part 1 (Year 1) for a complete roadmap on how to get started with Cantonese as a beginner.
Q: Is the audio quality good?
It’s okay but outdated. At the time it was pretty standard, but our demands have increased for sound quality since then.
11. Final Recommendation
Before I started this course, I didn’t know how to improve Cantonese listening. Seven years later, I still catch myself using expressions I learned from this course. When watching Hong Kong TV shows or listening to podcasts, I’ll also regularly think "oh, I remember learning that from Cantonese Conversations!"
The Reality for Cantonese Learners: Unlike Japanese or Mandarin learners with tons of options, we have very little Cantonese learning resources to choose from. Quality spoken Cantonese materials are rare, forcing us to create our own learning systems in order to learn to understand fast, native Cantonese speech.
Cantonese Conversations still fills a critical gap. Despite dated audio quality and it being 8 years old (without any updates), it remains the only course that teaches authentic spoken Cantonese through real conversations, complete with the slang and colloquialisms you actually need.
The Transformation: As you work your way through this course there’s something so rewarding about finally keeping up with rapid, colloquial Cantonese. It’s a feeling unlike other languages because of how challenging listening comprehension is in this language.
The people I know who have reached at least an intermediate level in Cantonese have all used this course. The material is dense, practical, and irreplaceable. It creates a clear ‘before and after’ in your Cantonese journey. It certainly did to me as it led to a major shift in my Cantonese comprehension, speaking ability, and confidence.
My Verdict: If you’ve completed beginner materials and still struggle with native-speed speech, I highly recommend to get Cantonese Conversations. Nothing else bridges this gap as effectively. It remain as relevant today as when it was made and it’s the best Cantonese course for learning spoken language and launching you into intermediate.
The only course of its kind • Lifetime access • May not be available forever
Related posts:
“Level Up Your Listening”—Refold Course Review (a course that seriously leveled up my Cantonese)
How Me Speaking Cantonese Made Our Hong Kong Honeymoon Magical
