Does Michelle Yeoh Speak Good Chinese?

[@marw9541]

She actually didn't grow up speaking any Chinese, only Malay and English. Cantonese was a regional language in the area of Malaysia she is from, but her Cantonese was evidently terrible when she first started working in Hong Kong, but now she is quite fluent and is rather good with Mandarin now too

[@lixian0072000]

most Chinese grew up in Malaysia can speak at least 3 languages...

[@marw9541]

@@lixian0072000 Well if you want to read her interviews where she said she couldn't speak either Cantonese or Hokkien to any significant degree you can be my guest. The fact that she didn't dub her first set of Hong Kong movies even though she came from a very Cantonese part of Malaysia, and since she said that her parents used English in the house which was most likely since they were from different parts of China, I tend to believe her

[@anakitiktokwi2939]

She is a hokkien speaker..

[@marw9541]

@@anakitiktokwi2939 She herself said she didn't grow up speaking Hokkien, only that her father's side was Hokkien. Read my previous comment to someone

[@anakitiktokwi2939]

​@@marw9541no... She said it in her interview... She speaks hokkien...

[@danielmcanulty1562]

This was a very fun video, thank you for making it!

[@sylvialucero5074]

Great video! I noticed you analyzed some of Zhang ZiYi's Chinese as well even though she is a native Mandarin speaker; do you notice sometimes native speakers even say things incorrectly at times?

[@RitaChinese]

That’s a good question, Sylvia!! I wouldn’t say it’s incorrect, but it sounds a bit weird to me when there’s an obvious focus in that line. And actually a lot of actors and actresses have dialect coach on site or in the post production period when they need to do dubbing, because how to deliver the lines best with more accurate stresses and intonation is also part of their acting, if not the most important part😊

[@sylvialucero5074]

@@RitaChinese That's a good point! Thank you!

[@markzzzzberg1312]

fvck zhang ziyi, that bij openly supporting xi jinpig

[@benniboi13]

@4:34 I don't remember this part of the movie

[@lorenam8028]

Am I the only one confused by the translation of the subtitles on 4:34? 有本事就别用宝剑 becomes in English: "then why are you holding your cock?"

[@emixmh]

I remember seeing an interview somewhere where Michelle said the director of Crouching Tiger Hidden dragon was obsessed with making her accent sound completely native and would get so mad because some things she just couldn't get quite right.

[@lixian0072000]

I am native Chinese speaker, I would say probably about 30% to 40% of Michelle's mandarin sounds like a foreigner trying to speak the language

[@emixmh]

@@lixian0072000 that's why the director kept getting upset, because even though she was trying her best it still didn't sound native.

[@anakitiktokwi2939]

​@@lixian0072000 she can't read Chinese characters.. That's why it is hard for her.. Even in hongkong all her canto lines were written in roman alphabet

[@waderobinson4122]

I watched this TWICE in theaters!!!

[@RitaChinese]

Awesome! I'm gonna watch it on KZbin again! 😄🙌

[@RitaChinese]

If you are a non-native Mandarin learner and try to master the best possible sounds of Standard Mandarin, you'll maximize your chance of communicating with people effectively! Join my Chinese pronunciation training program “FINDING YOUR MANDARIN VOICE” today to speak and understand natural Chinese this summer! 👇LIFETIME access is still open👇 www.ritachinese.com

[@MarkusBlue]

Ooooh really enjoyed this video! Interesting how much we can learn from these Chinese speakers. It really helps perfect our pronunciation

[@RitaChinese]

Yayyy glad you like it! Finally got to make Chinese analysis videos again! I personally really like this one haha. Got to talk about some topics that I've never covered previously!

[@Sabbathtage]

I love your video. It's helpful, looks great and the editing is perfect. Instant subscription here! I hope you don't mind me sharing a couple of things. The Chinese in Everything Everywhere was proof-read and rewritten by Ke Huy Quan's wife Corrina "Echo" Quan who worked with Wong Kar-Wai. Everyone who works with her said she's a wonderful person and a real life "Waymond Wang". She also spent time on set rearranging thing to align with Feng Shui. Michelle is not alone in acting with their lines learned phonetically. Bela Legosi did this too as Dracula. I think it worked great for an inhuman monster trying to act like a normal person. He delivers his lines in such a stilted, creepy way.

[@mattpetterborg5720]

I love your content! It’s fun and engaging without feeling like work. I was wondering if your program had payment plans/options. I would love to sign up, but cannot afford to pay all at once.

[@RitaChinese]

Hey Matt, thanks for liking my content and being interested in my course! We don’t have any other payment plans yet, but I’ll definitely let you know when there is. In the meantime, the course will always be there waiting for serving you all, so take your time! Looking forward to meeting you in the course soon😊🙌

[@farrelfawwaz4879]

Just keep it up with the goodwork Laoshi, cause I'd love to learning about Mandarin🙂

[@RitaChinese]

@@farrelfawwaz4879 Will do!! Let me know if you have any questions about Mandarin!

[@raymondng18]

Many of us Malaysian Chinese do not read/write Mandarin but we can still speak simple Mandarin due to the surroundings and the need. We also tend to mix different languages and dialects in one sentence or throughout the conversation which only we Malaysian and/or Singaporean are accustomed to and understand

[@ziggystardusk]

跟着 is more common in cantonese, a lot of her mandarin are direct translations from cantonese to mandarin, it's pretty common in Malaysia

[@triciamaythebrummie4730]

Rita I like your hair 💕

[@RitaChinese]

Thank you😄❤️

[@xygog2408]

She's from Ipoh, which is a heavily Cantonese speaking are, although the Cantonese spoken there may be a bit different from those spoken in HK or GZ

[@xygog2408]

Adding on , * English - Michelle grew up in a primarily English speaking family. * Malay (Bahasa Malaysia) - as a Malaysian, Malay is another language Michelle was growing up with. * Cantonese - Michelle's hometown of Ipoh has a predominantly Cantonese-speaking Chinese population. So Michelle knew some Cantonese even before she went to Hong Kong. She now speaks fluent Cantonese. * Mandarin - Although Michelle did speak a few sentences of Mandarin in some of her earlier films and even sang the Mandarin end-song of Butterfly & Sword, she did not speak the language. Learning and speaking Mandarin for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was the hardest task for Michelle during the five month shooting. She had to memorize her lines literally sound by sound. Michelle has been learning and improving her Mandarin since - she now speaks Mandarin at press conferences and interviews in China. * Hokkien - Michelle's ancestors are Hokkien (from Fujian, a province at the southeast China). Michelle understands Hokkien although maybe only the older generations in her family use this Chinese tongue frequently in their conversations.

[@anakitiktokwi2939]

But she is a hokkien speaker and her family is really wealthy Chinese family

[@relaxwhc]

Michelle Yeoh is from Ipoh, it's a Cantonese town. You should visit Ipoh for the good food and natural scenery 👍

[@RitaChinese]

For sure!

[@anakitiktokwi2939]

But she is a native of hokkien Chinese.. She can't speak much canto when she first arrived at hongkong..

[@shawnk2704]

Makes perfect sense so good.

[@RitaChinese]

Yayyy right? 😄🙌

[@Lunariant]

This is fascinating! I recently watched Everything Everywhere All at Once but there were no subs, so I had to rely on my Mandarin listening skills. That's when I realised that both main actors didn't speak Mandarin as their first language, but I thought they both did great! By the way, would you consider making a video one day about how you became an accent coach and what you had to learn to do that? I'm super curious. Love the googly eyes on the t-shirt btw 😄

[@kelvinlai2169]

Most of friend is hokkien people when they speak chinese you would find out the pronunciation of 热 always heard like 乐 so im correct them frequently

[@RitaChinese]

That's so true! I don't think there is a real "r" in Hokkien, is there?

[@kelvinlai2169]

@@RitaChinese they have a R sound just quite hard to do it we speak the word of 热 must be retroflex in some kind of situation they would pronounced 热 became 乐 such like weather is hot at this time they will unconsciously said it wrong but not all people malaysian are like that as i know hakka people speak chinese very well the pronunciation almost perfect so most of hokkien are admire to hakka people

[@pault9544]

3:15 but even when native speakers are talking emphatically, especially when they're yelling, isn't it the case that some times the tones don't always come out correctly? I just feel like when native speakers yell in Chinese the tones don't always come out sounding perfectly as compared to a native speaker speaking Mandarin slowly and controlled and without erratic or intense emotion.

[@nicoles_handle]

her mixing a lot of english is quite normal for us here 😁

[@KevinHuangPhasorQuantaG]

Um, are you sure the English subtitles at 4:06 and 4:16 are correct? 😅

[@pansaltman]

Nice haircut, Rita!

[@RitaChinese]

Thanks!! I like it for summer😄🙌🌞

[@JO-tg2by]

4:34 you mistranslated there 😳

[@eleonora1]

i've always thought of 缘分 as like "meant to be", but maybe that doesn't fully capture it, idk

[@ychia76]

I was thinking “fate” if she thinks it is predetermined. Or “destiny” where her life choices led her to the moment.

[@peterbayne7227]

If you like Michelle Yeoh, then maybe you could break down the Mandarin in the movie "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon". (From what I understand, many of the actors in the movie don't speak Mandarin as a first language.)

[@RitaChinese]

That’s the first movie clip that I broke down in the video😊

[@loislindsay]

Thank you very much from the bottom of my heart I love you xie xie wo ai ni

[@joyuna]

4:34 怎么？？？ Laoshi is that right...

[@lamic4845]

她说“跟着”的时候，其实是想说广东话里“跟住”这个词，在广东话里就是“接着”的意思。

[@FabulousMcGrady]

缘分的意思是“fate”或者“destiny”呢？

[@RitaChinese]

差不多！肯定是关乎人的关系的，而且是好的destiny😁

[@emolovetree]

On my third watch I remembered she didn't know mandarin for crouching tiger and was curious how she did

[@MarkusBlue]

ahhahahahhahaah the eyes on your shirt 🤣🤣🤣 lol why HAHAHAH

[@RitaChinese]

You'd know when you watch the movie😁

[@anakitiktokwi2939]

She speaks hokkien as her native language... In her story, when she started her career in hongkong she still couldn't speak much canto... She need to learn it first..

[@RitaChinese]

Sounds like you know her story pretty well! Thanks for sharing!

[@anakitiktokwi2939]

@@RitaChinese no problem..

[@tommyc139]

Ni hao rita your live stream is awesome will you please do crouching tiger hidden dragon in mandarin plz thats my request Tommy click your biggest fan zhang ziyi is my favorite actress

[@eliotquintana9802]

Cantonese family aisan movie

[@relaxwhc]

Famous Malaysians: Michelle Yeoh, Nigel Ng, Henry Golding, Ronnie Chieng 👍

[@RitaChinese]

Thanks for your recommendation!

[@lisakelia8776]

你太挑剔啦 章子怡说的是北京话“有本事就来拿”， Michelle 普通话是广式或香港味儿的

[@relaxwhc]

马来西亚人的发音，最大的问题是翘舌音，第二是念错拼音吧？

[@RitaChinese]

应该好好研究下！

[@relaxwhc]

Request for Eileen Gu 😂😂😂

[@RitaChinese]

收到！要做😄

[@QuizmasterLaw]

just here to simp ya look great!

[@RitaChinese]

Thanks😆

[@QuizmasterLaw]

@@RitaChinese I call Mr. Rita "El Espansolo Suerte"!

[@choims1855]

fyi, Michelle Yeoh is english educated

[@MrJaccTrippa]

That's a really cool fkn shirt

[@wenkuan6840]

新髮型

[@RitaChinese]

是的呢😁

[@relaxwhc]

杨紫琼的发音比郑爽好很多吧？😂😂😂

[@RitaChinese]

我可能比较同意……🤫

[@relaxwhc]

卧虎藏龙有太多国际演员，有很多不同的口音吧？

[@RitaChinese]

我感觉最主要的就是广东话口音和北京口音....可能有很多配音

[@QuizmasterLaw]

pinyin i as in lit sounds just like that and yeah beginners want it to be lee -- and it sometimes is! but it's mostly -ih as in lit. Chinese orthography is kinda bad you're really better off with zhuyin or even better: hanzi. Hanzi DO have phonetic signifcations and is the best representation of Chinese pronunciation.

[@RitaChinese]

Agreed, Mandarin learners have to learn to read 汉字 at some point anyways. The reason Pinyin is still important is that people type and look up new characters by Pinyin, so we just want to be aware of Pinyin's bugs. At the end of the day, Pinyin and Zhuyin are still written systems that represent sounds.

[@QuizmasterLaw]

@@RitaChinese yeah but pinyin gives so many false associations it only really works if you're a polyglot X=Russian, Z=German, J=French NG=English. Even then I just get my U and YI much better with zhuyin and it actually LOOKS like Chinese and does reinforce at least some of the hanzi. All the sound shifts / slurs in Chinese make a LOT more sense from Hanzi!! and it also reduces my concern about "correct" pronuncitions (in a language rife with dialects!) Great Video!!

[@RitaChinese]

@@QuizmasterLaw Interesting! I'd love to look into Zhuyin more now. Heard some Mandarin learners say it makes more sense compared with Pinyin, but my argument is just that Pinyin is so widely used and more Mandarin learners just need to be more aware of how the sounds really work represented by the written marks😂

[@RitaChinese]

@@QuizmasterLaw And thanks! Glad you like the video!

[@KH-tp7qx]

她母語是中文，她的國語/普通話只是口音和用字習慣問題而已。 關於發音，其實即使中國內地絕大部分的”native speakers”也沒有教科書裡的標準口音。北京口音和北方口音也不全是教科書裡的口音。不明白為什麼只要是港台馬星人說就是錯，中國內地人說就說成是口音/不同語言習慣。 關於語彙，很多情況都是因為各地有不同用字習慣。要是用港台的用字/語言習慣作標準，內地很多用字也是「錯誤」。 當然理解這影片是教學用途。

[@velkylev4217]

Movie was a rubish, but this video is good

[@anakitiktokwi2939]

One thing you need to know she can't speak and read Chinese characters properly

[@RitaChinese]

Really? I didn't know that

[@anakitiktokwi2939]

@@RitaChinese yes... She said it few times in her interview... And she is an English educated/really normal for kids from wealthy family in malaysia... Not like many of malaysian Chinese kids that went through mandarin Chinese education (Chinese school)...

[@thomashom7514]

Teacher Rita, a common mistake made is “also”. Most Mandarin speakers says “old so” instead of “all so”. You are also making that mistake.

[@lisakelia8776]

我觉得没问题，不准摸， 你是按照你的口音来吧

[@lisakelia8776]

It's so strange that you analyze their Chinese. I don't think they have any problems while they are speaking Chinese.

[@gyc315]

michelle yeoh's mandarin in everything everywhere is cringeworthy! so bad! you know immediately she's a hong kong native trying to speak mandarin. short round's mandarin was also pretty pathetic. and they didn't have to speak mandarin in that movie!

[@billiee835]

Sorry but this is pointless,who cares

[@ysaethwr]

I imagine language nerds and people learning mandarin probably care. Why are you here?