Goh Goh and Dai Dai’s Big Day with Elephant
A Spoken Cantonese-English Storybook
Available in the UK (Cypress Books, Bamboo Bilingual), Canada (Little Kozzi),
Australia (Abbey’s). Most locations: Amazon. Also available by special order from most indie bookstores and major booksellers.
Goh Goh (Big Brother) and Dai Dai (Little Brother) have an unexpected visitor! Join Goh Goh and Dai Dai on their adventures around the house with Elephant.
Along the way, your child will have fun learning everyday dialog and household vocabulary. You’ll visit the living room and kitchen, go outside to play, and go through dinner and bedtime routines. This book is unique in its focus on spoken Cantonese, not formal Chinese.
This adorable book has been thoroughly kid-tested to help families have fun learning routine household words together!
This is a bilingual Cantonese-English book. Each word is written in traditional Chinese characters and color-coded to the Jyutping and alternate phonetic pronunciations, and English.
A free audio recording is included.
ISBN: 978-0999273067
Available in the UK (Cypress Books, Bamboo Bilingual), Canada (Little Kozzi),
Australia (Abbey’s). Most locations: Amazon. Also available by special order from most indie bookstores and major booksellers.
What people are saying
Available in the UK (Cypress Books, Bamboo Bilingual), Canada (Little Kozzi),
Australia (Abbey’s). Most locations: Amazon. Also available by special order from most indie bookstores and major booksellers.
“Want a book with Chinese characters, Cantonese romanization, English, and beautiful colorful illustrations? It’s not a dream anymore!
On most of the pages, there are a few simple sentences with a list of vocabulary words on the side. It is a finding book with a storyline. For example, when they were in the backyard.
The book talks about who wants to go play in the backyard, and what the brothers like. Then there is a list of extra vocabs to find in the backyard.
It is useful for expanding children’s vocabulary in an easy setting and context.”
– Fortune Cookie Mom, Goh Goh and Dai Dai’s Big Day with Elephant
(Full review with supplemental activities)
“My boys (5 and 8) love this book, especially my eldest! They love how the kids are a little mischievous, making a mess with the elephant as they go. The pictures are dynamic, implying a lot of action.
My 8 year old likes matching the English to the Chinese, using the colour coding, and he likes picking out the few simple Chinese characters that he knows.
The story is fun and practical, using a lot of common words. Having only really spoken Cantonese to my grandparents growing up, my Cantonese is quite limited. This book reminds me of (or helps me to learn) everyday words to use at home, plus I can learn them at the same time as reading to the kids.
And the story is written in a conversational tone, with different common sentence structures (including questions) that I can use with the kids.
The book also contains some subtle Chinese elements, like a wok, a dragon kite, Chinese food the kids were drooling over, etc. Plus the kids in the book are subtly half-Chinese and it’s so important for my kids to see themselves represented in books. This is a very practical fun book – I highly recommend it!
Goh Goh and Dai Dai’s Big Day with Elephant
– Samantha from Canada
“Great story to teach kids Cantonese!
As an ABC who can speak a little Cantonese and barely read Chinese, this book is perfect. It uses words as they are spoken in Cantonese instead of the formal way when it’s written.
The few other books I’ve been able to find use the formal way, which is confusing for me since I didn’t learn it that way, plus it’s not the way you would actually speak, which is the first thing I want to instill in my son.
The sentences are simple, so it’s great for teaching my son basic vocabulary, and it was simple enough that I could follow along with the Jyutping. FYI, the story follows Goh Goh and Dai Dai doing all sorts of daily activities… in the living room, outside, kitchen, eating, and bedtime routine. Please write more books like this!!!”
Goh Goh and Dai Dai’s Big Day with Elephant
– 5-star review on Amazon
Available in the UK (Cypress Books, Bamboo Bilingual), Canada (Little Kozzi),
Australia (Abbey’s). Most locations: Amazon. Also available by special order from most indie bookstores and major booksellers.
Available in the UK (Cypress Books, Bamboo Bilingual), Canada (Little Kozzi),
Australia (Abbey’s). Most locations: Amazon. Also available by special order from most indie bookstores and major booksellers.
Peek Inside this Bilingual Book!
In Spoken Cantonese, Jyutping & Alternate romanizationS & English
- Beautiful illustrations make learning fun
- All phrases are focused on everyday communication with your toddler
Key Phrases are Color-coded to English
- Learn basic vocabulary on a playdate around the house
- Vocabulary lists let parents and children point-and-name on the page together
- Color coding makes it easy and fun for adults and kids to learn together
Online Audio
- Our read-along makes learning to speak Cantonese as easy as possible
Available in the UK (Cypress Books, Bamboo Bilingual), Canada (Little Kozzi),
Australia (Abbey’s). Most locations: Amazon. Also available by special order from most indie bookstores and major booksellers.