Tue 8 Aug 2006
Native Cantonese speaker (Caucasian)
Posted by 馬先生 under Cantonese
Who do you think is more impressive…?
White person | Chinese person |
Born and grown up in Hong Kong speaking Cantonese fluently (HK accent) |
Born and grown up in America speaking English fluently (American accent) |
I guess neither is as impressive as the other. However, the Chinese-American is considered a normal everyday ocurrence.
Native Cantonese speaker (Caucasian):
Sharon Balcombe was born in Hong Kong, received full Chinese education, and speaks Cantonese as her mother tongue.
Video 1: 09:26min | Video 2: 06:59min |
Imagine every day having people walk up complementing your command of Cantonese. “Where did you learn? You are so smart!” Turn the table around, when we see a Chinese person speaking English with an American accent; we consider it normal, right? So imagine going up to every Chinese looking person in America saying “Where did you learn English? You are so smart!”
One may consider English to be the “international language” of the world, hence its normal for Chinese to speak English. For a few Chinese, a white person saying a few basic sentences of Cantonese will turn heads and receive praises. Even trying to take a taxi or buy some food may become a marathon task resulting in complements, questions or conversations about your life history.
When I told several Chinese that you don’t have to be Chinese to speak Cantonese like an ethnic Chinese, they quickly rejected my comment. These people were convinced that the best they’ve seen was Ho Kwok Wing (河國榮) - an Aussie in Hong who speaks Advanced fluent Cantonese with an accent. They insisted that its just not possible to have a native cantonese speaker who is Caucasian.
Since so few non-Chinese are able to speak a decent apptitude of Cantonese, many people cannot imagine it possible for Caucasians to speak Cantonese natively.
August 12th, 2006 at 11:22 am
Chinese speaking English is hardly impressive because English is almost “international” language. Some English speakers almost expect everyone speaking English while Chinese speakers never expect everyone speaking Mandarin/Cantonese… I guess?
August 26th, 2006 at 1:15 pm
IMHO this has nothing to do with English being an international language. People of Chinese descent born and raised in France, Italy or Germany usually speak the local language/dialect natively… because they are locals. On the other hand it’s not easy to explain why HK is an exception to the rule.
August 28th, 2006 at 5:13 pm
I completely agree with Hongkie. I used to feel embarrassed about speaking my Cantonese because I was afraid of my bad accent. Now that my accent is good, I’m still afraid of speaking because people keep stopping to praise me when all I want is a simple yes or no answer…