Lol I am Cantonese and let me tell you my thoughts. The Asian guy (sorry if that was a bit offensive, I haven't watched any other video xx) he pronounces all the words like we do here in Hong Kong, all the sounds are correct and everything, it sounds very authentic. The girl (I think it's jordan?) she makes the sounds a bit too sharp, no one around here speaks like that; but you can still understand it.. she speaks in more of a mandarin tone than Cantonese, she has a very nice voice though. Please note that this was not made to offend anyone in the comments or in the video; these are just my thoughts and opinions as a Cantonese person.
Adeline A nah theyre both good. as long as youre understood. its nice that she has her own style ! and mandarin sounds smooth so her cantonese has a smoothness to it. actually sounds like how tereaa tang sings lol
Adeline A theres no real standard way. even in hk u have more working class cantonese and more polite sounding etc.. she has a nice polite sounding voice almost like she is singing it
No offence at all, but I think Steve is still better. He sounds fluent and has a native accent. Her tone is like still a bit off and just based on her speaking skills you can still tell she's a foreigner because she hasn't nailed the tone yet. It's very up, down like when foreigners learn the language but still her cantonese is really impressive. So props to her! She's doing very well for someone who learned the language rather than being brought up with it. It's very hard to nail down the tone in Chinese.
It's probably the difference between speaking academically (Jordan) and regionally/idiosyncratically/colloquially (Steve). If you grow up speaking a language, you speak it the way your family and your community does. When you learn a new language, you speak it the way you're taught and/or the way it has been standardized academically.
Native Cantonese speaker here (actually from the city of Guangzhou), and here's what I hear: She's better at forming the individual sounds, but he's more accurate with the pitch of each sound. Both of you can learn from each other. Keep up the good work. ;-)
I speak canto fluently and I would have to disagree, albeit her cantonese is impressive, it doesn't sound right to me..the guy sounds much more natural
yeah I agree his wife teached him wrong... like in the 信 and the 鍾意 which is the Jung yee his was the original sound?- like he says it correctly originally
@@sandramalone3522 he said “Fact is fact and if you disagree, you should be a Cantonese in your next life” ummm sounds pretty aggressive 😅 But as a Hong konger, I would say the guy pronounces better actually. The girl pronounced some of the words in an accent like Mandarin speakers 😂 but she is very good in Cantonese already. Peace.
Some of her Cantonese sounds like she has a Vietnamese accent. Some of the tones were off but so cool to that she learns a different language. Love how both their personalities feel very down to earth and genuine. All the best.
She's right. He has better vocab and is more confident. He is also easier to understand in a full sentence BUT she is better at pronouncing single words. She is definitely more linguistically gifted. Hats off to her language skills to be able to pick up and speak an extremely difficult language like Cantonese.
I'm Cantonese and im impressed by your wife's knowledge and vocabulary however I find her pronunciations of words have an English twang to it. So it's sounds like she's speaking Cantonese with an accent (just like how a Chinese native speaker goth have a chinglish sound when they speak English. In my opinion you have a better pronunciation and accent. I think it's quite difficult for an English speaking person to pronounce all the Cantonese tones as there are quite a few sounds you don't use in English as you mentioned in this vid.
My husband is Chinese and I speak Cantonese. In this video, the wife has a fairly good vocabulary but if I were on the phone with her, I would know that she was a Wester woman who had learnes the language. She needs to tapper off her sentences to make a weebit softer tone.
Anyone that tries to learn Cantonese has my respect. I started speaking both Cantonese and American English at around 3 years of age so although my English vocabulary is much larger, I do not have an accent in either language. People from Hong Kong think I'm from Hong Kong although I've visited HK once in my life. Most Americans who talk to me on the phone think I was born in the US. I also learned Mandarin as an older child and later in college. My Mandarin definitely has an American accent, per my parents who speak Cantonese and Mandarin fluently. Cantonese has 13 tones and sounds that are not used in English. Hong Kong-style Cantonese has a lot of words that are spoken/ not written formally and also lots of slang. So Cantonese is generally harder than Mandarin for English speakers. The exception are people who grew up in HK from a young age: I've met the rare non-Chinese adult who speaks fluent Cantonese. (I've also learned bits of Russian, Spanish, French, and German - not fluently and definitely with an American English accent. Cantonese also has very different sounds from those languages. Moral of the story: get your kids starting languages early. Science shows kids' ability to process and replicate sounds via their brain declines with age.)
actually the girl doesnt really have a better pronunciation, maybe its because the fact that she is not chinese and can speak to this level of fluency makes many people believe that she has better pronunciation.
I disagree. She doesn't have a better pronunciation than him. The word "vegetable", she pronounced it incorrectly. It all depends where or what regions of the people come from, real Cantonese is from Canton, the city. Even the Hong Kong people have their own accent, slightly different than people from Canton. I grew up in Canton and he definitely speaks better. My husband is an American and he picked up large amount of Cantonese from my mom.
Julie Baker I agree, people from Hong Kong speak Cantonese differently. According to my father at home we speak proper Cantonese. He has always said that people in Hong Kong speak a lazier form of Cantonese pronunciation . I found this to be true when I worked in a city with mostly Cantonese people. It was even more difficult understand with the way they pronounced certain words and slang.
S. Young - It was called Canton before you were born. That is why we call the language we speak "Cantonese". The Chinese government later changed to Guangzhou to go with the Chinese naming convention. Please look up the history of Canton. Canton is also a city in Ohio, of course.
Julie Baker please have a look at this, if you can read Chinese. "Canton的起源：粤语广东不准确的音译 至于哪国人把广州拼为Canton，有多种说法，其中有两种较为有代表性。专门研究中外贸易史和澳门史的广东省社会科学院赵立人研究员说，最早到广州的外国人是16世纪的葡萄牙人。现在关于Canton一词可见的最早出处是由瑞典人著的《早期澳门史》，主要记述的是澳门以及葡萄牙人在中国的情况，其中提到了Canton一词。至于葡萄牙人最早在什么时候把广州称之为Canton，现在已无从考证。之后，英国人有关广州的著述中也使用 Canton这个词。不过广州市地名办公室的一位负责人则认为，“Canton”是广州一词的“威妥玛式”的旧拼法，“威妥玛”是一个1841年至 1883年间英国驻华外交官的名字，他设计了一套罗马字母拼音方案给汉字注音，“Canton”正是这种拼法的产物。专家们一致认为Canton是对广东粤语不准确的音译。"
Jordan, your pronunciation of he word for "believe" or "faith" is right on! It really is amazing that you are learning your inlaw's language. I love this video!
I grew up in Hong Kong and have absolutely fluency in canto and I think Steve speaks better than Jordan. I mean, you can hear he has a western accent but the words are generally right, like vegetables is definitely with a ch. Jordan's accent is stronger.
Wait what??? Being a Cantonese, I think that the Chinese guy's pronunciation is better. Jordan has an accent to it. Steven's pronunciation is much more natural. Are those comments people not from non-Cantonese? sorry for my bad English. She is teaching him wrongly... oh no
Don't worry about the comments, you are both excellent as long as you speak Cantonese and get your messages across . I'm impressed, especially when you guys teach your son simple Cantonese vocabularies. Yes, ppl understand you is more important than tone . Keep it up. Keep it up !
My Cantonese is much like Steve's. I grew up speaking Cantonese with my poh-poh because she helped raised me, but the rest of my family spoke English to me because I'm a mix of Chinese and Hispanic who grew up in California. xD I don't have any Cantonese speaking friends, so I feel like I've lost a lot of my ability to speak even though I still understand it. That's great that you and Jordan are teaching your son as well. It can be hard to keep different languages in families growing up in America.
I know. I like saying poh-poh to people who understand it to differentiate which grandma speaks Cantonese because my other grandma I just call grandma and she speaks English and Spanish. :)
I know the struggle. Even colleges don't really offer Cantonese, so when I became more interested in becoming more fluent as an adult, I had no where to turn to but the internet.
Stumbled upon this in UA-cam recommendations. It's so cool your wife studied/studies Cantonese as a language! I think it's important to recognize, as others have said, that there are so many ways of pronouncing languages due to territorial dialects. As you mentioned in the video, what's most important is that those around you can understand you. I may not have the most sophisticated vocabulary but I am extremely grateful that I can communicate with my loved ones enough to get the message across. You both have differences in tones but that's understandable considering your differing backgrounds. Just subscribed and can't wait to see more!
I dont know what the problem is..but the dude in my opinion is better pronunciation vise is better, all his pronunciation was right, she is just teaching him wrongly...
THIS THOUGH! I watched the whole thing and was so confused. I speak Cantonese and live in Hongkong and I definitely think his Cantonese is WAY better, pronunciation-wise!
oh dude, watch the whole video before you say any bullshit, please. HE called HIMSELF 竹昇仔, I don't give a damn about who he is and his family background, none of my business, yet I am not the one to call him 竹昇仔. so be my guest to tell him that he's being "harsh" to himself and ask him what he's doing. BTW, 竹昇仔is not even a negative term.
You guys are great! I am Cantonese originally from Hong Kong. You inspire me to concentrate on my pronunciation and annunciation when speak both English and Cantonese. Thank you!
lmao the wife's cantonese is not that good. I can still understand her but its not as good as the comments at the beginning of the video made it out to be. In fact, she's teaching him the wrong pronunciation when she corrects him lol
my brother just sent me a link to your first video. this is wonderful. don't let the negative comments keep you guys down. my wife (also caucasian) and i have been working with our kids on their cantonese and when i showed our kids your videos, my daughter (8 yrs old) just laughed and said now mom needs to learn Chinese better. we too live in the detroit metro area and are glad to see the two of you sharing your lives on here and answering many questions we've received ourselves in the past about our own mixed cultural relationship. maybe we should start a support group. lol. keep the entertain vids coming. we'll be watching.
Part of the problem for Chinese people who didn't grow up in HK is that we grew up with bad habits, and nobody ever corrected us. And we don't really know how badly we sound because we don't hear our own accents (applies even to our English regional accents). I have the same problem as Steve... My parents understand me, so they wouldn't bother correcting me.
EXACTLY! I only spoke Cantonese with a few people growing up. They always understood me and never correct my tones. After 28 years, it's hard to shake that off. -Steve
Cantonese Couple The most noticeable part of Steve (and my) accent is the inadvertent "r" in certain words. We might say "seurng" instead of "seung" for "up". (my Romanization is probably wrong, but i hope you get what i'm saying ). I don't hear this in Jordan's pronunciation, probably because she is learning anew so this might be what others are referring to when they say she pronounces better. I admire both your efforts!
Umm.... Even HK people born in America or Canada have really good chinese cause they usually only hang around with other HK people. BBC can be different thou as there weren't a lot of chinese people in Britain and racism was pretty high so even if you were chinese you wouldn't want to admit it and blend in with the british.
I showed two of our videos in our ESL class this week, and I built two lessons around two of our videos! The students were absolutely fascinated by you 2.
you guys are a cute couple....as a Mandarin speaker, I've always found Cantonese to be pretty tough to learn (12 tones as opposed to 4), so I applaud you two for sharing your language journey. I'm trying to learn some Vietnamese now and that's also a tough language to learn....
S. Young, Well yeah, that's a valid reason. Because English-speakers don't use tones, so many westerners struggle with learning the tones of Chinese. And Cantonese has even more tones than Mandarin does. I'm also very impressed with her Cantonese; it's probably better than mine, since I've lost most of it from replying to my parents in English.
This was really cute! My first vid watching you guys. Keep it up! I personally like the husband's way of speaking since that's how everyone around me speaks and I'm used to it.
Actually ... I am native Cantonese speaker and very fluent in English ... Husband is much better than wife ........ but the husband's Cantonese can only be thought as very fluent but with very heavy accent that everyone knows he would not be native speaker ...
Am I the first to comment that she is so beautiful!? 💗 He is one very lucky guy to find such a beautiful woman who can even learn the language he speaks, just for him. I hope he knows how easy she's making his life for him. Would love to meet a pretty soul as her. ♡
Yeah, his pronounciation is better, but I can understand what Jordan is speaking but she has a strong accent, but the guy has a little accent too , really little ^^ I am cantonese but i was not born there ^^ So I could be wrong
I love this! As an ABC whose greatest achievement is in butchering Cantonese pronunciation, you guys give me hope that I can learn and improve. I guess I need to start watching more youtube tutorials because other than my family, I have nobody to speak Cantonese with!
You guys are super adorable. It's literally an abundance of love in the background of the video! Jordan is really a very talented and please keep it up! I wish my wife can speak more cantonese to me too.
HOLY MOLY! I dont know how you popped in my suggestions feed but WOW! You guys are amazing! I'm so plastic, I don't know if theres hope but just maybe there is to learn this dying language! I feel so what ashamed but I'm blown away by you both!
I frankly think that his Cantonese is fine because that's how I know everyone speaks it in Hong Kong. When I first heard her Cantonese I couldn't understand it until he spoke the phrases. My opinion tho.
I have just finished watching this video, honestly out of the both of you guys, Steve you speak better cantonese, not perfect but your cantonese tones are better than Jordan's, you just seem to lack confidence and then when you question if your tone is correct or not you follow Jordan's incorrect tones and your cantonese tones sound worse than before,
Both of you two are fabulous. Keep up the good work. I was born in HK then moved to US at age 10. My Cantonese vocabulary is limited but the tones and inflections I think I have nailed down pretty good which is opposite of the two of you. I can really identify with you guys. You guy's Cantonese is not perfect but definitely very good, I have no trouble understanding it. Love you guys, keep making videos, and congrat on the baby.
Her pronunciation is wayyyy too harsh. I say choi not tsoi like wtf. His pronunciation is correct. He speaks Cantonese properly, I get that she learnt Cantonese but her Cantonese is awful
Your wife's Cantonese is very good. I too speak Cantonese I was born and grew up here in New Zealand. When I was little we would speak English, and every time we spoke English and should my dad would hear us, he would tell us to speak Cantonese. In Intermediate school I learned basic Japanese and Japanese writing of hiragana, Katakana and Kanji and then more so in High School. In High School I had European friends and Chinese friends, I hung out more with my Chinese friends in 4th/5th form and would speak in Cantonese together.
I got lazier and lazier with my pronunciation when my family moved to the US from HK. But I understand you both. I think Jordan sounds a bit more like Mandarin because it's sharper.
Depends on what you mean by being good at a language, I guess. If you couldn't speak French with a French accent, for example, you couldn't really say that you were good at speaking French.
Thank you both of you for your efforts, the video was hilarious (meaning the way you two interact) ... and it doesn't really matter to me who is speaking it better, your child will grow up bilingual if both of you keep up using Cantonese with him ... Thank you !
Bro, your wife's cantonese is good but yours is more natural. Cantonese is tough, I know English, Mandarin, the Hokkien dialent and Malay too but Cantonese is by far the hardest. I only speak it because that's thats the languange I grew up with.
I disagree, your pronunciation is better than hers. I can tell she tried hard to learn but still doesn't sound authentic as you do. Those people who said her cantonese is better than you must be deaf. BTW it is awkward when she tried to correct your pronunciation, but the truth is her pronunciation is not even right!!!! However you can never argue with your wife :/
She has an incredible ability, she can hear tones extremely well, better than her husband but hasn't had as much practice of making the right tones as her husband. She probably born with perfect pitch. You can see often she can correct his pitch which then he speaks perfectly afterwards.
I agree with what most people are saying. It's great y'all are both working on your Cantonese! It's really inspiring 'cause a lot of us ABCs have lost the ability to even speak it. Steve's Cantonese sounds like most ABC's I've heard. Jordan's sounds like a mix of Mandarin (so what Google Translate has) speaking Cantonese tones and an ABC with a Midwest accent.
New to your vlog. I think you you guys are great. I also think it's cool that Jordan is learning Cantonese. Forgive me if I think it's fascinating because I grew up around Chinese in my neighborhood in LA California and I always felt like the outside person when I was around their family while speaking Cantonese.
It doesn’t really matter who is better, I have a Chinese daughter. It’s a very difficult language to learn. I appreciate both of them very much. Thank you.
I met a guy in university named Shoon -- immediately I thought -- this is the anglicized version of the name you are talking about!! lol -- which I think is beautiful by the way and I think you explained the pronunciation really well! It's hard though so I am sad for the people that mess it up -- some people will get it though and it will be so worth it.
Omg I've never heard a non-Chinese person speak Cantonese so well, EVER! Since Mandarin is more commonly studied, and Cantonese is usually only mentioned for fun. Her tones sound 99.9% correct to me, which is amazing, cuz usually westerners can't tell the difference. Subscribed. Maybe I'll preserve and learn more Cantonese from you guys!
totally agree with how your wife descriptions of your pronunciation,I honestly think he sounds like he pronounces the words like he's Vietnamese cause that how I hear it, and I'm learning how to speak mandarin because I'm wanting to travel to where my mother's family from and learning the language would be a bonus.
I think her Cantonese is very good. She has that Cantonese accent and tone down perfectly. His Cantonese is more like a broken version, kind of like mine in which my mom would understand me easily but others would take an extra few seconds to interpret.
I think you two are amazing and I am in awe 😍! I'm the opposite of you two, my husband is English and I'm British Born Chinese/Vietnamese. My Cantonese is quite bad as I don't really speak it because I'm really shy or I visit my parents/family back in London. Your wife's pronunciations were spot on and I have no problem understanding both of you! Literally have no idea what your names are but I've hit the subscribe button and will be viewing your videos and re-learning some Cantonese! You might even help me help my husband understand 😄🤓☺️!! Thank you so much and keep it up! Xx
Hi guys, I really enjoyed watching this video. my wife has the same. and she's Chinese though. never spoke Chinese at home when she was little. now she better at it because I watch a lot of Hong Kong dramas. try to listen how they pronounce the words. that should help you guys to learn better Chinese. it helped me a lot. have fun learning Cantonese
Super impressed that Jordan has learned Cantonese! Although Steve's accent is def better and how people talk in HK. You can still understand what both of you are saying which is the main thing. Im also a Chinese under achiever haha as a BBC but can still carry off a convo. Well done Jordan!
Ok I've got it... your wife's voice is just beautiful all together., some people you can listen to all day . You can tell it is apart of your Culture your very authentic! ♥️ your both awesome!
I grew up in Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and the US speaking Cantonese at home. Steve's accent is way, way better and he sounds much more like a native speaker. He has some pronunciation issues, but for the most part sounds like a Chinese American who grew up speaking Cantonese. Jordan's Cantonese is pretty good, but still has a very, very strong foreign accent.
It almost sounds like she kinda has an Vietnamese twang lol. I'm still impressed though, and I think it's lovely that she's learning to communicate with your family ^_^
I enjoyed this video a lot. Thanks for sharing. I'm impressed by both of your cantonese. In my opinion, accents only differentiate between people but sometimes also push people apart. As long we can communicate that's good enough! I think Jordan did a great job learning this tonal language as a adult, it really isn't easy.
You guys are a cute couple, and that's so great that you can help eachother with your respective issues with pronunciation, grammar, (or whatever) etc! Nice :)
信 is faith and/or to believe. I'm a Chinese Canadian and I totally recognize your husband's accent when he speaks Cantonese and English. It's universal in varying degrees among North American born Chinese people. When I hear one on the phone whether we are speaking English or Cantonese, I know right away. I think someone should study us as a linguistically unique group. Kinda like how Jewish ppl in New York speak especially when their parents spoke or speak Yiddish. Even if the kids don't speak Yiddish, it affects the cadence of their speech. So fascinating!
You both are amazing. I feel that the hubby's intonation sounds a lot more on point. It felt easier to understand from just that than the wifey. It's true accuracy wise, the wife is better because of her ability to pick up sound even though her intonation still sounds like she's mentally translating it from English rather that thinking of it as just a different language. Don't feel bad, dude! keep speaking the language and take time listening by watching HK dramas. That's how I picked up my canto. 😁
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Lol I am Cantonese and let me tell you my thoughts.
The Asian guy (sorry if that was a bit offensive, I haven't watched any other video xx) he pronounces all the words like we do here in Hong Kong, all the sounds are correct and everything, it sounds very authentic.
The girl (I think it's jordan?) she makes the sounds a bit too sharp, no one around here speaks like that; but you can still understand it.. she speaks in more of a mandarin tone than Cantonese, she has a very nice voice though.
Please note that this was not made to offend anyone in the comments or in the video; these are just my thoughts and opinions as a Cantonese person.
Thank you for the feedback. Glad to know that people from Hong Kong can understand me :-)
-Steve
Yea, his cantonese is so much better. Her cantonese sounds like mainland chinese speaking cantonese.
SweetVanillaSpiceMe ikr, I thinks Steve speaks it more fluently and the girl will do better in pronouncing mandarin
Adeline A nah theyre both good. as long as youre understood. its nice that she has her own style ! and mandarin sounds smooth so her cantonese has a smoothness to it. actually sounds like how tereaa tang sings lol
Adeline A theres no real standard way. even in hk u have more working class cantonese and more polite sounding etc.. she has a nice polite sounding voice almost like she is singing it
No offence at all, but I think Steve is still better. He sounds fluent and has a native accent. Her tone is like still a bit off and just based on her speaking skills you can still tell she's a foreigner because she hasn't nailed the tone yet. It's very up, down like when foreigners learn the language but still her cantonese is really impressive. So props to her! She's doing very well for someone who learned the language rather than being brought up with it. It's very hard to nail down the tone in Chinese.
It's probably the difference between speaking academically (Jordan) and regionally/idiosyncratically/colloquially (Steve). If you grow up speaking a language, you speak it the way your family and your community does. When you learn a new language, you speak it the way you're taught and/or the way it has been standardized academically.
Native Cantonese speaker here (actually from the city of Guangzhou), and here's what I hear: She's better at forming the individual sounds, but he's more accurate with the pitch of each sound. Both of you can learn from each other. Keep up the good work. ;-)
The lady has a sweet soul. Kudos on learning Cantonese
I speak canto fluently and I would have to disagree, albeit her cantonese is impressive, it doesn't sound right to me..the guy sounds much more natural
Oh please, when a westerner speaks as good and as fluent as she does there shouldn't be any room for criticism here.
@科幻动画Science fiction cartoon What? What are you talking about?
agreed
yeah I agree his wife teached him wrong... like in the 信 and the 鍾意 which is the Jung yee his was the original sound?- like he says it correctly originally
@@sandramalone3522 he said
“Fact is fact and if you disagree, you should be a Cantonese in your next life”
ummm sounds pretty aggressive 😅
But as a Hong konger, I would say the guy pronounces better actually.
The girl pronounced some of the words in an accent like Mandarin speakers 😂 but she is very good in Cantonese already.
Peace.
Your wife's pronunciation is okay, but your pronunciation is more on point most of the time :)
Lexine Uy I agree
Some of her Cantonese sounds like she has a Vietnamese accent. Some of the tones were off but so cool to that she learns a different language. Love how both their personalities feel very down to earth and genuine. All the best.
Thank you for the feedback and for watching!
nice, this world need good people like you guys
Wow! That's a high compliment. Thank you!
She's right. He has better vocab and is more confident. He is also easier to understand in a full sentence BUT she is better at pronouncing single words. She is definitely more linguistically gifted. Hats off to her language skills to be able to pick up and speak an extremely difficult language like Cantonese.
she has a slight mandarin accent when she speaks. Born in Hk, I totally pronounce the same way you do Steve!
Sorry for the late reply. We took a UA-cam break! Thanks for watching 😀
This is awesome, really happy to see more people making videos about Cantonese! I stopped mine a while ago, but am inspired to make more now!
Olly Richards What an honor! We love your videos Olly 😀
I'm Cantonese and im impressed by your wife's knowledge and vocabulary however I find her pronunciations of words have an English twang to it. So it's sounds like she's speaking Cantonese with an accent (just like how a Chinese native speaker goth have a chinglish sound when they speak English.
In my opinion you have a better pronunciation and accent. I think it's quite difficult for an English speaking person to pronounce all the Cantonese tones as there are quite a few sounds you don't use in English as you mentioned in this vid.
My husband is Chinese and I speak Cantonese. In this video, the wife has a fairly good vocabulary but if I were on the phone with her, I would know that she was a Wester woman who had learnes the language. She needs to tapper off her sentences to make a weebit softer tone.
Anyone that tries to learn Cantonese has my respect. I started speaking both Cantonese and American English at around 3 years of age so although my English vocabulary is much larger, I do not have an accent in either language. People from Hong Kong think I'm from Hong Kong although I've visited HK once in my life. Most Americans who talk to me on the phone think I was born in the US.
I also learned Mandarin as an older child and later in college. My Mandarin definitely has an American accent, per my parents who speak Cantonese and Mandarin fluently. Cantonese has 13 tones and sounds that are not used in English. Hong Kong-style Cantonese has a lot of words that are spoken/ not written formally and also lots of slang. So Cantonese is generally harder than Mandarin for English speakers. The exception are people who grew up in HK from a young age: I've met the rare non-Chinese adult who speaks fluent Cantonese.
(I've also learned bits of Russian, Spanish, French, and German - not fluently and definitely with an American English accent. Cantonese also has very different sounds from those languages. Moral of the story: get your kids starting languages early. Science shows kids' ability to process and replicate sounds via their brain declines with age.)
actually the girl doesnt really have a better pronunciation, maybe its because the fact that she is not chinese and can speak to this level of fluency makes many people believe that she has better pronunciation.
Lovely couple! I'm a Cantonese teacher and believe me, I enjoy listening to you speaking Cantonese:) look forward to watching your new videos!
I disagree. She doesn't have a better pronunciation than him. The word "vegetable", she pronounced it incorrectly. It all depends where or what regions of the people come from, real Cantonese is from Canton, the city. Even the Hong Kong people have their own accent, slightly different than people from Canton. I grew up in Canton and he definitely speaks better. My husband is an American and he picked up large amount of Cantonese from my mom.
Julie Baker I agree, people from Hong Kong speak Cantonese differently. According to my father at home we speak proper Cantonese. He has always said that people in Hong Kong speak a lazier form of Cantonese pronunciation . I found this to be true when I worked in a city with mostly Cantonese people. It was even more difficult understand with the way they pronounced certain words and slang.
S. Young Guangzhou and Canton both are correct ~
S. Young - It was called Canton before you were born. That is why we call the language we speak "Cantonese". The Chinese government later changed to Guangzhou to go with the Chinese naming convention. Please look up the history of Canton. Canton is also a city in Ohio, of course.
Julie Baker please have a look at this, if you can read Chinese.
"Canton的起源：粤语广东不准确的音译
至于哪国人把广州拼为Canton，有多种说法，其中有两种较为有代表性。专门研究中外贸易史和澳门史的广东省社会科学院赵立人研究员说，最早到广州的外国人是16世纪的葡萄牙人。现在关于Canton一词可见的最早出处是由瑞典人著的《早期澳门史》，主要记述的是澳门以及葡萄牙人在中国的情况，其中提到了Canton一词。至于葡萄牙人最早在什么时候把广州称之为Canton，现在已无从考证。之后，英国人有关广州的著述中也使用 Canton这个词。不过广州市地名办公室的一位负责人则认为，“Canton”是广州一词的“威妥玛式”的旧拼法，“威妥玛”是一个1841年至 1883年间英国驻华外交官的名字，他设计了一套罗马字母拼音方案给汉字注音，“Canton”正是这种拼法的产物。专家们一致认为Canton是对广东粤语不准确的音译。"
Cantonese这一用法固然存在了很久，但如果你真正是使用广州话作为母语的话，大多是不会觉得这个单词有多恰当，也会引起混淆。
Jordan, your pronunciation of he word for "believe" or "faith" is right on! It really is amazing that you are learning your inlaw's language. I love this video!
I grew up in Hong Kong and have absolutely fluency in canto and I think Steve speaks better than Jordan. I mean, you can hear he has a western accent but the words are generally right, like vegetables is definitely with a ch. Jordan's accent is stronger.
1234321JR is there any region where Tsoi would be acceptable? Jordan and I have both actually heard it pronounced that way before.
hmm i guess in Guangdong where some speak it with a more Mandarin accent they likely pronounce it as tsoi
+Cantonese Couple...yes in Tai Shen city located about 50 miles west of HK
+nigel lei . oops misspelled TaiShan city
I love when westerners speak Chinese so well. I'm learning but it takes patient and I don't have that but I'm still at it.
Keep going! You got this!
Wait what??? Being a Cantonese, I think that the Chinese guy's pronunciation is better. Jordan has an accent to it. Steven's pronunciation is much more natural. Are those comments people not from non-Cantonese?
sorry for my bad English.
She is teaching him wrongly...
oh no
Sprinkleholic please stop with your English it’s terrible
Sprinkleholic, your English is just fine.
Don't worry about the comments, you are both excellent as long as you speak Cantonese and get your messages across .
I'm impressed, especially when you guys teach your son simple Cantonese vocabularies.
Yes, ppl understand you is more important than tone . Keep it up.
Keep it up !
My Cantonese is much like Steve's. I grew up speaking Cantonese with my poh-poh because she helped raised me, but the rest of my family spoke English to me because I'm a mix of Chinese and Hispanic who grew up in California. xD I don't have any Cantonese speaking friends, so I feel like I've lost a lot of my ability to speak even though I still understand it. That's great that you and Jordan are teaching your son as well. It can be hard to keep different languages in families growing up in America.
We really wish there were public schools that teach Cantonese. Pretty much all of them teach Mandarin.
Lily Castle poh poh means grandma
I know. I like saying poh-poh to people who understand it to differentiate which grandma speaks Cantonese because my other grandma I just call grandma and she speaks English and Spanish. :)
I know the struggle. Even colleges don't really offer Cantonese, so when I became more interested in becoming more fluent as an adult, I had no where to turn to but the internet.
Lily Castle 你媽閪
Stumbled upon this in UA-cam recommendations. It's so cool your wife studied/studies Cantonese as a language! I think it's important to recognize, as others have said, that there are so many ways of pronouncing languages due to territorial dialects. As you mentioned in the video, what's most important is that those around you can understand you. I may not have the most sophisticated vocabulary but I am extremely grateful that I can communicate with my loved ones enough to get the message across. You both have differences in tones but that's understandable considering your differing backgrounds. Just subscribed and can't wait to see more!
I dont know what the problem is..but the dude in my opinion is better pronunciation vise is better, all his pronunciation was right, she is just teaching him wrongly...
THIS THOUGH! I watched the whole thing and was so confused. I speak Cantonese and live in Hongkong and I definitely think his Cantonese is WAY better, pronunciation-wise!
I'm Cantonese, my parents are from Hong Kong, and I agree. His pronunciation is better.
S. Young no, im not from GuangZhou, im from Malaysia, and they are all types of chinese in malaysia like cantonese, hokien etc
lol nah some of his pronunciation wasn't correct. he said 你痛唔痛餓 when he tried to say 你肚唔肚餓. that's why he said he's 竹昇仔。
oh dude, watch the whole video before you say any bullshit, please. HE called HIMSELF 竹昇仔, I don't give a damn about who he is and his family background, none of my business, yet I am not the one to call him 竹昇仔. so be my guest to tell him that he's being "harsh" to himself and ask him what he's doing. BTW, 竹昇仔is not even a negative term.
You guys are great! I am Cantonese originally from Hong Kong. You inspire me to concentrate on my pronunciation and annunciation when speak both English and Cantonese. Thank you!
lmao the wife's cantonese is not that good. I can still understand her but its not as good as the comments at the beginning of the video made it out to be. In fact, she's teaching him the wrong pronunciation when she corrects him lol
Totally agree... shame !!
my brother just sent me a link to your first video. this is wonderful. don't let the negative comments keep you guys down. my wife (also caucasian) and i have been working with our kids on their cantonese and when i showed our kids your videos, my daughter (8 yrs old) just laughed and said now mom needs to learn Chinese better.
we too live in the detroit metro area and are glad to see the two of you sharing your lives on here and answering many questions we've received ourselves in the past about our own mixed cultural relationship. maybe we should start a support group. lol. keep the entertain vids coming. we'll be watching.
Vinh Chu Haha thanks for watching! Are there any adult Cantonese classes in the Detroit area?
Part of the problem for Chinese people who didn't grow up in HK is that we grew up with bad habits, and nobody ever corrected us. And we don't really know how badly we sound because we don't hear our own accents (applies even to our English regional accents). I have the same problem as Steve... My parents understand me, so they wouldn't bother correcting me.
EXACTLY! I only spoke Cantonese with a few people growing up. They always understood me and never correct my tones. After 28 years, it's hard to shake that off.
-Steve
Cantonese Couple The most noticeable part of Steve (and my) accent is the inadvertent "r" in certain words. We might say "seurng" instead of "seung" for "up". (my Romanization is probably wrong, but i hope you get what i'm saying ). I don't hear this in Jordan's pronunciation, probably because she is learning anew so this might be what others are referring to when they say she pronounces better. I admire both your efforts!
Umm.... Even HK people born in America or Canada have really good
chinese cause they usually only hang around with other HK people. BBC can be different thou as there weren't a lot of chinese people in
Britain and racism was pretty high so even if you were chinese you
wouldn't want to admit it and blend in with the british.
S. Young fair point, will keep in mind for future.
Laziness?
I showed two of our videos in our ESL class this week, and I built two lessons around two of our videos! The students were absolutely fascinated by you 2.
Omg.... did she learn it herself? Very impressive!!!!!!! I am teaching my gf Cantonese too 😂
you guys are a cute couple....as a Mandarin speaker, I've always found Cantonese to be pretty tough to learn (12 tones as opposed to 4), so I applaud you two for sharing your language journey. I'm trying to learn some Vietnamese now and that's also a tough language to learn....
Beautiful couple!
I find the both of you amusing. He looks to you for validation of his pronunciation.
Very entertaining.
I am impressed with her cantonese.
Thank you so much!
Ei Forc its shit why would you be impressed?
S. Young, Well yeah, that's a valid reason. Because English-speakers don't use tones, so many westerners struggle with learning the tones of Chinese. And Cantonese has even more tones than Mandarin does. I'm also very impressed with her Cantonese; it's probably better than mine, since I've lost most of it from replying to my parents in English.
Me too! Very very much impressed with her Cantonese!!! It is really better than her husbands's;) Sorry man...but really 😁
Ei Forc cant agree more
This was really cute! My first vid watching you guys. Keep it up!
I personally like the husband's way of speaking since that's how everyone around me speaks and I'm used to it.
Jung Yee is actually the more accurate pronunciation in hong kong. (this is coming from a native hk speaker)
Suen or shuen would be the closest to the word.
Leo Lee 讲英文的人发J的发音比讲中文的人重。粤语的人发J音时喉咙是不震动的，J与ung撞击后喉咙才开始震动。讲英文的人从J开始未撞击ung时就震动喉咙。同样中文的B对于讲英文的人来说只是一个夸张的P，所以他们以前把北京释成Peiking，而不是Beijing。
The girl pronounced Jong Yi with too much "a" sound.
You guys are such a beautiful couple together. I wish you guys nothing but the very best for the rest of your lives.
Aric Mackenthun 😀
Actually ... I am native Cantonese speaker and very fluent in English ... Husband is much better than wife ........ but the husband's Cantonese can only be thought as very fluent but with very heavy accent that everyone knows he would not be native speaker ...
Am I the first to comment that she is so beautiful!? 💗 He is one very lucky guy to find such a beautiful woman who can even learn the language he speaks, just for him. I hope he knows how easy she's making his life for him. Would love to meet a pretty soul as her. ♡
Thank you!
I think that Steve's pronunciation is better, I'm Cantonese and tbh most of the time I couldn't understand what Jordan was saying >_
Yeah, his pronounciation is better, but I can understand what Jordan is speaking but she has a strong accent, but the guy has a little accent too , really little ^^ I am cantonese but i was not born there ^^ So I could be wrong
I love this! As an ABC whose greatest achievement is in butchering Cantonese pronunciation, you guys give me hope that I can learn and improve. I guess I need to start watching more youtube tutorials because other than my family, I have nobody to speak Cantonese with!
the Chinese guy is better😂
I'm worse. Well, I don't speak Cantonese at all, so that's my excuse.
Anyway, how are you doing? Everything good? Oh right, I don't know you.
You guys are super adorable. It's literally an abundance of love in the background of the video! Jordan is really a very talented and please keep it up! I wish my wife can speak more cantonese to me too.
I don't understand, the husband pronounces it much better than the wife. No offense to anybody.
What a great couple, encouraging, helpful, and most of all loving. With you both as parents, your baby will be awesome!
i think your baby will speak very fluent Cantonese someday as well ^ ^
"ga yau ar" Steve and Jordan (> v
Only if you keep teaching us :-)
sure! im trying to upgrade the content in our channel asap >v
Cantonese Couple you should have your children enrolled in Chinese school or preschool maybe kindergarten.
文子MtzCherry
HOLY MOLY! I dont know how you popped in my suggestions feed but WOW! You guys are amazing! I'm so plastic, I don't know if theres hope but just maybe there is to learn this dying language! I feel so what ashamed but I'm blown away by you both!
I frankly think that his Cantonese is fine because that's how I know everyone speaks it in Hong Kong. When I first heard her Cantonese I couldn't understand it until he spoke the phrases. My opinion tho.
Steve, don't put yourself down. You're fine I understand you completely and you're the better speaker. Hands Up! 🙋🙋♂
I have just finished watching this video, honestly out of the both of you guys, Steve you speak better cantonese, not perfect but your cantonese tones are better than Jordan's, you just seem to lack confidence and then when you question if your tone is correct or not you follow Jordan's incorrect tones and your cantonese tones sound worse than before,
Totally agree... !!!
Both of you two are fabulous. Keep up the good work. I was born in HK then moved to US at age 10. My Cantonese vocabulary is limited but the tones and inflections I think I have nailed down pretty good which is opposite of the two of you. I can really identify with you guys. You guy's Cantonese is not perfect but definitely very good, I have no trouble understanding it. Love you guys, keep making videos, and congrat on the baby.
I mean....both of you guys have an accented cantonese so....
She sounds like she’s from Chicago and it shows up a little when speaking either language.
Great vid, guys.. such an interesting topic and discussed in a way to enlighten others on your well-considered thoughts on the subject
Her pronunciation is wayyyy too harsh. I say choi not tsoi like wtf.
His pronunciation is correct. He speaks Cantonese properly, I get that she learnt Cantonese but her Cantonese is awful
Your wife's Cantonese is very good. I too speak Cantonese I was born and grew up here in New Zealand. When I was little we would speak English, and every time we spoke English and should my dad would hear us, he would tell us to speak Cantonese. In Intermediate school I learned basic Japanese and Japanese writing of hiragana, Katakana and Kanji and then more so in High School. In High School I had European friends and Chinese friends, I hung out more with my Chinese friends in 4th/5th form and would speak in Cantonese together.
I got lazier and lazier with my pronunciation when my family moved to the US from HK. But I understand you both. I think Jordan sounds a bit more like Mandarin because it's sharper.
Yes, she is correct with the pronunciation of faith. So awesome. Where and how are you learning Cantonese from?
You don't need to have a certain accent to be good at a language.
Depends on what you mean by being good at a language, I guess. If you couldn't speak French with a French accent, for example, you couldn't really say that you were good at speaking French.
Thank you both of you for your efforts, the video was hilarious (meaning the way you two interact) ... and it doesn't really matter to me who is speaking it better, your child will grow up bilingual if both of you keep up using Cantonese with him ...
Thank you !
You were right the first time with "vegetable". Your wife is wrong on that one.
Bro, your wife's cantonese is good but yours is more natural. Cantonese is tough, I know English, Mandarin, the Hokkien dialent and Malay too but Cantonese is by far the hardest. I only speak it because that's thats the languange I grew up with.
Interesting Video = which shows a lot more about you as a couple than just your language abilities.
Best wishes for your baby
OMG, you guys are adorable!
congradulations on the new baby. I really hope the best for him or her.
I disagree, your pronunciation is better than hers. I can tell she tried hard to learn but still doesn't sound authentic as you do. Those people who said her cantonese is better than you must be deaf. BTW it is awkward when she tried to correct your pronunciation, but the truth is her pronunciation is not even right!!!! However you can never argue with your wife :/
She has an incredible ability, she can hear tones extremely well, better than her husband but hasn't had as much practice of making the right tones as her husband. She probably born with perfect pitch. You can see often she can correct his pitch which then he speaks perfectly afterwards.
I'm super impressed with the guy's English pronunciation. He doesn't even sound foreign
I agree with what most people are saying. It's great y'all are both working on your Cantonese! It's really inspiring 'cause a lot of us ABCs have lost the ability to even speak it. Steve's Cantonese sounds like most ABC's I've heard. Jordan's sounds like a mix of Mandarin (so what Google Translate has) speaking Cantonese tones and an ABC with a Midwest accent.
New to your vlog. I think you you guys are great. I also think it's cool that Jordan is learning Cantonese. Forgive me if I think it's fascinating because I grew up around Chinese in my neighborhood in LA California and I always felt like the outside person when I was around their family while speaking Cantonese.
Great and funny video guys, i love how you team up!
Thanks!
It doesn’t really matter who is better, I have a Chinese daughter. It’s a very difficult language to learn. I appreciate both of them very much. Thank you.
Omg she's soooo good!! Amazing! I even learned something new from you! I love it!
I met a guy in university named Shoon -- immediately I thought -- this is the anglicized version of the name you are talking about!! lol -- which I think is beautiful by the way and I think you explained the pronunciation really well! It's hard though so I am sad for the people that mess it up -- some people will get it though and it will be so worth it.
Omg I've never heard a non-Chinese person speak Cantonese so well, EVER! Since Mandarin is more commonly studied, and Cantonese is usually only mentioned for fun. Her tones sound 99.9% correct to me, which is amazing, cuz usually westerners can't tell the difference. Subscribed. Maybe I'll preserve and learn more Cantonese from you guys!
totally agree with how your wife descriptions of your pronunciation,I honestly think he sounds like he pronounces the words like he's Vietnamese cause that how I hear it, and I'm learning how to speak mandarin because I'm wanting to travel to where my mother's family from and learning the language would be a bonus.
I dig it she’s a wholesome woman. Great wife.
both of you are awesome, in a single word, wife is better but in a complete sentence the husband better
You guys are so cute. Good job speaking Chinese to the both of you.
Thank you so much!
I think her Cantonese is very good. She has that Cantonese accent and tone down perfectly.
His Cantonese is more like a broken version, kind of like mine in which my mom would understand me easily but others would take an extra few seconds to interpret.
high five...she knows more than one language so good for you!!
I have no problem understanding you guys, I will tell my wife ( will be) to learn some Cantonese here.ty
I think you two are amazing and I am in awe 😍! I'm the opposite of you two, my husband is English and I'm British Born Chinese/Vietnamese. My Cantonese is quite bad as I don't really speak it because I'm really shy or I visit my parents/family back in London. Your wife's pronunciations were spot on and I have no problem understanding both of you! Literally have no idea what your names are but I've hit the subscribe button and will be viewing your videos and re-learning some Cantonese! You might even help me help my husband understand 😄🤓☺️!! Thank you so much and keep it up! Xx
Hanhiii_L Thanks!! We hope you keep watching.
Jordan, two thumbs up for you! Your Cantonese pronunciation is better than my Mandarin speaking husband!
Omg ....your amazīng Cantonese speaking wife ..... congrats to you both and a God blessed unique union.
Hi guys, I really enjoyed watching this video. my wife has the same. and she's Chinese though. never spoke Chinese at home when she was little. now she better at it because I watch a lot of Hong Kong dramas. try to listen how they pronounce the words. that should help you guys to learn better Chinese. it helped me a lot. have fun learning Cantonese
Super impressed that Jordan has learned Cantonese! Although Steve's accent is def better and how people talk in HK. You can still understand what both of you are saying which is the main thing. Im also a Chinese under achiever haha as a BBC but can still carry off a convo. Well done Jordan!
Ok I've got it... your wife's voice is just beautiful all together., some people you can listen to all day . You can tell it is apart of your Culture your very authentic! ♥️ your both awesome!
I grew up in Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and the US speaking Cantonese at home. Steve's accent is way, way better and he sounds much more like a native speaker. He has some pronunciation issues, but for the most part sounds like a Chinese American who grew up speaking Cantonese. Jordan's Cantonese is pretty good, but still has a very, very strong foreign accent.
Slow victory clap for you girl!!! You guys are great!
I think it sounds great !! Good job guys
It almost sounds like she kinda has an Vietnamese twang lol. I'm still impressed though, and I think it's lovely that she's learning to communicate with your family ^_^
I enjoyed this video a lot. Thanks for sharing. I'm impressed by both of your cantonese. In my opinion, accents only differentiate between people but sometimes also push people apart. As long we can communicate that's good enough! I think Jordan did a great job learning this tonal language as a adult, it really isn't easy.
You guys are a cute couple, and that's so great that you can help eachother with your respective issues with pronunciation, grammar, (or whatever) etc! Nice :)
信 is faith and/or to believe. I'm a Chinese Canadian and I totally recognize your husband's accent when he speaks Cantonese and English. It's universal in varying degrees among North American born Chinese people. When I hear one on the phone whether we are speaking English or Cantonese, I know right away. I think someone should study us as a linguistically unique group. Kinda like how Jewish ppl in New York speak especially when their parents spoke or speak Yiddish. Even if the kids don't speak Yiddish, it affects the cadence of their speech. So fascinating!
Nice video... watching from Singapore
I think it's that he sounds more casual and everything flows. Probably because he is more confident. While she sounds more polished and concise...
You are guys are a hoot!!! Love it!
You both are amazing.
I feel that the hubby's intonation sounds a lot more on point. It felt easier to understand from just that than the wifey.
It's true accuracy wise, the wife is better because of her ability to pick up sound even though her intonation still sounds like she's mentally translating it from English rather that thinking of it as just a different language.
Don't feel bad, dude! keep speaking the language and take time listening by watching HK dramas. That's how I picked up my canto. 😁
She is just wonderful.. how did you learn to speak canton so fluently? How long did it take?
Never met any one like you.
I have to admit, she does sound good speaking Cantonese. Like she’s a native. Impressive.