I think Zuckerberg should first focus on speaking better English before "perfecting" his Chinese. He was notably clumsy in his ability to marshal ideas into spoken English. He attempted to go head-to-head in an intellectual dialogue with Professor Harari. The dialogue aspect was abandoned by Zuckerberg and the encounter morphed into an arcane monologue from Zuckerberg. Check it out on RU-vid.
Your pronunciation is really standard (especially the tone) and sounds like native. Really like your voice when you speaking Chinese, which is more gentle than the way you speaking English..Hahaha
All depends on how many hours a day you are going to study/practice the language more than the number of years. You cannot compare a person who is studying the language 10 hours a day with some one that will be studying it only for 5 minutes a day. In both cases, their ability in the language will increase but not at the same rate. You also have to take into account the material and the method you are using to learn the language.
this is purely my opinion here, but I think part of the problem with westerners in learning a language such as Mandarin is the inability or lack of willfulness to stretch themselves and act the part. one has to be willing to explore new positions and shapes with his mouth, his tongue, his cheeks, his lips, etc. the muscles we engage when we speak our native language fall into a very familiar pattern, and that pattern needs to be broken, consciously broken, without the fear of sounding "weird" or different. Conversely, for someone whose native language is Mandarin or Vietnamese, there must be the willingness to adopt what seemed like harsh positions and shapes of the tongue, the cheeks, the lips, in order to speak English or German or Russian, etc. When in Rome, one must do as the Romans do. if a person has no willingness to hear and feel the different nuances in the production of a completely different family of languages, then mastery of a new language will be well nigh impossible.
It's not impressive when an English speaker learns German, or of a Spanish Speaker learns Portuguese, but when a person learns a language that is an offset of their own, it's exponentially impressive.
I've been taking Mandarin for 2 years (I'm an American) and I have to say that your accent is really good and easy to understand. It's really inspiring to hear you able to get to such a high level of Chinese and be able to communicate so well :)
Nice, I'm learning for 3 days and I already recognized some words, like "meiguo" (America), "zhonguo" (China), "beizhe" (a cup), "piaolian" (pretty) etc. :)
There is something extremely soothing and beautiful about listening to Mandarin being spoken. My grandmother Phyllis was a college professor who was fluent in both Mandarin and Cantonese. A few other languages as well Maybe it's picturing my grandmother speak it...but Chinese in general, such beauty to listen to it..
As a Chinese American I think your Mandarin speaking ability is exceptional but you have yet to master the art of communication with Chinese people. Mandarin is a high context language much like Arabic, Hindi, and other ancient languages, where communication happens through tone of voice, body language, and non-verbal cues. Western European languages like English and French are low context and people tend to listen to the words rather than try to read context in order to divulge the speaker's true meaning. To be able to truly communicate at the level of a native speaker, you'll have to understand the Chinese (East Asian) way of thinking better. During certain clips in this video you were very rude to the host of the show (within a Chinese context) and inconsiderate during the conversation. While competing to speak over someone else is fine in a discussion on a TV show in the West, it is considered very rude by Chinese people. With experience you can of course speak over someone, but you'll need to handle it with a big smile and a lot of charm--flattering your hosts is one method to assuage any feelings of resentment (eg, praising the host's good taste in clothing). If you continue to learn Chinese and try to understand Chinese culture, you'll see that in China human relationships are very complex and political. You do a lot of juggling and emotional manipulation to handle the people around you, so feelings are not hurt and everyone is happy. While your mastery of Mandarin is very impressive--the most difficult part of learning the language is to be able to communicate correctly according to the rules of the culture. And this is what people in the West have the hardest time with--understanding *how* to communicate correctly in an Asian language.
Frederik Rasmussen The "how" part of knowing how to communicate isn't well understood by many people who are learning a new language. I frequently see Chinese immigrants in the U.S. who speak English well yet manage to offend Americans. They think Americans need a lot of face and that Americans are constantly "reading between the lines". It's true to some extent, but not to the degree that the Chinese do it. I was recently in Italy and was trying to pick up Italian. You can immediately feel that Italian is a far more emotional and expressive language; people communicate in a much more emotional way.
+Moon Racer While I agree with the points you've made, you have to bear in mind that this show was not a natural speaking environment. Everybody was constantly speaking over each other, and fighting to speak the whole time. Some of the other guests were fighting so strongly, I thought it was rude even from a Western point of view (most of those sections were just cut out), but if you didn't, you wouldn't be able to say anything. It wasn't a natural discussion. Some more management of the discussion from the producers would have been helpful, instead of forcing everybody to constantly fight to be heard.
I’m Chinese. I have to say that Chinese is the most difficult language in the world, but these foreigners could speak Chinese like native. They are amazing and talented. It taught me that we can learn everything as long as we study hard.
holly, sh**. There is mix of diffirent accents is crazy. For me, choosing an accent will be your next step, because it's a little bit awkward. Your chinese is not prefect, but no body is perfect. I am most surprised that you have such much knowledge which even chinese ppl don't know. Bravo! Thumbs up!
Kudos for being able to achieve that level of fluency, but this video actually disproves the whole point of this channel. Yes, it's possible to become fluent in Chinese, but it is so rare that they invite people who can do it on national TV.
It's not that rare, and there are a few foreigners on TV now. There are frequent guest appearances from foreigners in fact. More and more people are starting to learn and speak Chinese. The purpose of this video is to show people that you can do it, not to show how difficult or rare it is.
Fluent in Mandarin.com I definitely appreciate seeing this. I learned mandarin for 8 years but stopped speaking it for two years. I’m trying to get my tones better and my pronunciation. You’re an inspiration buddy
I spent two weeks in China and I hated not knowing what anybody was saying to me so I've been learning Chinese. Really hope I can sound that fluent at some point...
It's easier for you to understand him than a native Chinese speaker, probably because he still had a bit of a foreign accent at the time of the TV show. (He now speaks almost with 0% foreign accent, based on his recent videos.) Then again, most native speakers speak a lot faster, sometimes with regional accent & doing a lot of connecting or squeezing words (as any native speakers would do on their mother tongue)
EVANGELINE NOBALA of course there's a foreign language I hope u r not expecting a foreigner to speak like a Chinese ? when chinese learn English they have a heavy accent ! I guess he is doing very well as long as you can understand him.
Chinese language, both Mandarin and Cantonese, have an exotic quality, sound of an almost unearthly beauty to me. The written language is no problem, although I avoid the so called "simplified" characters in learning and regard them as simply a convenient shorthand, or abbreviation for the real (Traditional) characters. The language and culture became of interest to me in my Traditional Chinese medicine studies which eventually led to my graduation from a College of Oriental medicine, in Florida, in the 5 year Shanghai program, But the speaking and listening is the hard part. There are no courses I can find that help this problem. There are supposed to be tones, and, sure enough, for short words or individual words you can hear them. But the moment one goes over to natural conversational speed, which is quite fast in Chinese, I hear few or no "tones". Some of the words or elided so that the sound of the individual words becomes unintelligible, with the exception of, for example, Chris here whose speaking I would use as an example. Using the free "Audacity" sound processing program (available for many computer operating systems, I use Mac) I am able to slow down any .mp3 easily, preserving pitch but even then the words go by too fast. This is frustrating to someone like myself who can hear the beauty of the sounds, and see the history and depth of this remarkable culture.
When people speak faster it's more about picking up the vocabulary and the rhythm of the language. The tones are there, but if you want to process every single tone as a separate entity, rather than listening for vocabulary and meanings, you are not going to be able to keep up!
Ya, I found that out the hard way. So far, the best that I've found are the De Francis series, apparently written in the late 1940's, for which Seton Hall has released all the audio. And its in traditional characters which I prefer. The only other language I use other than English right now, is Russian which I learned in school years ago, for reading Russian herbal and medical books. Piece of cake compared to Chinese, but of course I speak with an accent. Would have to live there several years to be really fluent.
Could you tell me how you have learned so many colloquial expressions and managed to use them so fluently and flexibly? I'm a Chinese persuing a master degree in Australia with an IELTS 8. Although I have no problems studying and working and dealing with most complicated cases in my daily life here, I do feel that what I say is too formal. It feels that the expressions I usually use are from old-fashioned textbooks. Could you give me any recommendations on how to fix this problem?
Mainly I learned them by living in the country, spending a lot of time talking to local people and watching movies and TV series. The best thing by far is talking to local people. You need to find people who you can have more in-depth conversations with and spend more time talking and listening.
Thank you so much for your advice! After I came to Australia, I really feel that Chinese people are one of the most supportive peoples in the world in terms of interacting and helping with foreigners learning their native language. Most Chinese people are very friendly and willing to chitchat with learners even if their Chinese skills are highly limited, making it easy for them to find plenty of opportunities to practice the language. The case in Australia is significantly different, most people don't care about what's going on outside the English-speaking world, and they are not interested in talking with foreigners despite most foreigners being curious to know more about them and being able to converse with them normally in English. That might be the reason learners with solid determination to master the Chinese language have a very good chance to achieve what they aim for whereas most Chinese learners striving to learn English end up engaging with the local Chinese communities whichever country they are in. By the way, your Chinese is really amazing and I wish I could reach the same or even just similar level in my English studying one day.
I’ve made many videos teaching Chinese language vividly and in a funny way. I hope you can recommend my videos to those who want to learn Chinese. I hope more people can learn Chinese to get comprehensive firsthand information about China and most likely seek more job opportunities.
Chris, Good day. I started learning Mandarin, I want to only speak and understand what people say. I have gotten one Chinese friend and I will be talking to him everyday. He is living with me. Are there any other tools should I use along with talking with my friend? and How much should I achieve in 7 months. Thank you Chris : )
Chris, wow! Great job! This video is awesome. Has this given you a degree of fame in China? Also, are there many westerners like you who have achieved such high fluency in Mandarin? I gave up studying Mandarin; though, I think I will return to it in a year. Even without understanding what was said, I could easily tell your speaking was superb. Hao ji le!
+Steven Fischer Has this given you a degree of fame in China? 在中国发展的外国人现在已经非常多了，不像以前 少数几个会中文的外国人明星 那样的轰动和引人注意了 （如加拿大的 大山）！在每年夏天的湖南卫视的 汉语桥 节目，你会看到更多外国人 掌握 汉语的“大牛”们。。。
+Chris Parker (Fluent in Mandarin) I wonder why you waited for the chance, instead why you did not go to the channels yourself so you could have gotten those opportunities much earlier! awesome
+Almir Arante Just talking about different aspects of Chinese culture and sharing experiences from our own countries. I cut this video together from 3 or 4 different shows
You said a word that sounded very much like the "n-word" a lot in this. What does it mean exactly in Chinese? EDIT- Saw that you've replied to this question already. When you say filler word do you mean something like er or um?
***** what did you think of tianjin Chris? I ask because Austin Guidry is leaving tianjin and he didn't really enjoy living in the city. By the way how is the cantonese coming on? :)
***** heh i knew it had to be mainland, they dont have a taiwan accent. also knew it was tian-something because i have a friend named tian so i know that hanzi and recognised it on the local TV marker :P
