The Three Foresteers Go To Mongkok
Coming in at the final hour (before we close up shop 😝) — the latest title in the Three Foresteers series just arrived, featuring bilingual text, spoken Cantonese, inline jyutping, and cultural Hong Kong content!
This time, the three friends（森林三友）head over to Mong Kok — a very old, and very densely populated district of HK, where they eat yummy street foods 「掃街」, check out local markets, and visit traditional Cantonese shops!
Annie Mau — a native HK Cantonese speaker who now works as a graphic designer in Hamburg Germany — initially created these stories for her daughter, Victoria, to help her learn Cantonese while abroad!
Every night, Annie would tell Victoria about the adventures of the Three Foresteers. Over time, she turned these beloved tales into books!
Truth be told, our family doesn’t use a *lot* of “spoken Cantonese” books Given my limited time & energy, I focus most of my efforts on standard written Chinese when teaching reading because it’s easier for a young Cantonese speaker to learn to read spoken Cantonese *later* once they have mastered reading standard written Chinese, than the other way around (I’ve got a whole substack post on this — too long to get into here 😝)
That said, we’ve enjoyed having Three Foresteers books on our shelves. It certainly helps that it features themes that are very close to heart (❤️🇭🇰), but there’s also something about Annie’s writing, where she produces very well-written spoken Cantonese prose… Prose that feels more than “just” transcribing Cantonese speech (again, more thoughts on this in a substack post)
Anyway, this is a fun book, especially if you enjoyed her previous titles! Great for families who are building spoken language skills and vocab, who may not read Chinese, and who want to learn more about HK culture!
Get your copy here: The Three Foresteers go to Mongkok • 森林三友去趁墟
Going to also slide in here: Last days to order for it to arrive before xmas👇
- Shipping within Canada & USA: Wed, Dec 13
- Pick up in Toronto: Sat, Dec 16
More details on holiday timelines can be found on our shipping page!