Firefly - Special Feature - Speaking Chinese

[myjunefairy]

I LOVE Adam's face as he spews out Mandarin lol

[abacongirl]

"oh, you can't say shit." lol. Jewel Straite looks older in this.

[GhibliFan1]

Could Jewel Staite be any hotter? Especially after Joss made her carry a few extra pounds for the role of Kaylee. That puppy fat made her even cuter.

[MrNightOwl88]

Hahahahaha 1:36.. i love how he went from english to quasi-chinese sentence, that was classic!.

[cg6823]

I love Alan. At 1:35 where he just goes "it was these long {blah blah blah lots of chinese from memory}... and I don't speak chinese. Lol

[WailingHowl]

Thaks to this show, I learned that I've been cursing for years without even knowing it.

[kienocard]

I learned to curse in a new language thanks to this show.

[EeMmVvPp]

Listening to it one more time now, Kaylee at 2.25 that they had tapes to listen to in order to say their lines right. If that is all they got then I think they did pretty good. I have studied English for a few years, but it wasn't until I had the opportunity to live in the US for one year that I got a bit more comfortable with English. The actors did good in my book. Doing the best you can after listening to tapes and probably having a short crash course. It does not make you a fluent speaker.

[EeMmVvPp]

The only way to really get good at a new language is to live in a country in which they speak that language for everyday exposure. Don't think they had any time for that =) Wash said it at 1:39, "I don't speak Chinese". Didn't get the impression that they were boasting at all, they probably did the best they could. I can hear straight away that the card player "speaking Swedish" in the opening scene of Titanic isn't Swedish. Doesn't mean he didn't try his very best. Actors, not translators.

[Alexc3217]

I now see why they killed off Wash...

[50Calabyte]

@Alexc3217 HOW DARE YOU!

[Alexc3217]

@50Calabyte I read that in fluttershys voice.

[vexviper]

Scully?

[mkitten13]

I find english speakers attempting to speak languages they don't know a real hoot. I've watched several things where they've attempted speaking Norwegian, Swedish or Danish and laughed my ass off at the horrible pronounciations, lol - the best was the X-files episode where tons of dialogue was written in Norwegian, oh man, funniest episode in the series :P Mandarin speakers should just have a good laugh when watching Firefly :)

[YelDohan]

I guess it's fine to say these are "future Chinese", since they have created new words like gorram, shiny, and 大象爆炸式的拉肚子.

[leftunattended]

Definitely on board with StudebakerHawk57 & musicallie44. In my profession, I have had to attempt to do business with a number of people speaking ESL (English as a 2nd language). Often very hard to understand much of what they are saying. So when the Chinese, Japanese, Russians or yeah, French want to criticize Americans for butchering their language, Hey: Right Backatcha! (back at you). Kudos to the Firefly Gang!!! Miss you guys!

[TheAlertHusky]

Aren't there two or more than one types of mandarin?

[ChineseCommando]

@TheAlertHusky No, lol. Mandarin is one of the multiple types of Chinese, others being Cantonese, Shanghainese, etc.

[TheAlertHusky]

@ChineseCommando Wow I messed up, I meant to say Chinese instead of Mandarin. Thanks though man!

[ChineseCommando]

@TheAlertHusky lol no problem!

[VonSaxenCoburg]

Or how about: they pronounce it so awfully the native speakers haven't got a clue? :-) Whatever the case, it's a bloody brilliant plot device, and I love it! Only one of the many, many things that made this show so good, too bad it got dumped, thank god Serenity came along to (sort of) provide closure.

[Spartakist85]

A good point is that while Chinese seemed to be quite important in the 'verse, the overwhelming majority of people was White

[Tess1061]

@Spartakist85 A lot of the worlds we were exposed to in the Firefly 'verse, were mostly border planets. So, they were home for the more extreme pioneers. We never got a chance to go to the planet that represents China (Sihnon) or to any of the planets surrounding it. If you look in the background of most of the episodes, you will see different types of people. Not just white people. Though I'm sure if given the chance to have continued, Firefly wouldve explored more "asian" like places.

[Spartakist85]

@Tess1061 i so deeply miss more episodes of this brilliant work :-(

if i have more time i think i'll explore the RPG in great depth ...

don't misunderstand me: i love firefly.

i only found it somewhat strange that the culture is so western while claiming to have evolved from a mixture .... if everyone speaks chinese, where are the chinese, are they living apartheid? that puzzled me. and i thought, maybe it was just the euro-centric way of looking at things, forgetting about stuff ...

[Jayhawk0812]

@Spartakist85 There is a new Firefly MMO in the works... I know because I'm on the dev crew...

w ww.fir eflyuniverse online.c om

[Fillionfan400]

I actually learned how to say some of these words.

[Ghostgirl777]

Guys, chill. They're actors, not linguists. 

[VonSaxenCoburg]

@Ghostgirl777 Voice of reason, thanks!

[makemap]

Poke guy.

[R0flc0pter1000]

For me as a non mandarin speaker the mandarin parts were really funny to listen to. It's just like some gibberish spread across the scenes...

[shortstuffs8688]

Love the edit of Adam Baldwin's rambling "Chinese!"

[BamSaidTheLady96]

Damn, Alan is good lol

[vtran31]

I know a defected form of cantonese.......... and even I cringe when white devils try "mandarin"

it's like nails on chalkboard......... does whitey have no idea what intonation means??

[Trinitykill]

@vtran31 Is it bad i don't know what intonation means? I would like to learn to speak it properly ;P

[vtran31]

@Trinitykill intonation means how you say the word determines if the word is even understood by the hearer

it's worse than english...... if you say the word wrong, it's another word

the same sound for mom, when said wrong, means horse

and don't even get me started on the pictographs

it's a kickass language.......... but virtually impossible to trully understand

[Trinitykill]

@vtran31 Ahh i gotcha, Actually that explains a lot, Though to be fair, Most of my learning of the chinese language will be used to insult people, So at least i wont have to worry about 'accidentally' doing it ;P

[vtran31]

@Trinitykill yea, we've got some wicked burns

they go along the lines of "you flair around like a beheaded chicken" or "your calligraphy brings forth the wailing of my ancestral fathers"

asians.......... are weird........ that's all I've really got to say about that

[Trinitykill]

@vtran31 Haha true, But still epic ;D

[vtran31]

@Trinitykill agreed

[VonSaxenCoburg]

@vtran31 Yes we surely do, but our languages are less based on it, which is why different dialects in our many languages can shift pronunciation around to an almost insane level, and it'll still be understandable. I highly respect the socalled "tonal" languages, like Mandarin, but I'd never dare get into learning them now, for fear of offending you :-D.

And white devils? Hm, you might come off as a bit racist saying stuff like that, man. But I forgive ya :-D

[vtran31]

@VonSaxenCoburg eh I just remember the imperalism and drugs and spheres of influence america pushed down our throats a century ago. the only way we could get america to leave us alone was to categorically call u white devils and murder any white man in the streets (boxer rebellion, anyone??)

[vtran31]

Respond to this video... maybe joss whedon should have hired a chinese in a leading role, hmm?? or even a mexican would have done............

despite all his talk about woman's rights, whedon is still profoundly racist.

[Maxillius]

Mandarin-speakers would've been better at the Mandarin parts, but since none of the actors speak Mandarin it sounds like gibberish. It would be like trying to speak Latin but only learning lines phonetically without learning what you're actually saying.

[StudebakerHawk57]

For all you native Mandarin speakers, give the show a break, will ya? It's 500 years in the future, remember, and both English and Mandarin will have probably evolved to a point where it would be difficult for present-day speakers to understand as well.

[Glahga]

@StudebakerHawk57 Yeah, it's kind of a pidgin version of Mandarin. Plus they only seem to use it for 'colorful' uses.

[vtran31]

@StudebakerHawk57 the issue is that they portray that madarin as real mandarin, no different than present day mandarin

and if a chinese movie portrayed a sci fi show in the future with asians butchering english, you'd cringe to death too

[VonSaxenCoburg]

@vtran31 Totally! But aren't the Chinese butchering English on a daily basis already? No need for a Chinese SciFi show to do that, I've been talking to TNT China @ the office, and all I have to say to that is DAAAMN!

[vtran31]

@VonSaxenCoburg that's because, due to the idiosyncracies of the chinese dialects, most native chinese lack the ability to pronounce certain syllables and grasp some syntactical concepts. try to get an asian to say "lick" and u'll be there all day long

americans cant speak chinese simply b/c they are too lazy to enunciate.what pisses us off the most is uboast about how smart they are, when every chinese knows they are a fucking idiot who is saying gobbledigoop like "the chicken is your mother"

[musicallie44]

@vtran31

Seriously dude - this is the very definition of "the pot calling the kettle black". Yes American actors say gobbledigoop instead of real Chinese words. And guess what - Chinese actors speak crappy English. So stop yammering about how dumb we are until you actually have a legitimate reason to complain.

[vtran31]

@musicallie44 the difference is that cinese actors arent arrogant about their inability to speak and dont flaunt their "superiority". also, they try as hell to speak english right - they just cant. english actors just dont give a shit and think they are somehow morally superior for "learning chinese"

[mkitten13]

@vtran31 um, if you actually watched the video you would have noticed that none of these people believe they are adept at speaking mandarin. I've met most of them at various conventions and whenever the subject of mandarin is brought up, they are all in agreement that they were crappy at it.

[musicallie44]

@vtran31

Considering how well you write English - I think you misunderstood the American actors intent. They were hired to do a job - the producer and director required them to speak Chinese. So they got a crash course REQUIRED by their job. They didn't once say they were fluent - nor did they brag about how amazing their Chinese was.

[musicallie44]

@vtran31

I've watched Chinese, Korean, Taiwanese, and Japan Television Dramas and movies. They all speak crappy English. Despite this I watch material from the countries that have good actors and productions. That's Japan and Korea.

So maybe you should stop touting the superiority of the Chinese and look to your oriental neighbors for acting lessons and skip on the English lessons.

[Whatever7661]

@musicallie44

I'm not here to help vtran31, but I think you overestimed Japan and Korea's productions. Japanese movies/dramas/songs are not really famous in Asia. Japan has been famous for anime/cartoon since 1980s but deteriorating year after year since 2005. In Asia, Japanese movie is famous for their genre, such as death note, but not for their acting skills. As for Korean entertainment, they are really famous recently, such as girl's generations, wonder girls, etc. However,

[Whatever7661]

@musicallie44

the chinese population is still the highest in Asia, and chinese market still outweighs the other two, especially China is booming now. China at this moment OBVIOUSLY does not do well in entertainment industry compared to other asian countries but do not forget the fact that amongst all asian countries, they started modernization quite late, so it takes some time for them to do well in entertainment industry. Therefore, chinese entertainment is what the people want.

[musicallie44]

@Whatever7661

I've been downloading Japanese and Korean TV dramas to replace watching American television. I'm not talking about overall entertainment including music and anime. However, I have been quite impressed with the music coming out of Korea. I like Korean rap...it's on a whole new level.

I watched dramas for their plot...not for how "pretty" they look.  Japan and Korea are winning intellectually...I could care less about how "modern" it looks.

[musicallie44]

@Whatever7661

I'm not saying it won't eventually improve, but at this point...Chinese productions are lacking in substance both from a production, acting, and writing standpoint. Korean and Japan are the only countries providing good quality material...not only visually...but on fundamental aspects like acting and plot-line.

I'd say America is pretty close to China in terms of plot-lines though...I can't stand American TV.

[ratonL]

@StudebakerHawk57 Lol.

[Scarecrowking]

@StudebakerHawk57 Especially Mandarin. In Firefly the US and China are the last remaining superpowers and everyone is already bilingual, but English is preferred over Mandarin. As such it's just likely it would've gotten kind of "americanized".

[vtran31]

@Scarecrowking actually its clear that china was wiped off the face of the map with american nukes and that the USA just sotle our language and butchered it (just like they did with every other invention they "created")

steam engine blueprints stolen from england, gunpowder and printing press from china, edison robbing tesla and being wrong about everything, the list goes on

[Scarecrowking]

@vtran31 Clear? How?

[alexb12345678910]

@StudebakerHawk57 Wierd that the english is understandable though.

[StudebakerHawk57]

@alexb12345678910 Really? I can't understand a single word they're saying?  (lol)

[daANIMALIannone]

@StudebakerHawk57 HEY! IM TALKING AT YOU!

[musicallie44]

@StudebakerHawk57

haha! There is a big difference between evolution of a language and ineptitude in pronunciation.

However, considering how often foreign movies butcher English...yeah...Mandarin native speakers should give us a break.

[DantesSmirk]

@StudebakerHawk57 That argument has no credibility since the English in the show sounds no different than that of today. Even so, I do think it was an awesome touch to have them speaking Chinese phrases.

[sydandtaytum]

@StudebakerHawk57 it was a cool idea to have chinese, and i wouldn't change it. that said, if it was your native language being butchered, u'd have a hard time 'giving them a break'...i love joss whedon, so to me he can do no wrong. but the fact that i couldnt understand about 90% of the chinese spoken on the show....is kinda bad

[Csp499]

Maybe the Mandarin they're speaking is some kind of slang/ sub-dialect that emerges in the future. Like the Chinese version of Afrikaans.

[trollolololololo]

Being a native mandarin speaker, the mandarin-language interludes were the only parts of the show that made me cringe like fuck. Nevertheless, I love the show, and I wish that FOX hadn't cancelled it.

[randomface54]

The only stuff they translated to chinese were the profanities. Why do I think Joss was just trying to annoy the censors. Although a US/China merging to facilitate an exodus of earth does make very good sense given the neccassary resources required.

[Rissako]

Obviously it's not Mandarin anymore in the future. It's a space dialect!

[gauntlander]

....what the hell was that?

[NEWater]

I'm a native Mandarin speaker, and half the time I didn't know what the hell they were saying.

[chombs]

I couldn't recognize what the woman said in Chinese, but I understood what the guy said. I am a native mandarin speaker.

[StopTurn]

@chombs I think it's the difference between common and uncommon phrases. Mal tells Kaylee to "mind your own business", which is a fairly common phrase, and i think thats why its easy for native mandarin speakers (myself included) to pick up on. But when they say things like "All the planets in the universe are going to come flying out of my butt" in Serenity its likely not a phrase you hear every day, which makes it hard to recognize. Even if you are used to hearing butchered chinese =P

[CrownedWithLaurels]

Ah, so it was real Mandarin! Always wondered :)