How to Pretend You Know Chinese 

I laughed so hard when that guy went too far with the "ahh" phrase and the "la" phrase was hilarious! Good job!

In Singapore, instead of "Aiya" (哎呀) we sometimes say "Walao" (哇嘮) when we drop something or if we feel upset, which actually means "my testicles" (我卵) in the Minnan / Taiwanese dialect :P

And actually when people say, "ching chang chong" then if said in the right way means green long bug.

I think the racist 'Chinese' gibberish is based on Cantonese actually. It sounds much more like a Cantonese soundset than a Mandarin one, and this makes sense historically since most of the contact the western world had with China in the 19th century was through its southern ports, such as Hong Kong and Macau. That and also the first Chinese immigrants to countries like the US tended to come more from Canto-speaking regions (hence surnames like Wong, Cheung, Choi, Lee, etc being more common in the US than Wang, Zhang, Cai, and Li). Later immigrant waves from China included Mandarin-speaking regions, but the first large-scale introduction that the West had to the Chinese language(s) was Cantonese, not Mandarin.

Singaporeans use LA in every sentence hahahahabah

Hey Everyone, Don't forget to Check Mike and Dan on ru-vid.com

I thought LAH are only in Malaysia and Singapore 😜

I am happy to see my favorite phrase as number one😂😂😂Aiya

In Korean they say "Aigo" or "Aigoo" a lot. I think both "Aiya", "Aigo", and "Aigoo" are hilarious! Idk why, but whenever I hear it I just crack up! I've also caught myself saying all 3 before instead of saying omg, darn those Kdramas! Do u guys, personally, say those words? Also, yeah, Chinese ppl don't sound like ping, pong, ching, chong to me either, especially when I educated myself on languages, but even if u don't educate yourself on it, it still doesn't sound like that.

LOL I'm not even Chinese but I still use that word!!! LOL!!! "Ai Ya"

The cute little batman on chen's shirt kept distracting me throughout the whole video... so adorableeee >.

the surprised Aaa thing while he was saying that his dog died was epic. i was laughing so much :D

I love it when you guys back to your roots and make videos like this

Omygosh i cant stop laughing 😂😂

Ahh? Ahh? Ahh? Ahh? Ahh? Lol I'm dying

Aiya is a bit like aish in Korean right?

There this people who just come up to me a be like "What my name in chines?". It's sooooooo annoying

you two are very funny but 2 thumbs up, it's so much fun and I'm learning a lot! thank you :)

You guys are so funny. Loved the "lah" part, because it's so true! Sometimes we add "lah's" here and there even when we aren't speaking Chinese lol (I have friends who do that)

This is similar to the English conversations in Malaysia and Singapore. :>

That la is commonly used in singapore I. I'm guilty of using it..

"Hey guys welcome to off the great wow"

ai yo can be exchanged with ai ya

Because of how much you guy's have said "Ai ya" so many time's in your skits, I've just picked it up and I mutter it under my breath sometimes. I've also picked up some similar Korean phases from kdrama's. All those words are like curse words for me because they tumble out of my mouth intendedly when I drop something, hurt myself etc and I say them very quietly as to not let anyone hear.

OMFG, laughed so HARD on the la part, and then you guys start singing lalala, thts hillarious!

We love to use "lah" in Malaysia and Singapore! Thumbs up for our slangs!

These guys are so funny & cute!

Ay-yaa thing and nodding is also common as it is no wonder, we use them the same way. Though emphasis on the ay-yaa seems a bit different in phonetics, the stress changes a bit... Hayhay/Hai hai is also a common usage in Turkish.

Knowing another language is always something to be treasured: I know 2 girls, one Colombian, and one Tunisian, who are *perfectly fluent* in Mandarin. And, I know an older Slovak woman who's an expert Chinese calligrapher.

"Lah" is also used as a suffix in the Malay language. For example, "makan" means "eat" in Malay. However, when we invite our guests, we say "makanlah", which can be translated into English as "please eat". It's probably used to make the word sound more polite.

I can't stop laughing.. this is hilarious omg Also I already used aiya & la when speak to my Chinese colleagues. Thanks for the vid!

HAHA! Favorite part! Haircut :) THAT HAIR! ON DAN! COME ON!

In the northeast of England, we use "ay yah" as a phrase when we seriously hurt ourselves! And we say "hiya" as a way of greeting each other. Fantastic clip.

Lol @3:10. It's almost that time of year again. Would be great to see you guys sing a few carols. Great video. Thanks!

Haha this was so funny. The ai yahs was all true except for the bad grade. Haha. My parents yell at me for a long time in cantonese followed by a bunch of cantonese cuss words.

I can say that only few people use AiYa these days. In stead, people would say Wo Kao or Cao. Both mean F** or S**. Can be used in lots of scenarios, like their alternatives in English.

Malaysians and Singaporeans add la at the end of a lot of their sentences. When I lived in Malaysia I was like that too, it's a really bad habit xD But now I've been in England 7 years and the habit's gone. 【I can ensure you Mainlanders DO NOT say la】

I love the skits, they were so funny. esp. the "la" one, I died.

If you find yourself in a situation “where you NEED TO BE shocked or dismayed”. Oh I love it 😂.

lol, actually it is surprising, we here in Dubai add "Lah" to the end of some sentences but it has no meaning. We don't use it too much, it is mostly used when: 1. You are annoyed 2. Want someone to stop doing something OR, stop wasting time and do that something. Verb + Lah E.g "Seer Lah" Go away. "Bas Lah" Stop it.

I laugh so hard at the ahh part where person say to many ahh lol. I cried because I laugh a lot. Love your video!!! And we said aiya a lot to lol.

My school (private school, 12 years) is majority Chinese, so I grew up saying "ai ya!" until I was 11 or so and someone called me racist. But my school is predominantly Chinese so everyone in the Junior School said that. I still like saying it cuz it was a huge part of my vocabulary for 5-6 years but I don't want people to think I'm making fun of Chinese people >.

"Ai ya my new hair cut SUCKS." that was hilarious.

My sister and I talk to each other using a lot of "Lah" xD Using it in Portuguese, Cantonese and English (even if we don't use those with each other as much)

Singaporean here. We use aiya, la, ah / ha? very often in our unofficial national language - Singlish, meaning Singapore English.

When the 大妈 videobombed your skit at 2:40, that really cracked me up!!

I kinda missed these skit-type videos! Not that I dislike any of the other content, but adding a mix of skits is always humorous and fun!

yoooo!! i love it when you guys speak chinese!! nice! would you guys be willing to make an episode completly in chinese or no?

Very, very funny!!!!! Thank you!

I dunno if it reflects the same meaning though 'lah' is also a Turkish thing indeed. It'sa colloquial use among youngsters and in close friendships. Differing according to regional accent as le, üle, ülen on west and south of Anatolia, and Thracia, some part of Greece and Bulgaria and of course Balkans where Turks reside; la, lan, or ulan from Ankara up to Blacksea; lô or lö, lön throughout Southeast... And the meaning refers to oğlan exactly which is smth like kid/boy in English... The same as in Ulan Batur (Oğlan Batur) of Mongolia. 'La' is the shortened form of oolan in here.

LOL!!!! SOOOOOO true! Especially the "HAH?" and the "hai"/"mmm" nod and smile. My grandparents used that for years when talking to Canadian dignitaries, and it totally worked.

The forbidden phrase is so offensive omg like when my classmates do that they think they are "cool" but no.Just no.

Hahahhaha! "Lah" is something we overuse in Singapore. We use it with English a lot and I hear it tends to confuse non-locals XD; But yes most people I know try not to use too much slang like "lah" if we converse with someone who may not understand what it means.

Putting a 'la' behind a sentence I believe it's originally from Cantonese, use in order to give emphasis. In the official mandarin it's considered having a southern accent(Cantonese), people just use it for fun when speaking Mandarin.

One of my personal favourites to use as a universal reply when I have no clue what the person is saying is "wo tong yi", "I agree".

ai ya is generally chinese malaysian people using that, for example in manglish and a singaporean of chinese descent (here it in my mandarin class) (south asians like me have a really similar phrase that old people use) : )

I love to play with "ma" at the end of everything! I just think it is a cool sounding word.

You guys are ridiculously funny! I love you! Keep up these funny and educative hings! XOXOXO

Also can be titled "How to pretend you know Singlish".

La is more of a Malaysian thing, Chinese speaks english differently, they tends to add tones to english syllables.

"Aliya" said by only 10 precent chinese in china,but much more by overseas Chinese,we said "ai" instead. But "a"and"la" are very popular indeed.

lah is also used by Indonesian. but different intonations making it a different meaning.

You guys make learning Chinese so mich fun

Thanks, guys! I've learned guite a lot from this video (I feel like I should know more about my neighbouring country). In Japan we also nod and say 'mmmm' a lot during conversations, though it makes you a little bit creepy while talking with foreigners (old habits die hard, huh?). And instead of 'la', here's 'ne' (especially in my region, Kansai). Sadly, a lot of foreign people (tourists as well) use the forbidden phrase, which is even worse in my case, since the signs are read completely differently.

"你還好嗎？"(Are you alright?) "Ahh?!" X""DD

The "La" thing... I think it depends on a region because I was in Hubei and it was more "ya" behind everything :D And in Beijing it is definitely "er" everywhere :D

For young Chinese, we usually say "哎哟(ai yo), 我去(wo qu)" or "ah" instead of "ai ya" lol

I've heard the Ai Yah in many Chinese dramas and all cultures have a version of this; Ay Dios (God), Ai vey. There is also a kind of 'smacking' sound made by placing your tongue on the roof of your mouth that I do when I begin to say ay. I've noted that '好(hǎo)' is used for several things, good, fine, sure, ok. Trying to remember these. What I'm afraid of is people starting to talk back in Chinese and me looking dumb not able to respond.

but If I say 了 I'm making the past tense, aren't I?

You guys are so funny!! Enjoyed this episode.

0:43 - funny to see Dan channeling is inner George Takei! :D

Using "la" with English sounds so scouse, hahaha

besides aiyah, we also like to use "whoasei!" as an expression of (positive) surprise or excitement. :D

Except for the "Le" tip, every other tips shown in this video can be applied not only when you want to fake Chinese but also Vietnamese too.

'Lah' is what we in Liverpool also put at the end of sentences, although here it means 'lad' , just like Americans say 'dude'

I laughed so hard at the lah thing lol. Mike sounds really good when he speaks Chinese!

Love this. Thanks

That guy in green was awesome lool

the "la"s are such defining feature hahaha for Cantonese especially!!

This is so bizarre, because it's exactly the same with Norwegian, and I guess all Scandinavian languages. We say "oi da" and the same rules apply as with "ai ya" and the "la" = "da" it can be used in any sentence in the exact same manner! the same goes for the just nodding and "mm"'ing, or "hæ"/gasp when shocked. How baffling! :D Who knew Chinese would resemble Norwegian so much in both mannerisms and words sounding alike :D

This is amazing and appreciated.

This is hilarious!!! I remember when I first came to China, people used to strike up conversations with me in Chinese and all I used to say was 对 对 对， 好好好， 谢谢。 And then they would say "你的汉语说得非常好“。 HAHAHA

This explains so much! My girlfriend was driving me crazy with the 'la' and 'Ay Ya'!

When you wrote 谢谢 with pinyin you wrote xiè xiè but it should be xiè xie. if it's the same word after the first 1 it has a normal "5:th tone" ^^

" ahh " ahh " ahh " " are you alright ? " I was dieing so hard

Honestly i agree.... all these are used widely in malaysia singapore and taiwan.and of course mainland china

My favorite word is "Zao Gao". It's a generic expression like "Aiya" but is much closer to swearing. (I don't think it's an actual swear phrase).

Interesting bit about the ai ya. It reminds me of the apache tribe even though they use "Kee-yeh!" for similar situations. They also use that when they hear or see something shocking.

I think it's Cantonese.. I mean using Le(lah). I used to live in Macau and Le is the first word I"ve learned. haha I'm teaching Chinese students from different part of China and I can say it's most commonly use in Cantonese region. Like Gang Zhou, Hong Kong and Macau.

Mike's shirt is too cute!!!!❤️

The "La" thing I first encountered in malaysian videos. I never knew that was a wider chinese thing.

Ai ya became my signature expression among my friends and family hahahaha

Singaporeans, Malaysians, & Indonesians do use a lot of LAHs

i thought those were only common for Cantonese...

I think I'd love to see the bloopers of this ᵔᴥᵔ BTW, OTGW: 你们都太棒啦！！！

Lol I don't say "ai ya" at all, I would usually say "aaaa~~~" and say "wa" instead of "la". I love you guys this is too funny.

chibi batman!!!! mike with food is inseparable.. dan haircut looks awesome.. LOL haircut that make the hair even longer not shorter

WOW. Loooooooove ur stuff!

In Malaysia and Singapore also use 'lah'~

the mm' and 'uhn' is use in India too