How I Got Fluent in Chinese and Why They Aren't
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- Опубликовано: 12 сен 2024
- Ever notice how RUclips seems to have loads of foreigners claiming to be fluent in Mandarin Chinese? But are they really "fluent?" No, typically they're not even close.
In this first episode of LeLe Linguistics, I'll walk you through the first step to achieving real fluency in Chinese: mastering the tones.
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Praise be to the Messiah:
G-Money • EB in da Big Apple • The Devourer of Gods • Nick • Sean K • Sam J • Senor Mario • AA • Zak Wear • Aash Kir • Keenan K • Ning F • Cain R • Ryan aka Jeffery
Music came from @RFM - Royalty Free Music [No Copyright Music] and @Bensound
I was watching one of your videos and asked my chinese wife to guess from your accent where were you from without looking at the screen. She answered "from Beijing", so I think you are pretty legit :-)
Hahaha that's hilarious
@@樂樂法利 the interesting thing would then be to ask said persons wife if you sounded educated like a blue collar worker or just any average person. Even ask if the person sounds foreign born or not.
@@darrylkassle361 his speech sounds like person with high education
We all are hahahahahha that’s how they teach it, like they teach 中国人 England English
My Taiwanese husband was in the room while I was watching this. He commented, "This guy knows what he's talking about". As a student of Mandarin, I want to hear more!
I know this videos a year old but this is by far one of the best and most underrated "language learning" videos out there. No clickbait, no false promises, no BS. It's a long, hard, frustrating process, but it's beautiful and so rewarding.
Couldn't agree more on the "16 tones" vs. "4 tones" approach. The real reason Chinese people sound so effortless when they jump from one tone to another is not that they mastered 4 tones, but rather they've been unconsciously practising the 16 combinations their whole life!
现在有中文字幕啦，点击CC选择中文！
乐乐教中文搞起来之后，
再专门开一个系列--跟着乐乐学美语🌝
从老外的视角研究中文，还别有洞天！
哇為什麼“洞天“是樂園的意思啊 -喔應該是因為一種成語“洞天福地”.
i watched those 3 seconds like 300ish times and i can say it too now lol also please make a series on learning that would be sick
你发现了中国人都没发现的秘密😂我自己感受了一下 我们说话还真的是这样 你真的是个好聪明的人 As a native speaker of Mandarin, I would like to say that, you sound like almost native. I wish my English could be as fluent as your Chinese!
我第一语言中文的流利普通话的我为何在这里 原来他知道很多我都不知道的秘密😄
😅
I totally agreed with what you said Lele! Some RUclipsrs so-called are fluent in Chinese, are actually not. They don't care that much about their pronunciation and word usages but just took what other Chinese's praise as the "truth" and carry out their "bad" pronunciation habits along the road. Like another girl called "Oriental Pearl", she just used some internet buzzwords/slangs as her "mark" of being fluent to show off her Chinese on the street in Japan, but it turned out to be very odd and rude as well! Love your attitudes and stuff shared with us, more importantly, said NO to the Chinese gov!! Keep up the fantastic work!!
A language learning series would be amazing
gotchu fam!
I always loved those people who said they speak Chinese without the tones.🙄🤣
Oh PineIng 哈哈哈哈😂
I speak with tones, they're just not correct.
@@RonaldMcPaul that is true for 99%of people learninv mandarin
that's like saying "i speak english without the consonants" hahaha
I'm one better, I learned some of the tones but none of the chinese, so I can make up gobbledegook that sounds to foreigners like excellent chinese.
Awesome video! For me the worst "tone combo" was 2+1, as second tone is going up, and you have to stay all the way up there with the 1st tone, I used to pronounce it almost as 3+1. The worst thing with Mandarin is that sometimes you just don't understand that you're saying something the wrong way, you don't hear it, but the people around you do, it bites their ears. So, how did I overcome that issue with pronunciation? Repetition, just saying it over and over again：佛珠、蚊香、牙刷、台灣 etc. And asking my then-girlfriend (now wife XD) over and over again, if I said it right? Did it sound weird? After a week or two I was saying 用牙刷刷牙 as a native XD
Wow! Stan! !!
God emperor Xiaomanyc actually elevated the level of the Chinese language on his own, that native speakers can't even consider themselves fluent anymore.
Dude, discovered your videos today and, honestly, couldn't think of a better way to start 2021.
Thank you for giving voice to the unheard masses of us out there who are shaking their laptop screens in frustration as folks unwittingly assume Xiaoman is "fluent". I mean, kudos to him for exposing more Americans to Chinese, and he certainly nailed his niche. So, in that regard, respect.
BUT. "Perfect" or even "Fluent"? 開什麼玩笑，首先他的那個口音真的很刺耳的，再加上我看了好多他的視頻卻還沒聽過他把真正有深度的一些概念或句子表達的很完整很流利. 而你呢，反而說出 “baller”這麼一個形容詞，沒有人能否定。
Your raps are also genuinely good music, dude. As in, they can be enjoyed with headphones, rather than just crowded around the screen with your friends in a "hey, see this goofy song" type of way.
I want to compliment your mastery of Mandarin. Your cadence is confident and smooth. I do not speak Chinese but to me as a foreigner you have a facility and authenticity in your pronunciation and tone that is impressive. I found in this particular video that I replayed examples over & over of your tone when pronouncing a word in Mandarin. I really enjoyed it! It's encouraging to see you speak so confidently in Mandarn. Thank you Mr Farley! I subbed and will watch all your videos!
Super tips! I hope you make a series of those video's
Peace!
serpentza mentioned you in one of his videos and I grudgingly came over to see what he was talking about. I lived in China for seven years. When I heard you speak, I went back to China. My wife was there studying for ten years and her Chinese was good, but when she heard your tones, she was a little jealous. The recommendations you provide are what I suggested to my Chinese students when learning English. It is a lot of listening, repetition, and ultimately becoming self-aware enough to correct yourself. I hope you'll continue more of these, and if I or my wife who is pretty fluent in Chinese can help, let me know!
Hey! Awesome that you're making a language series. Easier to justify supporting you on patreon now when you're giving mandarin lessons as well 👍
Got you fam!
@@樂樂法利 Did you ever do this series? I'm looking for it and can't find...
Hey mate, you're the closest to fluent I've come across since Dashan. All the other "fluent" Mandarin youtubers are like you said, intermediate to advanced but are still entertaining. I was born in Beijing but grew up in Australia from the age of 3. Due to strict Chinese parenting, I've managed to maintain a thick
Mandarin Beijing accent and a thick Aussie accent which is always a surprise to both audiences. Given Mandarin is my native tongue, I've taken my accent for granted. But when I reflect on how you describe how to combine tones, it's really accurate. Keep up the good work and I'll continue to support the channel. Very impresse
Thanks m8! Glad to have you
Very good vibe from this vid, it's really encouraging
bro it's so sad this hasn't had more views, you're so passionate about Chinese and it's actually really touching and genuinely nice to see! Also, i dont mean to be a hater but it was kinda refreshing to hear someone call out those exaggeratingly fluent people. Like, I don't want to gatekeep but 😬 sometimes those videos can be really misleading... It's really inspiring to see someone else taking the language seriously and passionately!!
this is important man, looking forward to you making a series of these!
Thank you LeLe. Finally a Chinese learner taking Chinese tones seriously. From my experience, 98% of the foreigners learning Chinese can't get their tones right. Their tones are all over the place and even worse they don't seem to want to improve the tones. Tones are at least half of the language itself. Thanks for the effort for taking it seriously.
You know why that happens? It's because learners are often trying to memorize which tone goes with which word...It's a nightmare to wrap your head that level of memorization and it actually doesn't work anyway... In reality, tones must be grasped on a deeper, non-thinking level. Developing that feel for the language is a biiiiiiiiiiiiiiitch and takes ages.
@@goldreverre a good way is to actually have recordings of each of the four tones of each character and put them in a dialogue and just listen and repeat. As he says it comes to you and takes ages . It wont happen over night but it will happen
It’s the teachers faults tbh. Most Chinese teachers quite literally set us up for failure. I’ve read literal Chinese books that say foreigners are incapable of learning tones so don’t bother. My current tutor is trying to convince me to to have “shitty Chinese.” Chinese education needs to change. If we were taught correctly there would be zero issue
@@goldreverrenot really. You can do both. When you’re memorizing a word and it’s definition, you can also memorize the tones and then use that to identify the tones in your immersion and then basically absorb the tones that way. You probably haven’t actually tried to memorize the tones which is why you think it’s so hard or at least not for very long because after some time, you just start to remember the tones of the characters and different characters show up in so many different words that it becomes quite easy to memorize every tone
Wow I'm so glad I found this channel on Reddit! Thanks so much, I was near close to giving up.
Glad to have you!
How did we get to a timeline where a comedian-rapper puts out the best content about Chinese language AND Chinese politics on youtube? #teamLeLe
Watching this has given me a massive shot of motivation - thank you! That 16 tone combo is a total game changer! 🙌
Yes! Learn tones in pairs! I realised this by myself after a few years. Really wish someone had told me at the beginning. There are actually a lot of simple 'hacks' like this to learning Chinese that no one ever tells you when you start.
This is super. I hope you make a series of these!
For sure!!
Very cool insight into the tones. Curious of your experiences in China...good, bad, and the ugly. Maybe a series on that?
I like this idea Keith! Definitely will give it a shot with at least one episode, see what people think... I do have some crazy stories from China hahaha
Dope video dude! Excited for the rest of the series! One thing that I think it would be cool to cover is the common difficulties of a native Mandarin speaker learning English/similar languages. E.g. English speakers always struggle with tones, Mandarin speakers always struggle with ________. I haven't seen the topic really covered elsewhere in language learning videos for an English speaking audience. With your familiarity of both languages, you're in a great position to lay it out
Definitely, I will get there eventually for sure.
I am 34, father of 6, and I have been learning Mandarin for almost a year.
I need more Mandarin-speaking people around me. Learning alone on my computer, with limited time, is going to take a loooooooooooooooooooooooooong aaaaaaaaaaas fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.
This video has me hyped. Please make this series a thing.
This comment has me hyped!
Why r u leaening it
Several reasons.
1. I like learning languages. Over the next few years, I am learning Mandarin and Arabic.
2. Learning a language like Mandarin opens up the world to you. I can access way more information, from a different point of view, and I'm able to speak to about another billion people on the planet. I definitely want to expose my children to other languages and cultures from a young age.
3. And, an unfortunate benefit, I am giving myself with the ability to see through lies and corruption. I don't have to take someone's word for what's happening, I can read stuff from China directly, on my own, and come to my own conclusions through my own research.
Several more reasons. I don't want to make this post too long, so I'll just give those ones.
you can try an app called italki, to find some tutor speaking with u.
哇哦 向你学习了🐮🍺
you will have a nice f career path in the future, teaching chinese in an university. that is a very unique experience. love you!
I come back to this video every now and then as encouragement and to remind myself that Chinese is really difficult, so I shouldn't be so hard on myself. Just need to stay focused and study efficiently
Thanks for the words of encouragement.
I have been in China Almost 4yrs my Chinese sucks, specially Tones but this gives me hope..
Find a patient friend or girlfriend or boyfriend to help you!
親愛的樂樂，中國要是解放了，你來中國，將是最受歡迎的人，
你是一個打繁體字的大陸人嗎？
@@RonaldMcPaul 她打的是简体字呀
K ZZZ 那是繁体字呀
@@Lu09911 哦，sorry,我的电脑自动转换了
@@wolf88863 繁體字本來就是中國字呀，現在打中國字也要吵了？？？？真是666，這也太侮辱大陸人了吧。
A basic quick test of fluency is being able to understand a news service and discuss it like a native in your own language. You only need middle intermediate language skills for everyday discussions .
Also you don’t learn tones as much as acquire them and that is a neurolinguistic process involving your brain making connection after listening listening and more listening.
Great story about meeting Da Shan! Very useful sharing about the 16 tone combinations. I should have focused more time on this a long time ago. Just printed it out and put it on the wall!
I am from Hong Kong and randomly discovered your channel. You are awesome! Watching your videos give me perspectives that I’ve never had before about learning mandarin! Although I’m a “fluent” speaker, I am nowhere close to your tones and pronunciation!
我一说普通话的人，为啥这么津津有味的看这个视频😂
你不是一个人
哈哈哈，我那这个存了。我家ABC小孩也是第三声要了命了。平时说话可以，朗读就别扭。
This vid is dope!
I am a native mandarin speaker but am currently learning Japanese. One thing I found really hard with Japanese is that it claims it doesn’t have tones, but in fact it does. If you don’t grasp the tonal change in a sentence, no matter how accurate your grammar is, you still sound like a foreigner. Gotta practice more!
Thanks Lele ;)
Spotify recommends Japanese songs to me because I guess one of the alphabets uses 汉字？Some of them are the best beats I've ever heard
I love this video! I’m rewatching it a year after the first time. Such great content!! Thank you Lele!
I'm right now editing a video for my channel in which I talk about Chinese learners becoming arrogant haha, you are so right. You seem cool, and I like your channel, I see it growing big in the near future. Also, you are definitely fluent and your tones are correct, just don't exaggerate them too much, that's usually where students who understand the importance of tones go wrong. Anyways, keep up the good work :)
(Reedit) oh, I just checked another of your videos. Yea you are way more fluent than XiaoMa and his "perfect Chinese" lol.
You're a phenomenon Le Le. Can't wait to follow the other videos in the linguistics thread.
Watching this video made me realize even more how tones are super doper important. Btw keep up the good work LeLe, I really enjoy watching your videos!
Thank you for sharing your language learning experience. I recognize it from my English learning experience.
LeLe is dope! Thank you for the inspiration, Brother.
How does this channel not have 4 million subs?
☺️
Thank you for the tone pairing piece! I feel like that will be so helpful.
超棒的视频！现在我正在学日语，遇到的问题和你在学中文时很像，日语的促音我总是发不好，总觉得日语母语者会觉得“扎耳”。现在每天工作也很忙，只能每天挤时间学习，进度也很慢，虽然一直坚持，不过我自己清楚有多少次我想放弃。这条视频很鼓励我～谢谢Lele！题外话，你的其他视频也很棒，让我打开了很多思路～
I forgot what the term was in Chinese, but I had a similar revelation after 3/4 years of learning chinese. I had no idea that the 3rd tone becomes a “half tone”. You only do the first part of the dip, and sounds like a fourth tone, even more so in Taiwan. It took me a looooooooong time to get rid of this bad habit, as well as somewhat 90% of the time master the 3/3/3 tone change (still struggle when I’m not paying attention at times but it’s become pretty natural now). Thanks for helping out the Chinese learning community dude! Another tip for other people: in China, when you see two first tones, sometimes the second tone will be higher than the first, ex 呼吸。 It’s not a flat first tone first tone, but first tone, then a higher first tone. I haven’t found any info about this phenomenon but if anyone knows the term in Chinese please let me know or link me to some resources.
Yeah, the term to describe this is a "tone sandhi". There are few Chinese learning materials that bother describing it, and I think New Practical Chinese Reader is the only one who describes it well
Beyond awesome, especially the note about the four tones actually being sixteen combinations.
I remember telling even my english students that even in english, pronunciation changes based on sounds that come before or after.
It's like when your body mechanics change when you do punches and kicks in combos, instead of just by themselves..
Very good video 👍👍👍
You're an amazing dude and a real inspiration.
不只是看lele的视频，即使是逛一逛评论区也会让我感受到外国人的友善与学习中文的热情 瑞思拜 我的自学英语之路也要坚持下去💪 感谢lele
Yes please. Please do more of these! Just joined. (Was already subscribed.)
As a Mandarin teacher, I pretty much agree with you about the 3+2
Wow I've never thought of tones like that!! Really good video 谢谢你
This was really informative! Thanks for making this :D
My girlfriend always rates foreigners Chinese & she gave you a 9 bro. It’s almost native to her. If you look away sometimes you forget you’re a white guy named lele haha
You nailed it, you’re so good because of the tones mostly. Your training stressed this, obviously. I think you’re the best I’ve heard. I’ll ask my wife and see if she agrees. There’s a drama in your speaking that probably feels weird for most westerners to say.
2:50 OMG THIS IS SO RELATABLE WTH I FEEL ATTACKED 😂💀
Hahahahah 经验之谈
Thank you! I've been trying to find out what my friend was trying to convey, she's a native speaker.
I lived about a decade between Beijing and Taipei and I confirm this guy is about the only legit speaker (another white actor called Ken something seems pretty legit too). My Taiwanese friends rave about him and were super keen to meet him. Currently I'm of the believe you need to know at least 2,000 characters and have brutal relentless exposure to listening content. I mean three hours a day. For too long I focussed on reading because it was easier, but I wasn't getting anywhere anymore. The combination of learning character by character (doesn't allow you to skip over tones like learning vocab inevitably leads to) and brutal immersion to podcasts has made more progress in my learning journey in the last 6 months than the previous 3 years.
Hi!
I have been studying Mandarin for one year, sometime I struggle with the listening, because I found really hard to understand the different tone( specifically the 3th tone 😂). What can I listen to improve my listening and tone?
Thank you very for the suggestion
I used to use the old Chinesepod recordings. I think they're still available on Piratebay?
I will check
Thank you
was waiting for this video. 👍
Thanks for the brilliant tips LeLe!!
As a drummer myself (learning the kit around 12 years, 7 as a professional) I'm trying to keep the same concept in studying Chinese, wicked!!🤣🥁
Very cool video. not what i would normally watch but this had me hooked uo lol
support & love from China!
THANKS!!
甭客气！
乐乐法利，你说得一针见血
You hit the nail on the head dude. Sometimes I feel sorry for the foreigners like xiaoma who think their Chinese is dope because of how generous Chinese people are with their compliments. But it's kinda hard to blame him for thinking that way because that's all he hears...
That old clip of you speaking Chinese sounds sooooo much like xiaoma. The resemblance is uncanny. As a Chinese learner myself who has also managed to master tones (but not the vocab), the difference between your Chinese and xiaoma's is night and day and anyone who truly knows Chinese knows this. Even I, as someone who doesn't fully know Chinese knows this 😂
As a youtuber you should tackle a la guage learning series. That is what the punters also want. It would further lift your views and overall profile.
I was tbinking you also need some mainstream commercial exposure. Something like a popular mainstream talk show or something but i dont know if your politics would be accepted what with the sensitivity around affairs concerning China.
Please do the language learning tips video series!
🤝
照乐乐的方法去分析了一下自己的发音，确实中国人在吞音，不过自己真的平时觉不出来哈哈哈
任何实际交流中的语言都会有大量吞音连读变调，因为单字成句需要加速和连贯性。即使在新闻联播这种强调每字清晰饱满的说话方式里也藏着很多不明显的变化。
Yo please come through with a Chinese learning series bossman. Would be wicked if you could explain what you think is the best stuff to start off with learning? Is just learning pinyin worth it? Etc
很喜欢这条主题曲！
❤️❤️🌞
@@ciao.2377 我是粤语人士。
Was the taici class the most important part? MattVsJapan seems to have just used anime, books, and SRS, but I think pressure with hardcore 'git gud' repetition like the taici exercises offer are more efficient.
Definitely, they should me what discipline was, and that's essential for language study and... everything in life? Dunno
@@樂樂法利 Cool. Would love to hear a breakdown of how much per day and week and for how many months/years you went at it really hard. Also what the workload was (e.g., were you assigned a passage to memorize and recite every few days? Did you perform in front of crowds?). How much do you study now, and how?
I’m going to second the language learning series. That would be awesome.
We gotta learn from the best ;)
I've been practicing learning via watching TV shows. Usually when I come across a word or character I'm not familiar or or don't understand I pause it and look it up. However, my Chinese friend said it's best to just let yourself learn it naturally by hearing it over and over and not pause the video and search it on Pleco. What do you think is the best way to improve vocab via TV shows?
You're both right... kind of. I'll cover it in the next episode, but you should do what you're doing the FIRST time through. Then, rewatch it in the way your friend suggests.
This is what my mom told me to go when I was growing up. Look up the word immediately and replace it with a simple synonym.
Come on dude, you can do your thing without bashing on those other RUclipsrs. Their Chinese certainly doesn’t suck, of course it’s not native but few 老外 ever come close. I’d say you’re definitely better than Xiaomai and probably better than Xuelian (might be misspelled), but remember, there’s always someone better (like 马思瑞). You have great talent and you can inspire people with your journey and how you were able to get there with hustle and grit. You don’t need that other nonsense. Hope to see you at a 反共 rally here in LA. Thanks for what you do, I have learned a few things from you
In the video I said they're somewhere between intermediate and advanced, I feel like that's accurate no? I feel you though, appreciate your opinion and will take it into consideration going forward
@@樂樂法利 Thanks for your response LeLe. Keep up the great work!
Fuuuuukkkk yeaaaa bro! Keep these videos comin’!!! You can be my 大山 😉
乐乐你真是太优秀了！
wait but Xiaoma and Jjsays are actually pretty damn fluent though, unless there's some aspect I don't know about? I'm Chinese btw
They are fluent. Their tones sound different, or are sometimes different tones than what a native speaker would use, and they might use different word choice than what a native speaker would use, so maybe they haven't _mastered_ Mandarin, but they are still fluent.
謝謝樂樂，我一直被中國人表揚我的中文，但我覺得還是不太好。因為音調有的時候不大正確而且我看書的時候我會遇到好多看不懂的成語。
我同意音調對我們西方人是最難的，但是成語也是非常難。
Sunset is the biggest guild in our server, welcome to join our GDKP run :)
ruclips.net/video/kwJJNyWCZ4M/видео.html
You're a fxxking genius!
Being fluent in both English and Chinese and watching this with Chinese subtitles on messes with my brain for some reason. Anyway good work Lele.
Same actually
4:53 hahaha caught me so off guard!
财富密码不需要流利的中文
我們中國真的太厲害啦!👍🏿👍🏿👍🏿
Lollll
@@GFWfrog 居然在这里活捉蛙蛙！
love this
After Da shan, you are the best Mandarin speaker as Chinese being a second language. 你是大山之后中文作为第二语言说得最好的。 几乎没有口音，很标准。
Really loved this! Chinese rap is awesome!
乐乐，你更喜欢Simplified Chinese还是Traditional Chinese呢？如果外国人问到你，你又更推荐外国人学哪种？
Chinese ppl are so nice. They legitimately tell me I’m good every time and then I drive home and realize I said something wrong smh
you're right the tone combinations are my biggest challenge, but damnit imma get it. lol
I had that pokemon poster as a kid, god damn that's a nostalgia kick
我平常不听说唱.我听Coldplay.但我现在没事儿开车放着你的说唱感觉很有FEEL啊
I agree with this. Learning a new language requires consistency and practice til your tongue gets used to it. Learning Chinese is hard only in the beginning but you’ll get used to it along the way.
小伙子不错哦。我现在在学习第二外语，你的学习理念很有帮助，谢谢哦~
甭客气
Have to admit LeLe is one of the few who actually gets the tones
Everyday I want to give up on Mandarin exactly because of the tones. Then I listen to you rap in Chinese and I’m inspired but quickly descend to the surrender mode. I realize that your upbeat personality is a huge factor for your mastery, whereas my cursed introverted nature is a huge impediment. And I just can’t shake it off.
Same here! Introvert to the max. I have a Chinese wife and her son that I live with. They are both even more introverted than I am. It’s like trying to pick a penny off the ground that has been super glued to it for learning mandarin from them.
Very interesting! I think what you have to realize is that most Chinese people want to help you, and the ones that don't will tell you. I get what you're saying though, I feel like you just gotta focus on the fact that nothing really matters and that we're all organisms on a rock whirling around a great ball of gas and fire. Who cares if you embarrass yourself every once in a while right?
@@dgroenig Push, just keep pushing, don't be shy about it
LeLe Farley yeahhhh boyyy that’s why I’m reaching out to others such as yourself. I need to break that barrier of just being a hermit. Step out of the comfort zone. I’m not afraid to fuck up because I know that’s how we learn.
Dude, really good Beijing accent!!
oh.. my.. after this video, i feel that, "am i talking chinese?" XD (you are really great now)