Can Top Chinese Students Speak Fluent English? Surprising Results Pt.2

[@smoothbanana]

Your language is as great as that of the people you surround yourself with. There is a story behind each of these students, who were either provided education, likely indirectly by their parents, via tuition with highly competent teachers, or they were lucky enough to make good friends in their childhood-adolescent years with native English speakers. Behind every great person are many people who lifted them up

[@farnis7954]

You can see that everyone interviewed in this video can carry themselves really really well and are confident when speaking. I aspire to be as good as they are.

[@awdekafaecndwad211]

It's actually better than I thought because English is taught in China as a subject that you score high on instead of a language you communicate with.

[@andrewxiong6042]

of course if you are taught a language your going to speak it well because then it wouldn't be considered "teaching" a language..

[@emmanuelunique9992]

One of the best varsity in China

[@premierdeal]

Asian humility exemplified, exceeded by their ability to speak English!

[@ajcelentano6220]

To be fair I misheard the riddle question as well and got it wrong at first 😅

[@aznm3]

Definitely not an easy one, especially when asked in front of a camera!

[@colombianaenchina]

Chinese students are super intelligent and competitive, living in Nanjing is quite different in terms of languages though, because English here is quite poor among students

[@kevinkoo9065]

In 🇺🇸 students speak Chinese well ? 🤣

[@romanbass7126]

@@kevinkoo9065 in US, of course not... Majority of people in US is not even bilingual lmaooo

[@edivanildonunes775]

That's so Nice 😃😃😃👍👏👏👏👏

[@Albion80s]

Can Top American students speak fluent Chinese, a language spoken by 20% of the world's population and is the largest economic power? That's the next project for you.

[@gachi1297]

English is a global lingua franca, and while Chinese is also quite important in the neighboring countries, it’s extent is nowhere near as broad (as the first lady in the video articulated)

[@naveedahmed2311]

china is not the largest economic power. its still the US.

[@yongdeng1813]

@@naveedahmed2311by PPP yeah china is the largest economy!

[@blurpblurp]

​@@naveedahmed2311wake up it's already 2023 not 1987.

[@liangkun-zz9xn]

english , Chinese, these two languages are not comparable, apparently the former one is the world's language😅

[@phuongle-bh3ui]

your video is so good

[@xuanzishen2904]

Sounds their English is better than mine😂and this school has more international students.

[@aznm3]

Keep it up and your English will improve! Actually, there are 3,000 international students and 500 international staff in this university.

[@deadkiller4129]

Well looking at it objectively it looks like most Top Chinese Uni students would be rated a 7-7.5 when it comes to Spoken English, excluding the Brit obviously, most would be able to convey their point to native speakers if research is done beforehand, but they have not gotten advanced enough to be able to express themselves freely in English, as can be seen from their gestures and expressions, and the occasional pause to translate the Chinese word/term to English

[@albertZZZ-lp4oz]

Since there are huge differences between Chinese and English,its reasonable to see that

[@deadkiller4129]

⁠@@albertZZZ-lp4oz Nah they just lack daily conversations, I’m of Chinese descent living in Malaysia and exposure to both English and Chinese at a young age makes it easy to use English, I may not be better than natives but certainly better in conversations than these Chinese students. With some daily use and conversations with foreigners, I think they would have a better grasp of the language and wouldn’t have to stutter as much, along with the accidental use of Chinese grammar lol

[@deadkiller4129]

@@albertZZZ-lp4ozBut well it ain’t that bad, even with some grammar mistakes and lack of vocabulary, English has the advantage of ease of understanding despite the presence of errors, it may take some thinking but lacklustre vocabulary or grammar isn’t gonna hinder u conveying your point across that badly(Unless it’s the definition of terrible and direct translation)

[@okano1082]

@@deadkiller4129 environment is the issue, i am chinese canadian and i see your point there, i'd say most of them do not have enough exposure to english speaking in their daily routine, just imagine what would happen if you have to do translation for every sentence to your parents, i think that's what these students are doing within their brain during the convo

[@guykl8782]

Is Toy Thai? i recognise the accent but I'm not sure.

[@aznm3]

Yes! We only found out at the end of the interview that she was Thai

[@guykl8782]

@@aznm3 lol

[@mjmf1430]

Could you do " Can top British students speak fluent Chinese?"

[@aznm3]

How do you think that will turn out? haha

[@mjmf1430]

Speaking on behalf of the Chinese speaking communities who can also speak English, we all know it wouldn’t end well ☺️but with so much prejudices these days thrown at Chinese people, particularly by some western English speaking countries and their complicit media, it would be very fair to see where this fluency incompetence might be coming from. ☺️

[@iamphilipparmar952]

😂😂

[@vivianm8174]

​@@aznm3well I know top American students don't speak fluent English so I think top British students wouldn't be fluent in Chinese either.

[@elllllllle939]

If an Asian person going to USA, they need to speak English; if an Asian person living in their own country, they also need to speak English to foreigners who come to Shanghai? Why don’t those westerners learn Chinese instead? How fair does that sound? Why it’s always the Chinese who have to cater to English native speakers’s comfort and need? Such a fair world.

[@leo-po5gp]

There is no absolute fairness, it depends on who is in a more advantageous position, since the United States is more powerful, and a lot of scientific papers are in English, which is not the case in other languages such as french spainsh.

[@stephenwang9567]

USA is a bankrupt state. Cheat the whole world with unlimited debt n printed fiat $ . So are all the govts of the world

[@archerzzy]

English is the international language

[@sarahregine4184]

I think they meant communication with the foreign investors invest in China, includes bosses, managers, clients, colleagues.. Now adays foreigners meant for a longterm career and opportunity will also tend to learn Chinese.. So Chinese is not a very far behind English, as international Languages. I just feel if you can get over as multilingual, you lose nothing..

[@N1L4RV]

FYI: English was chosen as the international language

[@bajikimran2304]

The best English speaker was the first girl, "Toy". Her math skills may be poor, but she can speak English very well.

[@matthewariel547]

try coming to unnc in ningbo, we use english for teaching but some students cant speak it properly

[@albertZZZ-lp4oz]

seems that most interviewees are postgraduates,maybe you can pull some undergraduate students to test them

[@aznm3]

Sure, next time

[@weixiong3059]

Just my educated guess, but I think in average undergraduate students of Chinese top universities speak better English than postgraduates in the same university. I can think of 2 main reasons. First, it is much more difficult to enter the top universities as an undergraduate, only the top of the top students are able to do so and they are arguably smarter than the postgraduates of the same universities, maybe half of which come from second tier universities. Second, many undergraduate students in elite universities, especially in STEM majors, are aspired to pursue master/doctor degree in US instead of continuing in China, so they spend a lot of time studying TOEFL and GRE, definitely spend more efforts than those who decide to do postgraduate in China.

[@colombianaenchina]

Same

[@បេះដូង-ឡ5ទ]

@@weixiong3059 I have seen many Chinese graduate students at top US universities, and their English is not much better.

[@fatimamohammadi2927]

Very good

[@aznm3]

Thanks

[@chengliu267]

Can Top English Students Speak Fluent Chinese?

[@winsea8187]

Can Top American Students Speak Fluent Chinese?

[@browncony3897]

To be fair, other than the foreign students. None of them were fluent in spoken English. But i am sure native speakers could understand them just for basic communication.

[@meganhuang5987]

Yep. Not that deep communication.Even, they’d not like talking with you.

[@browncony3897]

@@meganhuang5987 Ad Hominem does not change the fact.

[@ienjoypeter9749]

English is very important. I know it but I still poor

[@sffhjkghf]

Girl with white, she has style

[@darksword1]

The second young lady, Christine, rated herself an 8? I'd say more like a 4 or 5.

[@JonKino828]

In my opinion, having fluent Mandarin is even better. In future, English will be confined to the backwaters of the 5 eyes.

[@kathri1006]

Why do Westerners judge the level of intelligence by the fluency of English? The brain does not know the difference of English or Chinese. These vales are socio-political. Actually, Chinese may be more complex to the brain and do need a higher level of intelligence to learn. The real question is how good are these Westerners Chinese or, for that matter, any other language? This applies more to Anglos as Europeans can speak other languages and I think they are better at lateral thinking, compared to monochrome Anglos who think they are so superier. .

[@smoothbanana]

Lots of generalisations here that I shan't comment on. As an ethnic Chinese who grew up in a predominantly Western society (retaining some culture via frequent trips back amongst other activities), I DID judge level of intelligence by fluency of English. I can attest it is very natural to do so because let's face it, the low socio-economic band of native speakers generally have poorer diction and lack eloquence. However, upon reaching adulthood and multiple growth experiences later, I do not think that way anymore. What I do think is that there are more young Chinese that are driven to broaden their horizons than there are of what you refer to as "Anglos". There are many reasons, though I think a key one is that "succeeding" in China (or arguably all Chinese-speaking countries) is much more difficult due to the highly competitive environment.

[@kathri1006]

@smoothbanana I agree. I was not talking about China . In general, even in English speaking countries , in addition to accents, which shows socioeconomic class you come from or the region, there is a tendency to look at the fluency. It is true it says something, but language IQ is one of many IQs. There is mathematical, emotional, creative, intuitive, social, etc. intelligences and surpassing all there is wisdom. When you go to some counties, you meet people who see through things , just get the whole picture and the future repercussions and emotional landscapes of participants and all in one scoop. They have something else, and to top it all, they are kind and have patience to listen and understand others. These snap judging superficial debating ki d's who like to impress in an ego driven way do not get these kind of superior people and may think they are just basic. When the human brain is concerned, English is not the most challenging, but because they had an empire, it is ubiquitous and will hold that spot. But never judge others by this year stick unless you have a simple mind. I am glad you think broadly now, in a mature, less egoistic way.

[@omegabulldog5001]

In my PERSONAL opinion, language has little to do with the level of intelligence since some language are simpler or harder relative to others. Furthermore, intelligence level is subjective, relative to the methods, languages and medium used for judging it. Some may have higher cognitive abilities in math related questions whereas others may be more musical, visual and etc. For me, learning another language should be a FUN thing to do, not something that is tedious, dull, political, racial or fractious.

[@smoothbanana]

@@omegabulldog5001 It is debatable that there is no direct correlation, though I am inclined to agree, but language is intertwined with culture, which is what builds intelligence, whether it is IQ, EQ, SQ or AQ.

[@omegabulldog5001]

@@smoothbanana that may be so but language can be taught and learn and after a generation of two the fluency of that particular language may be on par with the native so judging intelligence by language fluency may not be really fair, in this case. I do agree that more complex language MAY bring out higher intelligence among native speakers but that isn't conclusive.

[@zharromee]

Not a measure of math but comprehension..

[@zhangjeffrey7472]

the girl in black is so pretty, what a surprise if I have a chance to make friends with her!!

[@hongruicui2806]

dude you should visit the school in minhang where the hardcore bois and gals reside. They will blow your mind.

[@aznm3]

oh yeah? you've caught my interest

[@ywentao2784]

Are you sure the 1st girl is student in Jiaotong university and cannot answer such simple question?

[@guyklc]

Some people are saying the Japanese guy doesn't speak English that well, but come on! Have you guys ever been to Japan? He speaks better English than 99% of the Japanese, lol.

[@aznm3]

Really, 99%? I'm heading to Tokyo Uni to conduct a similar interview, I'm really interested to see how it'll t urn out

[@guyklc]

@@aznm3 Last time I was in Tokyo, I think you could get by with just English. Ordering food at restaurants, buying entrance tickets to parks, etc., were all OK. However, if you actually want to have a real, in-depth conversation with them (like you did with the people in this video), then probably not. Most Japanese in Tokyo only know enough English to help tourists, and I've heard it's harder to find English speakers in smaller cities in Japan.

[@Crystalbomb321]

Their English was mostly pretty great considering they didn’t even grow up overseas. The Japanese guy’s English was lacking though.

[@aznm3]

Yup, I found it very impressive too

[@dorianguey]

Did you watch the same video as me? The Japanese guy was fine. He was much better than Terry, the older engineering student around the 3-min mark.

[@sadiqtola]

The first girl was funny and right 😁

[@aznm3]

Hahaha

[@mydogisbailey]

Why do Chinese people in China all have random English names. I’m Chinese Canadian so my name is English, but like why don’t they use their real name in their own country

[@glowndark1]

inferiority complex! so sad to see that, no other east asian is like this. Korean names are not far away from Han chinese names, and the Korean will never tell you their western name in their own country.

[@6.00ammmmm]

They probably think by having English name people don’t look down on them. My Chinese classmate doesn’t want me to call her with her Chinese name because she said she doesn’t like the meaning of her name.

[@kevinkoo9065]

Top 🇺🇸 students don't feel shame if they don't speak Chinese. But top 🇨🇳 students will feel inferior for not able to speak English. That's the problem with cultural confidence.🤣

[@slovetro]

Those aren't equal. Obviously one language will allow you to talk to more people around the world than another.

[@ATCHARIYAPANYAKITPASIT]

i totally agree with this idea😂 it's unfair world😢 why we should shame for ourself beacuse we can not speak English well . And i not to mention those normal students like me ...

[@liangkun-zz9xn]

Oh if you are interviewing students in mathematics or physics or chemistry major, you will see how bad they speak😂 cuz I really know many friends among them

[@Albert_Einstein_not]

Wouldn’t anybody born 10 years ago be 10 years old.?

[@scottcamuto8410]

Correct. Sometimes simple questions perplex people

[@peterke4423]

They speak great english despite the fact they were born and raise in china.

[@yanzionly]

good but not great, i expect more from them, as they are considered to be the top 0.2%

[@weixiong3059]

MBA and MEM students are not really the top 0.2%. It is much easier to enter elite universities in China as a postgraduate than as an undergraduate.

[@deadkiller4129]

They just lack daily conversations, practice is key when it comes to Spoken English and they don’t get the chance very often unless they go looking for it.

[@yanzionly]

@@deadkiller4129 i know, but top 0.2%should do better than that.

[@chengli5978]

you think their English is not good enough. Can I ask you what about your Chinese proficiency?

[@yanzionly]

@@chengli5978 i am not considered to be the top 0.2%, so its ok for me to be not good in chinese. Besides, i can speak native chinese.

[@heilong79]

They are better than the Japanese at speaking English anyway.

[@Antbeast23]

Some of them Chinese Americans and went to international school in China lol

[@yeekanglim3629]

Why should we speak English in china?

[@sp53]

Basically, I feel the Chinese students speak better English than the only Japanese student interviewed..

[@dbuc4671]

hiloutyoog

[@woojinandcubs7939]

To be this intelligent omg

[@wenx4591]

Do they speak English NOT Can they speak English. This is such a rude title!

[@anonymousblogger3964]

英文口语一般

[@dragonfly02490]

Is this Western Cultural Propaganda?

[@ngvkhtnw22]

I'm quite surprised to see native Chinese living in China attach an Anglicized first name for no reason. Is this a sign of inferiority complex? The French colonized Vietnam for over 100 years, and yet you rarely see ordinary or even France educated Vietnamese attach a French first name in their normal dealings, except for Catholics in Vietnam who have been baptized with a name taken from the Bible and they only use it as a tag-on in religious setting, never in everyday normal interactions.

[@briansun6336]

No, they are the English names we were assigned when we started learning English at school, so that when English speakers talk to Chinese people, they won’t be humiliated of not being able to pronounce Chinese names.

[@ngvkhtnw22]

@@briansun6336 Why the accommodation goes in one direction only? Why non-English speakers always have to accommodate English speakers and not the other way round? Why Vietnamese who studied at 100% French schools in VN during France's 100 years of colonization never had to add a French sounding first name? If people don't want to put in the necessary effort to learn how to pronounce each other's name, what does that tell you about them?

[@briansun6336]

@@ngvkhtnw22 Honestly, I think you are overinterpreting it. It is a curtious practice that some English teachers suggest just so it is not uncomfortable to hear your name being pronounced wrong and getting stuck at correcting their pronounciation. I was given the name John when I started taking English lessons. I tried to teach my friends how to pronounce my Chinese name and the experience was quite frustrating. I did not adopt an English name in real life though, as I am OK with the anglised pronunciation of my Chinese name, similar to how many Vietnamese with the last name Ng. Some people, do think an English name is "cool", as how hollywood movies are cool. I also know a Viet fellow adopted the name Brandon. Honestly, it is just for convenience, and to avoid awkwardness.

[@ngvkhtnw22]

@@briansun6336 But it still doesn't answer the question: why the accommodation ALWAYS goes in ONE direction only? Let's be honest, it's a manifestation of low self esteem and it's unconscious. I'm not talking about Chinese or Vietnamese who are in fact American or Canadian or French, I'm talking about native Chinese living and working in China.

[@briansun6336]

@@ngvkhtnw22 ????? Pardon??????? I just realized that you probably misunderstood the situation. Those names, are not their first names, those are the names that only exist when they speak to an English native speaker. I would say there are some Chinese people that think Europeans/Americans are better people, and they would absolutely adopt an non-Chinese nickname and many would use them in Chinese-language conversations even. Are you talking about these people? But the students you see in the this video are not really that type of people. If you are to really talk about why many have English names, it is an English-learning tradition(the type of English lessons out side of school that they absolutely went to when they were young, otherwise they would not have got admmitted to this Uni). Students get random English names and think those are their "English" names as those are the translations of their Chinese names. They think 欣欣 is Christina in English for example, by that, I mean they think Christina means EXACTLY as their Chinese name. Later one they realize it is just a random name, and often just resort using it when talking to foreigners. Regular English classes in middle schools or colleges, if a foreigner is teaching, the teacher would call them their Chinese names. So the other way of accommodation does happen, though oftentimes awkawrdly, if the teacher's Chinese is limited. And many, like my father and the girl called Xin in the video, simply do not have an English name and go on with English conversations no problem.

[@baraclude]

Why do you need PhD in accounting? Maybe the same reason why she rated her English an 8 out of 10. Lmao

[@aznm3]

You'll be surprised as to how many Chinese students go for Masters or PhD. Also, remember that these are the elite students of China (top 0.2% literally), so it's not rare for them to pursue further studies that can do good for the society.

[@kennySg101]

还好！大陸沒太多机会说。太直白可能，不说客套话。

[@yongdeng1813]

If the first lady said she isnt that good in english then she shouldnt’ve given herself an 8…😉

[@lynchlee7207]

maybe，10 is her goal