Surprising Strangers by Speaking Their Language, Part 2 

dang, how many languages do you know

Can't afford that plus I probably won't live long enough to use the language. I'm an old lady. I know Spanish, some German, some Italian and Latin. I learned some Latin through this catholic school I go to. Once you learn some Latin you can learn some European languages easier. Spanish, Italian, French and a few other European languages are descendants from the Latin language. When I was young I loved going to school and learning. Since I have reached my 70's. I've gotten lazy. Don't mind learning something new just don't want to study anymore. My mind is overloaded. I need to give it a break. Love your content.

Seems like you can't speak Nepali

Can you share which restaurants you went to? I’d love to try the Gujarati place

you should learn some Georgian(ქართული) ,it would be very interesting .

Lesson I’m learning-> Learn other languages. Meet nice people. Get free food sometimes.

That's what I commented. No cultural experience is complete without the food initiation 😅

@@Pyxe_ZA true! And if someone offers you food, you better not turn it down because that’s disrespectful as hell in a lot cultures! Lol

@@knottchu6159 bro legit happened to me last week, I'm learning Spanish and I got one of my favorite Honduran foods. It's called "tajadas con pollo" My coworker just bought it for me out of the blue. I was so grateful!

I love my momma, she does the same thing

same fr im struggling w japanese and this guy knows like every language 😭😭

the more languages you learn the easier it gets

I play a game that has italian speakers and has voice triggers for ingame stuff and I set it to italian so i have to speak it and it helps with practicing

I speak 4 langs fluently lmao and around 10 non-fluently

I know, right? Here I am on my third attempt at Rosetta Stone Spanish.

Seriously... My favorite part of the whole video. Such great people in this world. Thank you for sharing your talent and showing us the true light of the world @xiaomanyc

Today you... Tomorrow me

It literally made me tear up. We all have so much more in common than we seem to realize.

My mother helped rebuild a school in Haiti. And she interacted with a lot of the locals. They were always smiling and were super friendly to her during her time there even though they have less than most Americans. They have my respect and my wish for 1st world countries to learn from people like them.

Yea I'm haitain

Excited. Lol.

@@dansgroi1472 girl it’s not a spelling bee you know what they meant u missed the point

@@angel-nf5ix couldn't help myself. Lol

@@dansgroi1472 smh 😭

@@angel-nf5ix The people in the video also correct Ari. It's about learning and getting better, not pedantics

It’s a sign of respect

@CRISTO È RISORTO! 🔥 (CHRIST IS RISEN) 1st of all, bro what. 2nd of all, preciate it but no

nice video

And then you have English speakers who just insult those learning to speak English 🤣

@@Wilbur.Mallon wow, that was...really respectful XD. I didn't expect that when I first saw their comment

The world need's the current population of him. Sure be hard to start a war.

This is how it’s always been, the media likes to lie to you and create problems where there isn’t any. 95% of people are happy when “outsiders” take on their culture.

To Accept what exactly? To accept that white people were ex slave owners to all these cultures 👍

We all just need to learn to speak all language

@@teauny yes i wish there wasn’t so many languages going extinct like animere 😭😭

@John Creley Very nice sentiment. 👍🏼

English speakers feel the same way

@@jerryboics9550 Difference being you typically get assaulted, verbally but in some instances physically, for not speaking English in the vicinity of English speakers. The Ghanian ladies didn't scream at him for not speaking their language within 10 ft of them.

not really, I spoke English when I visited the states few years ago and People were not that friendly. some even told me to go back to my country.

@@vOID-fh1qt Uhh it depends on where you go, english speakers get the same in places that english isn't the native language.

Swedish too

Tænker præcis det samme 😂

same with sweden too haha

i call it the Nordic mix, it also exists here for the balkan languages, a middle ground

Norwegian truly is the best language to learn.

Imagine, the whole world use single language.

@@kchmyy I think if everyone learned minionese we’d be a happier world.

@@kchmyy historically that’s wat English was supposed to be. That’s why it has so many words derived from other languages but it got too complicated for others to learn since there’s so many ways to say just one word

@@kchmyy me no use language different

@@em1ownerify boorger King or Mk Doonal make betta boorgers

He gives such hope for the world 🌎 Sometimes I’m so moved I cry 😭! Maybe humans can choose Love and acceptance instead of being haters. White Christian Nationalists scare the crap out of me! LOVE may win...

@@bcooke1000 I've abandoned Christianity from a young age. They're so hateful and think terribly of anyone different than them. I've chosen my own path and show kindness to anyone unless they are mean or do bad

@@Bounty_Hunter_McShay Yes! Freedom of religion is one of our rights, to choose our beliefs. May the choice to love always win over hate.

@@bcooke1000 yes I am now polytheistic and believe in many Gods controlling certain parts of the world like the sky, sea, nature, etc

@@bcooke1000 speaking for Christians here, were taught not to hate anyone. not even our enemies, Jesus tells us to love everyone as he loves us. If you’ve gotten the impression that Christians are hateful people, then you’re mistaken & i’m sorry you’ve been made to feel that way. I encourage you to have real conversations with Christians & learn about our religion, & what we really believe. were not evil or oppressive people like a majority of the media likes to portray us. Have a wonderful day❤️ (not that it should matter but I’m a young white American man btw)

exactly man we all human after all

This is enlightening to say the least. It's great to see these good people from other lands.

Absolutely! Far more in common than we don't have in common 😊

Also using the language of food works everywhere

Well said!

more like ki$$ing a$$ because they got caught out.

idk if you missed it but his shirt says "foreigner", otherwise they're in the US, they'll have a busy time pointing out every foreigner.

And then they flirted with him.

That’s too far

This had me dying😂😂😂😂

Exactly. I can’t wait to do the same in Japanese

^What she said 💯

I think about this a lot. It’s super important for people to see how well we can all get along when we all put in effort to understand and respect different backgrounds

Why did I tear up reading this? 😅

@@khalilahd. I'm trying to learn Japanese as well!

It's mandatory in NC to take a Spanish Class, if you want to go to College

It’s also fantastic for brain development

@@kidgoku2206 yea that’s every state bud but the difference is in other countries they start learning English (sometimes other languages) in middle schools and even elementary school. I also had go to take Spanish in California but it was only 2 years. I now live in japan and I speak Japanese at a N4 level. I believe we should be required to start learning another language during middle school!

​@@kidgoku2206 Americans always say that they have to speak Spanish but then why does the majority not speak it? I know 1 non latin American that can speak Spanish

​@@takasu9246 you only need to take 2 semesters of foreign language for university, and that's 1 class per semester so it's not that much time to learn

That's the difference between learning English and other languages. Most English native speakers play deaf or make fun of you if you speak a little wrong but good enough to understand, while any other language we embrace everyone trying to speak our language. At least in my own experience, I had more "fun" and self confidence to talk with natives while learning Spanish and Yorùbá than English.

We have indians at my job who understand english but dont speak any of it so its abit hard understanding them but im extremely patient with tbem because i can break it down enough for them to understand how to still get by at work

thats how you learn a new language. yes it might be broken but people are willing to help

People just love that you cared enough about their culture to put in the effort to speak to them in their native tongue

That's exactly how Americans feel when someone immigrates and tries to speak English even if they aren't very good at it. Unfortunately most don't even attempt to, they refuse to learn or speak English and *ONLY* speak in their native tongue, refusing to integrate into the culture, and making aspects of civilization incredibly difficult like when we try to provide medical services to someone we then need to have translators on hand for a large variety of languages. I hope newcomers to the country someday meet us halfway by learning our language just like we have already learned theirs.

Great observation. This is my main barrier to speaking other people's languages. I used to teach English as a foreign language courses, when I lived abroad and this was always a challenge for the students. I wish I had Xiaoma's courage in this area. I imagine that is at least part of his secret. He is courageous to speak these languages, despite his nervousness.

@@gordonliu3972 was hard to miss!

Breaking down the walls…..

its all fake

@@franciskulchar2877 how Lmao

You should check out Loushu. Sadly he has passed RIP 🙏. He was an inspiration to alot of the linguists on RU-vid.

@@Danimal_McLeod that’s tragic. He was very likable. Any idea what happened?!

Ummm.... Learning a language should not be praised this much

My cousin's grandma, who has always treated me as her grandchild too, is from Puerto Rico. Whenever I speak Spanish with her, even though I'm not very good, it makes her really happy.

That’s so nice!

Me too! I always think about him! I love you!

@@hitmarkerwhattt6921 I literally forgot about him. Crazy how fast people move on. I still don't know how he actually died. Media claims it was natural, but his brother says that's bullshit. He said that people killed him and afterwards covered it up Anyways R.I.P to my nigga Laoshu 🙏🏾😥

Just the other day I was thinking about him, I miss him too

Except Laoshu actually learnt the languages and not just some phrases for ordering food like Xiamanyc

@@Makaveli-020 bro had a crazy jealous wife that wanted him out the picture when she realized just how much love he was getting from the outer world. When u have a lot in life women will want to take from u not be with u.

Twi too.

ikr it just makes me so happy

Filled my heart with so much joy.

Yeah, Haitian people are the best, my country have a lot of Haitian immigrants that come here to try to get a better condition for their families, the sad thing is my country treat these persons really really bad, it’s heartbreaking seeing them suffering from all kinds of abuse and it really brings a shame for my country, i wish all of them the best, they do not deserve to pass through the shit they have to deal here…

Yh that got me

There's time where chinese parents said how their child should speak like him lol

Trust me theres wisdom in your husband/wife not speaking your families language. youre off the hook for all the family politics

But why only 18 languages? 20 is good.

🤣

I bet his wife's parents were like 0.0 when he spoke Chinese to them.

why would you think theyd get upset?

@@RafalKalita personally I’ve seen people that do, just personally.

@@AIphyI Shame on those people.

@@RafalKalita French people…

@@jessturner6886 Agreed. Never met a nice French in France.

😁 fr

That's why the world should speak French.

learning a new language isn't just learning a new way to talk, it's learning a new way to think too. they say when you pick up a new language you gain another life, a new perspective on life, and a new way of thinking.

No its not breaking us appart, its the contrary. Dont you see that they are understanding english yet its when you talk the language of their homes that they are happy ? If we all speak and understand one language with no home/parents language, there wouldnt be a happy discover/discussion about the surprise of another knowing your mother language, thats the whole point.

It's not really breaking apart. Think of it like the whisper game. Starts out the same as the first person said, but by the end it's completely changed but yet you can see how it became that. That's how language is, while being different, they have the same roots. It's like it changes little by little everywhere you go. If you know Spanish, you'll be able to learn Italian easily, and visa versa. If you know French, you'll be able to learn Creole easy, and visa versa. And all language has hints of Latin in them. It's all connected in someway or another

@@rafeo4461 U could say the same thing for every other language bro

😂

Learn one more and you’ll see others aren’t hard. Set an axiomatic base and reason up

Learning the first is the hardest

Well it's honestly not that hard for those who grew up learning more than one language. For my case, I learned two at school as most people my age would mix them while talking to each other , one at home thanks to a foreign parent, and English later on because I read lots of English books. You can start by taking baby steps , and always do practice speaking it with natives in order to improve ( if you can do that, which is achievable in this day and age thanks to all social platforms). It'll be hard at first and you might feel like quitting, but what makes a difference is seeing it through. You don't have to learn it as fast as this dude , it's all about your own pace. Nothing to be ashamed of if it takes you a while to reach a certain point. Good luck :)

no you cant ^^

Nothing is stopping you send that shit brother!

Duolingo

I’ve learned two Languages now, I started when a was 21 / I’m 24 now you can do anything just gotta put you’re mind to it

These people all seem to speak decent English though, no reason you can't connect to them by asking about their foods/culture. Language is not everything.

In Germany you have to learn at least english and a different language Like french spanish or russian

You can see him sweat in every video. He's nervous, he just doesn't let it stop him. He knows that people like it when others try to connect with them.

I've never had anyone be rude to me when I speak their language. I'm decently fluent in 6, learning a 7th and could probably communicate in ~9. No one has ever, ever been rude to me about my speaking their languages. Closest I get is French, a native language for me, where I've got an obscure accent that Parisians correct me on all the time, but that's a Canadian thing 🇨🇦

@@GeoClix ???

@@GeoClix im pretty sure tamil isnt the main language of india lol

@@lolman9410 yeah the main language in India is Indian

@@andrewg7779 but indian isnt a language, do you mean hindi?

@@lolman9410 no I mean indian

"come, follow me, we going to ghana now, we are"

🤣🤣

I'm just beginning my journey with Japanese, I hope I can actually stick with it. I only know some Spanish because of high school.

すごい！僕も日本語を勉強する。あなたのチャンネルをサブスクライブした！🙆🏻‍♂️

I am also learning Japanese, so if you know any good online tool or site, please share with me - Thank you

@@kevintjekevin 私も！

@@Pablo_minimal how far are you into learning Japanese? if the original commenter doesn’t reply I can share some sites

yeah because they cant talk shit about u anymore 😂

I think it's the fact that a lot of immigrants keep to themselves, and seeing a native of their new country speaking their home language out of interest and curiosity lets them lower their defenses, and engage on a familiar level.

@@ANMS.cyberpunk That's probably true

It's great to see people have so much dedication to understand a culture. Learning the language is the first and biggest step, and it's awesome seeing people learn! Grazie mille! -An Italian.

Totally agree. Ciao Dall'Italia. Sei sempre il Benvenuto.

People are both good and bad, it is just that these situation trigger an instinctive and uncontrollable good reactions from people. It's like if you go see a kid going towards you or trying to communicate with you, you cannot react badly. This is a very interesting human behaviour that crosses all cultures

Love you brother, fron Rome (IT)

Don't you dare try. Lmao.

At this point he has mastered learning new languages, I don't think it's a gift, it's more about dedication and actually wanting to do it, and after learning so many languages you kinda improve your ability to learn even more.

@@mario_gabriel Definitely takes a ton of work and dedication to learn it. Especially since he only started learning other languages when he was already 18. The older you are the harder it is. Massive props to him.

@@mario_gabriel It's a gift. He has an amazing memory. It's one thing to know basic words, it's another to understand and converse. I'm sure his memory is great, and he could do well in about any school subject that depends on memory.

@@emac543 you'd be surprised how good your memory is if you practice something everyday with dedication, I think a lot of people just limit themselves thinking that someone else did it because he has a gift, and that applies to everything not just learning new languages. Besides, people always think it's impossible to learn something that seems complicated when they know nothing about it, but when they actually learn it they understand it wasn't that big of a deal.

@@mario_gabriel I've had to memorize a lot. I simply have a mediocre memory. There is absolutely no way I could do what this guy is doing. I was naturally athletic when i ws younger, competition was fun for me. My uncoordinated sibling, not so much. Learning languages is similar. This guy is drawn to learning multiple languages because its easy for him. I'm glad for him, I'd do the same if I could. Ive certainly worked at languages. Im a very hard worker, but my memory could never hold a candle to this guys. I know because I've spent hours memorizing things. My guess is that you are blessed with a good memory or are optimistic. The playing field isn't level. We all have different abilities.

Urdu is useful if you can catch Hindi in the same class. They are orally the same language but Urdu is written in Arabic script and Hindi is written with Sanskrit but is often transliterated to Latin characters.

​@@fsinjin60I was so confused the first time I heard Urdu. I was like "isn't this Hindi?" I don't speak either language, but I recognise a lot of words

when you willing to learn then you are able to communicate well after just a couple of weeks.

@Tupac Shakur 😅 Weeks, you mean years.

Same here, he's amazing. My X-GF was Chinese and she struggled to learn English (she had been in the US for 3 years when I met her). I helped her with her English but I found Chinese to be way too complicated. I FAILED!

i love seeing the amount of ppl learning japanese here! i’ve been at it for almost 2 years, but had a huge break in motivation. 一緒に頑張りましょう！

@@mx.sinistxr i just passed the 2 year mark! I remember trying to watch anime or read manga without English and getting frustrated that I couldn't follow what was going on. But the beginner stage is the hardest, and nowadays I can pick up (almost) any Japanese show, manga or game and know 50-80% of the words and easily learn new ones from context! Nowadays I try to encourage the people who are struggling with the language, because I've been there and I know they can do it! 頑張れ!

@@ntrg3248 you are that far at the 2 year mark??? Is that with subs unavailable/raw games and comics? I am somewhere between jlpt n4 and n3 and i find when i truly isolate english explanations, understanding becomes much harder although i otherwise would be able to do the same as you.

@@isntmypfpbeautiful5350 Immersion is gradual. It gets easier over time as you subconsciously get better at the language. I used to bash my head against the wall not being able to understand enough to follow the story of most manga or anime early on, but somehow it just works and I get better all the time. I occasionally come across a show that's a lot heavier in unknown words than anything before, but usually it's because it's on a topic I havent explored in Japanese yet so usually it's a free vocabulary boost.

@@ntrg3248 but in 2 years? This seems inhuman. As i said, im somewhere between n4 and n3 and still the vast majority of works become very difficult when ALL english links are removed. It would make a hell of a lot of sense if you practiced or if you are at n2 proficiency, but that seems pretty damn fast for the timeframe. Also just for context, anime and videos are generally ok. Manga and writing is not because of the huuge kanji limitation since i only know about 200-300

Orrrr, we could all just speak English

why tho, its not the most spoken language in the world, statistically and from a pragmatic standpoint you would just speak mandarin

@@slydamiser6317 every airport traffic controller needs to speak english, as does every pilot. That should tell you something

Yeah, why not get rid of all the cultural differences which makes this world so much more interesting. What a simplistic and depressing world view. @bean beaner learning a language opens you so many doors..this dude is gifted and im jealous because I m very slow at learning other languages...

@@slydamiser6317 And also maybe just because english is most easiest language to learn... Its so much more easier to learn english than mandarin I think..

頑張りましょう。

You can do anything you put your mind to. I thought I would give up studying Japanese after a week. That was 2 years ago.

@@tenchu3770 I'm still not fluent, but im definitely well on my way. I'm working towards my JLPT N3 qualification for the test next July (I can't take N4 in December this year so I'm just gonna skip it and go to N3). I'm quite self-critical but I'd place myself in the frustrating section where I'm well above beginner but slightly below conversational

I think pronunciation is second, vocabulary is first. My pronunciation in most languages I'm learning is pretty good, some people mistook me for a native online a couple of times, but I don't have enough vocabulary.

You are 100% correct. Pronounciation is the most important thing. If you learn that wrong you cant unlern it

@@uk9383 I see what you mean, but you can unlearn it, I guess what you mean is that it takes more effort and it's better to correct while you're still learning the vocabulary, but it's pretty easy to unlearn with practice.

continuing laoshus legacy

I don't go to other countries though. 🤷‍♂️

Unless you go to France 🤣

@@cakebandit hahaha sooo true

i mean i would put the effort into it but i struggle with spanish still after 6 years

Every time I travel I try to learn as much of the language as I can on the plane and at the airport. It shows respect and people love it. Opens so many doors

lmaoooooo

It’s less skill than it is time invested. Especially by the third or fourth language you already have a good method down

@@youtubeuser206 Ooh good point about the overall experience gained by learning multiple. Slightly different mechanics at play, but makes me think of how I can pick up new programming languages relatively quickly these days, having learned various ones already.

It has to be difficult still to some degree. Otherwise every RU-vidr would do it to see the views this guy gets. He def has a system down and to memorize, mixed with the confidence of making mistakes and speaking a language he’s not very familiar with, I’d say that’s his innate ability

Yes, indeed. He is a special kid. I can sense he has some form of autism. Which isn’t bad, let’s him focus maybe more on the part of the brain that helps you store language. You can see it on some of his videos, he sometimes experiences excessive blinking. It’s a dead giveaway my dear 7 yr old niece is like that, and she is highly intelligent and can do a lot of things like communicate with adults as if she’s an adult with big words you’d hear from Jordan Peterson or Neil deGrasse Tyson, but she is really bad at others like focusing on school work doing things that require fine motor skills and she blinks a lot like her neurons are firing faster than ours. God bless people like her and Xiaomanyc! Everyone is special in their own particular way.

I think something to note is that he's most likely not really trying to *learn* the majority of these languages he goes out and speaks, he's learning things like, I'm going to go to a place like this, what are things there, what might I want to say there, what might people respond to me with? and when he's talking he's not thinking things like "okay what kind of grammar should I use here," he's thinking things like "what's that one phrase I learned" He's not really focusing on the basics like grammar, or pronunciation, or how the language works, and mainly just learns phrases and just tries to mix them together a little bit. Obviously I'm not saying that's a bad thing, I think it's good that he's just getting out there and connecting with people, but it can't be understated that he's not really trying to do what you're describing, which would take much more time. He obviously has a lot of experience, confidence, and is very willing to make mistakes, but whether he has some great talent for it, I think it's kind of hard to say. I think, like he says, a majority of people probably could achieve similar results, and back in the day of tourist phrasebooks they probably often did. Obviously he has a very large amount of experience, but if someone wanted to try the same method with just one language (or maybe two) and focused primarily on that language, I think they might even be able to achieve better results, probably supplementing his approach with at least some traditional learning, since if you're learning fewer you might as well put more time into your quality.

You type English well, what language us spoken in UK, Russian?

@@icanfartloud We speak Traditional English, the US speak Simplified English 🤭

@@BigDymz what about Canada?

​@@okami_6 Need I say more?

@@icanfartloud No, it's not Russian yet. Although Pootin Putin would probably like it to be. But he's having trouble getting his "invasion" up. Viva Unkraine! 🇺🇦👏

I wouldn’t of spent a dime there

It's actually really interesting. Haitian creole is based on French so it uses many of the same words, in a similar way to Jamaican Patois being based on English. (If memory serves) I am sure a local can explain better than myself.

I’m not from Haiti, but I’m Caribbean, Haiti was once colonized by France so the language is French based but has a lot of African influence, making it creole/broken French.

I’m from Guyana where we speak English Creole, the language actually comes from Slaves and Indian indentured labourers having to learn English to communicate well with English overseers, so the mix between English and African/Indian dialect formed English creole, the concept is the same/similar for most if not all Caribbean countries.

Haitian Creole is French Patois. It is mix with French, African Language, and the indians on the island

So cute, how was your day?

Bing bong?