I have been living in Beijing and I speak Mandarin and there aren't any Chinese people as hard to understand as Lao Beijing Taxi drivers, because they don't speak, they just grunt and burp. When Chinese people tell you that Bejingers speak the best Putonghua and the "Southerners" speak bad Putonghua, don't believe them! When southerners speak putonghua, they maybe have an accent, but at least you can perceive different syllables... And the finest anchorman-like putonghua is spoken by well educated southerners studying at one of Beijings universities.
@@albertdittel8898 I personally don't believe you should say there is such a thing as "good Putonghua" and "bad Putonghua". It's simply a different accent. If you compare Beijing and Taiwan accents, you will find a huge difference, but there isn't necessarily a good or bad. I've heard people say that the accent in Taiwan is very light and sweet, but I've also heard the accent being called girly. I've heard people call the Beijing accent correct and proper, but that it's also very in-your-face and loud. There really isn't a "good Putonghua" in my opinion.
It's become a popular urban myth. I mean if you say it to someone you know well right before meal time it's fine. But if it's like 4pm and you ask someone that they'll probably be like, lunch or dinner?
@@smallapple-2834 Internet in some universities、institutions and enterprises is free and rid of the great firewall. We can also purchase legal VPN service to access blocked websites.
I'm from Taiwan. My grandparents' generation use "Have you eaten?" for greeting in Taiwanese(kinda like South Fukien dialect, which is used in specific area). It is because in old time, there were wars and natural hazards or bad economy, lots of people suffered from hunger. So asking "Have you eaten?" is a way to show sincere and care. Some villages or old people still use it now. Just like English speakers like to talk about weather 😂
honestly i lived in china for over 16 years and not once did someone ask me if ive had dinner. edit: i meant other than my family. but in that case it's not a greeting. they want to know if i need more food.
@@TheBrianp1 I love food too but sometimes they overkill. Like three plates of seafood, a plate of pork liver and 20 dumplings is just too much. At that point I'm just stuffing myself to make my grandma happy.
@@密寒和他的手机 I am a 200 lb. man. What always amazes me eating in China is I get so full I can't take another bite and then watch these 90 lb. Chinese girls continue to eat everything except their chopsticks.
Great video! I live in Shenzhen and most of the people I meet are from different parts of China. Really cool to think about all of the different dialects in one city.
Yo man, thanks for watching. I've visited Shenzhen a couple times. Since the city is only about as old as I am, there are virtually no Shenzhen-nese people; it's nuts how every single person there is from some other part of China.
haha its funny how people think thats waht New Yorkers sound. I was born and raised in NYC and we dotn speak like that. It reminds me of the West Side Story.
"Have you eaten" is a common greeting for Chinese in south China (Two Guang) in the past for sure, despite what other Chinese here that claimed otherwise. The latter could be born in the recent three decades and did not follow tradition religiously or born in northern part of China or simply not aware.
It’s also the same thing with the Philippines. Tagalog is like our Mandarin. So if you want to communicate with everyone here, it’s useful to learn Tagalog because everyone can speak and understand it. But we have more or less 82 spoken dialects/language all throughout the country. Thanks for coming to my TedTalk
I studied mandarin in college (But lost interest) but my parents can speak Chaozhou dialect cause both sides of the family came from Guangdong (I'm Thai). If you can speak Chaozhou dialect, you can communicate with lots of people in South East Asia.
@@wagenlowyikhang7019 I myself speaks hokkien bro. After doing some research by comparison with Japanese Kanji counterpart. Teochew seems like is actually even earlier version of Min language.
Here in the Philippines Hokkien is one of the main Chinese dialects here, since most of the Chinese population come from Fujian province which also speak Hokkien.
Great video! Loved how you presented the vastness of Chinese dialects on different scales, and really put things in perspective. Plus, the footage, editing and message are just wholesome! It’s really a feat to bring such a wide variety of people closer together, linguistically and culturally. You said it better than a lot of state propaganda lol.
Ahh, I speak Teochew (the dialect from Chaozhou Guangdong). I wasn't expecting to actually hear it spoken in this video haha. It's always so interesting to hear all the dialects out there
@@actimols True, surprisingly I've actually met a quite a few Teochew ppl in Australia. But most of them speak with different accents (not the Chaozhou dialect)
Fun fact: most of these dialects are varieties/ dialects of mandarin, and fall in the branch of mandarin, hence bearing a lot of similarities to standard mandarin. However, varieties of Cantonese, and entirely different language of mandarin which falls under an entirely different branch of the Chinese languages, can also be heard here, since this video was filmed in guangxi. I’m a Hong Konger, and surprisingly they’re more easier to understand than the other varieties of mandarin. Maybe it’s cus of how Cantonese can only be found in the south and isn’t that spread out unlike the mandarin branch.
@@habibcicero3833 but this video happens to be in the south…… maybe everyone speaks only mandarin thanks to the policies and Cantonese being discouraged lol
@@tsunderenekokun discouraged is an understatement, us southerners are allowing our languages to be banned and wiped out, leading to the death of our cultures and identities im taishanese, hokkien, and cantonese and all three of my peoples are being shit on by the ccp
Linguistically speaking some ARE different languages, not "dialects." A Mandarin speaker can't understand a Cantonese speaker. Although politically they are called dialects. It's like saying French, Spanish, English, German etc are dialects of the EU.
I agree. As a Cantonese speaker who also speaks Mandarin, I find it irksome when people consider different Chinese languages as merely dialects of each other. I think it began with the incorrect interpretation and mis-translation of the term "方言".
stickersdogcat42 disagree, Cantonese is dialect because if write down the words it is same as Mandarin the standardized Chinese language. I suggest you check with native Cantonese speaker for their opinion.
@@chairmanimao7982 from what i know, written cantonese and written mandarin are very different, though. For e.g., to a native mandarin speaker/writer, 乜嘢 (cantonese) would make no sense. Rather, the same word would be 什麼 in mandarin. I dont study linguistics, but if we say that mandarin and cantonese are the same language because they both use chinese characters, wouldnt this be similar to saying that european languages that descended from the same language branch, and which similarly use latin alphabets, are the same? Someone please advice.
@@kclee6968 You don't use "wai" to ask a question. To ask a question use: 唔好意思 (m hou ji si, sorry to bother) 唔該 (m goi, please) or 請問 (ceng man, may I ask) Again, use "wai" _only_ on the telephone.
"Li jiak pa buey?" (你食饱未？Have you had your fill?) - Singapore Hokkien. Strangely, it's more uncommon to ask "Li jiak png liao buey?" (你食饭了未?) here in Singapore.
Thank you for showcasing the diverse Chinese languages! (the preferred linguistic term is actually "topolects). The mother from Lipu County, Guilin said [kit] for 吃 ! That's almost like the Japanese reading for the character! Wow, super archaic pronunciation (most Mandarin languages will pronounce that as "chi" from southern [tzz] to a northern [chrrrr]. The Cantonese guy from Yanggang said [haak]/ [hyak] which was also super interesting. Standard Cantonese (basically the Guangzhou dialect spoken in Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and even in Nanning, the capital of the neighbouring province of Guangxi) pronounces 吃 as [hek]. But we usually just use 食 [sik] for the word "eat" & to use [hek] is considered slightly rural & uncouth LOL. Although the slang term [yak] is probably 吃 as well.
My family's from Indonesia and we speak mainly speak Cantonese and Teochew. Some of us speak Hakka and Mandarin as well, but they're not often used. 我家人來自印尼。 我們常常用廣東話和潮州話。 還有一些人會客家話和普通話， 可是在家裏沒用。
My grandparents from my Dad were from Chaozhou. I live in Indonesia. I basically speak the same language as that guy from Chaozhou. Le Ciak Bue : you eat yet? Have u eaten yet?. Great video Kevin.
Southern China has many dialects. My dad is Teochew & mom is Hakka and I can speak both. I have been living in your home state for years. Perhaps before even you were born .. LOL. Love your videos. You don’t have southern drawl or lost your Texan 😁
Wow this was such a cool video. For someone who's trying to learn Chinese, I've been putting a lot of emphasis on getting each sound right and all that, but it's clear that so much of the language, written and spoken varies throughout the country
They don't say ni chi fan le ma as a greeting. They will often say chi fan le ma to relatives or very close friends when they are actually asking whether they have eaten but otherwise they just say ni hao ma or in more often than not, the equivalent in their local dialect. I also thought that chi fan le ma was the standard greeting because of google and articles online but I got called up on it being incorrect by several Chinese people.
To sum up.. There are 56 ethnicities with their own languages, and each of them have their own dialects, all these in the videos are only Sinitic (Han) dialects
@@Tensho_C ah I see, I'm a Southern Han, from the Han Teochew dialect group, there's been sayings here and there that we're once not Han but we slowly integrated into Han culture from the north bringing along our traditions and cuisines in as well
according to wikipedia, 91.51% of chinese people identify as han chinese. however i’m pretty sure a lot of han people are actually descendants of ethnic minorities
Alex Meng said: I'm from Taiwan. My grandparents' generation use "Have you eaten?" for greeting in Taiwanese(kinda like South Fukien dialect, which is used in specific area). It is because in old time, there were wars and natural hazards or bad economy, lots of people suffered from hunger. So asking "Have you eaten?" is a way to show sincere and care. Some villages or old people still use it now. Just like English speakers like to talk about whether😂
well not really you have the idea, but 饭is used more as meal in this connotation usually people say 米饭 to refer to rice but 饭is acceptable, while being a little vague
My wife is from there. Its beautiful there. Happy to find a channel from China in English. Thank u sir. May u be well and happy. Greetings from Philippines.
我来自江西省，‘你吃饭了吗’用我们的方言说是‘你恰饭哩莫’。 在江西不同地方的方言也是有很大差异的。我完全听不懂江西南部赣州一带的方言（真的是一个字都听不懂哈哈）。 Great video! It's a joy to watch your videos with beautiful scenery in Yangshuo, and I'm so happy to see you like chinese culture so much. Subed ;)
some of those are technically different languages from mandarin another thing is maybe "have you eaten" works better for older people but no longer for younger generations
Alex Meng's explanation: I'm from Taiwan. My grandparents' generation use "Have you eaten?" for greeting in Taiwanese(kinda like South Fukien dialect, which is used in specific area). It is because in old time, there were wars and natural hazards or bad economy, lots of people suffered from hunger. So asking "Have you eaten?" is a way to show sincere and care. Some villages or old people still use it now. Just like English speakers like to talk about whether😂
Chaozhou, represent!! 😆 Southern US English and and New England English are actually sub-dialects of North American English, rather than just "accents" due to additional differences in vocabulary. North American, Australian, South African, and British English are all dialects of the English-language, proper. Now, referring back to Chinese, Sinitic languages are divided into separate groups like Mandarin (Sichuanese), Yue (Cantonese), Min (Chaozhou), etc. Separate languages are roughly defined in linguistics as those which are mutually unintelligible to one another--much like how species are defined by their mutual inability to interbreed (this is a simplification as hybrids, subspecies, and dialect-continuums are important concepts).
In Norway it's the same way. We actually have two standard dialects (Bokmål and Nynorsk) that everyone has to learn in school no matter where they live because when Norway gained independence, they wanted to create a unified Norwegian language since there wasn't one. Some people wanted a language based on dialects spoken in large cities since it would be easiest for most people to learn, which became Bokmål, but others wanted a language based on the most obscure rural dialects, since those were the least altered by Danish, and the Danes treated us very badly before we gained independence from them, so they wanted to distance the Norwegian language from that, and Nynorsk was born. But then they just couldn't agree on which to go with, so everyone in Norway has to learn both, even if some regions tend to lean towards one or the other or a different local dialect like Nordnorsk in the north.
Thanks for this amazing video! China indeed has hundreds of languages/dialects that are unique to smallest towns. Unfortunately, many of these languages/dialects are in danger of being forgotten, as younger generations are using these languages less and less. For example, I am from a small town of Linhai where we speak "Linhai Hua" - a special dialect of Wu Chinese. For most of my friends, they can understand Linhai Hua but cannot speak this language. Within next couple of generations, Linhai Hua will become a forgotten language. Language is so deeply ingrained within human culture, tradition, and history. I feel that when a language dies, a part of humanity that has existed for thousands of years dies with it. That is why my friend and I recently created our channel LinhaiTube to share and cherish our unique language Linhai Hua with others and keep records of our language. It is great that you created his video that really cherish the diversity that exists in Chinese language! Thanks again for making this great video :)
I have been in Yangshuo before. It is very beautiful. Zhangjiajie is beautiful as well. I think my favorite place has been in Qingdao. There are so many dialects in China and sometimes when I speak Chinese, it is difficult for them to understand. I find that Chinese people are some of the friendliest people in the world. China 🇨🇳 still has my heart 💕.
As a Chinese，for me，I often greet with my friends by:"chi fan le ma" when it's time for eating. Nevertheless，other time，we generally use:"ni qu na li."(Where are you going？) Or just simply"Hi"
As a Chinese,I can only exactly understand one dialect. But in China,every city even every county has its own dialect.It means that when I go to another city in my province Guangxi,I have to speak Mandarin definitely! Another example in my family,my father can't understand the dialect in my mother's hometown,my mother can't understand his hometown town's dialect either,as their son,I understand neither!!! Emmm...
I am from a small place in Zhejiang called Qingtian and we speak a dialect. Just 40 minutes from here we have Wenzhou and they speak another dialect similar to ours. Then in Hangzhou (about 1 and a half hours by train from qingtian) they speak another one. They all sound similar but I can understand just a bit from the others
While you're correct calling all of these "dialects" within the Chinese language family, it might also be added that many of these dialects are in fact languages. Mandarin and Cantonese bear less resemblance to one other than do Spanish and Italian.
Yeah we say the same in our Dialect.. like"Ti re maa" meaning Have u eaten? And "Surho maa"meaning Have u been doing well for greeting each other after long time
"你好" (Ni Hao) is a more commonly used term when greeting someone, much like you would use "hello" or "hi". Asking if someone has eaten is usually a follow up after the initial greeting, as an opener into a conversation. Much like how one would comment on the weather or how crowded it is, etc. And if we're being specific here, "你吃饱了吗?" (Ni Chi Bao Le Ma, ie "have you eaten yet?"), is more commonly used than "你吃饭了吗?" (Ni Chi Fan Le Ma ie "have you eaten rice yet?").
I am learning both english and chinese For me being a vietnamese i think learning chinese is much easier than english I am really happy that i know this channel
Cantonese and Mandarin and Teochew are different languages not dialect. A dialect is when Mandarin sounds slightly different due to region (such as Beijing vs surrounding cities), or Canontese sounding different in Guangzhou vs HK.
That is so cool, i love hearing the different chinese dialects! Especially since even within my family the older generation speak like 4 different dialects. But there's so many more, the Jiangsu one is coooool!
Wtf I'm shook because I never realized this was a greeting. Every relative who would call would ask me if I've eaten if I picked up the phone, and I would wonder why they care so much about whether I've eaten a meal 😂😂 also my parents did the same and I never thought anything of it
Hey! I really like your videos, they get me really nostalgic - i lived in China for a year after graduating highschool. Actually your videos inspire me to maybe move back and so I was wondering, how are you financially sustaining yourself? Best wishes from Germany :)
I have a few small revenue streams: 1) youtube adsense 2) affiliate partnership commissions and benefits 3) money saved up from working previous media gigs unrelated to this channel. In fact my most lucrative video work isn't on my own channel; I work with other Chinese companies to produce content for Chinese audiences, on platforms and apps for Chinese users. The work is seasonal, so I have a good chunk of the year to do whatever I want, as long as I don't live too lavishly.
In the Philippines, particularly in the Visayas region, we mostly greet our friends with "Hala! Buhi ka pa lagi!" This translates to "Wow! You're still alive!" 🤣🤣🤣
Ask it to someone talking Cantonese: nei sik fan mei? Ask the same to some pekingese: nuh chuh urgagigshaigs(with a pirate accent) Although nice vid but I miss Hakka
In fuzhounese it’s even more different. I don’t know the romanization for fuzhounese, but it would be something like: nu buonng amwei sie. I screwed it up probably like 100% but it’s amazing how different the dialects are
Gray13145 Yes that’s another way to say it. It’s really hard to write the romanization for it. Even though there is an official romanization for Fuzhounese, it’s hard to learn it. I usually say the other one though.
In Malaysia we greet with friends like, "eh u haven't die ah?!".
eh? lu be si ge ho?
Can't agree more..
This make me laugh so hard 😂
Lol
In German there's a greeting that's similar "na you're still alive too"?
1:22 how do I train my cat to just lay on my shoulders without killing me
let u wife try first~
*lie on my shoulders
@@DieFlabbergast *lay on my shoulders
Lucas Penchaszadeh it’s lie
My fat lazy cat would literally scratch me the moment i carry him up.
I can hardly understand the dialect of my neighbor town.
lol, What's your hometown?
Julien Fu Foshan?
@@WingChunBoyz yeah correct
@@Monkeyabroad I cannot understand my neighbor Town too,from Huanggang hubei
Even my mom doesn't greet in this food related style. It is already outdated.
There are 10 major language groups in Chinese language, and over 800 classified Han Chinese dialects. There must be more unrecognised ones.
Thanks for watching
May be some chinese dialects can be found in north east india....😂😂
Maybe 800 dialects have more subdialects.
OMG 😱
Feliĉa Rono. 펠리챠 로노. ⵔⴰⵡⵏⵓ. So true
3:47 I had to pause that's breathtaking
You are breathtaking.
Thanks :) shot this sunrise with a drone last Friday morning
@@user-mq6fu6ou4f you're all breathtaking
@@2prize hahaha, keanu on E3
Is that in Guilin? Becuse i'm going there soon 😄
That guy at 1:22 with his cat... ICONIC. 太可爱了！
我也可爱了，哈哈哈
Suga Meets Salt And The Whole World Turns Upside Down
我比較好奇怎麼做到的XDD
@@Шанхайскиймажор 不要脸
@@Шанхайскиймажор 给我看看
Have you eaten yet in Beijing accent 101 : CHURR LA MAA
hahahahaa
Omg XD
I have been living in Beijing and I speak Mandarin and there aren't any Chinese people as hard to understand as Lao Beijing Taxi drivers, because they don't speak, they just grunt and burp. When Chinese people tell you that Bejingers speak the best Putonghua and the "Southerners" speak bad Putonghua, don't believe them! When southerners speak putonghua, they maybe have an accent, but at least you can perceive different syllables... And the finest anchorman-like putonghua is spoken by well educated southerners studying at one of Beijings universities.
@@albertdittel8898 I personally don't believe you should say there is such a thing as "good Putonghua" and "bad Putonghua". It's simply a different accent. If you compare Beijing and Taiwan accents, you will find a huge difference, but there isn't necessarily a good or bad. I've heard people say that the accent in Taiwan is very light and sweet, but I've also heard the accent being called girly. I've heard people call the Beijing accent correct and proper, but that it's also very in-your-face and loud. There really isn't a "good Putonghua" in my opinion.
I'm dead 😂🤣🤣😭
As a Chinese, I think have you eaten is not a greeting in China...
Only in the villages will work
I mean, if you say it, it wouldn't be weird, but it's true that it's not really that common.
It's become a popular urban myth. I mean if you say it to someone you know well right before meal time it's fine. But if it's like 4pm and you ask someone that they'll probably be like, lunch or dinner?
My French teach though that 你好meant 'have you eaten' and insisted that we (7 Chinese kids) were wrong. This was a normal school in Canada.
Ikr
My favorite Chinese greeting among friends they haven't seen in a while is "ni pang le" 你胖了 (you got fat) 😊
I hate how my name means fat
哈哈哈，you bad bad 你坏坏
”你老了” 😂
Sean Spartan literally the first thing my relatives during cny
Ooof I felt this 😂 literally went to China last year to see relatives and that’s the first thing they said to me
I came from Hubei Province, I can't understand the language of people in Fujian Province.even one single word..
I heard in China there people couldn't access social media such as RUclips ? But why you able to access it?
@@smallapple-2834 Internet in some universities、institutions and enterprises is free and rid of the great firewall. We can also purchase legal VPN service to access blocked websites.
@@李珂-p2k Oh I see ... 谢谢你
Which one is fujian province?
@@mrbutterfluff1881 It's on the southeast coast, on the northeast of Guangdong province.
I love your admiration for Chinese culture and the people! Proud Taishanese here!!
Thanks for watching
@@Monkeyabroad How come you don't have Southern accent??
Since you're from Tx.
My wife is from Nanning, Guangxi. Went to school in Guilin. Can't wait to get back over there. Love it!
Nice video! Thanks for sharing it.
Thanks for watching!
Urban Guilin has really deteriorated over recent years- although much of the scenery remains quite beautiful.
I love nanning
Guiliuhua is just insanity.
I'm from Taiwan. My grandparents' generation use "Have you eaten?" for greeting in Taiwanese(kinda like South Fukien dialect, which is used in specific area).
It is because in old time, there were wars and natural hazards or bad economy, lots of people suffered from hunger. So asking "Have you eaten?" is a way to show sincere and care.
Some villages or old people still use it now. Just like English speakers like to talk about weather 😂
Chia PA boe
Ni Jiak Ba Buay?
顶上去让很更多人看到 ，前面出生在改革开放后的年轻人对历史一无所知！
@@刘天洋-m9f 知道咱中国人以前穷很牛吗？
@@deepdark795 "那些拒绝学习历史的人，将会被迫重蹈历史的覆辙"。
honestly i lived in china for over 16 years and not once did someone ask me if ive had dinner.
edit: i meant other than my family. but in that case it's not a greeting. they want to know if i need more food.
山东人表示我们那边见面都会说“吃了吗？”，但一般是在饭点左右见面的时候会这样讲。如果不是饭点，比如上午十点或者下午三点，会说“上哪儿去？”
As a fat guy, the answer to the question if I need more food, it's yes. It's always yes.
@@TheBrianp1 I love food too but sometimes they overkill. Like three plates of seafood, a plate of pork liver and 20 dumplings is just too much. At that point I'm just stuffing myself to make my grandma happy.
@@密寒和他的手机 hows the people and the atmosphere there in China?
@@密寒和他的手机 I am a 200 lb. man. What always amazes me eating in China is I get so full I can't take another bite and then watch these 90 lb. Chinese girls continue to eat everything except their chopsticks.
Great video! I live in Shenzhen and most of the people I meet are from different parts of China. Really cool to think about all of the different dialects in one city.
Yo man, thanks for watching. I've visited Shenzhen a couple times. Since the city is only about as old as I am, there are virtually no Shenzhen-nese people; it's nuts how every single person there is from some other part of China.
Your NYC accent sounds like an Italian mafia in Hollywood film😂
Weiyi Bao 我还以为他是澳洲口音哦，，
well, new york used to be controlled by italian mafias.
Mama mia
@@HaoNguyen-nl3fz new yawrk* ;)
haha its funny how people think thats waht New Yorkers sound. I was born and raised in NYC and we dotn speak like that. It reminds me of the West Side Story.
2:37 The tatoo says“Hangzhou people son of a b*tch” lol
"Have you eaten" is a common greeting for Chinese in south China (Two Guang) in the past for sure, despite what other Chinese here that claimed otherwise. The latter could be born in the recent three decades and did not follow tradition religiously or born in northern part of China or simply not aware.
Yeah, in the south. The issue other people are having is he's speaking as if it's common for China as a whole, which it's not.
Northern Chinese don't greet eachother they just yell
Northern Chinese also greet with “have you eaten”, but the younger generation don’t
The dude with the kitty on his shoulders. So damn cute.
Me, who only knows "ni hao":
*_CHINESE IS CHINESE_*
Know basic can already bLEASE dont ask me for anymore
Apologies please
@@lawrencewei3583 well sorry it was just a joke
@@araaijmakers8024 Whatever RICE is RICE.
Ni hao ma.
It’s also the same thing with the Philippines. Tagalog is like our Mandarin. So if you want to communicate with everyone here, it’s useful to learn Tagalog because everyone can speak and understand it. But we have more or less 82 spoken dialects/language all throughout the country. Thanks for coming to my TedTalk
I studied mandarin in college (But lost interest) but my parents can speak Chaozhou dialect cause both sides of the family came from Guangdong (I'm Thai). If you can speak Chaozhou dialect, you can communicate with lots of people in South East Asia.
because Chaozhou dialect is a branch of Hokkien dialect, and tons of people in SEA speaks Hokkien
@@wagenlowyikhang7019 no bro, we can't understand it XD.
@@youtubedeletedmyaccountlma2263 I'm addressing Chinese descendants
@@wagenlowyikhang7019 I myself speaks hokkien bro. After doing some research by comparison with Japanese Kanji counterpart. Teochew seems like is actually even earlier version of Min language.
Here in the Philippines Hokkien is one of the main Chinese dialects here, since most of the Chinese population come from Fujian province which also speak Hokkien.
Great video! Loved how you presented the vastness of Chinese dialects on different scales, and really put things in perspective. Plus, the footage, editing and message are just wholesome!
It’s really a feat to bring such a wide variety of people closer together, linguistically and culturally. You said it better than a lot of state propaganda lol.
Another Texan! DFW studying in Taipei here. Good luck!
Ahh, I speak Teochew (the dialect from Chaozhou Guangdong). I wasn't expecting to actually hear it spoken in this video haha. It's always so interesting to hear all the dialects out there
Ka kee nan
@@actimols True, surprisingly I've actually met a quite a few Teochew ppl in Australia. But most of them speak with different accents (not the Chaozhou dialect)
Jenny Wong?
ayyyyeee teochew fam
@@Jennwengg Oh cool, I'm also teochew but am living in Australia! Where're you based?
Fun fact: most of these dialects are varieties/ dialects of mandarin, and fall in the branch of mandarin, hence bearing a lot of similarities to standard mandarin. However, varieties of Cantonese, and entirely different language of mandarin which falls under an entirely different branch of the Chinese languages, can also be heard here, since this video was filmed in guangxi. I’m a Hong Konger, and surprisingly they’re more easier to understand than the other varieties of mandarin. Maybe it’s cus of how Cantonese can only be found in the south and isn’t that spread out unlike the mandarin branch.
well yea u would have to go to southern china if you wanted to hear more different Chinese language groups, the north is entirely mandarin speaking
@@habibcicero3833 but this video happens to be in the south…… maybe everyone speaks only mandarin thanks to the policies and Cantonese being discouraged lol
@@tsunderenekokun discouraged is an understatement, us southerners are allowing our languages to be banned and wiped out, leading to the death of our cultures and identities
im taishanese, hokkien, and cantonese and all three of my peoples are being shit on by the ccp
@@habibcicero3833 ik…. I just didnt really realise how extreme the bans are.
Linguistically speaking some ARE different languages, not "dialects." A Mandarin speaker can't understand a Cantonese speaker. Although politically they are called dialects. It's like saying French, Spanish, English, German etc are dialects of the EU.
I think so
I agree. As a Cantonese speaker who also speaks Mandarin, I find it irksome when people consider different Chinese languages as merely dialects of each other. I think it began with the incorrect interpretation and mis-translation of the term "方言".
stickersdogcat42 disagree, Cantonese is dialect because if write down the words it is same as Mandarin the standardized Chinese language. I suggest you check with native Cantonese speaker for their opinion.
@@chairmanimao7982 Notice I said "speaker" Im talking about the spoken language not written.
@@chairmanimao7982 from what i know, written cantonese and written mandarin are very different, though. For e.g., to a native mandarin speaker/writer, 乜嘢 (cantonese) would make no sense. Rather, the same word would be 什麼 in mandarin. I dont study linguistics, but if we say that mandarin and cantonese are the same language because they both use chinese characters, wouldnt this be similar to saying that european languages that descended from the same language branch, and which similarly use latin alphabets, are the same? Someone please advice.
In Hong Kong. We just say "wai !"
I also hear that a lot in Guiyang
In mainland China, wai is generally used in the telephone.
喂 is used for on the phone. It's really rude to say it in person.
"Wai" is not a greeting. It's used when you want to get someone's attention in order to ask a question.
@@kclee6968 You don't use "wai" to ask a question.
To ask a question use:
唔好意思 (m hou ji si, sorry to bother)
唔該 (m goi, please)
or
請問 (ceng man, may I ask)
Again, use "wai" _only_ on the telephone.
I speak mandarin
Me understanding mandarin: easy
Beijing: normal
Other: **doesnt feel Chinese anymore**
Maggie Xie YOU CANNOT BE “MANDARIN”
princess lia Right you can't be Mandarin. However, and strangely, you can say you are Cantonese if you are one since it's an adj.
You know, Sichuanese is a Mandarin variety, too. I've heard not even all mandarin varieties are mutually intelligible :)
哈，加油哦
"Li jiak pa buey?" (你食饱未？Have you had your fill?) - Singapore Hokkien.
Strangely, it's more uncommon to ask "Li jiak png liao buey?" (你食饭了未?) here in Singapore.
Haha. He wants to be precise or exact. Seng ka por lang. 😆😆
Thank you for showcasing the diverse Chinese languages! (the preferred linguistic term is actually "topolects).
The mother from Lipu County, Guilin said [kit] for 吃 ! That's almost like the Japanese reading for the character! Wow, super archaic pronunciation (most Mandarin languages will pronounce that as "chi" from southern [tzz] to a northern [chrrrr].
The Cantonese guy from Yanggang said [haak]/ [hyak] which was also super interesting. Standard Cantonese (basically the Guangzhou dialect spoken in Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and even in Nanning, the capital of the neighbouring province of Guangxi) pronounces 吃 as [hek]. But we usually just use 食 [sik] for the word "eat" & to use [hek] is considered slightly rural & uncouth LOL. Although the slang term [yak] is probably 吃 as well.
1:17 that's the dialect of my father (teochew) i believe, i can barely understand it lol
in Chinese, it is “潮汕”or“潮州”。
My mums teochew lol it sounds funny but I understand like 50%
@@ashd1641 probably cause your mom speaks it.
Great video Kevin. It really shows the diversity.
My family's from Indonesia and we speak mainly speak Cantonese and Teochew. Some of us speak Hakka and Mandarin as well, but they're not often used. 我家人來自印尼。 我們常常用廣東話和潮州話。 還有一些人會客家話和普通話， 可是在家裏沒用。
It's rare to see Chinese people in Indonesia that still can speak Chinese language tbh
2:37紋身師傅紋的兩個字笑死我了
omg the first Chinese guy is from Xiaogan, Hubei. That's where I'm from too!! Miss my hometown and my dialect!!
Those cats made this video even better 🐱 😺😼 hope you’re doing great Kevin
My grandparents from my Dad were from Chaozhou. I live in Indonesia. I basically speak the same language as that guy from Chaozhou. Le Ciak Bue : you eat yet? Have u eaten yet?. Great video Kevin.
Ka ki nan
Mines too. From Khuntien (Pontianak, Borneo)
Ka ki nan 🤗🤗🤗
1:22 "Your fur is very cute"
mao1 = cat
mao2 = fur
This is great. Hope to visit China really soon!
Thanks man, you should def visit
Southern China has many dialects. My dad is Teochew & mom is Hakka and I can speak both. I have been living in your home state for years. Perhaps before even you were born .. LOL. Love your videos. You don’t have southern drawl or lost your Texan 😁
Ka kee nan
Sean phak xi boh xiang gan 😆
@@keithkee8999 Ka Chng Ang Ang
Sean haha .. TMI 😆
Wow this was such a cool video. For someone who's trying to learn Chinese, I've been putting a lot of emphasis on getting each sound right and all that, but it's clear that so much of the language, written and spoken varies throughout the country
dude i have to say the RUclips algorithm is some magical thing that has brought me to your videos. Great works here!
They don't say ni chi fan le ma as a greeting. They will often say chi fan le ma to relatives or very close friends when they are actually asking whether they have eaten but otherwise they just say ni hao ma or in more often than not, the equivalent in their local dialect. I also thought that chi fan le ma was the standard greeting because of google and articles online but I got called up on it being incorrect by several Chinese people.
This video is a lot better, due to the fact that they are natives ruclips.net/video/z6oDw-nXCD8/видео.html
Look at it this way. The "have you eaten" is just a customary way to start a conversation.
We Shunde 順德 of Canton say
你食飯唔曾呀
Nei Sik Faan Mg Zang Ah
I'm from Chaoshan area and I speak Teochew!! It's nice to hear the dialect from my hometown. Thanks!
胶己人
Ka kee nan
To sum up..
There are 56 ethnicities with their own languages, and each of them have their own dialects, all these in the videos are only Sinitic (Han) dialects
Yea, but Han is about 90% the population, it's rare to see other ethnicities in most areas.
@@Tensho_C that's true, wait I believe it's 70+%...right?
@@Gryfder i dont know the specific number, but out of all the people I know, I've only met less than 10 that are not Han
@@Tensho_C ah I see, I'm a Southern Han, from the Han Teochew dialect group, there's been sayings here and there that we're once not Han but we slowly integrated into Han culture from the north bringing along our traditions and cuisines in as well
according to wikipedia, 91.51% of chinese people identify as han chinese. however i’m pretty sure a lot of han people are actually descendants of ethnic minorities
Typically, we say hello first and then say “have u eaten yet?” as a sign of sincerity. Idk about strangers, but that’s what I do with my family.
Alex Meng said: I'm from Taiwan. My grandparents' generation use "Have you eaten?" for greeting in Taiwanese(kinda like South Fukien dialect, which is used in specific area).
It is because in old time, there were wars and natural hazards or bad economy, lots of people suffered from hunger. So asking "Have you eaten?" is a way to show sincere and care.
Some villages or old people still use it now. Just like English speakers like to talk about whether😂
1. Putonghua - 0:35
2. Guilin - 0:43
3. Sichuanese - 0:45
4. Zhaoqing Cantonese - 0:45
5. Wenzhounese - 0:47
6. Zhangjiang Cantonese - 0:49
7. Cantonese - 0:51
8. Hefeinese - 0:52
9. Henanese - 0:53
10. Xian - 0:54
11. Hunanese - 0:55
12. Changshunese - 0:57
13. Datongnese - 0:58
14. Hainanese - 0:49
15. Yangshou Guilin - 1:01
16. Shijiazhuang - 1:02
17. Mandarin - 1:03
18. Chongjingnese - 1:08
19. Chaoshanese - 1:10
20. Changningese - 1:11
21. Chengdunese - 1:12
22. Jiangsunese - 1:14
23. Lingshanese - 1:15
24. Lipunese - 1:16
25. Teochew - 1:17
26. Nanningese - 1:19
27. Leizhounese Cantonese - 1:20
Thanks for this
It's nice to hear Cantonese and taisanese as well
I speak mandarin but I never heard of using the phrase 'have you eaten' when greeting someone.
Jerry Lin same 😂 我也没听过
Lmao me too I just hi or something
@@Max-yp1iw Ayy, 我听说from some article talking about " natural Chinese "😂😂😂😂😂. 他们对我说谎吗?
Sabrina sorry because I don’t live in China I forgot many letters so my reading is not the best.. can you repeat it in engl
Pretty sure it's mostly the older generation
1:23 the dude with the cat on his shoulder is a mood lmao
你吃饭了吗？ more directly is
did you eat (rice)?
the same greating in korean
밥 먹었어요
well not really you have the idea, but 饭is used more as meal in this connotation usually people say 米饭 to refer to rice but 饭is acceptable, while being a little vague
Kyan Wang 米饭是北方的说法，南方人不这么说
There we go.. Same habit, maybe due to same suffering and same concern for others...
南方也是這樣說，沒兩樣哦
My wife is from there. Its beautiful there. Happy to find a channel from China in English. Thank u sir. May u be well and happy.
Greetings from Philippines.
我来自江西省，‘你吃饭了吗’用我们的方言说是‘你恰饭哩莫’。 在江西不同地方的方言也是有很大差异的。我完全听不懂江西南部赣州一带的方言（真的是一个字都听不懂哈哈）。
Great video! It's a joy to watch your videos with beautiful scenery in Yangshuo, and I'm so happy to see you like chinese culture so much. Subed ;)
Thanks for watching!
some of those are technically different languages from mandarin
another thing is maybe "have you eaten" works better for older people but no longer for younger generations
Alex Meng's explanation: I'm from Taiwan. My grandparents' generation use "Have you eaten?" for greeting in Taiwanese(kinda like South Fukien dialect, which is used in specific area).
It is because in old time, there were wars and natural hazards or bad economy, lots of people suffered from hunger. So asking "Have you eaten?" is a way to show sincere and care.
Some villages or old people still use it now. Just like English speakers like to talk about whether😂
Caffeine Raccoon it's for political reasons. So technically Cantonese is a language
Chaozhou, represent!! 😆
Southern US English and and New England English are actually sub-dialects of North American English, rather than just "accents" due to additional differences in vocabulary. North American, Australian, South African, and British English are all dialects of the English-language, proper.
Now, referring back to Chinese, Sinitic languages are divided into separate groups like Mandarin (Sichuanese), Yue (Cantonese), Min (Chaozhou), etc.
Separate languages are roughly defined in linguistics as those which are mutually unintelligible to one another--much like how species are defined by their mutual inability to interbreed (this is a simplification as hybrids, subspecies, and dialect-continuums are important concepts).
In Norway it's the same way. We actually have two standard dialects (Bokmål and Nynorsk) that everyone has to learn in school no matter where they live because when Norway gained independence, they wanted to create a unified Norwegian language since there wasn't one. Some people wanted a language based on dialects spoken in large cities since it would be easiest for most people to learn, which became Bokmål, but others wanted a language based on the most obscure rural dialects, since those were the least altered by Danish, and the Danes treated us very badly before we gained independence from them, so they wanted to distance the Norwegian language from that, and Nynorsk was born. But then they just couldn't agree on which to go with, so everyone in Norway has to learn both, even if some regions tend to lean towards one or the other or a different local dialect like Nordnorsk in the north.
Thanks for this amazing video! China indeed has hundreds of languages/dialects that are unique to smallest towns. Unfortunately, many of these languages/dialects are in danger of being forgotten, as younger generations are using these languages less and less. For example, I am from a small town of Linhai where we speak "Linhai Hua" - a special dialect of Wu Chinese. For most of my friends, they can understand Linhai Hua but cannot speak this language. Within next couple of generations, Linhai Hua will become a forgotten language.
Language is so deeply ingrained within human culture, tradition, and history. I feel that when a language dies, a part of humanity that has existed for thousands of years dies with it. That is why my friend and I recently created our channel LinhaiTube to share and cherish our unique language Linhai Hua with others and keep records of our language.
It is great that you created his video that really cherish the diversity that exists in Chinese language! Thanks again for making this great video :)
Cantonese: _sik faan_ 0:47, 0:49, 1:18, 1:20
Toisanese: _hek faan_ 1:05, 1:14
1:23 that guy with a cat scarf is goals
True dat
1:01 the Shijiazhuang guy says - ni chi fan le *bu* Interesting. Thanks for the video.
Thanks for watching
yes..and this is a dialect which is closed to mandarin. just different accents
@@fengzhao9971 , i see. Thanks. I wonder if they use "bu lai" instead of "mei lai" (since here in the video he used 'bu' instead of 'mei').
I speak two different dialects of Chinese. And I get so confused at times
Aye, i speak 3
I have been in Yangshuo before. It is very beautiful. Zhangjiajie is beautiful as well. I think my favorite place has been in Qingdao. There are so many dialects in China and sometimes when I speak Chinese, it is difficult for them to understand. I find that Chinese people are some of the friendliest people in the world. China 🇨🇳 still has my heart 💕.
My dialect is Hakka... Hakka itself has various subdialect.
As a Chinese，for me，I often greet with my friends by:"chi fan le ma" when it's time for eating.
Nevertheless，other time，we generally use:"ni qu na li."(Where are you going？) Or just simply"Hi"
As a Chinese,I can only exactly understand one dialect.
But in China,every city even every county has its own dialect.It means that when I go to another city in my province Guangxi,I have to speak Mandarin definitely!
Another example in my family,my father can't understand the dialect in my mother's hometown,my mother can't understand his hometown town's dialect either,as their son,I understand neither!!!
Emmm...
actually，“have you eaten？ ”is just like “how's the weather”
I am a Chinese girl 🇨🇳 who is born and raised in Canada 🇨🇦 and ok
I am from a small place in Zhejiang called Qingtian and we speak a dialect. Just 40 minutes from here we have Wenzhou and they speak another dialect similar to ours. Then in Hangzhou (about 1 and a half hours by train from qingtian) they speak another one.
They all sound similar but I can understand just a bit from the others
These dialects made me crave for Chinese foods even more! 😁
While you're correct calling all of these "dialects" within the Chinese language family, it might also be added that many of these dialects are in fact languages. Mandarin and Cantonese bear less resemblance to one other than do Spanish and Italian.
Yes; "dialects" which are mutually unintelligible should correctly be referred to as languages.
This is not a greeting but people do tend to say this as something to ask to start a conversation
Yeah we say the same in our Dialect.. like"Ti re maa" meaning Have u eaten? And "Surho maa"meaning Have u been doing well for greeting each other after long time
Awesome! Super enjoyable video man! I love studying all of the languages and dialects represented here in China.
i squealed at the cat acting like a scarf how is it so calm ahhahaha
Um, sir, you have overwhelmed me in over twenty-five dialects.
"你好" (Ni Hao) is a more commonly used term when greeting someone, much like you would use "hello" or "hi".
Asking if someone has eaten is usually a follow up after the initial greeting, as an opener into a conversation. Much like how one would comment on the weather or how crowded it is, etc.
And if we're being specific here, "你吃饱了吗?" (Ni Chi Bao Le Ma, ie "have you eaten yet?"), is more commonly used than "你吃饭了吗?" (Ni Chi Fan Le Ma ie "have you eaten rice yet?").
对头！
I am learning both english and chinese
For me being a vietnamese i think learning chinese is much easier than english
I am really happy that i know this channel
Thanks so much for watching :)
I heard vietnam has so many loan word from china right???
@@farel-168 we borrow a lot of words from chinese and they are call Han Yue words
I call them like that
@@nguyenduchuy6081 no wonder u feeling ez to learn chinese
@@farel-168 but i am gonna say it has twoside effect
I really appreciate this as someone who speaks multiple chinese dialects
I finally found my family dialect through this vid😭. Thank you so much ❤️🙏
come to Zhejiang province, you walk every 10km ,you will hear different dialects :) My dialect is: Fa shi guo min
This is old school 🙄 can't imagine someone would say 吃饭了吗 at 3pm
吃了吗？
well, i mean if i get a call from a family member in china that doesnt remember its 3am then maybe
@@retromei #relatable
wondowooyoung right..so relatable...
Cantonese and Mandarin and Teochew are different languages not dialect. A dialect is when Mandarin sounds slightly different due to region (such as Beijing vs surrounding cities), or Canontese sounding different in Guangzhou vs HK.
That is so cool, i love hearing the different chinese dialects! Especially since even within my family the older generation speak like 4 different dialects. But there's so many more, the Jiangsu one is coooool!
Most of the Chinese people that I've know would make it even more brief saying "吃了吗?", literally meaning "Eat did huh?"
normally people don't greet like that in China these days
wakanpaladin only at breakfast lunch or dinner time we say that, other time we won’t
Old people greet like that. But young generation no longer greet like that.
@@gorgeousg7296 than how do they greet ? For example?
Girlwith DeadHeart it depends , for example what are u going/doing
Only old friends greet each other like this.
Wtf I'm shook because I never realized this was a greeting. Every relative who would call would ask me if I've eaten if I picked up the phone, and I would wonder why they care so much about whether I've eaten a meal 😂😂 also my parents did the same and I never thought anything of it
haha, you are so cute
I am from Shanghai. Even within Shanghai there are 5-6 difference dialects. Almost unintelligible with each other
My paternal great grandfather came from tong an county in Xiamen. We speak southern Hokkien dialect known as minnan which is similar with Taiwanese.
Hey! I really like your videos, they get me really nostalgic - i lived in China for a year after graduating highschool. Actually your videos inspire me to maybe move back and so I was wondering, how are you financially sustaining yourself?
Best wishes from Germany :)
I have a few small revenue streams: 1) youtube adsense 2) affiliate partnership commissions and benefits 3) money saved up from working previous media gigs unrelated to this channel. In fact my most lucrative video work isn't on my own channel; I work with other Chinese companies to produce content for Chinese audiences, on platforms and apps for Chinese users. The work is seasonal, so I have a good chunk of the year to do whatever I want, as long as I don't live too lavishly.
came for linguistics; stayed for the kitty ^^
"Have you eaten?" Is a greeting mostly used by the older generaion. Today, the younger generation just go "hi" or "ni hao".
What the meaning of Ni and Hao or it's just hello..??
In the Philippines, particularly in the Visayas region, we mostly greet our friends with "Hala! Buhi ka pa lagi!" This translates to "Wow! You're still alive!" 🤣🤣🤣
FYI
Chaozhou city is in Guangdong province but the dialect is totally different. Chaozhou dialect sounds like FuJian dialect (the near province)
In Sichuan the sentence "各个国家有各个国家的国歌" can have various ways of reading it
I am really proud of myself that i could read the chinese on the thumbnail off the bat
Loushu50500 could probably speak all of them 😂😂
Ask it to someone talking Cantonese: nei sik fan mei?
Ask the same to some pekingese: nuh chuh urgagigshaigs(with a pirate accent)
Although nice vid but I miss Hakka
In fuzhounese it’s even more different. I don’t know the romanization for fuzhounese, but it would be something like: nu buonng amwei sie. I screwed it up probably like 100% but it’s amazing how different the dialects are
My mom is hakka but from indonesia
@@JoeARedHawk275 "你吃过了没有? (Nü boan sega moi?)" Does that look right?
Gray13145 Yes that’s another way to say it. It’s really hard to write the romanization for it. Even though there is an official romanization for Fuzhounese, it’s hard to learn it. I usually say the other one though.
@@JoeARedHawk275 fozhounes vs hokkien?
This was cool man, thanks for sharing! God bless you :)
Good shit mate. Keep dem contents coming!
Thank you