1) maybe my level is slightly above beginner. I haveI quite a lot of vocabulary, but I haven't got a lot of conversation experience. 2) before I came to Hong Kong I started learning with the "complete Cantonese course" I think that's the name. It helped me a little to get used to the sound of Cantonese, but the vocabulary is often written Cantonese. So the book is not very useful in my opinion. After studying for 1 month, I still couldn't introduce myself. I like to watch Kong Fu movies in Cantonese, because the language is very easy. When I watched Ip man 3 in the cinema, I was surprised how much I could understand (most of it was 走啦）. But I don't like watching TV for learning Cantonese, because I don't learn anything. I understand the words I know, but I don't learn the words I can't understand. Since I have no textbook right now, my method of learning Cantonese is writing a diary in Cantonese and let my friends correct it (sometimes I put it in italki).

I'm learning Cantonese because I'm studying in Hong Kong and I really like the language. Whenever I come to a country and stay for a longer time, I will learn the native language. Especially in Hong Kong it is fun. People are always surprised and happy when you speak some Cantonese to them, besides m goi and lei hou. So that is really motivating. I try to use Cantonese as often as possible, but most of the time I use it to order food or ask for the way. When I'm chatting with my friends on the phone, I use Cantonese whenever I know to say it in Cantonese. The difficult part about Cantonese is the lack of resources. There is no class at my university. (We have a lot of German classes for foreign students at my university, including a 2 weeks intense workshop). I couldn't find a proper textbook yet. They often use a mix of spoken and written Cantonese without telling you and sometimes have weird romanisation. Another problem is that native think it is impossible to learn Cantonese and no foreigner can speak it. So they expect me as a foreigner not to know how to speak it. Well I don't blame the locals, because I'm the only one who learns Cantonese out of my western friends at university. Like I said, I usually order my food in Cantonese, but they will never answer in Cantonese. So during my 3 months in Hong Kong I never had a conversation in Cantonese, except some staged ones for practice. Also quite troublesome is the difference between written and spoken Cantonese. Especially in the beginning I learned a lot of written Cantonese, because I didn't know the difference.