 This third-generation Chinese-American comedian tries to order dim sum in her broken Cantonese and it is going viral. She is going to order dim sum in her broken Cantonese and she is going to order dim sum in her broken Cantonese How you measure the steamer? Okay, so we let that go then. I think that's it. Okay, Allah. Allah. She's going to slam the money in now. Let's see if she slams it. That went better than anticipated but we're now going to try to do this again. We ordered minimal humiliation. We did it, huh mommy? Okay, so emotional. So emotional. Oh my goodness. I can relate. I can relate. It really takes me back to when I was like 12, 13, 14 years old and I had to take the phone calls overseas, you know. And it's just like you're hiding behind couches. You're feeling embarrassed, bashful, ashamed and you don't even know why and I will say this. This is kind of like a hard video to watch in some ways not really just because the Cantonese is so bad but it's like it encapsulates something real and I think that that's why it's going viral. Yeah, is this something that embarrasses you in using your mother tongue? Also, Cantonese is one of those dialects that is extremely popular but is kind of slowly I want to say dying out. Right, but you can't really learn it in school. Obviously a lot of high schools nowadays in 2024 offer Mandarin even in high school. Right, right, right. So anyways guys, we're gonna cover this all, give you our own perspective being you know some Cantonese Americans ourselves. Please hit that like button, check out other episodes of the Hop Hop Boys and also check out Sma La Sauce. This is easy to say David. You'll have no trouble saying Sma La. If you want to say it with the tones Sma La. And not only that, if you are Cantonese or even if you're Toisan Andrew this is not too spicy. It's gonna be flavorful, a flavor enhancer. Um, anyway guys, yeah, so she's third generation Chinese American. Does that automatically excuse her canto? Because she's from like the San Francisco area where there's a lot of third, fourth, fifth, even sixth generation people enter from the Gold Rush days. It is a different situation, right? It's if you're a second gen, the onus is on you to speak your parents' mother tongue way better than if your parents are from America and you're learning your grandparents mother tongue. Right, right, right. I would say, you know, I don't want to judge her because my Cantonese is not very good. Better than this though. But it is better than this and I would say considering she grew up in SF and she's Cantonese, I would have expected a little bit better. But it is also third gen though. It's also funny. Yeah, you're right. She's third generation. So, um, uh, so maybe obviously her parents spoke to her in English growing up. But I guess David, my opinion is what I loved about this video is that Christina went and did it. She went and did it and she struggled through it. And you should always struggle through it. Why not? It is fun. If you're going to Chinatown and Chinatown, let's say is your enclave, right? Speaks a lot of Cantonese Mandarin, Toisan, right? Other slightly different dialects. I would say the primary dialects, I mean it's changing now, but would be Toisan and Cantonese. Toisan is considered a sub-dialect of Cantonese and those debatable. And you should just do it. You know why? Because you're Asian American, you got to grow thick skin, have fun with it. It's not that big of a deal. I think restaurant workers shame you a lot less nowadays. I used to get shamed way more like eight years ago trying to speak it. Nowadays, I think people understand what you're trying to do. They're like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. You're trying to struggle through it. Okay, just keep going. What? You are trying to connect with some sort of identity that maybe you are wrestling with. And it just shows that you respect the culture, that you still want to try. Even if that's the only time you try that week, you're at least trying because you know what? You're not an NPC. You get to be a main character and you get to take up the waiter's time and they have to talk to you in that dialogue. Well, not only that, they're paid by you. You're going to tip them. They'll be like, they're going to tip them. That would be like, why would you? Right, right. No, I did used to hear that back in the day. But I feel like nowadays, the workers are just happy that you're trying. Andrew, you had an experience the other day. You were in Chinatown and you went to a tailor. A tailor. I went to shout out to Ms. Chen's tailor, you know, FJ lady. But she only speaks Mandarin. And her English. Oh, Fujinese too. Yeah, Fujinese, sorry. Fujinese Mandarin and barely English. But I thought, I thought I was hoping she would speak more English because I could understand her English. So I said, hey, your English is okay. So you're originally, you're starting off in Mandarin. Yeah, actually, I'm trying to see if she could speak English because I know she speaks a little bit, right? But she's just like, you know, this is essentially the conversation in China. She's like, no, no, no, no, my English is not good. So I just speak in Chinese. And I was like, all right, fine. And it was like, it was taking a lot longer to figure out because you're like talking about tailoring and the prices. And like, I pretty much got most of what she was saying. Right, kuzi. Yeah, kuzi is smaller, larger, that, that, that, you know, Jin, Hanzhin, you know, blah, blah, blah. Like the words I know. And it was embarrassing. But honestly, I walked away from it. I was like feeling, even though I had to bust out Google translate once on the app, I was still grateful for the opportunity. And I thought Ms. Chen was very nice. She was very forgiving. Do you think she appreciated that you were struggling through with, with pretty bad Mandarin? But you, you got through it. I think they're okay with it. I think they're okay with it. Do you think that this extreme shame is really more typified of the 40 year old generations in the up where they're like, they're so ashamed, but they're also not doing, I guess, in a way, the work to live it? Yeah, yeah. Is that a weird combo to be so ashamed of something, but not ashamed or feel enough incentive to go and learn Chinese, right? Yeah, I'm just, I'm just trying to tell people, man, you're not the only one that sucks at your mother tongue. You're not the only one that sucks and you're not the only one that sucks and is trying in public. So just do it and be confident because this is part of, if we do not have thick skin as Asian Americans, none of our culture will continue. None of it. It will not continue. Right, because it's going to be a clunky transition because we're not like the embodiment of pure Asiaticness. Chinese New Year's coming up. Oh, if you're so bashful, then don't say Gong Xi Fa Cai. Don't say Gong Hei Fa Choy. Like, don't. I always don't. I don't really like it when ABC's on, say, Happy Lunar New Year. I'm like, ah, man, I would not say that. Yeah, just say it. If you know how to say it, it's all good. You don't have to say it. Now, just say Gong Hei Fa Choy. You don't have to say If you own anything in this life, you got to own up to your culture that you're born into. All right. How much of it is it that this older generation really missed out on the TikTok, the YouTube's and the Instagram's? Because you know how you could follow all these like, and you could follow subtle Kanto traits on Instagram. There's a whole Cantonese subreddit that'll teach you all these interesting things. You can open up CN Hoopers and watch all these guys like beat all these white and black guys at one on one. I'm saying the 40 year olds, they never saw any of them. Sure. Sure. Everybody's got excuses. Sure. Everybody's got excuses, don't they? Right. Nowadays, I guess it is true that you can open up an AI meme, Amber. You could see internal affairs dubbed over. They're drinking a boba. They're doing that Heidi Laodance or whatever, you know. And you know what, David? I've been, you know how you can bomb as a comedian? You bomb a set, right? That means you're not doing well when you do comedy. And it just cringey. I've been bombing Chinese for a decade. You've been Joe Coying at the. I've been bombing. So to me, I got thick skin now. And I'm confident, and at least what I know, and I know I might bomb again. But you know what? That's somewhat comforting. Hey, Andrew, bombs away. Yeah, bombs away. Yeah, I just always tell people, don't live like it's 1995 here. I'm going to run two clips of interesting Cantonese type material from Reddit. I don't know what makes my Cantonese so distinctly Vietnamese to other people's ears. I know exactly what she's talking about because my family is also Chinese Vietnamese. After being exposed to so many Chinese Vietnamese people in my life, I've picked up on a few key differences between the Cantonese spoken by people who are in China and Hong Kong. Versus those who live in Vietnam. Mind you, this is just my observation from my experience, and it might not apply to every Chinese Vietnamese person. So feel free to add on if you notice any other differences. A key difference. Number one, Chinese Vietnamese people tend to emphasize the uptome when they speak Cantonese, and this mimics how it sounds in Vietnamese. A few examples include So in Cantonese, to go home, you would say Speaking of that, it leaves me with the key difference. Number two, Chinese Vietnamese people have different phrasing. Let's use the same example. Chinese Vietnamese people would also say I have only heard Chinese Vietnamese people use that phrase. If you say to anyone who is from Guangzhou or Hong Kong, they will look at you funny. Speaking from experience. Key difference number three, Chinese Vietnamese people have a hard time pronouncing the Ưng ending of Cantonese words. For example, to take a shower, it's But that's too much of a strength for Vietnamese people to say. Instead, they would say something like or some variation of that. Another example is versus Chinese Vietnamese people have different syntax or sentence structure, and this structure mimics Vietnamese. For example, in Vietnamese, if you want to ask somebody if they want something, you always add the word Do you want to eat? means no. So it literally translates to When you want to ask the same thing in Cantonese, you have to say And that literally translates to eat or not eat. But Chinese Vietnamese people would say So Instead of saying they would say Do you like it? In Cantonese And Chinese Vietnamese people would say Key difference number five different particles Particles are words that can't stand alone but they are added two sentences to give it meaning. The phrase really translates to in Cantonese being the particle and Chinese Vietnamese people might say something like and six different pronunciation to say that's mine in Cantonese, he would say Chinese Vietnamese people would say So overall, Chinese Vietnamese people speak Cantonese in a harsher sounding way. Do you agree? What do you think? What's the work language in the world? What's your pronoun? What pronoun? Like in your language, how do people address you? Pronoun How do you say he? He She He Non-binary He Gender neutral He Transgender He Gender fluid He So everyone is He Yes, and also He And also these are He These are not even different things. You don't believe me? Lodge him and eat him. All right, Andrew. Let's just get into the comments section. Somebody just said, man, I love this as a ABC who struggles with Cantonese. It's just good to see you don't have to sound perfect. You just have to try. But other people were like, Oh my goodness, I was getting second hand panic through the screen just listening to her. And other people said, Oh my goodness, you hurt my ears with your horrific Cantonese. Yeah, everybody has different reactions to things. But like you said, how did you work over that shame to the point where you just like You just did it. You just had fun with it, man. You gotta make it fun. If it's not fun, you're just not going to do it. Right. Hey, the comedians that really get through bombing, Andrew, they're the ones where they almost start to enjoy bombing. Yeah, you got to just take it. You got to take it. Somebody said, yep, when you practice Cantonese and then you get hit with straight toys on because the lady answers her originally in Hoisan Va. Hoisan Va, Andrew, there was a lot of debate. Is toys on a dialect of Cantonese or is it a different language? There was a debate. I don't know. Is it someone asking linguist? It's actually it's actually a gray area. Because it's pretty similar to Kanto, but it sounds a little different. But if you only speak to Hoisan and you speak it really fast, it's true somebody from Hong Kong is going to struggle to understand you even though they might get the general meaning, all the details might be wrong. Perhaps with the dialect. Why don't you just watch more Kanto films with the subs on? This is how you do it. All right. Here's the thing about watching films, man. If they're talking about some complex stuff, I realize you got to watch a ton of it for you to absorb it because they don't speak the way you're going to speak. Right, right, right. TV shows is even more regular. Movies tend to be very contextual to an era or a formality. I would say there's a lot of the Instagram pages do a great job of telling you quick, easy phrases that you're going to use in everyday life. So check this out. For example, let's just play this one about how koeh. They say in Cantonese, koeh is used for everything. So that's why it's so woke. It's like a pronoun. Yeah, lady. It's all pronouns. Koeh, koeh, koeh, koeh. For me, I think a good way, at least for like a younger guy, would be like listening to PG1 if you want to learn Mandarin. Andrea has like a very New York style of rapping, but in Mandarin, JB is a half Filipino, half HK rapper. And here's a clip of us rapping in Mandarin. Somebody said, oh my goodness, I can't believe she really tipped them five cents. Because I guess she only tipped them five cents in the video for the takeout dim sum. Oh, well, if she's taken out, but yeah, I guess five cents is you might as well. You either tip them like 50 cents or you tip them nothing. She really is old school, man. That's pretty funny. That's true old school SF Cantonese Toys on Needs, to be honest. Somebody said they're not yelling. That's just how we talk when we're in our own spaces. So this was a lot of discussion about like, why does it seem like she's like barking at her? But she's like, you know what I mean? I'll say this. I think a lot of Cantonese sounds like yelling, but I actually don't think it's all Cantonese. I don't think you have to, you don't have to yell to speak Cantonese. I don't think that's true. That's a stereotype. That's like saying, oh, you like, you're not talking like this. You're not like this type of, but it's just a probability. I don't have to feel angry. I don't agree with that. Somebody said, if they want to get mad, screw them. I don't care. I just want to speak English. Why don't you guys adapt or go back, huh? This was from an ABC Andrew who was clearly mad at feeling the need to speak Chinese to other Chinese immigrants. So yeah, this guy said, you know, I got discriminated by Cantonese speakers as somebody who only speaks Mandarin when I was growing up deep in the Cantonese zone. And I was just like, listen, guys, this whole beef stuff, it's like, it depends on how deep in those worlds you grow up. But yeah, I get it. Some people live their life in like tiny fish bowls across like three streets in a city, like they're not even living in the entire city. Somebody said, you know, I lost my ability to speak Chinese and Vietnamese as I got older. Some people are saying, reclaim it. Some people are saying, it doesn't matter for modern life. Because why would you need to if, because people were saying, all right, why does this lady Christina Wong feel so ashamed? But the only thing she's ordering is food. She's not like leaner, learning any philosophies or deeper knowledge. What is the point of people connecting with their parents or grandparents local dialect? Well, maybe you feel like, maybe Christina has, feels like that she hasn't done enough in her life to be proud of being Chinese or hasn't. You can't tell, right? Whatever hasn't done enough for the culture or now she finally realizes that Cantonese is the number of Cantonese speakers and. Dwindling, right? Cantonese schools is dwindling. So yeah, I mean, whatever the incentive is. But is it true that to get high level success in America, she'll never need to know? No, no, no. Of course, I mean high level of success. Just be white. Why? That's the only thing you need to do. Be white passing in your mannerisms, a particularly a rich white person is really beneficial. Make your head brown and or something blonde. Like, and they just be white. I guess that would have, you would put yourself in the best position to achieve. But you know, you got to do things for the culture. And again, you got to own up to your culture because if you don't own a house, you don't own anything else in this world. What do you got? You got the culture you were born into. So you got to own up to it. And plus I do think all these little like embarrassing moments in your life, they build up to make you stronger. So you are saying that is it to communicate? Yeah, I would say I think for some people they would need to answer the question. Is it to communicate with what's considered like your motherland tribe, your Lao Jia? You know what I mean? Like where you trace your ancestors back to that specific village, then maybe she should speak Toisan instead of Kanto. Some people were in the comments were like, yeah, learn Toisan Va to maintain that. But it's like that's already vanishing. Kanto's already balancing in relation to that. I'll tell you this. If she wants to really be on the good side of these Toisan people, go learn some Toisan and let them know that a third generation Toisan girl is learning Toisanese. And that would be even more impressive. Yeah, they would probably be like really feel some sort of connection. Hek Fan, Hoh Hek, you know. What is it? Doha? Doha? I don't know. I think that's it. Yeah, something like that. See, I know a few. Anyway, guys, let us know what you think of this video in the comment section below. Like I said, I feel like the 40 year olds, they relate to it so much. But you know what's different about the people younger, Andrew? They got exposed to a lot more content because you can follow like learn Kanto from this 20 year old kid who's like really goofy right now on Instagram. And you can see that content on your algorithm every day. Right, right. So I just think that for the 40 year olds, I guess what I would say out there is go to TikTok, go to Instagram, go to Reddit, follow whoever you need to follow, stream whatever scenes you need to stream online because definitely like it's a real video but it's a place that I would hope a lot of Asian Americans will not need to be moving forward. Right. All right, everybody, let us know should you keep struggling through with your mother tongue when you're ordering food? Should you always do it? My take is that you should go and try. Keep doing it. Have fun with it. Yes, there is a point where you are wasting everybody's time. I get that. But take it to that point. You paid for that experience. You paid for it. You paid for that experience. Well, you paid for it with money and you also paid for it with your identity. Yeah. All right, guys. Thank you so much for watching. Please hit that like button. Check out Smala Sauce and until next time, we out. Peace.