Greg Smith - Cantonese speaking Westerner - PART 1

[HoSayLiaoLah]

I don't know why but I can't stand cantonese. Sound very ah qua (transexual). Hokkien sound better.

[zenpro12]

why do so many people go on about gwei lo's having accents when they speak canto? of course la.. it's not our first language, and i bet they have an accent when they speak english... who cares if a westerner has a slight foreign accent when they speak canto, the point is they have made the effort to learn it! and guess what... it ain't an easy language!!! ;)

i wish my cantonese was as good as his!

[ahlac]

What year is this documnetary ??

[philsnk]

Wan Foo, Mai Foo Sik.

[schwiiZZZ]

a person who didnt grow up with cantonese will never speak perfect cantonese

[kansaikanadian]

@schwiiZZZ

You should get rid of that prejudice. Cantonese is not some sort of secret code. You know that every single country in Asia believes that their language alone is the most difficult in the world?

[schwiiZZZ]

@kansaikanadian all european languages have the same characters,,,,its true dat asian languages r the hardest stupid white man

[kansaikanadian]

@schwiiZZZ

I am not white. Also, before you claim that English is somehow inferior as a European language maybe you should learn how to construct a proper sentence in the language. Asian languages are not hard. It is just the result of Asians wanting compensate for always feeling like they are being looked down upon by white people. No matter how inferior they believe themselves to be, they feel that as long as only they can speak their language they have an advantage on their own turf.

[kansaikanadian]

@schwiiZZZ

Also, I should know. I am half-white and half-japanese and have heard the exact same thing from Japanese people all my life. They have an incredible inferiority complex against westerners while at the same time feel comfort in the fact that at least when using the Japanese language, they are "superior".

[schwiiZZZ]

@kansaikanadian man it doesnt matter where ur from noone even cares cuz white people r all the same

all european countries r so simliar...they dont have anyy culture anymore

but check out asia,the diversity of cultures

and i duno wat ur saying man but chinese is superior to stupid white man

[anderskhe]

@schwiiZZZ Are you serrious? White people are much more different from each other than what many people in Hong Kong seem to think. People in Hong Kong keep believing I'm a master of the English language because I'm white, even before they've heard me speak. But fact is that any native English speaker can clearly hear that I speak English with an accent because it's not my mother tongue as I'm a Norwegian.

[Buuub08]

@schwiiZZZ Asian languages are not necessarily the hardest. It depends on the perspective and your native language. For a Chinese person Japanese and Korean come rather easily yet French, Russian or Fasri for example might be difficult. Its the reverse for others. There is no such thing as "hardest language".

Having a complex language is not an advantage of any sort, its more of a disadvantage and results in linguistic splits and thus people from the same country cannot understand each other.

[pochuweb]

Smith has natural talent for language and it shows in his ability to use Cantonese vocabulary and syntax quite effectively and strategically in this interview. It must have been hard work to learn to produce Cantonese sounds at such a near native level and he has done an impressive job with it.

[rocospi]

I can respect any person who learned Cantonese as a 2nd language. As a native speaker, it's pretty complicated how much of colloquial Cantonese is slang.

[ltlwatcher]

Amazing.

[Wanker232]

There's like really quite music playing in the background.

[norisv]

Way to go, Greg! 

[y3nd0]

Yes, you can hear an accent, but it's almost non-existent. If I covered the screen and listened to him speaking, I'd think it was a Chinese man with a weird accent. Honestly.

[japanimefan02]

I'm a lot like him, only with Japanese. It's getting harder for me though, because college costs too much now a'days. When I found Japanese through anime, I became intensely interested, and now I can speak Japanese at a conversational level. I'm not fluent, but like he learned the Hong Kong dialect/language, I intend to learn Hakata dialect Japanese.

おーきに. （谢谢/謝謝）

[TheNeuroticBassPlay]

@japanimefan02 Are you in Japan speaking Japanese?

[japanimefan02]

@TheNeuroticBassPlay - I wish I was in Japan. I visited the country a few times, mostly in the south, near where Hakata is spoken. I was told by a person from Japan, that when I speak the Japanese I can, I sound like a native speaker. My goal is to earn a degree then move to Japan to teach American English. Or just translate.

[bernicefan]

His Cantonese is great but it's the fact that he can read so well which makes his fluency even more impressive. His wife is pretty too lol.

[trent8002003]

90% native in accent and intonation and 95% native in vocabulary and fluency. Unbelievable. Way to go, Greg.

[clemstarxxx]

i love how at 5:07 he says "up to now" in that classic singsongy cantonese way

[johnsonlamhk]

The WILL to communicate in other language shows the true heart.

[Cupcake4me]

He does an accent, but hats off, amazing vocab and knowledge of chinese culture..wow !

[mylocker0001]

I did not even know Sun's mother's name and she was buried in HK.

He knows "Koo Wat" (purposely bad doing something secretly to achieve something) in 3.32 which was not even translated in script.

In 3.45 in my language, I would hear as "In the antique shop, the only thing which was not(viewed as)antique was my wife." It was really a very funny way to say that in Cantonese,

As a native Cantonese learning Chinese in HK for 20 yrs but right now in US, I enjoyed listening to this show

[pyeclam]

His Cantonese is impeccable. There's like no accent.

[thibaulthalpern]

Actually there is an accent. It's noticeable the first time he speaks. But, regardless of accent, he's very good, totally fluent.

[infinera06]

@pyeclam If you don't hear an accent, you are not a Cantonese speaker. His often uses the wrong tones, and like most native speakers, he speaks flat Cantonese.

[alicia2r18]

cool

ur channel's all abt foreigners who know how ta say chinese xDD

awesome