1. The first step in learning words is to train your ears and hear the difference between two different sounds. Different languages have different phonemes. When you learn Cantonese, at least half of the sounds are unheard of in your life. Most people are not very sensitive to sounds other than their mother tongue, so it is not easy to distinguish them. For example, chicken gei 1 in Cantonese does not have this sound in Mandarin (E in Cantonese is different from E in Mandarin, which means short A sound), and it is usually confused with street gai 1. Pay attention to the difference between these sounds when learning.

The second step in learning words is to practice your mouth. Sometimes you know how to pronounce that sound, but when you speak, you will unconsciously pronounce another sound or stutter. This kind of "lip service is not enough" happens because you are not skilled in the pronunciation of this language, your tongue is not flexible, and your pronunciation will be unconsciously influenced by your mother tongue. The only solution is to train your mouth by speaking more.

The third step in learning words is to train your eyes. When listening to others, we should not only listen to his voice, but also look at his mouth, how his mouth moves and what his mouth looks like. For example, the pronunciation of "Dian" and "Dian" in Cantonese is very similar. The pronunciation of point din2 ends with lip closure, and the pronunciation of point dim2 ends with lip closure. If you could see the difference, you wouldn't confuse the two voices.