Experts Rank Chinese Speaking Celebrities - Best to WORST!

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[@catinabox3048]

As a 1.5 generation Chinese-American, I was very impressed by the Australian prime minister. It's not just about his accent, grammar, and fluency of expression, but about his listening comprehension. Viewers who don't speak Chinese may not be able to tell, but that interviewer was using extremely complex pedantic vocabulary and sentence constructions. The fact that he was able to respond on topic at all was crazy! My husband, who is a 1.5 generation immigrant like myself and who speaks Chinese fluently with a Beijinger accent, would not have understood a single thing that lady said. On a side note, the comment about what constitutes "fluency" is an interesting one. I have graduate degrees in French and teach French at the university level, and I consider myself to speak five languages at varying levels, so this is a question that is very dear to my heart. Personally, I think the things that define me as native and fluent in English and Chinese are that 1) I don't overthink to make sure I'm correct, 2) I don't get nervous before talking, 3) I have zero fears that the person I'm talking to will switch languages because they don't find me "worthy" 4) I have zero fears that me stumbling over one word or hesitating over one sentence will make them think I'm less competent, 5) I can understand everything even if they're super quick and casual and I can't make out every syllable, and 6) native speakers never think I'm not native. My French is not nearly at that level and yes, I agree that qualifying oneself as "fluent" when you don't feel it can be hard. This said, I've learned to still call myself fluent in front of non-speakers because what they mean by "fluent" is whether I'm able to hold a conversation without context, without planning, without a dictionary, and without making the native interlocutor feel like they're pulling teeth to communicate, and that I can do. I have better grammar and better sentence structures than a lot of native speakers, and I have decent pronunciation. I also know for a fact that there are hordes and hordes of people who call themselves fluent who are MUCH less fluent than I am, and so I would be doing myself a disservice if I did not call myself fluent. For the same reason, I put "near-native" on my CV because my colleagues and classmates whose level is not too different from my own all do so, and again, I would be doing myself a disservice if I did not put it as such. If anyone calls me out on it, I have no problem with just telling them the truth.

[@tmjz7327]

I am confused by your first point? The interviewer was using semi-formal language but certainly not something I would expect a fluent speaker to not be able to understand. Her vocabulary was somewhat advanced but the sentence constructions and pronunciation were very standard imo.

[@duishungry]

I agree, even for a native speaker since we're talking politics you would probably need a middle school or above vocabulary to understand and respond to her answer. He probably speaks at a high school, maybe college level vocab/grammar wise which is very impressive. That's just based off the clips int he video though.

[@darkraisnorlax1853]

他是外交部长，平时学习的材料和接触的语境肯定也会多涉猎这方面的高级词汇。就像我学英语，知道一堆对母语者都生僻的学术词汇一样XD

[@tie4049]

采访者的用词并不复杂和难以理解

[@amandahuginkiss4098]

brag much?

[@feizai245]

Kevin Rudd has a major degree in Chinese language. Not only does he speak Chinese, he speaks Chinese at an academic level.

[@lamb5225]

我听得出来，确实是这样~！

[@Hay8137g]

Well he’s still not native and God Level gweilo or gaijin haha

[@catinabox3048]

@@Hay8137g He's pretty God level in my opinion. That interviewer was using extremely pedantic vocabulary and literary sentence constructions. The fact that he was able to respond on topic at all was crazy! My husband, who is a 1.5 generation Chinese-American and who speaks Chinese fluently with a Beijinger accent, would not have understood a single thing she said.

[@irritatedanglosaxon1705]

Current OZ PM also speaks Chinese very well

[@NoohCee]

No. He speaks Chinese very badly.

[@SeokjinShizun]

Xiaomanyc is 33 I think and he has a Chinese wife he lived in Beijing for a year and he's been learning Chinese for more than 10 years I think

[@learnchinesenow]

Thanks for the info

[@senorojc1279]

Ain't that Laoma Chris?

[@rairaidj1]

Laoma is much better

[@JustinericSutton]

@@learnchinesenow Fun show!! I was so excited to hear you include Xiaoma in your fun gameshow! It was a blast to watch! Entertaining and Educational! I have watched a ton of Xiaoma videos and he has functional knowledge of several Chinese dialects as well as a bunch of other languages, a genuine Polyglot! I am stoked you guys have this channel and doing fun videos and interviews like this!! more more MORE! Please! XieXie Ni!!

[@TheFiestyhick]

​@@senorojc1279ha...kind of similar, but Chris has lived in China for many years.

[@stevechan3689]

I had a brief conversation with Kevin Rudd in Melbourne last year. His Mandarin language level and knowledge of China are above that of most Westerners. I told him that I was from Shaanxi Province.He explained to the people next to him that although the pronunciation was the same, it was Shaanxi instead of Shanxi. He was the first foreigner I met who knew the difference between the two provinces.

[@ray881888]

Pronouciation isn't the same.

[@heinlich]

​@@ray881888 他意思是英文😂

[@forfucksakecomrade]

What was the occasion? Formal or informal?

[@bouncingBrain]

John Huntsman is definitely better than John Cena. Huntsman is a former ambassador to China, and I've heard him speak Chinese in other settings. He could respond in an interview. John Cena''s speeches were rehearsed and probably in multiple takes.

[@learnchinesenow]

Maybe Huntsman just gets nervous in front of the camera

[@bouncingBrain]

@@learnchinesenow . I guess my point was more about John Cena, whose speech was most likely scripted, rehearsed and in multiple takes.

[@Holeros]

Yeah that's what I thought as well. It's pretty obvious Huntsman actually knows how to speak Mandarin. He was just probably a bit rusty and needed some time to think. The clips shown were way too short, but even so, I think it's ridiculous to think Cena was better than him....

[@cossakman101]

He also lived two years in Taiwan on a Mormon mission

[@Luming-di9rf]

Cena only knows a couple of words and his accent is horrible.

[@willx9352]

Cantonese is a legitimate version of the Chinese language (leaving aside the argument about whether there is any such thing as “Chinese” as a single language, rather than as a designation of a family of languages). A Cantonese speaker is speaking “Chinese”.

[@baiqi44]

Chinese isn't even a language until like around 20 or 30 years ago. It's like saying Canadian or American is a language. Chinese government made people switch to thinking that Mandarin is Chinese so "Chinese" became a language only in the last 20 or 30 years. Mandarin is one of many Chinese languages. Its' history is much shorter than Cantonese and many other dialects of "Chinese". Even Cantonese has many dialects within it and I speak and understand 6 or more of them.

[@thelias91]

@@baiqi44wow which cantonese variations can you understand/speak ?

[@baiqi44]

@@thelias91 I wouldn't call them variations, more like dialects. I understand Xiao Nam Cantonese. I speak and understand Shiqi Cantonese. I speak and understand Guangzhou/Hong Kong Cantonese. There's so many that I don't even know which ones I might or might not understand. I understand some Toi Shan, but I don't know if I'd even classify that as a Cantonese dialect (it probably is). There are also many types of Guan Xi Cantonese dialects so it's not just Guangdong. I think I might understand Nam Ning Cantonese, but there's words here and there that differ. I lived lived and travelled throughout China and there's just so many local dialects/languages that if you don't use the common Mandarin or common Cantonese (like Guangzhou/HK dialect), it'll be very hard for all to understand one another. In North America where I grew up, it's different accents and not different dialects. I think we can all understand one another's English no matter what our accents are (like a New Yorker's accent is different from a LA person's accent, but we could easily understand each other). The same thing can't be said about dialects. When accents become so far apart, they kind of become like dialects. It's kind of hard to understand (sometimes) the English of South Africans. They speak perfect English, but it sometimes almost sounds like another language.

[@Hay8137g]

Yeah stop calling it Chinese it’s Mandarin Chinese. Cantonese almost became official language except after one vote. They should know all the classic literature was in Cantonese not Taiwanese mandarin

[@chenenid2011]

@@baiqi44 you have no knowledge of history of the Chinese language and here to spread presumptuous rumours. Mandarin is from 北方官话 (Bei fang guan hua / Northern governing dialect) which can be traced throughout the Chinese history ever since there is a court. There are many regional versions of 官话 (Guan hua) and these are forms of official language for governing communication, since people from different regions speak different dialects and it would be difficult to understand each other should there be no unified ways to communicate. In a nutshell, government officials and scholars in China, for thousands of years, will have to come together and discuss business with each other and report to the emperor. In year of 1728, emperor 雍正 (Yong zheng) designated 北方官话, AKA Mandarin to be the only official dialect for the entire court. 1923 the then government 中华民国政府 unified 北方官话 and 白话, standardized Mandarin. 1932 Mandarin is being recognized as one of the 6 working languages in United Nations. And in 1955 Mandarin is reinforced to be recognized and further standardized as the official Language of China. 30 years ago from now is 1994, and as far as I know, Mandarin is being recognized as the official language of China looooooooonge before 1994.

[@BS-ve6dt]

Should have included 大山 from Canada. Hands down God tier.

[@chensweeyew454]

he is a guru, better than most Chinese...

[@8964TS]

Yes, but he’s a celebrity FOR speaking Chinese rather than someone famous for something else first.

[@cmmndrblu]

小馬也是@@8964TS

[@cossakman101]

@@8964TS yeah but same could be said about xiaoma nyc

[@caninelynx0747]

uuf yep, so many childhood memories

[@taxol2]

If u’re Asian, speaking 3 langguages quite common so rarely people impressed. It’s when You speak 4-5 languages fluently then people start to notice

[@kd8199]

Belgium has the most quadri-lingual speaking people in the world. Many of them speak Dutch/Flemish, German, French, and English.

[@Mar-enfrance]

True! Not easy for non Asians to know this.

[@justpoko1739]

but in japan where i was born and raised, if u speak english(being japanese), ppl would definitely consider u as a smart ass person😂 so if u speak japanese, english and more langs then ur god here

[@bratzlover501]

Umm it’s not common tho lol

[@teacherbrendenpeppo]

That depends on which country or part of Asia you are talking about. Some are more multilingual than others.

[@kwitchabichen]

So glad yall revamped this channel. I really enjoy the content that has reignited my interest in language learning and other cultures.

[@duishungry]

We watched a few videos from this channel back when I was in high school so I was sad to see it died off. Now I'm all grown up and it's so cool to see it revived!

[@redchen3682]

Well done in recognizing and appreciating the enthusiasm and optimism displayed by these celebrities as they make an effort to communicate in the language.

[@TheBergMan]

I live in 广西 guangxi china right now, studying mandarin. And it's absolutely true that the Chinese don't care so much about accents and tones. Where I live, mandarin is almost a second language haha most people here grow up speaking a dialect (zhuang hua). So they no one cares that my accent and tones are off haha it's refreshing

[@YifeiZhang-pv2oc]

That's right😂

[@alexandral8913]

Hi i’m a native chinese speaker (grew up speaking both mandarin and english at home). Kevin Rudd’s tonal pronunciation isn’t very accurate and the speech wasn’t written particularly well - but the interview was very impressive, he has good vocab and to be able to converse at that level is pretty good. He also has a slight Beijing accent when speaking haha so technically his accent is more “standard” than mine 😂 he and Xiaoma are the two best here imo.

[@FigureUnboxing]

And I'm a Chinese descendant who was born in Indonesia and still live here... but I can NOT speak or write Chinese. "Thanks" to the extremely China-phobic government at that time (Soeharto's New Order regime) which outlawed anything Chinese-related including Chinese words, Chinese new year celebration and so on. Now Indonesia is more open but discrimination still exists here and there. Also "thanks" to Soeharto for introducing hatred towards Chinese people.

[@learnchinesenow]

Yeah I had a friend from Indonesia who is the same, he went to Taiwan to learn Chinese, was in my class at Taipei National Normal University

[@FigureUnboxing]

@@learnchinesenow I can speak Mandarin "yi dian dian" (a bit) though, but not enough to converse with Chinese people. Better than nothing I guess.

[@Mar-enfrance]

Very true - Chinese people are disincriminated against in Indonesia and blamed for everything.

[@user-ju8sy2tf2e]

你们就像被驯化的狼，逐渐忘记了它是一只狼，因为已经不会狼嚎了

[@user-hx1ob7sl8o]

Yet Malaysian Malay would love to steal that idea and implement it there.

[@georgeosborn3223]

John Huntsman was ambassador to both China and Singapore. He probably picked up a little Chinese...and he played keyboards with Chinese rock bands on TV.

[@johnsarkissian5519]

While I was taking a 3-week Chinese language course at Taiwan’s NTNU, our course teacher happened to be the same lady who also taught Kevin Rudd. Unfortunately, I do not recall our professor’s name anymore but she was considered to be one of the most eminent faculty members and highly respected. She must have retired already because that was at least 8 years ago.

[@Sergiodc107]

I love your channel! I have been lucky enough to do my degree in international politics at Fudan University, it was a wonderful experience, your channel reminds me a lot of that moment in my life and I confirm what you say in the video! Your channel is great, keep it up!

[@MosBaked]

Very funy video thanks!

[@delsol1967]

I love how you named the categories.

[@alphaglucopyranose6928]

I’m a native speaker. Xiao Ma is actually a beyond-God tier speaker. The clip didn’t show much, but he has hours of videos of him talking to Chinese people. There is a 1-hour video of him interviewing a Chinese guy( the Chinese “Elon musk”) who, in my opinion, has no sense of logic, like many poorly educated. But Xiao Ma was able to make sense of the nonsense and have a conversation with him. Xiao Ma was kind of irritated in the video because it’s hard to have a conversation with the guy he was talking to.

[@steelydan1242]

Very entertaining in your analysis and humor. There are quite a number of American speaking Chinese in movies and TV. Hope to see more in your show.

[@shayni99]

After living in Beijing for 2 years I had pretty good 'bar Chinese' and a cracking 'pirate' Beijing accent that cracked up my mainland friends.

[@junchen9954]

Worst insult from a British I've got so far : spectacularly~~~ spectacularly average 😁

[@gemthepolyglot3258]

I’m curious how they would rate me. I have been learning Mandarin for about 15 years and have been living in Taiwan for three and a half years now. I still won’t necessarily consider myself “fluent” though.

[@evokaiyo]

It's refereshing to see yourself being humble. There are many KZbinrs who speak conversational Mandarin, using wrong tones and grammar, but often claiming to be Fluent, Native Level or even speaking "Perfect Chinese".

[@johnnoon9999]

yep. one of them was even rated in this program lol.

[@isaiasabinadisosagarcia936]

Very interesting content 😁 this and the kung fu videos are great!

[@fansizhe9997]

Awesome!!!👍👏🏻👏🏻😍😍😍

[@WitheredAnemone]

John Cena's mao tai will forever be a classic.

[@yinfimusic]

As a former student majoring in Chinese language, I would like to point out that the most accurate term to use is "Mandarin" instead of "Chinese" or "Putonghua." This is because there are numerous mutually unintelligible spoken languages classified as "Chinese," including Cantonese, Wu Chinese, and Hokkien, which, by the way, are much closer to ancient Chinese pronunciation.

[@rosesmith6208]

i have watched that guy several times and found it interesting. I want to learn mandarin and am trying but not doing so well, but I keep trying. he spent a year in china so he says.

[@redredc2]

I know Ben Hedges from his show The Credit Shifu, but my mind is blown that he speaks Mandarin too!

[@cortlincabbiness7726]

Great video guys! 小马 is definitely on god tier. He's 100% fluent and can have full conversations. He studied in Beijing for a year and his wife is Chinese as well. He's studied Chinese for many years. He's well into his 30s now but he's kinda got a baby face.

[@rsliu4646]

My rating as a native Mandarin speaker, based on the clips only, ordered from low to high. ^Shelson: 1/10. ^Mark Zuckerberg: 2/10. Train wreck. No language talent for sure considering by the time he had learned CHN for a while. ^Trump's granddaughter: 3/10, for the same reason given to Zuckerberg, plus her age ^John Cena: 4/10. Much better than Zuckerberg, thus more engaging. ^Sheldon's roommate: 4/10 (based on the one sentence). ^Jon Huntsman: 6/10. ^Vanessa Branch: 8/10. Accomplished, more in terms of pronunciation than vocabulary (hard to tell from the film clips). ^Kevin Rudd: Definitely 10/10. ^Xiao Ma: 10/10.

[@qiangwang7717]

It's Sheldon

[@johnnoon9999]

Calling xiaoma a 10 proves you aint a real chinese person. Or youre a pushover who thinks being able to tell what someones saying most the time makes someone amazingly perfect in the language.

[@proudasiangirl576]

Mandarin is a very tonal language. If the wrong tone is used, it can completely mean something different.

[@markmoore7566]

How can you put Xioa Ma below the Milky Bar kid ( Rudd )

[@user-to9lv4hn3m]

这一期节目非常不错，我看完了。学中文的朋友们，为你们加油！

[@rsliu4646]

Peter Hessler said it well in his "River Town". Chinese would compliment a person's Chinese when the person is a tourist or beginner. Once you pass that stage of being a tourist or beginner, they would give you brutally honest opinions of your pronunciation and mandarin speaking skills.

[@beraiyen123]

Where is Mira Sorvino?

[@donkorte80]

Would have loved to see a compilation from the tv show Firefly. They basically used Chinese as their version of swearing… They were obviously just saying memorized lines but I would be curious to see how close they did get…

[@ericlau6435]

Lol their Chinese was not good

[@catchang8234]

Agree, their Chinese was unrecognisable

[@hata_kana]

idk why but John Cena really love saying 跟 instead of 和, its such a weird way of saying ‘and’

[@johnnoon9999]

but actual chinese people say 跟 to mean "and" alot. saying 和 often makes one sound like an unfluent foreigner.

[@hata_kana]

@@johnnoon9999 I am actual Chinese people and I know that he is saying 跟 in the wrong context

[@andronicustang3643]

Dialects are never inferior to standard Mandarin. They are just different languages with no army and navy, unfortunately. Imagine if Cantonese had become the common language in China, the same would be said of non-native speakers of Cantonese.

[@amytheorangutan]

Lots of respect for Kevin Rudd considering he probably studied in Taiwan over 20-30 years ago and don’t have to use it in his everyday life in Australia.

[@marw9541]

I like the different experiments with content

[@Demonfireangel]

Xiaomanyc has a BUNCH of clips on the internet, and you chose the most basic of him ordering food at a restaurant? How is that fair? You're judging his Chinese based on your terrible pick of the context of him speaking it. He has videos of him having deep fluent conversations with Chinese locals, not just of him ordering food. Just look at the one of him in the nail salon. He legit has a full-on conversation about Chinese culture, living in America, etc. Anybody watching that video would say his Chinese is God Tier.

[@zichenli3558]

im a mandarin native speaker and i have to say ben's mandarin is better than mine❤absolutely love this

[@Zeyev]

I am a nitpicker. I don't speak Mandarin or any of the other Chinese languages but please allow me to comment on your English. The word "pronunciation" is NOT spelled "pronOUnciation;" the vowel sound changes from "pronounce" to reflect the spelling difference. One of you got it right and the other blew it. Now, back to the fun. I truly enjoyed your analysis of how well these people spoke Mandarin and your sense of humor when they mangled the language. As to tones and listening comprehension. A friend of mine taught English in Taiwan. When he and another Usonian wanted to say something private within earshot of their students they could speak neither Mandarin nor English. So they spoke Mandarin with an accent from the Southeast USA and that made their speech totally incomprehensible to their students.

[@stanchung69]

That was fun! I'm firmly in the the bottom two tiers

[@ignatiuschua5268]

Meet either of Jim Roger's daughters and they will blow your mind out with their Chinese proficiency.

[@dr.gaosclassroom]

I think Mark's Chinese is ok. I can understand him perfectly. Jared makes a great point that there are many Chinese native speakers with heavy accents!! I love Kevin Rudd for the simple fact that he is the only Western politician who speaks fluent Mandarin in the world!! Huntsman's Mandarin is ok but not as good as Rudd.

[@LarryZeng]

great job

[@kindface]

C'mon guys, there's no way that Zucks could be better than Huntsman. C'mon.

[@learnchinesenow]

Yeah idk, this was more about fun than accuracy, i think we got pretty close, but those three Zuck, Huntsman and Cena were all pretty similar. Maybe if we had some longer clips of Huntsman we could make a better assesment

[@jaydenlee1228]

​@@learnchinesenow it seems that you are prioritising pronunciation over their vocabular and grammar?? I doubt john cena has greater flurncy than mark zuckerberg

[@Mar-enfrance]

Spoken chinese is not easy at all, I admire anyone non-Chinese who makes an effort to do so!

[@nicoleraheem1195]

I agree. Omg! With all the vocabulary in my head, I couldn't even give directions in Chinese. I never thought I would run into a non English speaking Chinese person in NYC. Tbh. I figured I would only focus on movies and scripts, so I can watch Chinese tv without subtitles. How antisocial of me!? I feel ashamed! 😅 I met this lady the other day and suddenly developed a stuttering problem. 😅

[@aoeu256]

I go on bilibili live using google translate voice recognition on people to help my listening, but its not the best... I wonder what is the best voice recognition for chinese, maybe, xunfei or using Whisper AI live.

[@IIllIIllIIllIIll]

Jared talking to the back row! Great for the stage, hard for the interview.

[@UUliv]

it's funny to see how the host's accent goes with the guest's here and there😄

[@nnietmachine]

Language fluency is when you understand language jokes and can also make new jokes

[@bbl2019]

It’s important to also differentiate between fluency and proficiency

[@msqunhua]

All these people speak better than I even though everyone who doesn't know me expects me to be fluent.

[@Nathan-pm8mh]

Can you do one, or find someone, to rate western celebs who speak (or try to) Vietnamese?

[@JustinericSutton]

That was great!!! As a total novice with just a tiny bit of knowledge, this was a lot of fun and inspiring!

[@tongzhu5850]

John Huntsman should be in the accomplished tied. My guess this is a joke for him.

[@AlexanderEndless]

Why no Laoma Chris?

[@vasileseicaru8740]

gotta wonder why John Cena went for 礼拜 specifically... what, was the movie premiering in Xinjiang?

[@8964TS]

The thing about native Chinese also speaking non-standard Mandarin should get more attention. Laowai are often held to a higher standard than many Chinese, getting corrected on tones and pronunciation when nobody would ever do that for a local who’s also wrong.

[@accordiongordon]

Really? In my experience it’s the opposite, laowai always get a pass for messing whereas Asian diaspora get scrutinized

[@8964TS]

Foreigners get praised but also get corrected because they're assumed to be learning and aiming at accuracy. Locals get let off as just having a regional accent.@@accordiongordon

[@accordiongordon]

@@8964TS nahh fam, the chinese aunties and uncles constantly shit on the younger generation of ABCs for not speaking properly. Meanwhile, everyone is deferential to the whiteys so they get a pass

[@duishungry]

Same, it hurt so bad when my aunt said my Chinese sounded like Mark Zuckerberg lol. I know at this point my Mandarin skills are leaps and bounds above many other Chinese Americans but I still like to keep humble. So now I'm "intermediate" to actual Chinese people, "advanced" to other Asian Americans and people learning mandarin, and "fluent" on my resume.@@accordiongordon

[@wilsontiu9158]

Wow so amazing.

[@Chashibaiikhvna]

Xiaoma does more than restaurant videos. Yal did him dirty

[@harry.nguyen17]

I think the categories aren’t very representative because although the grammar/pronunciation/tones weren’t the best, it is still impressive that people like John Cena and Mark Zukerburg put a lot of effort into learning Mandarin chinese and have good vocabulary. There also wasn’t that many examples provided for each person so it’s not fair to label these people as ‘train wrecks’ etc. I like the video but it could be improved with more examples from each person, just purely ranking people against each other and not categorising them, and also I’m not sure why xiaoma who is famous for making videos in Chinese would be compared to the other celebrities who are famous for other things but happen to know Chinese.

[@learnchinesenow]

Ah its just for fun

[@BoonLim-ef6yx]

For me, definitely 小马 xiaoma has the most Chinese fluency of the lot if you watch more of his vlogs.

[@user-hp5bc5cy2l]

Rita and Jessie (Jeci?) also do review non-native Chinese speakers fwiw.

[@cryptoman9781]

Don’t be too harsh on them at least they’re learning and they’ll improve as time goes on

[@luizmoura455]

Xiaoma said in many of his videos he lived for a year in China and he is also married to a Chinese woman.

[@jpbaugh]

Xiaoma is married to a Chinese lady too so that gives him lots of practice I think lol

[@angelika7756]

ok, but where is Creed from The Office?

[@learnchinesenow]

Oh yeah i forgot about that one

[@kobithavickneswaran2911]

Wait isnt shen yun company run by the the falun gong

[@benbencom]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="782">13:02</a> you skipped the punchline. Someone startles him right after that and he says 吓死我了！perfectly

[@learnchinesenow]

We have to keep the clips under 10 seconds for copyright purposes unfortunately

[@merlebump5328]

Chinese get so proud of any little thing related to China. Like there is a hotpot in the US "oh my god, China is so amazing and powerful". So if you say 你好， they think " OMG the world loves China, the world is learning Chinese."

[@erikwedendal7781]

Ni huang . Its safe to say u can sort me in to the category ”beyond saving” ”unsalvagable” or ”Old dog!” ^^

[@thelias91]

Xiaoma is god tier, he speak mandarin, cantonese, and fuzhounese from the street 🤯🤣

[@michi4056]

yeah i can't take those 2 guys seriously . Xiaoma accomplished???

[@ProCoRat]

He is great but I believe he is a bit disingenuous with his content. 99% of so-called polyglots online are doing a parlor trick where they strategically guide a conversation into prepared lines. I do not believe Xioama presents himself like many polyglots who pretend to be super geniuses who are actually fluent in 50 languages or anything, to be clear. However, what I find disingenuous about his presentation is that he is one of those "Just get out there and speak it" types. That is complete hogwash. He only speaks Mandarin at an advanced level. His other languages are like "I.. I want to... I want... I want to eat Creole food Creole Food I want to eat Creole food." Parlor trick stuff. But his actual fluent language? He did not learn it by "getting out there and speaking it." He has a formal university education in Mandarin. He did not learn it from just putting himself out there. That is like saying you can learn to play violin by sitting in on a symphony over and over again until you get it. So that is my issue with the dude. I love his content a lot, but I have seen this a lot with polyglots.

[@cmmndrblu]

一般吧

[@johnnoon9999]

​@@rairaidj1finally someone in this comment section who knows what theyre talking about. thank you.

[@rairaidj1]

Xiaoma isnt as good as he puts himself out to be, and his accent is quite American and there are many instances where his pronunciation are just incorrect. For more information check out rita mandarins channel

[@da96103]

I don't think I could have understood John Cena without the chinese subtitles.

[@jimliu2560]

Wait. Isn’t that Ben…the sci-fi host..on channel…”Generation Tech”..?

[@YifeiZhang-pv2oc]

为什么你们的普通话这么好，而我学了十八年的英语但是发音还是这么不标准😂（Why is your Mandarin Chinese so good while I have been learning English for 18 years and my pronunciation is still so substandard）

[@dr.gaosclassroom]

I agree totally with you! I have been speaking English for nearly 30 years and there are still words I can't tell apart such as micro vs. macro and words I can't pronounce!! I guess we just have to accept that we can't get rid of our accents!! I also make a lot of mistakes when it comes to pronouns such as he, she, etc!

[@0animalproductworld558]

I know ~5 languages and English is my 5th one

[@MrLolx2u]

Tbh Cena's Mandarin skills isn't that bad. He in fact promoted the “老干妈” mala chili sauce quite well and made it semi-international.

[@mrhdebater1607]

Is this a Falun Gong associated channel? Weird to have a guy from Shen Yun which is a FG outlet and propaganda. I'm perplex because I actually like the channel.

[@learnchinesenow]

Is there anything wrong with that? I mean Falun Gong is a great practice, its good for health, clears one’s mind etc… Shen Yun is also a world class show that gets booked into some of the world’s best theaters, like Lincoln center in NYC. There are some videos online these days by people who don’t really know what they are talking about, trying to find some conspiracy etc… but there really isnt one, I would recommend go see Shen Yun and find out what its really about for yourself. Ben :-)

[@mrhdebater1607]

@@learnchinesenow Hi Ben, I appreciate your response. FG is classified a cult and not a religion, therefore it is anyone's guess whether its teaching and practices are legitimate and safe. According to the ABC Religion & Ethics, Falun Gong has been portrayed as a “folk devil” that is threatening the safety of the public through its “dangerous” teachings on medicine. It is certainly possible to separate FG's deep ideological and confrontational side of its ideology from the feel good exercises, but Shen Yun is literally a show about condemning China! This is being disingenious, how can one clear one's mind when it tries to fill it with anti-China sentiments? In fact, there is a newspaper called the Epoch Times that circulate in our local Chinatown in Melbourne Australia, and all it ever talks about is condemning China. If FG is a religion, then why does it practice such hateful messages of just one country? It seems extremely biased considering that its headquarters is based in the US, the world's largest warmonger. It is sad that these facts implicate good people who don't know better, what's perplexing is that FG does not support tolerance, which means that academics or anyone who challenge the findings of FG are subjected to personal attacks, threats of litigation and frivolous lawsuits. But why should I feel threatened by a "great practice that's good for health"? So I want to challenge you or anyone to prove that Li Hongzhi can really levitate in the air. I await your response.

[@learnchinesenow]

I think you confuse condemning the CCP with condemning China. Have you seen Shen Yun?

[@mrhdebater1607]

@@learnchinesenow You see, I've said nothing about CCP, what does it have to do with them? I have seen extracts of Shen Yun and read reviews of it, do you think it is a happy and feel-good show that people can take away and feel good about China? No. Again, I await anyone who can prove that Li Hongzhi can really levitate in the air as he proclaims to be able to do.

[@mrhdebater1607]

@@learnchinesenow As for videos and articles online that are critical of FG, there are plenty of credible sources. I have both Chinese and Western sources if you are interested.

[@mengxie4409]

fair enough

[@marez120]

I feel reassured being able to underdand most of what is being said in chinese 🤣

[@sharonmin9075]

I don’t know but it’s very cute to see beginning learners use hand gestures to follow the tones 😂

[@deathmeathook539]

You guys need to review doc disrespect too 🤣🤣

[@hackapump]

I think the actress lady said she had made two movies in China, which would indicate she didn’t butcher the first one. Of course, when there are coaches and retakes, she could still be faking the difference, I guess?

[@Maddy-cy9fu]

Aussie here - Kevin Rudd is an absolute legend

[@Oni-Ryu8]

Why does Gérard have to shout

[@MingyueTien-Di]

I am a beginner learner btw

[@keanujohnny]

I will rate these two..trainrecks

[@mastermandarin]

Actually, Mark Zuckerburg didn't say "大家好！hello, everyone!" he said "打架好！fighting is good." LOL

[@leebarnes5941]

Kevin Rudd's God Mode finished him in Australian Politics. lol. His Chinese is great.

[@xiaoyuvax]

how could u not include 曹操（Jonathan Kos-Read） in this comparation as the absolute god.🤔

[@louiechchan]

Xiaomanyc is now fluent in various Chinese dialects, even rare Chinese dialects. I'm a 100% sure he should be in god tier. 😆You guys should have watched more videos of him! haha

[@jayshen84]

He is amazing but not God tier. God tier is Da Shan and Kevin who not only speak the language but also is able to speak with a cultural understanding.

[@johnnoon9999]

hes not fluent in various dialects. hes barely conversationally functional in mandarin. find any clip of him without a million jump cuts if you wanna prove me wrong.

[@lecirdaluz]

You should add a “nice try” category to your list. - 你應該在你的清單中加入一個「不錯的嘗試」。

[@Adventure_with_Spidey]

John Cena wins it all lmfao the delivery is impeccable lmfao

[@syh2101]

I think the actress's 1st clip is adepted!

[@franciscoarmando2237]

Vanessa Branch nailed it

[@danparker8254]

Fast and furious guy spoke Chinese like it was Japanese?

[@TLB-wo7ld]

😂🤣