We kick off KTV Wednesday this week with Wong Faye's Cantonese version of the popular Cranberries song Dreams. An amazing cover with fantastic lyrics, this song was featured in the 1994 film Chungking Express by Hong Kong director Wang Kar-wei. In part due to the popularity of the cover, Wang later released a mandarin version as well.

KTV Wednesday on Popup Cantonese is our regular music series highlighting great Cantonese music. Be sure to check out our text section for a manually annotated edition of the song lyrics - just roll your mouse over any word for a popup showing how to pronounce it along with its contextual meaning. Users in mainland China who have trouble viewing Youtube may want to check out this version on Youku.
 said on
December 15, 2010
I am curious about the format of these KTV Wednesday lessons. Are they just to provide random youtube links to popular cantonese songs, or will they provide lyrics with translations, or other language content related to the songs?

I like Faye Wong, although not so much this song :-P, but as a lesson, it would be more useful with some translations or cultural facts, or something relating the song to learning Cantonese.

Thanks in advance for any responses.
 said on
December 16, 2010
hi chuiyan,

This is just the discussion page! You can find the rest of the lesson materials on the menu at the top of any lesson page. :)

We have a manually-edited transcript of the entire song on our text page. Put your mouse over any word in the transcript for a popup showing the exact pronunciation and meaning of the word in that context. We also add explanatory notes when usages are non-standard, when the word functions in a particularly tricky grammar structure, or when there is something else that might be confusing. You can also click on any word on that page to add it to your online vocabulary list.

The vocabulary page provides an easy way to review and listen to key vocabulary, add the words to your private vocabulary list (along with the audio) and from there practice writing the characters with our Cantonese character pad or study them through our online Cantonese flashcards. Last but not least, there is a short quiz accompanying this lesson that can be used to test comprehension.

Not every lesson type is right for everyone. We're trying to put up a variety of materials so that people can figure out what works for them.

Best,

--david
 said on
December 20, 2010
Hi,

I don't wonna be a smart*** or anything but this one was actually bugging me for a while when I tried to follow the lyrics but something just wasn't right...

Verse 2 second line the transcript says 多想变认真 but I think it's supposed to be 多么想变真 if I'm not mistaken.

Anyways... love the song, great pick! Keep it up guys - Popup rules!
 said on
December 20, 2010
Hi p-v-n,

Thanks for pointing this out. It's fixed now.

--nicole
 said on
December 23, 2010
Thanks trevelyan. Sorry, I didn't even seen those links at the top of the page :-0
 said on
December 25, 2010
No worries. Next iteration of the site we'll put them in the HTML blink tag. :) In seriousness, a lot of people seem to miss finding the inner pages, so we'll probably have to redo the menu-bar at some point.