Catlike Studio

30/11/2023

I'm so pleased to announce that my third Cantonese/English rhyming book, MY RESCUE CAT《我隻領養貓》, is out now!

// WHAT'S IT ABOUT?

The book is about an abandoned cat who finds a forever home with a little girl and her family—and it's loosely based on the true story of how we adopted our cat, Zeke!

// WHERE TO BUY

Paperbacks are live on my website, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.

Ebooks are live on my website, Amazon, Google Play, and Smashwords.

Hardcovers are taking a little longer.
- My website: on backorder, the shipment is currently processing at the printer.
- Amazon: product page isn't up yet but will be within the next week or so.
- Barnes & Noble: available to order
- Other retailers: coming soon!

Audiobook: you can listen to and read the whole book for FREE on my YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-81cPRpkaZA

Grab the book now 👉 https://catlikestudio.com/books/myrescuecat/

PS: Catlike Club members, make sure to check your inboxes for an exclusive launch deal 👀

23/12/2022

This year we've been super last minute with Christmas preparations! Our tree's still incomplete, we haven't done the Christmas shopping, or finalized plans for Christmas dinner. But with this printable, we did manage to do all our Christmas cards in an afternoon. Grab yours by signing up here: https://bit.ly/catlikeclub

09/09/2022

Happy Midautumn Festival! Throwback to some calligraphy art of the character 月 (jyut6/moon) and 兔 (tou3/rabbit), two very important characters to know for this time of year, and a little comic to make you laugh.

No green tea lava moon cakes for us this year; we weren't organized enough to order them and my parents already preempted us by gifting us with two traditional white lotus paste mooncakes last week.

12/04/2022

Amazon.com.au is running a sale on the hardcover of Today is my Birthday! It normally retails for $24.95 AUD but you can get it now for just $13.98 AUD: https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/0645149802/

11/04/2022

School holidays are here! If you're looking for something to fill up the schedule, Cantonese for Families 屋企講廣東話 has done a fantastic Easter round-up here.

Easter Holidays are coming! How are you celebrating? Please check out these Cantonese and Traditional Chinese resources.
https://cantoneseforfamilies.com/easter-cantonese-activities-and-resources/

For my Christian brothers and sisters, here is playlist of Easter Christian Stories in Cantonese for Kids on YouTube.
https://cantoneseforfamilies.com/easter-christian-stories-in-cantonese-for-kids/

30/03/2022

🎉 NEW BOOK RELEASE!! It's about a little girl who loves to ride her bike with her family. Spring is here, which means she and her family can join the great annual cycling festival in Sydney. In this book, she discovers many types of bicycles and all the different ways people ride them.

The story is told using everyday conversational language and rhymes in Cantonese *and* English! It also comes with Jyutping romanization underneath the Traditional Chinese characters and a FREE audiobook (🌏 www.catlikestudio.com/readalong/) to help with pronunciation.

If you know someone who would love this book, please share this post or tag them in the comments!

I thought the second book would be easier to write, but it turned out to be much tricker. Special thanks to Ka Leung Chan and the Hong Kong Cycling Alliance for their help with all the bicycle terminology in Cantonese and a HUGE shoutout to my wonderful beta readers. They helped me see where the story wasn't flowing and where the rhymes were awkward. Without their input, my favorite spread in the book (the black and white drawing pictured here) would not exist!

26/02/2022

Last chance to join the Catlike Club before the beta reader invitation goes out! In a true 🤦🏻‍♀️ tech fail moment, I discovered that something was broken on the newsletter sign-up form this morning. I am so sorry!!! If you tried signing up yesterday and didn't get a subscription confirmation email, please try signing up again so you don't miss out: https://bit.ly/catlikenewsletter

Because of this stuff up, I'm extending the sign-up deadline until 9:00 AM Sydney time tomorrow (24 hours)! If you know someone else who would love a chance to beta read this book, please share this post with them. I'm looking forward to all your feedback on how I can make this book even better!

25/02/2022

A sneak peek at my next Cantonese/English rhyming storybook! 😊 It's taken much longer than I wanted but the book is now ready for beta readers. In exchange for your honest feedback, you'll get a FREE copy of the published book (in your format of choice)! If this sounds like something you're interested in, make sure you sign-up for my newsletter (https://bit.ly/catlikenewsletter). The beta read invitation goes out to the Catlike Club tomorrow!

30/01/2022

In celebration of Chinese New Year, I've done this art of 虎 (fu2), which means “tiger”. The origins of this character are pretty simple – it’s a pictogram of a tiger! Happy Chinese New Year! 新年快樂! (san1 nin4 faai3 lok6) May you have good fortune in the Year of the Tiger!

Follow along to write the character 虎 (fu2) with this YouTube video: https://youtu.be/8SBUpkOBEqw
Free printable here: https://bit.ly/catlikeprintables

25/10/2021

In celebration of Halloween (鬼節/gwai2 zit3), this week's character is 鬼 (gwai2), which means "ghost". The origins of this character are pretty simple - it's a pictogram of a monster!

Download your FREE printable worksheet:
https://bit.ly/catlikeprintables

Watch the accompanying YouTube video:
https://youtu.be/2rpy4hgYjkY

The 田 (tin4/field) character is used to indicate a deformed head (with the dot on top suggesting a horn). The 儿 (jan4/person) radical is used to represents the legs, with 厶 (an ancient form of 私, being si1 which means self/selfish/private) being a tail.

Happy Halloween! 鬼節快樂! (gwai2 zit3 faai3 lok6)

19/10/2021

This week's character is 天 (tin1) which means "sky" or "heaven" (the translation I like the most is "celestial").

Download your FREE printable worksheet:
https://bit.ly/catlikeprintables

Watch the accompanying YouTube video:
https://youtu.be/w0HlLSYmUZQ

The origins of this character is quite interesting. Since it's very difficult to depict the sky in a glyph, this character developed from the 大 (daai6/big) character.

大 (daai6) is a person (人/jan4) with outstretched arms to indicate something big. 天 (tin1) is the same character, with an added stroke at the very top. Quite a clever way to indicate that the sky is the big expanse above a person!

11/10/2021

Happy International Day of the Girl Child! This week's character is 女 (neoi5) which means "female" in general terms, but can be used to mean "woman", "girl" or "daughter" depending on context. The correct formal pronunciation is "neoi5" but in day to day conversation, you'll probably hear people say "leoi5" due to the evolution of Cantonese.

This character comes from a pictogram of a kneeling or standing woman (not my favorite etymology, given its gendered origins). That's why the International Day of the Girl Child is so important: so we all remember that girls have voices and we should hear, amplify and celebrate them!



Download your FREE printable worksheet:
https://bit.ly/catlikeprintables

Watch the accompanying YouTube video:
https://youtu.be/khL8PlGRd-Y

04/10/2021

This week's character is 先 (sin1) which means "first".

Download your FREE printable worksheet:
https://bit.ly/3pWKfLM

Watch the accompanying YouTube video:
https://youtu.be/Vsup7IWJ_0I

The origins of the 先 (sin1) character is actually quite involved!

The top part comes from 㞢, an ancient form of 之 (zi1). 之 (zi1) has many meanings, but one of them is "to go", which can be seen in its two componenets: the character 止 (zi2) for "foot" and 一 (jat1) for "one", which marks the starting place of the journey.

The bottom part comes from 儿 (jan4), the radical form of 人 (jan4), which means "person".

Put these three parts together, and you can see that the character 先 (sin1) represents the person who takes the first step!

27/09/2021

This week's character is 光 (gwong1) which means "light". I love the origins of this character, which has two components: the top component is 火 (fo2) for "fire" and the bottom component is 儿 (jan4), an old way of writing 人 (jan4) which means "person". So there is "light" when a person carries fire!

Download your FREE printable worksheet:
https://bit.ly/catlikeprintables

Watch the accompanying YouTube video:
https://youtu.be/KsR5MKilxZo

20/09/2021

中秋節快樂! Happy Midautumn Festival! In celebration of the Midautumn Festival, this week’s character is 兔 (tou3), which means “rabbit” or “hare” in Chinese. The origin of the 兔 (tou3) character is pretty straight forward…it comes from a pictogram of a rabbit!

Download your FREE printable worksheet:
https://bit.ly/catlikeprintables

Watch the accompanying YouTube video:
https://youtu.be/tjuOAgCegws

You can see how the character evolved over time by checking out the older versions of the 兔 (tou3) character on the Uncle Hanzi website:
https://hanziyuan.net/ #%E5%85%94

14/09/2021

This week's character is 包 (baau1) which means "wrap" or "bundle", but you probably recognize it as the word for bread or bun and are used to spelling it "bao" (which is the Mandarin pinyin for this character).

Download your FREE printable worksheet:
https://bit.ly/catlikeprintables

Watch the accompanying YouTube video:
https://youtu.be/K0CkUzc6VxI

According to Uncle Hanzi, this character has two components: 勹 (the ancient form of baau1) and 巳 (zi6). 勹 originates from a pictogram of a hand holding something and 巳 represents a fetus or baby. So 包 (baau1) originally was a pictogram of a swaddled baby!

08/09/2021

This week’s character is 父 (fu6), the formal term of address for “father” in Cantonese. Together with the 母 (mou5) character, it forms the compound word 父母 (fu6 mou5), the formal term for “parents” in Cantonese.

Download your FREE printable worksheet:
https://bit.ly/3pWKfLM

Watch the accompanying YouTube video:
https://youtu.be/PdXOyP7FJ1s

It originally began as a pictograph of a hand holding an axe (probably because the axe was a common tool that men used to do work). You can look up all of the different forms of the 父 (fu6) character throughout history at the Uncle Hanzi website.

Personally, I always see this character looking like a father carrying his child high upon his shoulders. A belated Happy Father’s Day to all the wonderful dads out there!

01/09/2021

This week's character is 吃 (hek3) which means "eat". This is the formal term, as usually we say 食 (sik6) in daily conversation. When you look at the two components of 吃 (hek3), you can see it is made up of 口 (hau2, meaning "mouth") and 乞 (hat1, meaning "beg").

Download your FREE printable worksheet:
https://bit.ly/3pWKfLM

Watch the accompanying YouTube video:
https://youtu.be/anPTU32CpXE

It's just so perfect, since when we're hungry and we want to eat, we open our mouths to beg for food! 🤣 (yes I still do this as an adult when I'm too lazy to get up from the couch and want to be fed)

29/08/2021

Thank you to everyone who shared the giveaway, to everyone who entered and to all of you for the wonderful birthday wishes!

The winners have been drawn using Random.org and they are: Joyce Lam, Victoria Chen and Robin Chan. Congratulations! Please check your emails and make sure you respond within 48 hours to claim your prize. If no response is received within 48 hours, another winner will be drawn.

The results of the drawing can be verified here: https://www.random.org/draws/details/?draw=142087 (just input the email address you used to enter the draw)

27/08/2021

My internet *seems* like it's fixed (ish) so let's give our usual Friday a shot! We're just chilling and drawing to some relaxing jazz today, no chat/banter from me. Come hang out and get stuff done with me! https://youtu.be/I9qaiV_lVBw

I'll be working on spread 6 of my second Cantonese/English bilingual rhyming picture book. Today I'm just doing a short chill stream, no chat. 😊// BE THE F...

26/08/2021

Today is my birthday! So I want to celebrate with a giveaway of my Cantonese/English book, "Today is my Birthday!" 😄 Enter via https://catlikestudio.com/giveaway/

It's been a bit of a crazy year for me. This time last year, I was recovering from a work-related breakdown. I quit my corporate job with no specific plans, other than to take time and work out what I wanted to do. In January, I started working on this book for my daughter. Seeing her face light up when it arrived in time for her 4th birthday was an amazing experience! My life today is so different to what it was 12 months ago, and I am so grateful for all my blessings.

There are 3 copies up for grabs. Entry open to Australia, NZ, US, UK and Canada (excluding Quebec). Giveaway ends at 8:59 AM AEST on Monday, 30 August 2021. Winners will be announced on IG, Facebook and Twitter.

20/08/2021

Sorry folks! We've run into some technical difficulties with today's stream. Looks like it's an issue with the internet...not stable enough to stream 😭 so I guess I'll be drawing by my lonesome. See you guys next week (hopefully the issue will be fixed by then!)

19/08/2021

Regular Friday will be on in a few hours. It's been an exhausting week, so this week's stream will just be relaxing jazz, art and zen (no chattering from me 😊).
https://youtu.be/l5JxM5UySuA

I'll be working on spread 6 of my second Cantonese/English bilingual rhyming picture book.// BE THE FIRST TO KNOW WHEN BOOK 2 COMES OUT!💌 Sign up for our n...

18/08/2021

This week's character is a simple but important one: 中 (zung1) which generally means "centre" but also is used as a shorthand for China or Chinese. Some of the other meanings for 中 (zung3) include "hit" or "affected", where it is pronounced with the third tone instead of the first tone.

Download your FREE printable writing practice worksheet:
https://bit.ly/3pWKfLM

Watch the accompanying YouTube video:
https://youtu.be/Ydm3lGM1kg0

According to Uncle Hanzi (https://hanziyuan.net/ #%E4%B8%AD), this character was originally a pictograph of a string heddle which became simplified over time to be a line dividing a shape in two.

I always like to think of it as a knife 🔪 cutting a cake 🍰 into two pieces...right down the middle! 😁

12/08/2021

Livestreaming in a few hours! This time I'll make more of an effort to speak in Cantonese.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfWhWY0rlrE

I'll be working on spreads 5 and 6 of my second Cantonese/English bilingual rhyming picture book.// BE THE FIRST TO KNOW WHEN BOOK 2 COMES OUT!💌 Sign up fo...

12/08/2021

This week's character is 魚 (jyu2 when used as a single word, or jyu4 when used in a compound word) which means fish! It is one of my favorite easy characters to learn because its form is so close to the original pictogram of a fish.

It's so easy to see the fish's head, body and tail. I always like to pretend the 十 inside the 田 represented the bones of the fish, though it's easier to draw them as the edges of the fish's scales.

Download your FREE printable worksheet:
https://bit.ly/3pWKfLM

Watch the accompanying YouTube video:
https://youtu.be/HgLRBGG9Hwo

06/08/2021

It's Friday so I'm livestreaming again! BYO work and get stuff done, or just come hang out and watch me work on the next book!

https://youtu.be/7_tqhNfFtmA

Hang out with me as I work on the illustrations for my second book!

04/08/2021

In celebration of World Breastfeeding Week, this week's character is 奶 (naai5 / milk). The character 奶 has two components: the left half is the character 女 (neoi5 / female, a very important radical) and the right half of the character comes from the top half of 孕 (jan6 / pregnant).

孕 (jan6 / pregnant) is actually a fascinating character that I did not know, as when we speak in Cantonese, we normally refer to pregnancy as 大肚 (daai6 tou / big belly). 孕 (jan6 / pregnant) is comprised of the character 子 (zi3 / child, another important radical) inside what looks like a woman's belly!

It is one of the many beautiful examples of why Chinese is such an amazing language - even if you don't immediately know what a particular character is, if you understand how Chinese characters are derived and constructed, you can intuit a character's meaning just from how it is written.

Download your FREE printable writing practice worksheet:
https://bit.ly/3pWKfLM

Watch the accompanying YouTube video:
https://youtu.be/VYJWKktUEOw

30/07/2021

Livestreaming today! Bring your own work or just chill out and hang with me as I work on my next book:

https://youtu.be/drjIHDhYbA8

28/07/2021

Our character for this week is 月 (jyut6)! Just like 日 (jat6), 月 (jyut6) refers both to the moon and a period of time: one month. That is because traditionally, Chinese people used a lunar calendar to measure time, rather than a solar calendar. We still do this today, as important dates such as Chinese New Year is calculated according to the lunar calendar!

Download your FREE printable worksheet:
https://bit.ly/3pWKfLM

Watch the accompanying YouTube video:
https://youtu.be/1PIDAmTN7nI

23/07/2021

Come hang out with me as I work on my second book! https://youtu.be/nQ3DISHXBME

Hang out with me as I work on the illustrations for my second book!

20/07/2021

I made a mistake with last week's character, 火 (fo2). Corrections have been made to the video and printables*, but it got me thinking. Does stroke order still actually matter today? Here's a quick video with my thoughts...and I'd love to know whether you agree.

https://youtu.be/evG5Wq1LLNA

*Going forward, I'll be using the stroke order as per the Hong Kong Chinese Lexical Lists for Primary Learning as issued by the HK Education Bureau as the authoritative source

I screwed up in last week's video on the 火 (fo2/fire) character - I messed up the brush strokes, namely the order in which they should be written. But it got...

16/07/2021

This week's character is 星 (sing1) which means "star" but is also used to refer to the days of the week. For example, Monday is 星期一 (sing1 kei4 yat1).

It's made of up two characters that we learned earlier! The top part is the character 日 (jat6) and the bottom part is 生 (saang1/sang1). It used to be written with THREE 日 (jat6) characters (晶 zing1 for sparkling) but was later simplified to just the one 日 (jat6) character.

I like to think that we use 星 (sing1) to refer to the days of the week because the character symbolizes the birth of a new day.

Download your FREE printable worksheet:
https://bit.ly/3pWKfLM

Watch the accompanying YouTube video:
https://youtu.be/pjDP38a2RDE

08/07/2021

This week's character is 火 (fo2) which means fire. It comes from a pictogram depicting a burning fire! Many other characters for things to do with fire usually incorporate the 火 (fo2) character in its full form or in its radical form 灬 (fo2).

Download your FREE printable worksheet:
https://bit.ly/3pWKfLM
Watch the accompanying YouTube video:
https://youtu.be/VT9lOKsCX48

While we're no longer at the snow, we sure miss the outdoor firepit at the Mowamba River Lodge Tiny House! Today's been a cold Sydney winter day.

07/07/2021

Our next book is in the works but if you need some other Cantonese books to tide you over, check out this round up by Cantonese for Families 屋企講廣東話!

If you are looking for Colloquial Cantonese storybooks, they are becoming more common to find now. Here are a number of print books, audio books and even video books.

https://cantoneseforfamilies.com/colloquial-cantonese-storybooks/

It is really heartening to see an increasing number of Cantonese books being written, with more people wanting to pass on Cantonese to the next generation, and to help others to do so.

Have you read any of these books? Which is your favorite?

29/06/2021

We're back from our trip to the snow! This week's character is 車 (ce1) which means vehicle. This character has its origins in a glyph depicting a carriage as seen from above.

Download your FREE printable worksheet:
https://bit.ly/3pWKfLM

Watch the accompanying YouTube video:
https://youtu.be/SMVe8whDlQk

The top and bottom horizontal strokes actually represent the two wheels on either side of the carriage, while the 田 (tin4) character represents the seating or loading area, with the vertical brush stroke indicating the central axle of the vehicle.

I think visualizing it the other way (as I've drawn it) works too!

16/06/2021

This week's character is 雪 (syut3) which means "snow" ❄️. With 11 brush strokes, this is one of the more complicated characters we have looked at so far. In its original form 䨮 it's even more complicated, so no wonder that it was simplified in ancient times. 😂

雪 (syut3) is a compound character. The top part is 雨 (jyu5/jyu6) which means "rain" and the bottom part is a simplification of 彗 (seoi6) which means "comet".

According to Wiktionary, 彗 (seoi6) was used for its phonetic component rather than its meaning. But honestly, when it snows heavily (especially during those winters in Canada and the northern parts of America), it can feel like the raindrops have turned into comets! 😅

Download your FREE printable worksheet:
https://bit.ly/3pWKfLM

Watch the accompanying YouTube video:
https://youtu.be/Rh4470Q4nMg

16/06/2021

Happy Father's Day for the coming weekend to dads and granddads in other parts of the world! Check out this wonderful compilation of resources from Cantonese for Families 屋企講廣東話

Some countries, including many in Asia, celebrate Father's Day on the third Sunday of June. For 2021, this Father's Day will fall on 20th June. Here's a roundup of Cantonese resources for you, including songs, stories, vocabulary and craft. My personal favourites are the Fill in the Blanks Father's Day Printables. How about you?
https://cantoneseforfamilies.com/fathers-day-cantonese-resources/

I also include an earlier post about Father's Day.
https://cantoneseforfamilies.com/happy-fathers-day/

It's not Father's Day in Australia, but I have family in Hong Kong, so I always take note of this day too.

10/06/2021

The character 生 originated from a pictogram of a plant sprouting from the ground. 生 (saang1/sang1) is pronounced differently, depending on context, as it is a special character with many meanings.

While the two most common uses are birth (saang1) and life (sang1), this character is also used as part of the compound word for student (學生/hok6 saang1), teacher or Mr. (先生/sin1 saang1), business (生意) and the human condition (人生/jan4 sang1 which literally means human life).

Download your FREE printable worksheet:
https://catlikestudio.com/printables/saang1-sang1/

Watch the accompanying YouTube video:
https://youtu.be/nhXtnO5U_Fs

08/06/2021

This resonates so much with me. I was that child who arrived in Australia speaking perfectly good Cantonese. Then I started school and my parents had to nag, cajole, beg and threaten me with time back in Hong Kong in order to get me to stop speaking English.

Fast forward 30 years and now I'm in their shoes with my daughter. My Chinese is so bad that I can't even read most of the bilingual books out there with her! That's why I ended up writing my own. 😅

It can sometimes be hard for migrants in Australia to preserve their mother tongue in an English-dominant country. It can be even harder for Chinese parents when there’s not a lot of language crossover compared to European tongues. A bilingual school principal, linguistic expert and a Hong Kong mo...