Chinese Reacts to Fresh off the Boat (Only in Mandarin Clip):Who's a Native Speaker and Who's Not?

[@eblots]

At 5:37 I think the speed of which she speaks is a purposeful choice, because when she gets competitive like that even when speaking English she speaks slowly and puts a lot of emphasis on her words.

[@TC-mg3ug]

Agreed, she's saying it like we would say as Americans speaking to each other.

[@ChinesewithJessie]

Just rewatched it, I agree. I didn't realize that when filming though. Thanks for pointing out!

[@crossingofmerlin2]

@Albert YK Chen Honestly, it's more the cadence (rather than the overall speed) that belies her (Constance's) command of the language here.

[@PinkLava1011]

plus it's the morning, so she's probably be speaking slower 👀

[@tedjenks459]

But if you speak it naturally, the split would be wokan/nihaizai… instead of just connecting words tgt

[@onemonkeys]

Makes sense to me, that the language trainer gave them the Taiwanese sounds, cause the story is that the family is from Taiwan.

[@angeliquewu8318]

They don't even sound Taiwanese.

[@nehcooahnait7827]

Lol don’t take her words seriously.

[@angeliquewu8318]

@@peaches7181 Exactly. Chinese in general is spoken more in the front of the mouth, with the Dongbei (Northeast) region arguably talking from the most back of all. Plus, the Taiwanese dialect is kind of like if people spoke Chinese with potatoes in their mouths; sounds curvier than more Northern dialects.

[@onemonkeys]

@@peaches7181 that's such a racist thing to say. how can anyone sound white, black, yellow or red? wording is everything.

[@onemonkeys]

@@peaches7181 they can sound "like foreigners" they can "have a strong accent", they can even sound "english, american, or french" but they can't sound "white".

[@EliF-ge5bu]

The show is about a Taiwanese-American family living in Florida. So their attempt to speak Mandarin in a Taiwanese accent is on point.

[@birdkako7290]

范佐憲腔調

[@jellysalsa]

You’re exactly right but I don’t think there was any attempt. They spoke Mandarin with a Taiwanese accent.

[@kazikokaziko4903]

i think becouse of base on true person like everybody hates chris.not biogrpy but i forget name that fat kid at show mc rl some rapper taiwanise american all tht why otherwise people wont other much bacround stories

[@derek7762]

Not really, because none of the actors knew Mandarin of any accent very well.

[@Notme-tq4xs]

@@derek7762 The old lady does.

[@DH-bc8ck]

The author of the book that the showed is based on is Taiwanese-American. So, of course, the casting would have a Taiwanese slant. It also made sense that that grandma is the only one from mainland, because in that context she could have been someone that went with Kuomingtang to Taiwan to US.

[@lebronkiddz]

Spot on, and Chinese has tons of accent….Beijing accent is hard to understand because of the tongue rolled

[@e.h.8936]

Your use of the word slant is super sus

[@thatvietguyonline]

对啊

[@questworldmatrix]

The grandma's not that old.

[@osmanshah5046]

@@questworldmatrix he means the grandma the grandma is based off

[@aznmochibunny]

I thought the Americanized accents made the most sense for the kids considering all were born stateside and not in Taiwan, though you could make the argument that the youngest children, being the smartest should have had the slightly more accurate accents. Anyway, this was indeed educational!

[@travismendonca]

Or even just the youngest having the language more fresh on their minds. As kids get older and start speaking more of one language over the other they tend to drop in skill in the lesser used language (in this case Mandarin cuz they use English with friends and outside). Or even depending on the family some tend to realize they didn’t speak enough with the older kids, so they spoke more mandarin with the youngest. 🤷🏽 Just my thoughts.

[@angeliquewu8318]

Not necessarily. I was born and raised in the states and have basically a perfect accent unless I panic or start to talk about things I'm unfamiliar with. The parents at least should have perfect Chinese.

[@Crystalbomb321]

My sis was born overseas and has flawless mando.

[@mervyngreene6687]

A lot of my friends speak a very Americanized form of Cantonese. Basically, they only speak it to their grandparents.

[@AntTonyLOLKID]

It's funny how Randall Park couldn't thou 😅 you can tell his speech is worse than the kids. Kinda sad that Forrest Wheeler didn't speak more though, even shorter than Randall. Sorry, I forgot their names in the show, but remember the actor's names.

[@devilpizza123]

The 一 in 一個人 actually sounds more natural in the 4th tone as someone who speaks native Taiwanese manderin, so this comes back down to accent. The kid does have better pronunciation overall than the mum.

[@sz1915]

Malaysian uses the 4th tone as well

[@lol...]

@@sz1915 singaporean here, i usually hear that too

[@timothychen2426]

As a native speaker who was born in Taipei and still living in Taipei, I can tell you everyone says 一(一ˊ)個人. It' s really weird for us to say 一(一ˋ)個......

[@lbb2rfarangkiinok]

I feel like a lot of people ignore the fact that the yi2 relies on the next syllable being 4th tone. Afaik standard Taiwan and MLC accents both do this.

[@aka-bo6ej]

My grandmother, born in Hokkien and a native Hokkien speaker, uses that 4th tone for "一" as well when she pronounce "一個" in Mandarin. Wondering whether there is a connection between these.

[@FrenchSwissBorder]

Gina Rodriguez said once that even though she understands Spanish perfectly and can speak it pretty well, as she grew up in a bilingual family, English was technically her first language. As such, she said that it took a lot of work for her to become comfortable enough with Spanish to act while speaking it. It was easier to be another person if she didn't have to focus on speaking the language. So here it's probably the same principle, but with a different language.

[@tylerkim68]

Because Randall Park speaks Korean you can hear that accent my immediate thought hearing him speak mandarin was it sounds like a Korean person speaking mandarin

[@kevinstreeter6943]

The actor playing the father was in a movie speaking Korean. I asked my Korean wife how good he was, and she said OK but he spoke it with an American accent.

[@TCookiebh]

One thing that Jessie mentions is that “mainland mandarin” is like this and this, maybe she’s not from Southern China but my mom and my aunts definitely also say zi ci si in their southern accented mandarin. And also I think Taiwanese ppl can say it correctly as well but in their normal day to day they probably say it with the slightly Southern accent

[@tiongkueng]

i think she is from southern china, more specifically jiangxi province because in one Video the dialect from that area was used. (and she looks more like a southern Chinese). Probably she thought that pronouncing it as zi ci si is official in Taiwan

[@allforrelaxing9903]

In Sichuan area too .. there is Shi Chi zhi . But now she is talking "Pu Tong Hua"

[@edmundhudson]

I think that's true, regarding Chinese from the southern provinces. I knew someone from Fujian, and her Mandarin was accented much like that of Taiwanese speaker.

[@SwetPotato]

@@edmundhudson That is because Taiwanese speak Sourthern Min language, which is the speech of Southern Fujian/Hokkian.

[@cee_el]

@@tiongkueng but she’s still “northern” for canto speakers haha. I speak canto at home and my mandarin sounds closer to Taiwan than mainland too

[@pmwyy]

Lots of places in southern China also don’t differentiate between z/c/s and she/ch/sh, n/l, and even -n/ng.

[@akunbuangan2992]

That's a Southern Chinese problem.

[@twelvestacks]

@@akunbuangan2992 i missed the part where that's my problem -Tobey Maguire

[@andrewjonas6437]

@@akunbuangan2992 its not a problem ,it's how people learned to talk over there. They from there parents , friends ,school,kindergarten, etc.

[@willsofer3679]

@@akunbuangan2992 Dialectical differences are not "problems", or as she calls them, "mistakes". It's no more or less valid than her own dialect. Unfortunately, the way she's looking at the language is influenced by politics, more than linguistics.

[@killerqueenisbestmanneko8419]

Russian translation of mandarin also does the n thing. N and ng are нь and н respectively

[@lizz556]

When you pronounced "person" in Mandarin, my brain immediately made the connection to the french word for young (jeune; same dj sound). While i'm watching this in english, as a native german speaker. My brain just melted.

[@gilferreira2042]

As a french speaker I thought exactly the same haha

[@thistamndypo]

The 'r' in 人 (rén) is pronounced /ʐ/ whereas the 'j' in French jeune is pronounced /ʒ/. They are similar but the tongue is curled back further in /ʐ/.

[@dlmcmfc6209]

Rendell park had no idea what he was saying and others were saying. Hahaha

[@chrisk9613]

He’s korean American right?

[@dlmcmfc6209]

@@chrisk9613 yeah

[@hiimcortana1568]

Some of the mistakes you pointed out in the video are actually not a mistake but cultural differences. "Zh ch sh" is also pronounced more flatly in the southern part of china too. It's like how British people do not really pronounce the "r" unless there is a vowel after it. You cannot say that is a mistake since they also speak it as a native language. It just becomes a feature of a different accent. For beginners who are trying out Chinese,do not be discouraged by the many mistakes she pointed out in the video unless you are specifically trying to get the supposedly perfect 'standard pronunciation' Chinese. It's just like how some people in UK and US have wayyy different pronunciations that deviate from General American English or Received pronunciation but you cannot just go and say they are wrong. They just speak it in a different way.

[@sunrayz81]

Can't agree more with you 👍. In fact, the supposed 'standard' pronunciation she is trying to promote is more of the Pekingnese (northern Chinese) accent which can over-exaggerate many pronunciations. Basically, the Pekingnese over-do the 'r' (兒) sound. E.g. 沒事 should be pronounced as mei shi, but the Pekingnese tend to over-curl their tongues and the phrase will sound as mei shir. I would not call that a 'standard' pronunciation as the 'r' is totally unnecessary and it in fact negates the hanyu pinyin.

[@LearnChineseWithDolores]

She didn’t say that’s wrong. That’s just not the standard way to speak mandarin.

[@sunrayz81]

@Learn Chinese With Dolores I don’t think the Northern Chinese way of speaking Mandarin should be defined as the ‘standard’.

[@LearnChineseWithDolores]

@@sunrayz81good for you.

[@anthopanino2255]

I'm not sure what to do with the fact that you made me realise I don't pronounce Rs

[@TC-mg3ug]

Well they are mostly Taiwanese American actors, and it's based on Taiwanese American characters...

[@jshoffyman]

Well, people. It’s based off of the memoir of Chef Eddie Huang. He owns BaoHaus in manhattan and has been featured on the food network a few times.

[@aliciap6329]

The lines are more problematic than the actors' pronouncation. They were translated straight from English. No Chinese talks like that.

[@iliketrains8910]

Exactly 😂

[@melvche1992]

Exactly. We won't be speaking so "American" to the kid. We'd just shout at him to quit it and get back to study.

[@clementj]

Thought the same thing. It would look alright if it's a written translation, but as dialogue, they sound very textbook-ish... LOL

[@DennisBLee]

lol yeah this is true

[@Alycornz]

From what I remember (it's been a while since I've watched FOB) the story was basically how the dad and granny were from Taiwan, and I think the mom was from mainland China? And they met in the US and bam, had the kids and it focuses on Eddie (for a bit until it focuses more on the family itself). It's cool hearing that a few of the actors had Taiwanese ancestry, maybe that helped in terms of keeping the show "accurate" (using a Taiwan accent when speaking Mandarin)?

[@IshtarNike]

They're both Taiwanese in the show.

[@sleepysiopao9987]

no. there was episode where they went back to taiwan. the mom mentioned how home(taiwan) was not the same as before.

[@sloppynyuszi]

All that effort and they hired a Korean guy to be the main character and play a Taiwanese? Nothing wrong if he can pull it off, but it doesn’t seem like he did here.

[@Jermbot15]

@@sloppynyuszi Well, he needs to be charming and funny in English for 98% of the show, and passably fluent in Mandarin for 2% of the show. They casted accordingly.

[@Xia-hu]

@@sloppynyuszi majority of the viewers don't speak Mandarin, so it doesn't really matter.

[@LilyAlcee]

I think that Korean man is supposed to speak Chinese badly. I think that's part of the character role.

[@canned_can_chan4590]

Im not sure, he's supposed to be 1st generation immigrant

[@powerpuff4ever]

Lol no it’s not. Maybe later on in the series they break the 4th wall to poke fun at his accent but his character is meant to be from China. His character is enamored with American culture and embraces it more than his wife but that shouldn’t effect how you speak your native language. Randall Park doesn’t speak Mandarin and there’s no shame in that but it’s definitely not a character beat

[@lexAlleviate]

@@powerpuff4ever wait what episodes do they break the 4th wall?

[@supdawgydawgboi]

@@lexAlleviate She said maybe later, which indicates it could happen one day. She didn't make a direct statement and said they did

[@lexAlleviate]

@@supdawgydawgboi oh

[@thoradali5122]

I like how you adapt the bar based on their background. Like for Park you go from « not Chinese at all » to « okay for a non-native it’s okay » that’s very nice !

[@ChinesewithJessie]

I remember myself trying to speak Korean 😂

[@ametkemalidinov738]

@@ChinesewithJessie haha. That guy sounds like people from entry-level language training books (same speed same intonation), so I guess he's spent a lot of time learning the language the wrong way.

[@danijones8314]

it’s funny to me he sounds like he speaks chinese with a korean accent rather than american? idk it just reminds me of my korean relatives or koreans i’ve heard pronouncing chinese words. kind of interesting to hear.

[@secretlybees]

@@danijones8314 I wonder if that's because he would have heard Korean more and so associates Korean sound with Asian languages.

[@EL-xg4yq]

Saying a "chinese" accent when speaking Chinese is akin to saying an "english" accent when speaking English.. there is no single one. I most certainly said "ren" with the "r" sound when growing up, before I could speak English.

[@LilyUnicorn]

Literally watched a chinese drama show "handsome siblings" where the main evil woman literally says ren like the kid... like this youtuber is..... mainland biased and doesnt somehow count the many dialects nor taiwanese mandarin.....

[@14DANESSJ]

Well you wouldn't say an American speaks with an English accent. English speakers from around the world only really associate standard English accents from British people.

[@willsofer3679]

I'm not a big fan of how she refers to all dialectal differences as "mistakes". That's not what they are, and that's not how language works. They're different dialects, and none is more "correct" than the others. The Peoples' Republic of China doesn't get to define what is "proper Chinese" any more than France could decide that Quebecois and Acadian French isn't "real French", just because it sounds different from Metropolitan French (the dialect of Paris).

[@baintreachas]

I agree but also I think it can be appropriate to say for example “English” accent in general because there are certain sounds that are pretty universal in English and that are very difficult for non native English speakers in general, you know? Tho I get the frustration as a native English speaker who often sees people telling English learners they’re saying something wrong when they’re just saying it the way *I* (and ppl w my accent) would

[@ZzzzzzzzZ-i1o]

I'm trying to learn Mandarin and aside from with tones, I struggle with "ren" and "niu nai" the most for some reason

[@robsusername1042]

As a linguistics lover, this was fascinating to listening to. Thank you so much for this 🙏

[@rl9567]

This was a nice video! I’ve moved back to Taiwan few years ago and I had a hard time getting use to the accent here cause later I learned that when I was growing up our family actually spoke with a 外省 (waishen) accent (usually means Taiwanese who’s parents or grandparents are from China). So even the words we use as waishen is different from most people in Taiwan.

[@Messerchmitt309]

I had the same experience when I was dating and eventually marrying my Taiwanese wife. A lot of terms that my family used were outdated by the time I was using mandarin with her as well.

[@jellysalsa]

The story is about a Taiwanese family who move to the US so it’s not surprising they speak with Taiwan accents.

[@DanielWang246]

身為一位台灣人，我要說，他們是使用台灣華語，但跟台灣人說話還是有很大差別！雖然我們不強調翹舌音，但大多數人也不會唸得那麼平，劇中的唸法只會在母語為台語或客語的年長者出現，當然很多時候，雖然有些人平時會為了說話省力而去除翹舌音，但在正式場合、影視劇中，不太可能會這樣發音！

[@tiongkueng]

这里面是完全平舌的，而台湾人只是接近平舌，就连台湾的方言也不是完全平舌

[@陈天雄-i6w]

这个小朋友的口音和李馨巧的口音很像，像是马来西亚口音。

[@waterywingz]

Forealz. I was shocked too when I heard them. Several of my Taiwanese American friends can sound out zh ch sh well, not to the point of z c s 😅 Gotta give props to Randall Park! He studied really hard, u can tell, considering Korean sounds COMPLETELY different 😲

[@lkb9527]

@@waterywingz he does sound way better than the hollywood stars in speaking mandarin. at least i can understand what he says.

[@PanicEnoki]

我也覺得他對台灣人的口音有很強烈的刻板印象，台灣人不會特別強調捲舌，但也不會平舌成這樣。還有一堆很刻意的連音，平常講話也根本沒這麼黏在一起。😮‍💨

[@manningbartlett522]

6:44 I have noticed that Taiwanese people do tend to pronounce 人 with a sound closer to the English R than the ZHR sound on the mainland. Southerners (南方人） also seem to pronounce it more of an R sound than a ZHR sound, particularly if Cantonese is their first language. I studied my Chinese in Harbin where there "zhr" sound (人，热，如果, etc) is very strong, so I managed to (sort of) master it.

[@BBarNavi]

Depends on the Taiwanese. A lot of older Taiwanese pronounce it as Z, while Indigenous Taiwanese would use something like the rolled Spanish R.

[@SambaScramble]

Singaporeans and Malaysians also pronounce with R.

[@WChocoleta]

At 0:33, the kid at the beginning sounds very Chinese American to me when he said 年夜饭（Nian Ye Fan). He connected the ending N-sound in the first character 年(Nian) with the beginning of the second character 夜(Ye), so the two syllables became continuous like Nian-Nyeh. This is the an English pronunciation technique, and native Mandarin speakers never do that. Every Mandarin character has its standalone syllable, and we don't connect them with the -n or -ng sound in the previous character. To do this, when pronouncing the first character 年(Nian), our tongue tip doesn't touch the upper teeth at the end, so we don't fully complete the N sound. Then we start the second character 夜(Ye). This way it's Nia(n)-Yeh, instead of Nian-Nyieh.

[@evanhsieh]

I smell group attribution error here...

[@RayCromwell]

It's not just Taiwanese who drop the tongue curl in 'zhi shi chi', my relatives are Shanghainese and I notice them doing it all the time. 'shi' often sounds like 'si'. Additionally, there's this weird thing where somethings 'r' sounds like 'z', for example in 如果, the 'ru' sounds more like 'zu guo' sometimes.

[@IshtarNike]

It's technically a "southern" Chinese thing. Shanghainese is a "southern" Chinese dialect. Since most of the historical Chinese diaspora were from southern China that also explains why people in Taiwan and South East Asia have this linguistic trait as well.

[@akunbuangan2992]

Yes, my maternal grandmother migrated from Fujian to Indonesia and She also drop "zhi shi chi". So, actually this is more about Northern Han vs Southern Han thing rather than Mainland vs Taiwan thing.

[@_s_lena4160]

Same my parents are from Fujian, China and they tend to drop the “h”. So for example when they say “shi” (是) it would sound like “si” (四).

[@tiongkueng]

@@akunbuangan2992 actually not all of southern china pronounce it that way. Many places in hunan，jiangxi，jiangsu，anhui and hubei, some Hakka dialects and so on they do pronounce the zhi chi shi (but not all words in these dialects which are pronounced with an -h in mandarin are pronounced like that. E.g in xiangtan (eastern hunan) 长沙changsha is pronounced as zhonn so，you can see that 长 has that h but 沙 doesn't. 双and霜 also as song.

[@tiongkueng]

@@akunbuangan2992 and there are also places in the north where they cannot distinguish between sh/ch/zh and s/c/z，particularly northeast china

[@andrewz5981]

Here is a funny story you may enjoy about accents and its impact on learning. I spent some summers in Taiwan with my family studying Chinese. The school taught very formal mainland accent, but everyone at home spoke normal Taiwanese accent. Every time I tried to explain there was a strong difference between how the teachers and home pronounced Zhi, Shi, and Chi both denied there was any difference and just insisted I was confused. It drove me crazy and definitely impacted my eventually giving up Chinese study forever.

[@klmnts]

Also had Taiwanese friends who said that they don't find any difference. I guess it just registers as the same thing in their mind. Nonetheless, hopefully you'll be interested in learning again someday!

[@timtang9275]

As a native Chinese speaker, i pronounced yi ge ren as they did😅

[@LilyUnicorn]

Yeah. This youtuber super biased. I literally a chinese wuxia drama where they pronounced yi ge ren the same way. Im like..... if youre native then you know all those diffetent dialects be hell on earth

[@somerjohnson7876]

You made me feel better 🤣🤣

[@hifabien]

@@somerjohnson7876 i dont why, but same

[@FireRupee]

Yeah, there are so many different accents, even (or especially) in Mainland China. I've heard 人 like Jessie said it should be (with a retroflex consonant), but other Chinese speakers I know say not to say it that way. Or, they say that it should be with a retroflex R, but then don't actually say it like that themselves in a real conversation.

[@jesroe5842]

But it really isn't not native tho 有一个人 must be pronounced 32422 but 442 can be used only when stand alone

[@floraldeity]

Coming from a half Chinese half Korean person who really loved the show. I was actually so shocked when I found out the guy acting Louis was KOREAN and I also felt extremely ashamed that I didn’t notice at all because now I see it so hard 😭

[@bobkee]

There are also quite a bit of local accents and pronunciations of Mandarin used by people who speak Mandarin as a primary language of communication from Southeast Asia that differs significantly from both the prestige Putonghua or Guoyu accents.

[@KarabauPlay]

What I like about Taiwan mandarin is that you dont really have to emphasize the 'h' like in 'shi', just say 'si'. So that's one less thing to worry about. You will find many chinese in South Asia using Taiwanese Mandarin.

[@bkcalvine]

It's kind of like Southern American English ... a bit lazy and not standard pronunciation.

[@KarabauPlay]

Taiwanese mandarin sounds more modern than northern china mandarin. More like american(taiwan) and british(china) english.

[@bkcalvine]

@Connor Markus Pro Tip: Stop spamming random comments to promote your phishy ass website.

[@tc2334]

That’s what I hate about Taiwanese Mandarin. lol it’s so annoying.

[@soaringaegis]

It's not that you don't have to, it's just what happens if we're feeling lazy (I'm Taiwanese) . If you're learning Chinese, you should still make the effort to learn the difference lol..

[@injunsun]

I used to watch it, and liked it a lot. The granny is my favourite character. I believe the slow speaking in the kitchen I believe was the actress intentionally portraying being crafty, sly. We do that in English, drawing out some words when we are emphasising how we feel about something. Obviously, I don't know if all language speakers do this, other than the usual, "Ohhhhhh," with rising and falling tones indicating surprise. I have no idea how to render that in text.

[@shira7155]

Jessie's fashion is the best thing ever. Wish I could dress like that.

[@ChinesewithJessie]

Thank you Rod! I'm a super fan of Qipao!

[@putraduha3176]

What stops you?

[@amir_vr100]

Just Taiwanese do soft 'h'? I heard this a lot in Shanghai, Suzhou and Shenzhen. I asked a girl how can they tell the difference between something like ze and zhe, she said there is really a soft 'h' sound if you listen more carefully. I feel that I do hear the difference now. From what I understood, this is somewhat common all over southern China. I am hoping I am wrong about this and I just got unlucky and met a few people that speak like this... because this pronunciation was driving me crazy!

[@readjordan2257]

ive only heard mainlanders do the soft sounds, ive lived in Taiwan a few years and i dont notice any of these dynamics she mentioned, ive only heard mainlanders say that about Taiwanese really. its also reinforced with their phonetic writing system. i mean, they learn from elementary school to pronounce using hard "letters". the only usually ignored one is ㄦ because they dont do the Beijing style pronounciation. ㄓㄔㄕ all are prominently next to each other in the writing system, and and are used. ㄗㄘㄙ are the soft sounds and ive only heard them used as they're supposed to be. basically, it seems they try really do just follow the dictionary standard. however...maybe south taiwan is different? but they also have a variety of other Chinese languages influencing them. where 臺語 is the only other language here, and most of the younger generation doesnt speak it....they dont even know the grammar for it. which reminds me, they dont shorten words in Mandarin, but its normal in TaiYu, like 沒有 is just "moe" like the English name, but in rising tone.

[@amir_vr100]

@@readjordan2257 hmmm I am surprised to hear this. Lately, I've been on VRChat all the time practicing my Chinese (you can look at my channel), and I've made a lot of Taiwanese friends, and almost of them are really hard to understand because of the soft sounds. Some mainland accents have the same problem, like particularly Sichuan.

[@readjordan2257]

@@amir_vr100 interesting.

[@lilac1204]

AmirTV .you are not wrong. That is a southern Chinese thing. In fact, all southern chinese dialects pronounce closer to odd Chinese

[@johnnychang3456]

I am Taiwanese and I think we do pronounce a softer h than China. However I think it’s way more subtle than what the video described. There do exist some people that drop the h entirely when speaking, but it’s very rare.

[@ab20_]

YOO the edit and reaction at 6:09 KILLED me LOOOL, gave you a like just for that

[@priscillajimenez27]

I looked up the actor who only said, "it's true" and he was born in New York to Taiwanese American parents. The actor who picked up the phone was born in California to mixed chinese american family and he speaks catninese at home and studies mandarin.

[@clementj]

I already knew Randall Park wouldn't sound fluent but he did an okay job, I think. Although even people who doesn't speak Mandarin can tell that he's saying his lines phonetically.

[@jaimefish173]

I dont think she realize that the whole scene is a joke/game on their Mandarin. So their accent was never meant to be proper, but how American they really are.

[@karakarapi7963]

its interesting how u dont often realize that different languages have different stress patterns. i dont speak any east asian language but i have watched a few kdramas here and there, so when the dad opened his mouth i instantly thought his stress patterns sounded quite korean

[@LilyUnicorn]

Didnt sound one bit like how a korean speaker sounds

[@classof09official]

you don’t speak any east asian languages. so why do you think someone sounds korean lol

[@catsballs9657]

LMFAO you watch some kdramas and you think you know shit? LOL let’s not talk bullshit when you don’t even speak any East Asian languages…

[@loveforeva12]

아예 비슷하지 않아 뭔 소리 하는거야 ㅋㅋㅋ

[@Tardigreat.]

LOL WHAT you can instantly detect korean stress patters after listening to a few kdramas??!? XDD

[@toffeelatte6042]

My mum, my sister & I used to do this at home. Because my sister was good at French in school and I grew up in Italy, but my mother didn't pick up German (one of the languages spoken in Italy) - so occasionally we would only allow French or Italian be spoken at home. But I learned Mandarin and Cantonese in HK and yeah, I think they got the Taiwanese accent spot on as my tutor was from Taipei and this family sounds like she did.

[@ayemunaymessiah598]

This was a great video. I thought my Chinese was getting better, now I know it’s not 😂😂😂

[@shira7155]

I feel ya 🤣 Although I'm confident to some extent, Chinese is quite overwhelming lol

[@leoagaw]

Yi4 ge4 is how taiwanese people will say. Don't assume your mandarin is the only correct form of mandarin. Taiwanese mandarin uses different tones for many words like xin qi, qiye, etc.

[@lol...]

@@warricklow4218 he pronounced it yi4 ge4

[@fhb7088]

We say 一個 Yi2 Ge5 tho

[@sapphirelight748]

The fact that you can hear the accents, and the connections between words, or lack thereof, lets me know I have a loooong way to go with Mandarin. You must have such sensitive ears. When I speak I must sound so foreign 😂😂😳

[@vectorm4]

Yeah, an old girl friend from Taiwan tried to explain to me the Taiwanese way and the Common Language way - I was confused...

[@annahkmon]

If you watched the show or even read about it, their accent and choice of wording makes sense because they are from Taiwan.

[@aesthenju]

omg it’s my first time hearing the 国语 fact! im actually a chinese indonesian & my grandma has hongkong descent, but she refers to mandarin as 国语 and in my mandarin class when i was in kindergarten, my laoshi laughed when i said 国语 instead of mandarin. it’s almost been 20 years since then & i still remember that moment 😭😭

[@advil200mg5]

1:14 I don't think mandarin can be neatly divided into Taiwanese / Mainland, a lot of people from the southern part of mainland China have accents that sound more like ‘Taiwanese mandarin’.

[@alsuu19]

For me, as a Chinese learner, it is so hard to pronounce that R sound too...

[@henrifeng]

I don't speak mandarin chinese but when I heard the grandma speaking I could tell she was definitely fluent. There's something different when she speaks that hit us and it feels so good to hear

[@威威-d2f]

It’s only because neither of them are native speakers , their first language is English,that’s why it is weird.Even though some Taiwanese pronounce like you talked about in the video but most Taiwanese pronounce the right toned mandarin.

[@YuzenKhan]

You need to observe about S.E. Asian mandarin, especially in indonesia, here there is no "r" sound, instead it changes to "y" and "j" sound, and the low tone sound will changes to "k" sound 🤣

[@michaelhilliard2370]

On the mainland, I usually see 国语 on movie listings when buying tickets for the cinema, but it's usually for mainland films, so not just a Taiwan thing, it seems. That said, I think that's the only place I see it come up.

[@aii1717]

I really want to start learning Cantonese and Mandarin and Japanese, I want to travel to China and Japan one day and I think it would be so useful to learn those languages and the culture.

[@Greg-om2hb]

You had best pick one. Japanese and Mandarin are two COMPLETELY different languages. Cantonese has even more tones! There are more people in the U.S. and in the rest of the world who speak Mandarin than speak the other two. Japanese is easier to start learning with no tones, relatively few sounds, and the Hepburn system of Romanization is easy to pick up, but the language is very difficult to master. It just works so differently, and is used so differently, and the culture prizes the ability to speak indirectly. Mandarin, like English, is facilitates direct and explicit communication.

[@klemmichard8916]

It's not just Taiwanese (southern Min), southwestern Chinese is like this too, zh is z, sh is s, ch is c, etc Pinyin r differs a lot depending on the version of modern Chinese, not all pronounce it as Beijing's, especially not Taiwanese. She show is about Taiwanese immigrants, that's how the characters put it in the show.

[@ykchang7171]

The host spoken Chinese is pleasant to the ears and easy to understand.

[@oreocheesecake0610]

one time i bought loaves of bread and the seller said something like "si kuai qian" i proceeded to grab a five dollar and she gave me a look and said in english "ten dollars" now i get it.

[@LilyUnicorn]

10 dollars...for a loaf of bread.... she ripped you the hell off

[@oreocheesecake0610]

i meant loaves im sorry lemme just

[@oreocheesecake0610]

at first i was pleased cuz it was like, wow so cheap for loaves. But then she stared me dead in the eye xD

[@shadowvampwolf]

oh man, second video im watching from you. this is slowly starting to feel like how elders here where i live judge younger people on how they hold their chopsticks XD

[@stubby4000]

pretty sure the characters are from Taiwan, there's certainly a few episodes where they go there.

[@freddywong5234]

In Malaysia my teacher are Taiwanese mandarin, the word 人 ren, if a person having difficulty of saying the R word, in Malaysia we say Len. 一个Len.🤣

[@SaarN1337]

Your explanations are pretty clear, that's awesome. Love the outfit as well, it adds a lot to the experience.

[@everythingart7566]

As a person who’s been learning chinese for about 5 years this is so interesting to me. My teacher for most of those years is Taiwanese so I always wonder if I have inherited some of her accent, but I think she changes her accent when she’s teaching pronouncistion bc she doesn’t omit the retroflex sounds. 很有意思。

[@mervyngreene6687]

I loved this show. I was really afraid that people would think that I was being racist. So, I never mentioned it to any of my friends.

[@awesome101555]

I can definitely say that loving this show does not make you racist.

[@itz.rafael]

3 years later and this video is still amazing. Timeless♾️❤

[@ErniJuliaKok]

I like this channel, subscribed, and enjoy most of your videos. But, in particular, this one, has reminded me of how did my friends make fun of me when I spoke Mandarin to them, many years ago in Beijing though. This movie must serve its authenticity in portraying how overseas Chinese keenly practice Mandarin within the family, as well as celebrating CNY. As an overseas Chinese myself, I can appreciate the implicit value of the screenwriter and producer.

[@lynniee_1035]

Woaahh I love how she explains everything! I learned a lot😊❤

[@fromwordstosounds]

as someone who's born and raised in Malaysia, i find the little boy sounds exactly like how we Malaysian Chinese would speak 😂

[@mizzsia2077]

Agree. Cuz no one cares if we sh ch zh or scz 😂 And we tend to pronounce R sounds L

[@megisawesome]

This is just fascinating to watch. I don’t know a word of Mandarin but it’s interesting to watch and see what you have to say about it. I’m learning so much.

[@akunbuangan2992]

For Guo Yu vs Putonghua thing, I think that's not about Mainland vs Taiwan, but more about Kuomintang vs Communist Party. I am Chinese descent from Indonesia, and my mother and her relatives call Mandarin as Guoyu while none of us migrated directly from Taiwan because it was called Guo Yu even in Mainland during Republic of China era.

[@sunrayz81]

Bingo. Putonghua was coined by the CCP.

[@skazka3789]

It doesn't really matter nowadays. Say "Guo Yu" to a mainlander and they'll know what you mean.

[@andyandys5356]

Hong Kong also call it guoyu

[@Harthorn]

You're correct, it's a CCP creation.

[@pandabear153]

I remember our parents call Mandarin gok ngui in our dialect and bahk fong ngin for those who speak Mandarin 😊

[@luckdragongirl]

China is such a big country, are there not dialects in Mandarin? Like, in America, the way we pronounce English words can carry vary depending on what part of the country you're in.

[@sbtjlhw111]

Mandarin itself _is_ a dialect, and is the official spoken dialect (not necessarily used in governments) in most regions that have a large presence of Chinese race (i.e Mainland China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, etc; not sure about Thailand), but at the same time, most overseas Chinese from the stated countries also speaks their own ancestory dialects like Hokkien, Cantonese, Teochew, Hainan, Fuzhou, because most of their ancestors are from Southern China

[@disappearintothesea]

There is, and people who say otherwise just don’t know their history. There is a reason why all Chinese movies and tv series are required to provide subtitles. Also, most tv series (dramas) are dubbed in the Beijing dialect as that is considered the official dialect of China.

[@rilesywilesy2920]

@@sbtjlhw111 Even though Mandarin is commonly referred to as a dialect of Chinese, I don’t believe this is an accurate term. A dialect is a regional form of a language, so two people who speak two different dialects of the same language will still understand each other. Like how for the most part Brits and Americans can converse without too much trouble. Mandarin is a distinct language, although there are regional dialects of Mandarin, such as Taiwanese Mandarin or Singaporean Mandarin. But I believe that Mandarin and other “dialects” of the Chinese branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family are generally mutually unintelligible, so should be classified as distinct languages rather than different dialects of the same language.

[@MulanBelle]

@@rilesywilesy2920 However, the written language is the same. Sure, I wouldn't understand if someone spoke Cantonese to me, just as they wouldn't understand if I spoke Mandarin to them. But if I wrote down what I said, the other person would understand.

[@dingus42]

@@MulanBelleit's actually not the same for a lot of "dialects". For example Hokkien writing is completely different

[@W4rH3aR7]

It would make sense for the characters to have Taiwanese acccent since that is where they are supposed to be from according to their backstory.

[@Daniel-l7n9o]

I dont know Mandarin at all. But after a few shorts i watched, im glad to see that this is actually a lady who had some deeper thoughts about how languages are, than i thought.

[@maggiefelisberto5281]

Heritage language learning is a really fascinating thing; in American Portuguese, which is what I'm familiar with, there are a lot of words used that are adapted from English that have formal translations in the more "standard" dialects. My guess is that the tonal issue you found with "ren" in the last clip is an indicator that the Taiwanese American community has had a general change in that word over time, rather than an indication that the actors aren't truly fluent.

[@dingus42]

The "english" R in ren is the standard pronunciation among us Chinese in in the SEA diaspora (where I'm from), and most of my Fujianese and Taiwanese teachers in school also pronounced it that way, so it is the standard here I assume

[@tokyocraze]

I love this expert breakdown of everything. You're a good linguist.

[@emilyho3028]

Taiwanese here. You’re so professional and so cute!! Yes, we don’t roll our tongue much. Compared to most Taiwanese, I rolled my tongue though. That makes people think I am not from Taiwan. 😅😂😂

[@asianladyballin]

the more i think of it, the more i think i sound like i learned taiwanese mandarin

[@JJ-el6qx]

Would this be the equivalent of sitting a bunch of different english accents together and claiming they are all speaking the same english. Ex) british vs american accents in the same "family"

[@FireRupee]

Except for the grandmother, they all had similar Mandarin (the actor for the father had a stronger American accent, but maybe the actor learned southern-accented Mandarin; the character is supposed to be from Taiwan himself, but it's alright). I don't know the story for the grandmother in the show, but in real life, some families in Taiwan do have a family member who was born in mainland China before moving to Taiwan, so I think this mix of accents (most speaking Taiwanese Mandarin, one grandparent speaking something else, like Beijing Mandarin) is still realistic. And the children in the story were born in America, so if the actors sound American at times, that still fits. Edit: And after moving from one place to another, a person's accent is very likely to change a little over time, but it can be hard to convey this on screen.

[@BenJones1127]

the zhi chi shi thing isn't Taiwanese, it's just the southern accent, everyone here in the south talks like that...

[@BenJones1127]

觉得老师有点偏见

[@ashleighelizabeth5916]

The family backstory is that they immigrated from Taiwan so if they have a Taiwanese accent that is fitting for the show. There's even a point where they go back to Taiwan for a family member's wedding.

[@globalsourc]

作為一位台灣人來看這視頻真的是非常有趣，非常喜歡你的創作😊

[@BBarNavi]

繁體大陸用語啦

[@BBarNavi]

正規臺灣用語： 身為台灣人，看這影片倒是非常有趣 非常喜歡您的作品👍🏻

[@globalsourc]

很有事的回覆XDD 在這裡給予鼓勵竟然還會被質疑，是繁體大陸？？？ 只要身長在臺灣，說出來的就是道地的臺灣話，沒有所謂的正規不正規，我的出身輪不到一個網路上的路人來質疑。 換了個詞造句就變成正規...？（黑人問號）

[@kylinaxx7544]

6:07 HELP I WAS EMBARRASSED FOR HIM..

[@Fridelain]

I just checked with google translate, voice recognition takes both r-sound and y-sound for renmin, and the "play out loud" button on the resulting text sounds like an r to me, for both the traditional and simplified chinese tts engines.

[@FrankTulloch]

ha this was loads of fun! more please >.< introduce us to more diverse ways of speaking Chinese \>.

[@selenaluong3607]

Hi Jessie, may I ask how can you say "otoke" in Chinese?

[@ChinesewithJessie]

Hi Selena, I don't really speak Korean but with my limited experience of watching Korean dramas, I happen to know this Korean phrase lol. "otoke" in Chinese is 怎么办(zěn me bàn). Hope this helps :)

[@reizxrou]

My korean isn't that good but I'm intermediate level. I think 어떻게 is 怎麼 (zěn me) or 如何(rú hé), these two mean "how." 어떡해 Is like "我的天啊，該怎麼辦啊!" (wǒ de tiān ā, gāi zěn me bàn ā!). There might be mistakes as I do not speak any languages well :D.

[@selenaluong3607]

@@reizxrou thanks dear!

[@reizxrou]

@@selenaluong3607 npnp :D

[@Harrypotterfan334]

The characters are from Taiwan so makes sense

[@ZenFox0]

If 人 (rén) is pronounced with a ‘j’ sound instead of an ‘r’ sound, why did the Chinese linguists who developed Hanyu Pinyin (汉语拼音 / 漢語拼音 / hànyǔ pīnyīn) romanization use an ‘r’?

[@akunbuangan2992]

It's j in Wade-giles romanization.

[@elmohead]

because J represents a different sound. Like Jia in 加油

[@ZenFox0]

@@elmohead Fair enough. Maybe they should have used 'jr' for that sound in Pinyin, because it sounds a lot more like 'j' than 'r'.

[@elmohead]

@@ZenFox0 ...or you can just learn the r sound... Why not criticize the French and their silent letters or Spanish using J for an h sound?

[@ZenFox0]

@@elmohead I blame them too. I blame everybody.

[@cvpiguy]

1:01 that’s how singaporean and Malaysian speak Chinese also HAHA

[@arthurlowe3796]

😂

[@billy7349]

in the series, they are indeed a taiwan immigrant family

[@krauserthethird]

You have the best fashion sense!

[@ChinesewithJessie]

Thank you 😊

[@aguaf]

1:14 It's not a Taiwan vs Mainland thing. About half mainland Chinese speak z c s instead of zh ch sh. People in Central North are more likely to say zh ch sh in their daily life. Most people in the East, South, Southwest don't say zh ch sh. People in the Northeast say both z c s and zh ch sh, but mixed them up. I personally speak z c s only everyday. However, during test, I use zh ch sh in order to get a higher score.

[@jiayi2650]

老太太的普通话（国语），很像老电影里那种配音的腔调。

[@thearchergravity]

Cool breakdown. I love language and this was very informative.

[@tenga3tango]

Oh come on . On the mainland there are various tones and subtleties of speaking Putonghua , among the Shandongnese, Shanghainese, Dongbei lao, Fujianese, Cantonese, Guangxi, Hainanese and many other smaller autonomous minorities speakers.. Despite , MAINLAND China sweeping powers to impose one standard speaking method and pronounciation. Its just natural diversity. But the main takeaway, is currently the favored and accepted and favored Asian to appear on American mainstream media is the Korean diaspora and previously it was Japanese. When American think Asian and East Asian , they think hmmmm.... Koreans. Koreans represent East Asia at the moment. Its just the way , it is at the moment.

[@SoroushTorkian]

lol when I say "不知道“ I say it like "不r到" and my 多少钱 sounds "draoqian" haha

[@snozbucket]

haah just found your channel. I'm Half Taiwanese but grew up there. I learnt chinese from my grandpa who's from mainland china, my mum took after him as well so she was pretty pedantic about making sure I pronounce words the right way. Even now I've hardly spoken the language for 20 odd years I still pronounce things pretty clearly. I think whoever's giving them tips in the studio is also someone who isn't a true native becuase as far as I can recall no one in Taiwan would say yi ge ren like that. Moreover if they're real Taiwanese, say perhaps more country-side they'd omit the R sound and go straight for a harsh L sound. Funny when I watched this show definitely only grandma is the only legit mandarin speaker.

[@LegoCityFilms]

5:51

[@GRgaming24pvz]

4:58 Wait what He almost sounded like that Microsoft voice😂

[@cravingfriedrice]

I'm Chinese but I can't really speak Mandrin I speak Cantonese (because I was born in HK)

[@KarabauPlay]

My cantonese friend said, learning mandarin becomes easier if you know cantonese.

[@cravingfriedrice]

@@KarabauPlay yea

[@sleeexs]

@@KarabauPlay I assume also vice versa

[@oljo888]

@@sleeexs well in my opinion, not really. while knowing mandarin can make Cantonese easier, Cantonese is somewhat harder. Cantonese traditionally 9 tones (10 if you including high falling), Mandarin has 4 tones. The initial consonants are different too, for example the word for I (我) in Mandarin is wǒ, whereas in Cantonese it’s ngóh. For non native speakers the ng initial sound is harder than w. If you know Cantonese, the Mandarin tones, initial sounds and ending sounds are easier than knowing Mandarin and learning Cantonese.

[@sleeexs]

@@oljo888 Wow

[@Tasi-or-An]

4:39 the Taiwanese pronunciation sound really good! I always thought my father's language sounded like my mother's, but never realized that Taiwanese was even closer to my mother's language! (The fact that it sounded like 'dao' in Vietnamese which means knife is comical)

[@cazat]

Actually in Taiwanese Mandarin they do have Zhi Chi Shi sound officially, itz just southern people aren't good at pronouncing them, so the general population just pronounce them incorrectly. Kinda like a localized accent. People south of the Yangtze River generally are bad at pronouncing Zhi Chi Shi.

[@razorduc]

Haha. I only watched 1 episode and I was convinced Constance Wu (before I knew her name) was also a Korean learning Mandarin like Randall Park. Everyone except the grandma has such strong American accents. The way they said ren is how my little cousin said it as a toddler lol

[@Gambit08]

I would love to see you analyze any of xiomanyc’s videos!

[@ChinesewithJessie]

Thank you for your suggestion, I'll look into it!

[@LolaMexica]

I'm curious, too. He repeats himself so much.

[@OatmealTheCrazy]

@@LolaMexica he seems to stutter a lot, but that may just be my ears being off