2 Brits Speaking Fluent Chinese - Chris' Journey

[@billylee1802]

I am Chinese, honestly , u guys sound just like local, if I just listen without the video, i definitely think u guys are Chinese people.

[@manyagupta8195]

You are chinese I think that chinese language is hard i begin to learn it

[@周止]

@@manyagupta8195 I am also starting to learn it😂 how long do you think until you can speak it well?

[@laurataylor6423]

The young man on the left sounds native and speaks beautifully. It seems that he has spent a lot of time with native speakers.

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

Thanks!

[@xwang6787]

your guys' accent are really better than over 90% Chinese who speak mandarin, so impressive

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

+X Wang :-)

[@terilloss]

Better than mine I can tell you that

[@장전-q7q]

because chinese people have accent. only people from beijing and heilongjiang speak perfect mandarin

[@lingyusiong1081]

Chinese from different areas of China have their own distinct accent and just because you can't understand their accent doesn't mean that's the wrong way of speaking chinese

[@bai3shu4]

Nope! You are wrong. Do you know what is 國家語委普通話水平測試？ It's the examination to evaluate the standard of PuTungHua speaking. Many of those people who have been graded as the first level standard are from different provinces of China. And it has nothing to do with their ages.

[@samueltan2148]

Wow, their Chinese speaking skills are awesome!!

[@johnmck2326]

This video gives me hope! I've been studying for a little over a year now and seeing another 老外 speaking great chinese it gives me hope

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

+John Mck Anything is possible if you put your mind to it!

[@WORLD8NSH5KNIGHT1]

Hope I can be at the level of these guys some day! Respect!

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

+Nathan Hazlett Just keep persisting and give it time and you'll get there :-)

[@WORLD8NSH5KNIGHT1]

Cheers mate, I have a lot of Chinese friends so that helps. By the way do you mind me asking where you are from in the UK? I am from Sunderland, originally Northern Ireland. I taught English in Hunan province for 6 months.

[@rogernichols1124]

I'm a native English speaker and speak French, German, Dutch, Russian, Italian and Turkish. I've been learning Mandarin for about 6 months and have to salute you guys for your impressive performance in the language. I'm not sure whether to feel encouraged or depressed ☹️

[@muzaffarkhalilov1641]

2017 September 19 I started learning Chinese. After a few months I saw your video and admired so much but I couldn't understand well. After a year I watch I understood a lot. Now I watch you and understand all what you said, all the words you used. Still I admire your pure and beautiful pronunciation. Hope after a year or so I will be speaking as beautiful as you speak this beautiful language.

[@cuieeee]

You guys are really impressive! As a native Mandarin speaker, now learning french and dutch, every time when I am struggling with my studies, I look up youtube to see how non-Chinese people learn Mandarin. I found it quite interesting to see in an inverse way. Your videos motives me to keep forward on my learning. Thank you!

[@devanii]

zea uan how is your dutch now? Gaat het goed met studeren?

[@lgseng2]

Fluent and excellent. He is very enthusiastic not show off, really have an interest in language. Indeed his Mandarin is no doubt very good like Chinese speaking.

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

Thanks for the comment!

[@Crabtree1844]

I agree with you. Some who do not even understand what he is saying "assume" he is showing off. This is his effort and dedication to learn a language that so many are unable or unwilling to put the effort to learn. Good for these two men! It is their hard work and success!

[@maitlandbezzina2842]

Thank you for this video, I have been studying for 9 months every single day for about 15-30 minutes and I’m making decent progress. I didn’t go into learning Mandarin with the expectation to be brilliant after 6 months/1 year, so seeing the results of 10 years of hard work gives me plenty of motivation. I’m working hard in university (in Australia) to land a really big scholarship available where I can study and work in China for 18 months. If that happens I’m sure I can take my Mandarin to the next level! Thank you for this motivating video, the best part was that I could understand pieces of what was said throughout this whole video! :)

[@WangYi9]

Chris really speaks like a native . 👍👍👍

[@pancake_ghosty]

Mandarin is really beautiful, I love the sound. I like learning the odd word and character but I know I can never commit to learning the language in the way you guys have. Still though I've watched a lot of your videos on mandarin and it's really cool that you've put that info on youtube for people like me who have a passing interest! The internet is amazing for these kinds of resources.

[@miyaamorelin]

I am speechless, guys... I am having some hard time learning German right now. This is a total inspiration! Thank you.

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

Thanks, and good luck with your German!

[@sunshineandpeace1996]

As a German-born Chinese acquiring the language only through talking to my parents (who also have the southern accent), I always found it tremendously difficult to learn writing, still do. Since I usually remember words auditorily, it's really hard to learn the strokes by heart. I often thought about giving up and accepting my "bad" Chinese level, since I was living in Germany anyway. But lately, I've come to discover the beauty of the language for myself, and for some months I've been trying to learn the characters. I still struggle, but seeing people like you who learned Chinese from scratch and achieved such an astounding level of fluency motivates me to keep going. So thank you for sharing your experience and motivating people to keep going!

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

You can always improve your Chinese, and it's never been easier. There are so many resources online for practising reading and characters, plus the Skritter app, it's certainly possible

[@alidurrani1807]

A year ago I only understood maybe 3-5%, now I am able to understand + 95% :D

[@diariosdelextranjero]

That's impressive.

[@hannahduggan3599]

Both of you guys are so adorable.

[@zokimcd]

Chinese subtitles: George 0:18: 那我们, 咱们开始吧, Gao老师。 (Then, let's get started, Teacher Gao) George 0:22: 那，Gao老师, 你刚，就是， 你为什么要学中文呢？当时是什么启发你呢？ Chris 0:29 其实我对语言本身是非常感兴趣的。以前我也学过法语还有西班牙语还有一点点点俄语但是，其实我俄语也讲不好，也没学好。 Chris 0:41 但是反正我学过一些不同的语言，高中的时候。然后，开始对语言感兴趣，也是我比较喜欢的一个一种学科把。 Chris 0:52 然后，所以开始对中文还有比如说想阿拉伯语和不同的语言感兴趣。然后最后，我想给自己带拉一个新的挑战，所以就选了一门比较有难度的语言，想挑战自己，所以还是学中文了。 George 1:09 你之前学的这些语言也其实他们也都挺有意思的。比如说法语啊俄语啊或者阿拉伯语，他们也都代表一种文化啊历史啊。那为什么你会选中文呢，而不是其他的语言？

[@LearningAndGrowingWithMe]

It is lot of fun to watch 2 English speakers discussing language learning in Chinese fluently! Very refreshing! 太好了！我很喜欢看！

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

Glad you enjoyed it Rebecca!

[@makingitchina418]

its good too hear conversations like that.. im at that level.. anderstand quite a lot and what i dont understand i look it up.. pls keep up with the long conversation videos ))

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

Thanks! Glad you were able to understand!

[@weloveannanetrebko]

Chris' accent is AMAAAZING

[@alanfleming4823]

Greatest respect. Love when you say that you have to be interested in the language or culture of where the language is spoken. I'm a Brit who speaks Russian (which I studied at uni) and Turkish (from living there) but can't natter away as well as you guys can. Good on you and I'm going to learn some Mandarin Chinese. Thanks

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

Thanks Leo, and good luck with your Russian and Turkish. Feel free to check out my other videos as you start to learn Chinese ：-）

[@mudanedhaashane5254]

I am really speechless, I understood well, what make me speechless ; the left young man’s excellent pronunciation.

[@david_oliveira71]

Superb. Loved your video! Very inspiring honestly. XiéXié Chris!

[@ntantzen]

看到两个老外说一口那么流利的中文，真的令人振奋，谢谢你们分享学习中文的过程！我已经学了大约两年的中文了，很希望有一天我能够说得跟你们差不多啊！

[@miriamtiuseco2nd]

The guy in Black's Chinese is awesome. He sounds really Chinese.

[@wangyiming9207]

A person who can learn Chinese is validated as a genius. Learning Chinese required an extremely high level of Abstract thinking and dealing with the the complexity of the language system itself as well. Is like constantly decoding & encoding when you interact with Chinese as a language to convey meaningful messages to each other.

[@facefunny2518]

Very nice!

[@jerzybrudnicki6815]

I'm so impressed and inspired! Thank you.

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

You're welcome Jerzy!

[@jpark7514]

Sounds so beautiful!!!

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

:-)

[@molly1376]

I really admire you. I wish my Mandarin were half as good as yours; maybe I will get there by watching your educational videos!!

[@安5-m2u]

Awesome. Sounds like native speakers

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

Thanks!

[@summerrr1]

绝世甜瓜 But look like pasty Brits

[@Adam-lz7sr]

summerrr1 The Chinese have light skin as well

[@tidakada1965]

哇，会读，会讲，会写，又那么流利，想必是练的几千几万个小时。佩服，佩服！好精进啊！我从小就在新加波用英语，现在在美国教书，我还是觉得，我的英语没有您的中文好。赞👍！

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

+boon ong 谢谢！一起加油！

[@sanookgirl7007]

i am learning.

[@AusReddit]

There’s a slight tinge of “English” accent protruding through for the person on the left. But completely understandable :)

[@pochuweb]

Fabulous! Thanks for putting this interesting interview together - great insights and inspiration as well.

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

+MsP W You're welcome, thanks for the comment!

[@witchchloe_9702]

My freaking god! The guy on the left is awesome 👏🏻 he’s better than me though Chinese is my mother tongue. I wish I could speak English like how you speak Chinese! 好厉害啊啊啊啊啊啊

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

Thanks! And you will be able to!

[@desheton2313]

I need your help I'm Bonga from south Africa I want you to teach me mandarin plc

[@Yattah123]

I'm using this as motivation for my own target langs. Great vid guys!

[@monkeynorn]

Wow... Definitely close to native fluency and perfection!! Being a bilingual native speaker of English and Mandarin , I’m very impressed by these two Brits. I have been learning French for three years now. Chinese is MUCH SIMPLER than French in terms of grammar.

[@davidlam2159]

Really well done, Chris! Your determination & your fluency in Chinese is an inspiration to ALL. great!

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

Thanks David!

[@ChiFreeman]

说得真不错！难能可贵的是坚持了这么久！加油 !

[@languagetime306]

Chris, thanks alot for sharing your journey and view point with us. Recently, our Chinese language teacher asked us to talk about journey of learning Chinese language, and I copied a lot of words from your video HAHA. 谢谢 Chris 老师 :)

[@cca9502]

Such an outstanding accent and fluency! It's a very inspiring video.

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

Thanks!

[@micb7180]

I don't know if it's because i just started learning this language, but i can't even hear the tones when Chris speaks. It's probably because i'm a extreme novice.

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

You can't really hear all the tones when people speak really quickly, it's more about recognising the patterns and vocabulary and picking up the rhythm of the sentence. If you have to pause to figure out a tone then match it with a meaning then you won't be able to keep up. With faster speech, in practice you only have to listen for the tones part of the time because you are more familiar with the vocabulary.

[@micb7180]

I see, thanks for the reply!

[@ovk48]

But do you still maintain tones even when speaking quickly? I mean, if someone slowed your speech down, tones would "magically" become audible?

[@jimf8047]

He's still speaking in tones, just quickly.

[@natureaiaiai880]

excellent!

[@seasonal629]

Chris doesnt let George get a word in...

[@lucasleroux706]

lol yesssss it’s me, i don’t know how to write sneeze in chinese, it’s normal since I kinda never write after college we type these days, i am a native speaker

[@Shingdog]

I still hear a little bit of the accent, but the vocabulary and usage is totally on point! awesome!

[@m.4459]

it be better if the subtitles were easier to see!

[@jeftetiburcio117]

Cris what was your background to speak chinese like you?

[@aristadreyer1303]

Thank you So-So Much! Your videos are Raw Awesome! Thank you for your dedication and commitment. You're a Great Inspiration - just hearing your language fluency, is Amazing.

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

Raw awesome! Thanks!

[@lorenzolou5855]

我十分青眼你的中文水平，可谓登峰造极。我在德国学习日耳曼语言文学系和英国语言文学系，前前后后也算是认识了很多汉学系的德国学生：确实有水平比较好的，但是也仅是凤毛麟角，更不要说其中很多中学时期就已经开始学习汉语。我个人认为，中文作为高度分析语化的孤立语言，在掌握其规律以后，无论是书写（打字）还是口语方面达到比较流利的程度都并不是那么遥不可及。汉语没有复杂的morphology, 一个字对应一个语素，简洁明了。希望能有机会和你交流！

[@silva6605]

You sound very native, wow.

[@hannahduggan3599]

Your Chinese is awesome and you guys are so cute. You should think about living in China sometimes since you could easily communicate with the people there. Rock on, dudes!

[@luna498-h5z]

This is really motivational. Perhaps to master multiple foreign languages, one must have a natural talent for it. I can only speak fluent English, despite being born Chinese. My Mandarin fluency level is not as good as my English fluency level at all. I agree with the man on the left, hanzi is so extremely difficult. I will keep on studying.

[@bryanlin4699]

你说中文的思路和方式没有任何英式中文的感觉，这一点是最难得的。

[@josanda7368]

对啊！！！

[@natasaceko9615]

There are several components to teaching yourself to speak Mandarin online . A resource I found that successfully combines these is the Magic Mandarin Blueprint (google it if you're interested) without a doubt the most incredible remedy that I have ever seen. Look at the incredible info .

[@urrru]

还是稍微有一点

[@lostsoul1490]

Hello there, I really like most of your videos. Can I know how long have yous been studying Chinese? Especially the guy on the left, his pronunciation is so on point!!

[@artugert]

He says in this video 8-9 years.

[@swordw1612]

wow, so impressive! so good!!

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

Thanks!

[@Person514cs]

The Chinese is very hard to speak for most foreigners. To able to speak most Chinese words clearly is very impressive for someone who started learning in the late teens.

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

+Person514cs thanks

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

+Person514cs thanks

[@顏仲甫-f3p]

You guys are great!

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

+顏仲甫 thanks!

[@yanpeng9849]

omg............omg.......omg.........how could you do that.......you guys speak really perfect mandarin... better than my mandarin.... omg....omg.......

[@erbaigg1094]

我是北京人。中国人学汉字也觉得难，写很多遍才能记住（小学语文很多时间就是认字写字），而且不常用时可能忘记。关于发音，中文英文非常不一样，对我来说学英文也要持续强化学习才能说的清楚明白。语言学习没有强烈兴趣确实难以坚持。你们两位很棒。

[@timothykwoh6172]

Your skills in Mandarin is extremely impressive. You put me to shame and you are from a non Chinese background. I also appreciate your explanations of both Chinese words and grammar. I have learnt a lot from you. Thank you for your knowledge.

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

I'm glad you have learned some useful things!

[@huei-jiuanchen-jaros3223]

You are an inspiration!

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

Thanks!

[@alexwright915]

I wouldn t say it s perfect because you often revert back to the same words - I am HSK 6 and I don t feel particularly intimidated by your knowledge of the language. Having said this, you are both defo good speakers , so keep up the good work

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

To communicate, you actually don't need that many words, but you need to have a good passive vocabulary, you need to be able to understand a lot of vocabulary.

[@lizard4ever]

omg you guys are amazing

[@原来是你-h8e]

太厉害了！！！！impressive！

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

+琳柳 thanks!

[@aihuali767]

Hi Chris, Would you be able able to make a video about 问路， I will appreciate

[@jerzybrudnicki6815]

Subtitles at last. Thank you. 😊

[@NubiaDanitza]

Do you have a British accent while speaking mandarin?

[@henryshiu4276]

Amazing!!!

[@lukeshort3115]

I wanted to ask a question. I can easily understand about 95 percent of what was said in this video but if I listen to native Chinese talk it goes down to about 80 percent at full speed. Is this A)We foreigners tend to use similar words? B)Native Chinese are just talking quicker?

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

+Luke Short It's partly because we were using fairly simple vocabulary, partly because the topic is quite familiar (learning Chinese). Some native speakers will speak quicker, but not all people, also some people speak using slang or a local accent, which makes it harder to understand.

[@stevenphang9791]

wow!you speak better Mandarin than me!

[@heraldk5303]

I want to speak like you !

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

You can!

[@sullyflynn8746]

The other guy asked really interesting questions

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

Haha, yeah George did a great job!

[@Keithlovejenny]

Fluent in Mandarin.com can he speak as fluent as you?

[@ML-ek5ur]

I am jaw-droppingly flabbergasted!

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

Haha!

[@haitaozhu9518]

点赞！太棒了！

[@李斯基-i7y]

you two guys speak Chinese pretty good,令很多中国人汗颜

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

+李斯基 We're just a couple of guys who take learning Chinese pretty seriously :-)

[@李斯基-i7y]

Fluent in Mandarin.com are you still live in China now，which city are you staying now？

[@georgefleming6286]

Great video, if I do say so myself! :)

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

+George Fleming Haha

[@usaliltrent1307]

Awesome!!

[@dominicvoonshianchee8407]

Awesome, both of you speak better Chinese than Chinese.

[@laluneettoi]

Awesome

[@SilentMover95]

文言文 is your ultimate challenge. You will get an A if you can understand those.

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

I can understand it, but not that well

[@SamiLuo]

HAHA 不错不错！！

[@hoikiuhuo9066]

nice.我也很喜欢学外语。你的中文有很多卷舌音哦。

[@李娜-u3p]

Very cool😜

[@cooliipie]

What's your we chat. You're cute

[@desheton2313]

Hi cute I want your help I'm from south Africa , I want you to teach me mandarin by doing conversation PLC this is my facebook mabongres shongwe

[@hannahduggan3599]

My youngest brother thinks that two British dudes speaking Chinese is so funny. I think it's adorable. When I showed this video to him, he said that you guys are adorable. He's only 9 years old, so please don't judge him when he says that you guys are adorable.

[@ClapBoomBoom]

It's crazy cause I understand everything you're saying, but the moment I turn on the TV to CCTV1 I don't understand anything at all!

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

That's because we are only using a limited range of vocabulary and talking about some quite everyday topics

[@johnpatrickoldfield4262]

That sounds very similar 😊

[@astrostar49]

謝謝. I really appreciated this. Love your channel. Hopefully I can be at your level one day.

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

+TheLoneDraftsman You'll get there!

[@talibahmed]

TheLoneDraftsman now???

[@faizankhalid44]

impressive!!!!!!!!!! fluency

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

Thanks!

[@makeithappen4121]

I'm still working on my

[@tahashlibek]

Eight months ago, I could only understand very few words. Now I understood 90% percent. This is awesome. Thank you guys!

[@tahashlibek]

I can now understand everything. I still go back and watch this video every now and then. It's fun! Thanks guys

[@nink1239]

Awsome

[@heycoco-fr7ho]

I just moved to china and cant speak chinese. So stressful

[@ikbeneenpop1]

2:21: further*

[@truezyf]

this is real fluent

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

+Gear5 ZYF :-)

[@olivertseng8466]

非常好

[@marileerburt8384]

impressive, i learned russian to fluency, now I'm learning chinese. I'm surprised you found russian difficult, chinese is a lot more difficult than russian. For example in chinese there is a huge amount of homophones. I'm talking about words that sound the same even have the exact same tone like 是 and 市. Russian has none of this

[@nimkati5627]

Chinese grammar is very easy to learn. In russian script is very simple, but grammar is a nightmare.

[@louiserocks1]

Marilee R Burt dude I also learned Russian to fluency and recently started Chinese, all the words sound too similar it's so hard .... Like "tomorrow is Sunday" is like 今天是星期天 чин чен чи чин чи чен lol like all russian words are completely different and you could never confuse them for each other, but I'm finding it almost impossible to tell Chinese words apart , although I can understand the characters easily. well like воскресенье (Sunday) and воскрешенье (resurrection) are similar but whatever, also украшение decoration/ornament крещение baptism ... Tbh I think it just takes a bit of getting used to, after a while it'll be easier to tell Chinese words apart. Like for me now, q, x, ch, zh, j, sh, t, z, all sound almost the same and it's hard to know which is which. But after getting used to it, it'll come naturally and won't be a problem anymore

[@leemouzee]

Chris说话没口音，太厉害了

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

:-)