@ranran1913 chinese is more difficult to learn i think...just my opinion..Im a chinese too btw but I dont live in china..so I'm learning three languages..chinese is a bit difficult..too many characters
I know a lot of westerners that speak Chinese well. Also, people forget that there are white people born and raised in China, although it's a small minority, I know a few ethnic russian friends that were born and raised in China and have no foreign accent.
Really talented. I wonder if this guy ever talks about social issues. I sometimes see him on Chinese State television between all these programs containing extreme propaganda. No one has to speak out but I'm always a little bit disappointed seeing these Western anchormen talking one-way Chinese propaganda on CCTV English, likely getting paid a lot. 大山 participates in different programs though, what he does in the end is very positive, teaching languages or participating in social interactions!
Oh this guy, he is actually a famous TV personality who actually teach English in his show.
He would usually do a little sketch in some situation like ordering something in a cafe or asking the street. He only speak Mandarin during translation of what he or the characters just said.
he helps people learning english and he has done many things helpful to the communication between China and Canada. i like this white guy! but a few white guys insult Chinese here are sons of bitch！
then a very famous cross-talk actor taught him.i think that's also the first time a foreigner had learned cross-talk. he often appeared on different kind of stages. his Chinese became better and better. he became very famous and popular. finally i found that his Chinese became better than me. his pronunciation is very standard , though it has a hint of a beijing accent. he can express his ideas with very proper words. he also can speak out some chinese idiom that i don't know.
@armorcore666 I saw his first show on TV in 1988. I liked his show very much. Then I often pay attention to the news about him. And you can also google him online. Mayby most of news about him are in Chinese. If you need, I can translate more information about him for you.
it's true! i knew him when he appeared on the stage of Chinese new year variety show which had an audience of billions in 1988. i think that's the first time foreigners had appeared on that stage. he was an international student at beijing university and he spoke Chinese with an accent at that time.he made an impression on the audience.
Man, I have been here for more than seven years, have studied and graduated from university as well. He is definitely someone to look up to as far as learning how to speak Chinese goes. His accent is 99% flawless and his vocabulary and delivery is ridiculously accurate. Kudos Da Shan. Kudos.
ooo a white guy speaking chinese is practically a celebrity while a chinese guy speaking english is your accountant. This just proves that chinese people worship the fuck out of the very same white people that treat them like dogs. What a sad bunch of shitheads
@takadi - I think you're not realistic. Chinese isn't a language spoken world wide between different peoples. While English is a world language. The skin colour of this guy doesn't matter. An American who speaks my native language without an accent is a celebrity as well, while almost all Dutch people speak English. So your example is utter nonsense and proves you're probably racist towards the white guy here.
@takadi - You're talking about something completely different now. It's not a reply to my reply on you. I'm not going to have this particular discussion with you.
@bigbeing ho, not the case mate, nothing as u said. To speak the language is quite different from able to elebrate on that language, and few can compare to Da Shan's Chinese language skill, in sofar as I m concerned.
@a7lyqq Please do two things before commenting. 1. Run your comment through MS Word's spell-check and grammar functions so that your message is legible and understandable. I don't know what "elebrate" means, etc. 2. Determine exactly what it is you want to say: Do you mean white people, like myself, don't have the ability to learn second languages except with the - to you, possibly - astonishingly rare and surprisingly amazingly un-characteristically Caucasian savants like Da Shan?
@bigbeing The inability in u to identify 'elebrate' which I inadvertently misspelt from 'elaborate' can only account for one thing, which is ur scant English language cognitive skills, to which I feel helpless and pitiful, and since I can't bother to use the MS stuff, which was proposed by u sir, I believe u r more than happy to do such a thing for me afterwards, so please be my guest;
@bigbeing I do encourage people to learn and speak Chinese, but what I was saying is, I have seen many many internationals speaking Chinese, however few of them are as good as Da shan in terms of Chinese language proficiency, which is a pity u know. I with to be a Chinese language tutor and to teach Chinese to the world some day. I hope everyone on the earth can speak Chinese. I do hope so.
@a7lyqq Your English language skills certainly don't seem to match DaShan's Chinese skills... especially in view of your amusing casting of blame on your readers who don't understand your garbled utterances - saying my "English cognitive skills" are lacking because I don't understand you, ha! Maybe you can't type. It seems you're in no position to judge one Chinese learner from another, unless you're in the special position of language teacher, which of course, we can see, you are not.
Of course the whole 'Mighty whitey' syndrome. Look, i know it's cool to learn a new language and it's cool to hear someone speak a different language, but i am getting sick of these exaggerations where people have the nerve to say they can speak a language better than someone who grew up knowing it and spoke it all their lives! How dare you, you're lucky you got a good teacher all those years! There's no need to suddenly be arrogant and say "Oh, gosh, I'm even better than those chinese"! gosh!
Sorry to spam this vid but I am looking to find anyone who speaks both English and Chinese to tell me what is being said in a video I just added to my favourites. There is a little boy being abused badly in a crowd and I can't understand why they are kicking the poor child and really would like some translation please if you can tell me what's being said on it (it's a crowd so obviously not word for word but the point of it) I would really appreciate it.
chinese must not be a very hard language if he can speak better than the local chinese people. i'm a white guy who grew up in the usa and have never met or heard of ANYONE coming to the usa and learning english for 20 years and speaking better than native born americans. it's just not possible because english is too difficult.
@jaykertiss What is your definition for better oral English? Better pronunciation? Better grammar? Better phrasing? Or better structuring, construction of arguments and general rhetorical abilities? While it is true that the former three might be more easily picked up in Chinese than English, the latter three would be just as difficult - indeed the difficulty should be invariant, regardless of language.
@LordWhipster yes i'm saying a combination of those all taken together. i often employ the "phone" test--can I tell if someone is foreign-born by speaking to them on the phone, without first seeing them? my experience is that i very easily can tell they are not born here regardless of how long they've lived in the usa. their grammar, pronunciation, and word choice is never at a native level. again i'm not talking about someone coming here as a child, but rather as an adult, like dashan did.
@jaykertiss Interesting, but those three weaknesses you have highlighted (grammar, pronunciation and word choice) are the exactly the first three areas that I stated - I guess the 'phone' test is probably heavily biased towards these. Improvement in one of the other areas would easily transfer from one language to another.
@LordWhipster i think you're right. i guess what i'm saying is that what dashan has accomplished is quite amazing and very rare. from what i've read, he likely would pass the "phone" test if talking to a native mandarin speaker. i've just never seen this accomplished going the other way--an easterner reaching native fluency in the west as dashan did in china. obviously he's a total outlier, and quite gifted in language ability.
@jaykertiss With regard to adult Chinese learning English to a native standard - it seems highly possible they exist, but simply do not receive the same attention accorded to, say, a Westerner learning Chinese to a high standard (not just adults, but including children) since these are far fewer. Anyway, this person in the video is literally one-of-a-kind, he is that good. But I agree that Chinese grammar, pronunciation and phrasing is easier to learn than English.
That man's Chinese was amazing!!! OMG! I never saw a foreigner who speaks like that advanced level!! He probably learned form elemantary school?? But, he had a nothern Chinese accent which means he learned Chinese in Nothern China. I appreciate it!
His name is Mark Roswell commonly known as Da Shan meaning "To chew the fat". He was on an exchange programme from a university in Toronto entered a talent competition in China and won.
"His name is Mark Roswell commonly known as Da Shan meaning "To chew the fat". He was on an exchange programme from a university in Toronto entered a talent competition in China and won."
He sounds like Indian People speaking Cantonese in Hong Kong !! 朋友 !!
He does not speak "Received Pronunciation" Mandarin at all. He sounds funny because he is not using his natural voice.He is a little bit more high pitch.Better than Chinese?Only very few percent of any people can speak their proper n "RP" language.I am Cantonese n don't think my Cantonese is good enough for public speaking.It would take a native Hong Kong 老外 to speak like me!!
^^ I was born in Quèbec, moved to Japan at age 3 and always spoke French and Japanese, I was never good in English, then my shcool decided it was manditory to learn English. O-OPeronally; Le français est vreeeement plus facile que l'anglais, mais, j'aim le Japonais le plus. X3
And dudes, don't worry about the video title... obviously, it can't be true and it's an exaggeration -.- so GET OVER IT.
The point is, I grew up in the US speaking Chinese, then lost it a lot of it when I learned English, so this guy really impresses me. He's definitely better than I am.
Also, compared to non-native English speakers speaking English fluently, not a lot of non-Chinese people learn to speak Chinese fluently and with no accent, so again, he's impressive.
Dudes relax lol. It's a JOKE not a matter of looking for approval or whatnot. It's amusing because you don't see many non-Asians speaking Mandarin or Cantonese. He speaks Mandarin way better than I do and I grew up in China.
I don't know why Asian give these white people the time of day just because they speak the langauge. Are you Asian look for white people approval or something? I get A in all my English classes, some one give a venue please.
@Monkeyshex If that is the case, than the communist are even more stupid than I thought. Chinese need to come to America and learn how America react to speaking English. Ching Chong Ching Chong, Chink.
@letthebulletfly it's because it's extremely rare for a westerner to speak chinese at such a high level. many asians grow up in america and speak perfect english, so it's common and not surprising.
C'mon, "better than English themselve"? You certainly don't spell better than some (okay, maybe not all). The title may be arrogant, but it's not correctly written either. Whatevs... his command of Chinese is pretty damn good. No need to get defensive.
He speak chinese, that's it. There is no better, I mean if an Asian speak english "which is absolutely normal", they don't speak better than anyone. How do you define better?
Dashan (Chinese: 大山; pinyin: Dàshān; literally "Big Mountain") is the Chinese stage name adopted by American Mark Henry Rowswell, (born May 23, 1965 in New York, New York [1]) who works as a freelance performer in People's Republic of China.
just hang around a native as a kid and have an interest and you can sound the same... I was around native Germans and Iranians as a kid and I am white and can sound native speaking both Deutsch and Farsi...
@9436oelable Yes that's normal if you're a KID. But he was not a kid when he started learning Chinese. He was in college! I still would never say that he speaks better than natives, but he's really good. And you don't see Westerners who are able to speak ANY Chinese very often. Not near as much as you see the reverse anyway.
Wow respect :) His accent sounds very natural. I think the easiest and most sincere gesture that one can make to touch the hearts of another people is to learn and speak their language. I'm from Singapore and I know how to speak english, mandarin and malay. But the only language that can move me to tears when spoken is still mandarin.. there's no way to explain this despite the fact that I've been speaking english all my life (even more than I speak mandarin chinese)
Shock horror, asian guy speaks English better than native speakers!! If it were the other way round no-one would pay the blindest bit of notice! Racism exists all over the world. I know, I`m an Englishman in Japan!
@Kate4946 Shut Up! ENglish man in Japan, you speak japanese when you talk, they make horror too sound like talk immature, is like talk about Animes, is would make You dumb! and alot of ppl said Japan is Racism not of Chinese.. check it out channel racism in Japan, You Will know it....
Ich bin Deutscher und finde, daß Chinesisch die leichteste Sprache der Welt ist.
I am German and I think that mandarin is one of the easiest languages in the world.
I know this, because I also learned sanskrit. Das weiß ich, weil ich auch Sanskrit gelernt habe. 我想在世間漢語好象是很容 話!
If you learn Chinese from a book, then it is free of mistakes. In Shanghai, my mandarin was also better than from their citiciens. In Shanghai war mein Mandarin auch besser als bei den meisten Bewohnern dieser Stadt
The title is a little over the top.. I suppose it's attention-grabbing.
But anyways, it IS quite a big deal for a westerner / foreigner to speak Chinese fluently with no accent. Even though many people have learned the language to the point of fluency, they almost always have a distinguishable accent. Perhaps accent isn't the right word to use, but they usually sound kind of monotone. I guess people are just impressed with the fact that he sounds like a native, which is extremely rare.
Learning chinese is one of the hardest languages, its on the same scale as Arabic and Korean. I have been learning Chinese for over 5 years and I'm nowhere near this guy. Dashan is quite the celebrity, he's actually Canadian, or rather was originally. It's funny when they correct his pronunciation on chinese TV though. I
@crystalgl0w yeah, like in the case of 的，得 and 地。 You only use 得 after an action, like 她开心的笑得合不拢嘴。Anyways, chinese do have grammar. You can go google it if you want;)
@crystalgl0w I believe there are 27 grammar structures within Chinese that have to be memorized in order to correctly construct every type of sentence. Then there are measure words that are used for different type of nouns.
@henhen7890 you're bloody right... he cant speak it better than chinese themselves... he's chinese is impressive for chinese to see cos he's a westerner...
on 2:05 - 2:09 sounds like he's saying "Where have you put on the sell point in touchaaaoow..." Seriously... go over it and it does sound like this... :P
As a chinese I'd say Dashan does speak better than many chinese people, if you consider Standard Mandarin as typical chinese language, which is close to Beijing accent.
I'm a Beijinger myself so I know that. Not everyone can perform a chinese crosstalk(Xiang'sheng) but it's much easier for one with northern accent.
The funniest thing about this guy is that he's super dorky. He would never have a show in the west but since he speaks Mandarin so well, he's a celebrity in China. He seems like a pretty nice guy but not very funny or fame worthy in my opinion.
@thekingofmoney2000 This is dashan, the most famous westerner in China, he's the only foreigner to be accepted into the xiangsheng school of traditional Chinese verbal comedy. He really does speak Chinese better than Chinese people. In fact he's a trained master in a classical Chinese speaking art that most native speakers could not master .
Dashan's is a Canadian, his real name is Mark Rowswell, begin study Chinese at age 19 at University of Toronto.. got sholarship to go study in China. you have to admire his accomplishment as it is very hard to learn a new language, especially at age 19. I emigrated to Canada from Hong Kong when I was 14, after 36 years in this country. I am still learning.
@KhmerD0g nah, you type out the pinyin (how the word is pronounced) and the computer gives you a list of the words that are pronunced that way, for example, if i type “ming”, i get this list.
名明铭命鸣冥茗溟暝螟朙眳掵酩洺姳覭詺慏 （there are more..)
they now have programs where if you type in the pinyin in sequence, the computer will work out which words will fit the combo so you dont have to type 1 at a type, ex: eye saw a bare -> i saw a bear
kinda thing, as for the keyboard, they use QWERTY, same as us.
btw, we southern chinese, speak in our own dialects in daily life, not mandarin. only the people live in northern chinese use mandarin as their first language.
He learned Mandarin well, came to China at the right time, found a well-connected girfriend which he kept for booty call and later married, and kissed the right asses. In the final analysis, Da Shan is little more than an opportunist apologist for tyranny. If he were back in Canada, he'd be teaching Chinese part-time at a chain language school for $25-30 an hour, all the while struggling with side jobs in order to pay his bills.
everybody knows him in china, he is very famous, keep goin Dashan
9ying9 5 days ago
the title is so true...Im chinese and Im no better T^T so ashamed OTL
stephxu01 6 days ago
His Chinese is pretty good. But where have you proven that he speaks it better than the Chinese themselves?
ricquito 1 week ago
que grande LOL
fabiopsousa 1 month ago
Is this Mandarin?
Aj23David 1 month ago
@Aj23David Yes.
Smific 1 month ago
Holy fuck! Im glad for this guy but to me (PERSONALLY) this accent annoys me!
learsi182 1 month ago
How come whenever a white person speak Chinese, it's like a unicorn appeared?
guitarhamster102 1 month ago 20
@guitarhamster102 haha LMAO
fabiopsousa 1 month ago
@guitarhamster102 Because the stereotype white person thinks that English is superior and Chinese tongues are just sh*t and worthless.
sirmoorgate1994 1 month ago
我就说马三立说的比他好多了 ！
马三立是不是中国人啊 ?
ranran1913 2 months ago
There are also many, many chinese can speak perfect English, so what !
ranran1913 2 months ago 2
@ranran1913 chinese is more difficult to learn i think...just my opinion..Im a chinese too btw but I dont live in china..so I'm learning three languages..chinese is a bit difficult..too many characters
marie01ism 6 days ago
I know a lot of westerners that speak Chinese well. Also, people forget that there are white people born and raised in China, although it's a small minority, I know a few ethnic russian friends that were born and raised in China and have no foreign accent.
thekingofmoney2000 2 months ago 2
ur Chinese language skill just goes crazy...
a7lyqq 2 months ago
Really talented. I wonder if this guy ever talks about social issues. I sometimes see him on Chinese State television between all these programs containing extreme propaganda. No one has to speak out but I'm always a little bit disappointed seeing these Western anchormen talking one-way Chinese propaganda on CCTV English, likely getting paid a lot. 大山 participates in different programs though, what he does in the end is very positive, teaching languages or participating in social interactions!
Elwink 3 months ago
大山 is the Eminem of Chinese.
theyeti101101 3 months ago
Oh this guy, he is actually a famous TV personality who actually teach English in his show.
He would usually do a little sketch in some situation like ordering something in a cafe or asking the street. He only speak Mandarin during translation of what he or the characters just said.
hanchiman 3 months ago
he helps people learning english and he has done many things helpful to the communication between China and Canada. i like this white guy! but a few white guys insult Chinese here are sons of bitch！
charliehe64 3 months ago
then a very famous cross-talk actor taught him.i think that's also the first time a foreigner had learned cross-talk. he often appeared on different kind of stages. his Chinese became better and better. he became very famous and popular. finally i found that his Chinese became better than me. his pronunciation is very standard , though it has a hint of a beijing accent. he can express his ideas with very proper words. he also can speak out some chinese idiom that i don't know.
charliehe64 3 months ago
@charliehe64 how do you know so much about him? if you dont mind me asking, i want to learn more :o
armorcore666 3 months ago
@armorcore666 I saw his first show on TV in 1988. I liked his show very much. Then I often pay attention to the news about him. And you can also google him online. Mayby most of news about him are in Chinese. If you need, I can translate more information about him for you.
charliehe64 3 months ago
it's true! i knew him when he appeared on the stage of Chinese new year variety show which had an audience of billions in 1988. i think that's the first time foreigners had appeared on that stage. he was an international student at beijing university and he spoke Chinese with an accent at that time.he made an impression on the audience.
charliehe64 3 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
Technically there's no such language called 'Chinese' just like there's no language called 'Indian'!!! Anyway CANTONESE >>> MANDARIN !!! idiot!
RunninGor 4 months ago
I'm going to be honest here white people just love to show off. That's no surprise.
MrHoppers002 4 months ago
@MrHoppers002 hha or hes just doing what he loves
shortlilartist 4 months ago
This guy's son is my classmate. Like actually.
shublahhh 4 months ago
Man, I have been here for more than seven years, have studied and graduated from university as well. He is definitely someone to look up to as far as learning how to speak Chinese goes. His accent is 99% flawless and his vocabulary and delivery is ridiculously accurate. Kudos Da Shan. Kudos.
cgmadridaz 4 months ago
@AquaTiger20XX No, there's 4.
nihumgachan 4 months ago
你好吗我的name(cant say in chinese)是余德肮 im chinese and i said hello my name is ???? ?? ok thats my typing this guy well too good maet1
Marios867 4 months ago
Hi. I'm Chinese and my mandarin vocab is only 1/3 of what he's speaking there. ^ fml.
Cheshirezxc 4 months ago
biao shi
MrTeemar 5 months ago
amazin no accent
XxShtMaestrox 5 months ago
holy...
lingzy121 5 months ago
suisstok
zq455 5 months ago
suisstok
zq455 5 months ago
hes famous in china
lenamuopc 5 months ago
ooo a white guy speaking chinese is practically a celebrity while a chinese guy speaking english is your accountant. This just proves that chinese people worship the fuck out of the very same white people that treat them like dogs. What a sad bunch of shitheads
takadi 6 months ago
@takadi - I think you're not realistic. Chinese isn't a language spoken world wide between different peoples. While English is a world language. The skin colour of this guy doesn't matter. An American who speaks my native language without an accent is a celebrity as well, while almost all Dutch people speak English. So your example is utter nonsense and proves you're probably racist towards the white guy here.
Leviwosc 5 months ago
@Leviwosc
Let's see a black guy get this same treatment in china. Chinese are practically white supremacists that don't even know it
takadi 5 months ago
@takadi - You're talking about something completely different now. It's not a reply to my reply on you. I'm not going to have this particular discussion with you.
Leviwosc 5 months ago
heard his canadian . .. . wow
angeltheya12 6 months ago
is this the troll under the bridge fairy tale? I LOVED this story as a kid (and i still do!) :D:D
jaylias 6 months ago
He's done very well, but it's really no big deal, because plenty of white people can speak Chinese, not to mention other languages.
bigbeing 6 months ago 7
@bigbeing ho, not the case mate, nothing as u said. To speak the language is quite different from able to elebrate on that language, and few can compare to Da Shan's Chinese language skill, in sofar as I m concerned.
a7lyqq 2 months ago
@a7lyqq Please do two things before commenting. 1. Run your comment through MS Word's spell-check and grammar functions so that your message is legible and understandable. I don't know what "elebrate" means, etc. 2. Determine exactly what it is you want to say: Do you mean white people, like myself, don't have the ability to learn second languages except with the - to you, possibly - astonishingly rare and surprisingly amazingly un-characteristically Caucasian savants like Da Shan?
bigbeing 2 months ago
@bigbeing The inability in u to identify 'elebrate' which I inadvertently misspelt from 'elaborate' can only account for one thing, which is ur scant English language cognitive skills, to which I feel helpless and pitiful, and since I can't bother to use the MS stuff, which was proposed by u sir, I believe u r more than happy to do such a thing for me afterwards, so please be my guest;
a7lyqq 2 months ago
Comment removed
a7lyqq 2 months ago
@bigbeing I do encourage people to learn and speak Chinese, but what I was saying is, I have seen many many internationals speaking Chinese, however few of them are as good as Da shan in terms of Chinese language proficiency, which is a pity u know. I with to be a Chinese language tutor and to teach Chinese to the world some day. I hope everyone on the earth can speak Chinese. I do hope so.
a7lyqq 2 months ago
@a7lyqq Your English language skills certainly don't seem to match DaShan's Chinese skills... especially in view of your amusing casting of blame on your readers who don't understand your garbled utterances - saying my "English cognitive skills" are lacking because I don't understand you, ha! Maybe you can't type. It seems you're in no position to judge one Chinese learner from another, unless you're in the special position of language teacher, which of course, we can see, you are not.
bigbeing 2 months ago
@bigbeing My Eng skills go unable to match his Chin skills, true, I don't deny on that. Thanks for ur points.
a7lyqq 2 months ago
he seems legit.
469salem 6 months ago
Of course the whole 'Mighty whitey' syndrome. Look, i know it's cool to learn a new language and it's cool to hear someone speak a different language, but i am getting sick of these exaggerations where people have the nerve to say they can speak a language better than someone who grew up knowing it and spoke it all their lives! How dare you, you're lucky you got a good teacher all those years! There's no need to suddenly be arrogant and say "Oh, gosh, I'm even better than those chinese"! gosh!
smartkitty991 6 months ago
Chinese women must be creaming their panties in awe of such fluency by a non-native.
amazingdany 7 months ago
Sorry to spam this vid but I am looking to find anyone who speaks both English and Chinese to tell me what is being said in a video I just added to my favourites. There is a little boy being abused badly in a crowd and I can't understand why they are kicking the poor child and really would like some translation please if you can tell me what's being said on it (it's a crowd so obviously not word for word but the point of it) I would really appreciate it.
MsColdCanada 7 months ago
Dashan is a legend!... I remember him from years ago!
jaredfaa 7 months ago
I'm chinese, but my uncle is Italian and he speaks perfect mandarin and cantonese... as good as anyone in my family.
mushin11 7 months ago
i'm chinese and i speak better english than most americans, where are my views?
HuiHms 7 months ago
im sorry but there are tons of non-caucasians who can speak perfect english LOL
FRANKORILLA 7 months ago
@FRANKORILLA Not that started learning after being a teenager. That is the point.
DreamCounty 7 months ago
@DreamCounty I started learning during my mid-teen lol
FRANKORILLA 7 months ago
dude this guy is a chinese teacher in US, that's why his chinese is so great.
His famous if you are an american learning chinese.
Omnipharious 7 months ago
chinese must not be a very hard language if he can speak better than the local chinese people. i'm a white guy who grew up in the usa and have never met or heard of ANYONE coming to the usa and learning english for 20 years and speaking better than native born americans. it's just not possible because english is too difficult.
jaykertiss 7 months ago
@jaykertiss What is your definition for better oral English? Better pronunciation? Better grammar? Better phrasing? Or better structuring, construction of arguments and general rhetorical abilities? While it is true that the former three might be more easily picked up in Chinese than English, the latter three would be just as difficult - indeed the difficulty should be invariant, regardless of language.
LordWhipster 7 months ago
@LordWhipster yes i'm saying a combination of those all taken together. i often employ the "phone" test--can I tell if someone is foreign-born by speaking to them on the phone, without first seeing them? my experience is that i very easily can tell they are not born here regardless of how long they've lived in the usa. their grammar, pronunciation, and word choice is never at a native level. again i'm not talking about someone coming here as a child, but rather as an adult, like dashan did.
jaykertiss 7 months ago
@jaykertiss Interesting, but those three weaknesses you have highlighted (grammar, pronunciation and word choice) are the exactly the first three areas that I stated - I guess the 'phone' test is probably heavily biased towards these. Improvement in one of the other areas would easily transfer from one language to another.
LordWhipster 7 months ago
@LordWhipster i think you're right. i guess what i'm saying is that what dashan has accomplished is quite amazing and very rare. from what i've read, he likely would pass the "phone" test if talking to a native mandarin speaker. i've just never seen this accomplished going the other way--an easterner reaching native fluency in the west as dashan did in china. obviously he's a total outlier, and quite gifted in language ability.
jaykertiss 7 months ago
@jaykertiss With regard to adult Chinese learning English to a native standard - it seems highly possible they exist, but simply do not receive the same attention accorded to, say, a Westerner learning Chinese to a high standard (not just adults, but including children) since these are far fewer. Anyway, this person in the video is literally one-of-a-kind, he is that good. But I agree that Chinese grammar, pronunciation and phrasing is easier to learn than English.
LordWhipster 7 months ago
i thing he was born in China..i'm chinese..he speaks well than me!
chrisleung2010 8 months ago
That man's Chinese was amazing!!! OMG! I never saw a foreigner who speaks like that advanced level!! He probably learned form elemantary school?? But, he had a nothern Chinese accent which means he learned Chinese in Nothern China. I appreciate it!
ngaiyuetming 8 months ago
Canadian Mark Rowswell, better know as Dashan in China. Where he has worked as performer, television host and cultural ambassador for over 20 years.
swedanica 8 months ago
...他的中文水平马马虎虎..还需要提高..继续加油! 相信你
MrDavidmcclure75 8 months ago
BIG PIMPIN.
No seriously, this guy is good. *-*
boojetpoo 8 months ago
大山！！！
musicalinfluenced 9 months ago 19
@musicalinfluenced no he really is better than the Chinese. I am Chinese...He even knows cross talk which Chinese people can't imagine doing.
DreamCounty 7 months ago
@DreamCounty what is "cross talk"?
jaykertiss 6 months ago
His name is Mark Roswell commonly known as Da Shan meaning "To chew the fat". He was on an exchange programme from a university in Toronto entered a talent competition in China and won.
rjhglover 9 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
@rjhglover
"His name is Mark Roswell commonly known as Da Shan meaning "To chew the fat". He was on an exchange programme from a university in Toronto entered a talent competition in China and won."
Da - Great/Big/Large/...
Shan - Mountain
Where did you get "To Chew the Fat" from?
Da Shan - 大山.
Look it up.
JettyXYZ 9 months ago
Oh i know this guy! Aint he canadian? I remember he was the host/tutor for this "how to speak english" program on 2AC radio....
Hope4freedom76 10 months ago
This is the dude that does the chinese Ford commercials
patchfando 10 months ago
He sounds like Indian People speaking Cantonese in Hong Kong !! 朋友 !!
He does not speak "Received Pronunciation" Mandarin at all. He sounds funny because he is not using his natural voice.He is a little bit more high pitch.Better than Chinese?Only very few percent of any people can speak their proper n "RP" language.I am Cantonese n don't think my Cantonese is good enough for public speaking.It would take a native Hong Kong 老外 to speak like me!!
UpNfamish2 10 months ago
Frankly speaking, he speaks really good mandarin
scroogegood123 10 months ago
I'm in California, and my white friends don't act surprised. Although there are barely any white kids at my school.
siowleo 10 months ago
^^ I was born in Quèbec, moved to Japan at age 3 and always spoke French and Japanese, I was never good in English, then my shcool decided it was manditory to learn English. O-OPeronally; Le français est vreeeement plus facile que l'anglais, mais, j'aim le Japonais le plus. X3
KokoroAiNeko 10 months ago
Dammmmn this guy is legit.
And dudes, don't worry about the video title... obviously, it can't be true and it's an exaggeration -.- so GET OVER IT.
The point is, I grew up in the US speaking Chinese, then lost it a lot of it when I learned English, so this guy really impresses me. He's definitely better than I am.
Also, compared to non-native English speakers speaking English fluently, not a lot of non-Chinese people learn to speak Chinese fluently and with no accent, so again, he's impressive.
KDong3 10 months ago 42
@KDong3 So, I'm confused... (Maybe it's because I'm American.)
But, is American no accent, or American accent? Or is it just refeered to as no accent? And, if it is American accent, then what is no accent?
Austin101123 5 months ago
@Austin101123
Everyone in the world has an accent. There is no such thing as "no accent".
monkeygirl8297 4 months ago
Dudes relax lol. It's a JOKE not a matter of looking for approval or whatnot. It's amusing because you don't see many non-Asians speaking Mandarin or Cantonese. He speaks Mandarin way better than I do and I grew up in China.
s2Cynthia 10 months ago
@s2Cynthia well KODNG3 said that this guy doesn't have an accent... so idk
Austin101123 4 months ago
I don't know why Asian give these white people the time of day just because they speak the langauge. Are you Asian look for white people approval or something? I get A in all my English classes, some one give a venue please.
letthebulletfly 10 months ago
@letthebulletfly Lol, this guy was installed by the communist propaganda machine to fool chinese into believing that westeners are super friendly.
Monkeyshex 10 months ago
@Monkeyshex If that is the case, than the communist are even more stupid than I thought. Chinese need to come to America and learn how America react to speaking English. Ching Chong Ching Chong, Chink.
letthebulletfly 10 months ago
@letthebulletfly thats what im talking about. the communists are too leftist. chinese people should view americans as enermies.
Monkeyshex 10 months ago
@letthebulletfly it's because it's extremely rare for a westerner to speak chinese at such a high level. many asians grow up in america and speak perfect english, so it's common and not surprising.
jaykertiss 7 months ago
Well I speak English better than English themselve. The title is pretty arrogant.
letthebulletfly 10 months ago
@letthebulletfly
C'mon, "better than English themselve"? You certainly don't spell better than some (okay, maybe not all). The title may be arrogant, but it's not correctly written either. Whatevs... his command of Chinese is pretty damn good. No need to get defensive.
behreegee 8 months ago
go to HELLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND RUB YOURSELF WITH OILD AND FUCK YOUR DICK RETARDED SHNAAAAPPPS
funkeyweezy 11 months ago
He speak chinese, that's it. There is no better, I mean if an Asian speak english "which is absolutely normal", they don't speak better than anyone. How do you define better?
malejames90 11 months ago
If I had a radiant, nubile, Chinese woman in my life then learning the language wouldn't be that difficult.
Cambodia69 1 year ago 2
o.O Now THAT is good. :D
Sh4d0wQu33n 1 year ago
he's not Americans ! He from Canada.
JiessieZ18 1 year ago
@JiessieZ18 From Wikipedia...
Dashan (Chinese: 大山; pinyin: Dàshān; literally "Big Mountain") is the Chinese stage name adopted by American Mark Henry Rowswell, (born May 23, 1965 in New York, New York [1]) who works as a freelance performer in People's Republic of China.
MrDavidmcclure75 1 year ago
see, i was right - americans are the best speakers of chinese
MrDavidmcclure75 1 year ago
@MrDavidmcclure75 except for the chinese themselves of course.
atwodollarnote 11 months ago
@atwodollarnote true dat
MrDavidmcclure75 11 months ago
DaShan is a Canadian man who can speak Chinese even more fluent than us the native speakers.
McRoberts1000 1 year ago
just hang around a native as a kid and have an interest and you can sound the same... I was around native Germans and Iranians as a kid and I am white and can sound native speaking both Deutsch and Farsi...
this isn't odd...
9436oelable 1 year ago
@9436oelable Yes that's normal if you're a KID. But he was not a kid when he started learning Chinese. He was in college! I still would never say that he speaks better than natives, but he's really good. And you don't see Westerners who are able to speak ANY Chinese very often. Not near as much as you see the reverse anyway.
yurismir1 9 months ago
大山是虎啊。。。。。说相声的水平。
gehanxiao 1 year ago
上海人講吳語，廣東人講唐話。日本人講日語，韓國人講韓話。此為天公地道也。至於一個區區幾百年歷史的滿清夷話，洋人喜歡講就畀佢講到夠。
TaiGekTou 1 year ago
Wow respect :) His accent sounds very natural. I think the easiest and most sincere gesture that one can make to touch the hearts of another people is to learn and speak their language. I'm from Singapore and I know how to speak english, mandarin and malay. But the only language that can move me to tears when spoken is still mandarin.. there's no way to explain this despite the fact that I've been speaking english all my life (even more than I speak mandarin chinese)
TaintedFaith88 1 year ago 2
Shock horror, asian guy speaks English better than native speakers!! If it were the other way round no-one would pay the blindest bit of notice! Racism exists all over the world. I know, I`m an Englishman in Japan!
Kate4946 1 year ago
@Kate4946 Shut Up! ENglish man in Japan, you speak japanese when you talk, they make horror too sound like talk immature, is like talk about Animes, is would make You dumb! and alot of ppl said Japan is Racism not of Chinese.. check it out channel racism in Japan, You Will know it....
d1gps15 1 year ago
if it were on the phone, i wouldnt be able tell that you are white.
s0uljae 1 year ago
Ich bin Deutscher und finde, daß Chinesisch die leichteste Sprache der Welt ist.
I am German and I think that mandarin is one of the easiest languages in the world.
I know this, because I also learned sanskrit. Das weiß ich, weil ich auch Sanskrit gelernt habe. 我想在世間漢語好象是很容 話!
If you learn Chinese from a book, then it is free of mistakes. In Shanghai, my mandarin was also better than from their citiciens. In Shanghai war mein Mandarin auch besser als bei den meisten Bewohnern dieser Stadt
WCiossek 1 year ago
@WCiossek
shanghainese native language isnt mandarin its shanghainese. that's y we arent that good. it's just young people now that's good
ZhangMingXuanIsABabe 1 year ago
The title is a little over the top.. I suppose it's attention-grabbing.
But anyways, it IS quite a big deal for a westerner / foreigner to speak Chinese fluently with no accent. Even though many people have learned the language to the point of fluency, they almost always have a distinguishable accent. Perhaps accent isn't the right word to use, but they usually sound kind of monotone. I guess people are just impressed with the fact that he sounds like a native, which is extremely rare.
CallMeDaddyHoe 1 year ago
Mandarin is one of the easiest languages you can learn
yasashii89 1 year ago
@yasashii89 not
Tomegirl117 1 year ago
is it such an oddity for a Westerner to speak Mandarin?
Nimnoms 1 year ago
@5p34x *gasp* Are you from Iceland? Is Icelandic really difficult? Wow.
ahhh196 1 year ago
There's plenty of non-chinese people born in china who can speak chinese fluently..
And the title is fucking ridiculous.
Zencba 1 year ago
Learning chinese is one of the hardest languages, its on the same scale as Arabic and Korean. I have been learning Chinese for over 5 years and I'm nowhere near this guy. Dashan is quite the celebrity, he's actually Canadian, or rather was originally. It's funny when they correct his pronunciation on chinese TV though. I
Maktasti 1 year ago
i dont think the chinese language is the hardest, they have no grammars
but the chinese writing is the hardest
crystalgl0w 1 year ago
@crystalgl0w actually, chinese DO have grammar:)
ahhh196 1 year ago
@ahhh196 oh really?? i never learnt grammar in chinese
crystalgl0w 1 year ago
@crystalgl0w yeah, like in the case of 的，得 and 地。 You only use 得 after an action, like 她开心的笑得合不拢嘴。Anyways, chinese do have grammar. You can go google it if you want;)
ahhh196 1 year ago
@ahhh196 ohh ic.. but still they don't have tenses, like past tense, present tense, etc
crystalgl0w 1 year ago
@crystalgl0w That's true, but they still have grammar structure:)
ahhh196 1 year ago
@crystalgl0w we add some things like i have done... before as past tense, but we do have future tense.
McRoberts1000 1 year ago
@crystalgl0w I believe there are 27 grammar structures within Chinese that have to be memorized in order to correctly construct every type of sentence. Then there are measure words that are used for different type of nouns.
CowboySteveSpurs 1 year ago
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henhen7890 1 year ago 19
@henhen7890 you're bloody right... he cant speak it better than chinese themselves... he's chinese is impressive for chinese to see cos he's a westerner...
FOXOF123 1 year ago
@henhen7890 probably a chinese teacher?
utube19972010 1 year ago
@henhen7890 Dashan killed whoever his teacher was so he can be the remaining best. xD
championofcathay 11 months ago
@henhen7890 弟子不必不如师
iscratchmybutt 10 months ago
@henhen7890 知唔知? 青出於藍 lol.
halfthishalfthat 10 months ago
我的妈呀，讲得这么好。。。
chuanchuan1986 1 year ago
i know him.....famous chinese .......
justonly246 1 year ago
on 2:05 - 2:09 sounds like he's saying "Where have you put on the sell point in touchaaaoow..." Seriously... go over it and it does sound like this... :P
GraphiteGum 1 year ago
I seen this man on CCTV
tojtaug 1 year ago
As a chinese I'd say Dashan does speak better than many chinese people, if you consider Standard Mandarin as typical chinese language, which is close to Beijing accent.
I'm a Beijinger myself so I know that. Not everyone can perform a chinese crosstalk(Xiang'sheng) but it's much easier for one with northern accent.
UltramanII 1 year ago
The funniest thing about this guy is that he's super dorky. He would never have a show in the west but since he speaks Mandarin so well, he's a celebrity in China. He seems like a pretty nice guy but not very funny or fame worthy in my opinion.
manofaction2828 1 year ago
@manofaction2828 but then again aren't most chinese people dorky? i'm not being insulting but really--aren't they?
jaykertiss 7 months ago
in some area in china like sichuan, guizhou and taiwan, this guy is way much better
Kyokiyui 1 year ago
some other area, like sichuan, guizhou and taiwan, this guy s way much better
Kyokiyui 1 year ago
He speaks very well, almost like a native, but obviously he’s not going to speak better then the Chinese people...that’s a silly title...
thekingofmoney2000 1 year ago
@thekingofmoney2000 This is dashan, the most famous westerner in China, he's the only foreigner to be accepted into the xiangsheng school of traditional Chinese verbal comedy. He really does speak Chinese better than Chinese people. In fact he's a trained master in a classical Chinese speaking art that most native speakers could not master .
dancupid 1 year ago
Cantonese is probably the hardest, even harder than Mandarin. I'm Cantonese and I still haven't gotten it down yet, and no I ain't stupid or dumb :P
tinfoilandy 1 year ago
Dashan's is a Canadian, his real name is Mark Rowswell, begin study Chinese at age 19 at University of Toronto.. got sholarship to go study in China. you have to admire his accomplishment as it is very hard to learn a new language, especially at age 19. I emigrated to Canada from Hong Kong when I was 14, after 36 years in this country. I am still learning.
yamaharider0531 1 year ago
from my studying of the chineese language its not a ery hard language 80% of it is pronunciation
866eric 1 year ago
@866eric Have fun memorizing 5000 Characters
wesscoast 1 year ago
have fun memorizing 5,000 characters. its about as hard as it sounds.
wesscoast 1 year ago
@wesscoast
5,000 characters? how are u suppose to type on the computer? where can i buy a computer keyboard with 5,000 characters?
KhmerD0g 1 year ago
@KhmerD0g nah, you type out the pinyin (how the word is pronounced) and the computer gives you a list of the words that are pronunced that way, for example, if i type “ming”, i get this list.
名明铭命鸣冥茗溟暝螟朙眳掵酩洺姳覭詺慏 （there are more..)
they now have programs where if you type in the pinyin in sequence, the computer will work out which words will fit the combo so you dont have to type 1 at a type, ex: eye saw a bare -> i saw a bear
kinda thing, as for the keyboard, they use QWERTY, same as us.
rangerbirdy 1 year ago
This guy was on Ford commercials!!
tinfoilandy 1 year ago
@tinfoilandy
yes he did some Ford commercials, both in Mandarin and Cantonese, good Mandarin, but his Cantonese could use some practice.
yamaharider0531 1 year ago
He is the host of chinese language learning program.....I think maybe he is
ImAloSer91100 1 year ago
Lol, I know his chinese so well I cannot imagine him speaking english ahahaha
fvxter 1 year ago
man this guy has better chinese than even me lol. if i didnt see the vid.. just by listening i would have never believe this guy is white lol
Eskn69 1 year ago
his chinese is a little bit strange but good
bakeryssoul 1 year ago
@bakeryssoul .... I believe he is impersonating animals and monsters in this video.. ahem
wesscoast 1 year ago
i dont know him, im from HK
btw, we southern chinese, speak in our own dialects in daily life, not mandarin. only the people live in northern chinese use mandarin as their first language.
bigdimsum 1 year ago
@bigdimsum i'm certain that the people from northern china have different dialects, too.
happyrandom27 1 year ago
wow if I didn't look at his face I'd think he WAS chinese! he's so fluent!
bboyShinsetsu 1 year ago
He learned Mandarin well, came to China at the right time, found a well-connected girfriend which he kept for booty call and later married, and kissed the right asses. In the final analysis, Da Shan is little more than an opportunist apologist for tyranny. If he were back in Canada, he'd be teaching Chinese part-time at a chain language school for $25-30 an hour, all the while struggling with side jobs in order to pay his bills.
lamanogaucha 1 year ago
i also hope you can love my books.(我也希望你们能喜欢我的书）。im too small（我太小了）
240kankan 1 year ago
the thing is the mandarin dialect sounds nothing like the stereotype. He's so fluent it's looks so natural and it doesnt sound or look strange.
keviar245 1 year ago 2
@keviar245
"the thing is the mandarin dialect sounds nothing like the stereotype."
^^^
cos reason is stereotype is not of mandarin language lol
ZhangMingXuanIsABabe 1 year ago
Chinese is most probably one of the hardest languages to master. I should know. I'm a Chinese.
ahhh196 1 year ago 19