props to xiaoma. he inspired me to learn English seriously. back in 2014 when I saw one of his videos in which he was giving his viewers tips and tricks on learning languages. I think at the time he was learning Cantonese, my mother tongue. during that video he brought in a radio set, a real one and said that he would turn it on to listen to a radio station in that language whenever he was at home. inspired, I went to to buy one ,that radio is still at my home. the only English station that I could tune to was the BBC world service channel, that covered world affairs, in the area I was residing in. no, it didn't work at the first few months, when I was starting in around May, I think, in that year even though I had been learning English for time stretching over almost twenty years on and off. I could not even understand a single word over the radio until when the station was covering the so called Occupy Movement that was also happening in the district I was living in. then, I could pickup some words with the background information about the related events. now after around 6 six years of very intensive studying, I can understand around 90% of what I hear. I'm venturing to learn new languages too. thanks to xiaoma.謝謝小馬哥。
"I didn't really try to listen to myself too much because I didn't want to become too self-conscious and I think you got to be little careful in terms of an accent if you spent too much time listening to yourself"
@@KarenVanessaBuitrago Ever wanted to try learning a few Tagalog words? Lots of people on his channel left comments requesting him to try learning many languages, many people said Tagalog ^o^ especially in 24 hours total (fluency likely not possible in a language like this in that short time but worth seeing how far someone can get)
Having lived in both cultures, East and West, I have to agree with Xiaoma about differences in the reaction you get when you tell people about learning and knowing other languages. In the West, people seem to show some kind of admiration if they know you can speak a certain number of languages. They would say something like "Wow, you can also speak French? How many languages do you speak?...." In the East, people's reaction is usually quite bland, or indifference. It sometimes goes like "Okay, so you know these languages.... and?" The unspoken part is "What's the point of doing it?"
I’m from Japan and I disagree with xiaoma on this. Generally speaking Japanese people respect and admire those who speak multiple languages. One of the reasons I think is that many Japanese “suffer” learning English for many years in school and to some extent gain an idea of how hard it could be to learn languages. And I thought it was more Asian/Eastern thing to respect studying in general. I don’t know if it’s actually the case in China that they see language abilities as just a tool and not a cool thing, but calling it as a whole Eastern thing is definitely an over-generalization.
Amazing both of you are my biggest motivations in terms of learning Chinese and I love both of your videos and finally you guys did an interview tgt :)
Steve, I agree with Xiaoma. Chinese people view the learning of foreign languages as a pragmatic endeavor. For them, it's a means to an end. But for many Westerners, the study of foreign languages is often an end unto itself. We're fascinated by languages and we're far more likely to learn a new language for its own sake. Aside from enabling them to function adequately in a foreign country, any advantage that their bilingual status affords them is regarded merely as an incidental benefit. I have found the Chinese perspective to be shared by virtually all non-Westerners.
So... I’m from Japan and I don’t know if Chinese people actually see language abilities that way, but I disagree that applies to all Eastern people. Japanese people generally respect and admire those who speak multiple languages, one of the reasons I think is that they “suffer” learning English for many years in school and gain some idea of how hard it can be to learn new languages. And I thought it’s more like an Eastern/Asian thing to respect studying in general. MAYBE Chinese people have that tendency (again I don’t know), but definitely NOT all Eastern/Asian nor non-westerners.
Creo que los que menos han buscado aprender idiomas son aquellos que solamente se expresan en inglés. El hecho de que el inglés sea el idioma más hablado en el mundo, les ha hecho creer a algunos que no deben aprender otros idiomas. Fue un grave error.
@@eeortzmar, hi there. I was wondering if you could give me an English translation of your message. I did recognize the words "grave error" (of which I hope I'm not guilty of committing), but aside from "grave error", I need your help.
13:19 I think that's primarily because somewhere close to 90% of the internet is written in English, so naturally it wouldn't blow up on it. That combined with the fact that seeing an Asian in the States is less rare than seeing a Caucasian in China.
I disagree xiaoma saying that in China people are not amazed at how many languages you can speak. Many people in China admire that too, just like elsewhere in the world. The thing is that for Chinese people, they have to learn English first as English is the most important one in the world. Most people struggle and there are still a large room left for improvement for English, no time or energy left for other languages, man. Speaking multiple languages are considered to be cool, of course, this applies to everywhere in the world. However for Chinese people, (I’m from China btw), we need to give English the priority and English alone take up most of our time so there’s really no time left for other languages. However for a English native, if they want to learn another language, the motivation mostly lies in , well, interested in the culture, history, or whatever. Not for practical reason, but for fun or for curiosity. English is the most powerful language in the world, so non-English native need to learn that for practical or economic reason. That’s the reason underlying in that.
It's because we (Singaporean Chinese) learn both English and Chinese at the same time, and English is just so much easier on the brain. Which leads to our young minds kind of resenting/rejecting this more difficult language (Chinese.) That's my theory anyway. I regret not paying better attention in Mandarin class now that I'm an adult. I can still speak it reasonably well (like most Chinese Singaporeans), and I'm trying to improve my ability to read and write.
@@natn41r Interesting theory and I can relate. Im Welsh living in Wales and English is my first language we were taught welsh in school but like you found it hard to learn and so wasn't taken seriously by many students! To this day I understand a little and can speak hardly any.
As a native I would give him a loose C1, or strict B2+ rating. The person that I know is not a native asian, speaks/writes strict C2 level mandarin is this guy：th-cam.com/users/c%E5%BE%B7%E5%9B%BD%E8%87%AA%E5%B9%B2%E4%BA%94/featured he talks about many political matters professionally almost only to the natives, I don't think average mandarin learners will be able to fully understand his videos. Another guy th-cam.com/channels/8FnQA_ZSeHwxAX9igzyeCg.html speaks comparable strict C2 level madarin, these two are almost the best well known mandarin speaking foreign youtuber till this moment.
I think is that most Asian countries, especially China, was very poor just a couple decades ago, so they have a very utilitarian mindset compared to the average Westerner. Everything has to have a purpose, including learning languages.
Well, the understanding of being conversational can be very broad tbh. One thing is to say hello, how much is this, I'm from the USA, and another thing is to actually conversate with people, sharing your thoughts and ideas on different things. By conversational he probably means: enough to get by.
To talk about your lifestyle or private hobbies and stuff is really not a big deal. However, in an academic or more constructive environment, like for example, attending a conference or have a formal meeting with some specific group of individual experts, that is still considered conversation, but does require much higher level of language organization skills aside from professional terms and formality. An average person should have no issue putting real effort into learning a language for a year to get to a B1+/B2 scale on CEFR level, which is expected to be reasonably fluent in casual settings.
He said a couple months of being in China after a full year of study. And he’s also setting the bar very low for what “conversational” means. It doesn’t mean he can converse about anything (nobody in the world can do that in any language). I assume he means he could have some very basic conversations. To this day, his Chinese is still not amazing.
Can you guys speak some Chinese next time, I think it's would be interesting for us, and Steve I really wanna make some video conversation with you, peace!
I would attribute Ari“s success to his ability to communicate with people very effectively, his emotional expressiveness,gestures etc. That is the case with pewdepie and many other successful youtubers. Of course there is an inspirational effect as well ,but if it wasnt for his overall charme and (physical) appeal, he wouldnt be as successful.
No, you’re not the only one. And I’m glad I’m not the only one saying it. In addition to subpar pronunciation, he can only talk about very basic things. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s annoying when a lot of people think his Chinese is amazing, when it’s not.
Honestly I don't like how some polyglots/language learners try to "inspire" when they're really just trying to show off, especially when they do one of these things: 1) When two polyglots talk to each other in languages that are not their native ones, which is clearly showing off and doesn't make any sense to use a language when neither person is a native speaker. 2) When polyglots talk in front of a camera (regardless if there are subtitles or not) in multiple languages where they have a main message and break each section in a different language (i.e. saying one thing in Spanish, something different in German. something else in Chinese). If there are English subs but the viewers don't understand it, they're walking away from the video having understood just one or two pieces of the whole message. 3) When (phrasebook) polyglots (maybe with someone recording them) go around engaging (potentially disturbing) random people and starting and trying to maintain conversations with them just using them for practice when they could be busy. 4) When languages learners exaggerate their proficiency in a X number of languages (i.e. when someone says they can "speak" a language but can hardly converse freely for even two minutes or just spout some phrases they memorized) 5) When language learners aim to take exams which are basically bragging rights on paper and nothing more.
Another great anime crossover.
yes, thank you Steve. I actually like watching his youtube videos. I learned a few words in Chinese
Just wait until next week... :)
props to xiaoma. he inspired me to learn English seriously. back in 2014 when I saw one of his videos in which he was giving his viewers tips and tricks on learning languages. I think at the time he was learning Cantonese, my mother tongue. during that video he brought in a radio set, a real one and said that he would turn it on to listen to a radio station in that language whenever he was at home. inspired, I went to to buy one ,that radio is still at my home. the only English station that I could tune to was the BBC world service channel, that covered world affairs, in the area I was residing in. no, it didn't work at the first few months, when I was starting in around May, I think, in that year even though I had been learning English for time stretching over almost twenty years on and off. I could not even understand a single word over the radio until when the station was covering the so called Occupy Movement that was also happening in the district I was living in. then, I could pickup some words with the background information about the related events. now after around 6 six years of very intensive studying, I can understand around 90% of what I hear. I'm venturing to learn new languages too. thanks to xiaoma.謝謝小馬哥。
Your english is great man! Good work!
Yep. great written English my man.
"I didn't really try to listen to myself too much because I didn't want to become too self-conscious and I think you got to be little careful in terms of an accent if you spent too much time listening to yourself"
This is huge. Epic. Two of my favorite TH-camrs.
Two talkative happy people. Glad to see them connect.
yes, thank you Steve. I actually like watching his youtube videos. I learned a few words in Chinese
@@KarenVanessaBuitrago Ever wanted to try learning a few Tagalog words? Lots of people on his channel left comments requesting him to try learning many languages, many people said Tagalog ^o^ especially in 24 hours total (fluency likely not possible in a language like this in that short time but worth seeing how far someone can get)
Great to see two people I sub together :))
小马 has a great charisma! I've seen others do the same kind of videos and no one is like him. His personality helps so much! Thanks for the interview!
Steve did a great job interviewing. I love seeing you both in one video. I just started learning chinese so this is very helpful.
How is your chinese now,I am chinese,kindly let me know if you want practise your chinese
Many thnaks! Very interesting and useful. Your videos are extremely inspiring and truly motivating
I miss Ari's language videos so much! So glad to see him!! Thanks, Steve!
yes, thank you Steve. I actually like watching his youtube videos. I learned a few words in Chinese
th-cam.com/channels/LNoXf8gq6vhwsrYp-l0J-Q.html
He posts all the time on this channel, he is going mega viral at the moment
@@KarenVanessaBuitrago Just go away! Shoo!
4:48 enable subtitles for the carrot race
Having lived in both cultures, East and West, I have to agree with Xiaoma about differences in the reaction you get when you tell people about learning and knowing other languages. In the West, people seem to show some kind of admiration if they know you can speak a certain number of languages. They would say something like "Wow, you can also speak French? How many languages do you speak?...." In the East, people's reaction is usually quite bland, or indifference. It sometimes goes like "Okay, so you know these languages.... and?" The unspoken part is "What's the point of doing it?"
Well, I'm from Europe and yeah, we do think that the only language you will ever need is English.
Other languages are just a party trick or a hobby.
I’m from Japan and I disagree with xiaoma on this. Generally speaking Japanese people respect and admire those who speak multiple languages. One of the reasons I think is that many Japanese “suffer” learning English for many years in school and to some extent gain an idea of how hard it could be to learn languages. And I thought it was more Asian/Eastern thing to respect studying in general.
I don’t know if it’s actually the case in China that they see language abilities as just a tool and not a cool thing, but calling it as a whole Eastern thing is definitely an over-generalization.
Great interview, pleasantly surprised how thoughtful and insightful XiaomaNYC was
Amazing both of you are my biggest motivations in terms of learning Chinese and I love both of your videos and finally you guys did an interview tgt :)
Epic! XiaomaNYC and Steve.
Wow you've leveled up Steve! Thanks for the great video.
yes, thank you Steve. I actually like watching his youtube videos. I learned a few words in Chinese
Thanks for the video, Steve!
Steve, I agree with Xiaoma. Chinese people view the learning of foreign languages as a pragmatic endeavor. For them, it's a means to an end. But for many Westerners, the study of foreign languages is often an end unto itself. We're fascinated by languages and we're far more likely to learn a new language for its own sake. Aside from enabling them to function adequately in a foreign country, any advantage that their bilingual status affords them is regarded merely as an incidental benefit. I have found the Chinese perspective to be shared by virtually all non-Westerners.
Be careful of stereotypes.
So... I’m from Japan and I don’t know if Chinese people actually see language abilities that way, but I disagree that applies to all Eastern people.
Japanese people generally respect and admire those who speak multiple languages, one of the reasons I think is that they “suffer” learning English for many years in school and gain some idea of how hard it can be to learn new languages. And I thought it’s more like an Eastern/Asian thing to respect studying in general.
MAYBE Chinese people have that tendency (again I don’t know), but definitely NOT all Eastern/Asian nor non-westerners.
Creo que los que menos han buscado aprender idiomas son aquellos que solamente se expresan en inglés. El hecho de que el inglés sea el idioma más hablado en el mundo, les ha hecho creer a algunos que no deben aprender otros idiomas. Fue un grave error.
@@Thelinguist, I will be careful. You have my word on that.
@@eeortzmar, hi there. I was wondering if you could give me an English translation of your message. I did recognize the words "grave error" (of which I hope I'm not guilty of committing), but aside from "grave error", I need your help.
It is very interesting. I my look toward the Chinese later on. Thank Steve.
Its always fun seeing people react to his Chinese.
I don't think languages are hard I think foreign concepts are hard to comprehend but once you do it expands your field of view
This is the crossover I didn’t know I needed
10:11 go check out some audio recordings of Einstein, he had a very thick German accent when speaking English.
13:19 I think that's primarily because somewhere close to 90% of the internet is written in English, so naturally it wouldn't blow up on it. That combined with the fact that seeing an Asian in the States is less rare than seeing a Caucasian in China.
90&? Not even close. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_used_on_the_Internet
Something like 1/3 of the internet is in chinese
@@David-uy8ot my apologies, must've looked at faulty statistics.
yeah 90% definitely ain't right
I disagree xiaoma saying that in China people are not amazed at how many languages you can speak. Many people in China admire that too, just like elsewhere in the world. The thing is that for Chinese people, they have to learn English first as English is the most important one in the world. Most people struggle and there are still a large room left for improvement for English, no time or energy left for other languages, man. Speaking multiple languages are considered to be cool, of course, this applies to everywhere in the world. However for Chinese people, (I’m from China btw), we need to give English the priority and English alone take up most of our time so there’s really no time left for other languages. However for a English native, if they want to learn another language, the motivation mostly lies in , well, interested in the culture, history, or whatever. Not for practical reason, but for fun or for curiosity. English is the most powerful language in the world, so non-English native need to learn that for practical or economic reason. That’s the reason underlying in that.
Love you two!
Hope Xiaoma speaks with Laoshu
These two are the jedi masters of language learning.
I am very happy to see my two favorite Chinese-speaking people in the world together in the same video.
try MYBY， 马斯瑞，JJ说， you might change you mind ^^
Awesome interview
I follow both masters! Language connect people!
It's nice to see them both but i feel like they are kinda arguing gently lol
Why someone can give a dislike?????? How comeeee 😁
Which of them speaks better Mandarin?
They both speak very well, but Ari is better.
@@shaolin89You must not have seen many of their videos. Ari’s Chinese is not that good.
Super inspiring
The whole world starts to learn chinese but most of the Singaporean Chinese are proud not to learn chinese. LMAO
It's different if it's forced on you and you're expected to be assimilated.
It's because we (Singaporean Chinese) learn both English and Chinese at the same time, and English is just so much easier on the brain. Which leads to our young minds kind of resenting/rejecting this more difficult language (Chinese.) That's my theory anyway. I regret not paying better attention in Mandarin class now that I'm an adult. I can still speak it reasonably well (like most Chinese Singaporeans), and I'm trying to improve my ability to read and write.
👎Not smart to throw away your inherited connections...
@@natn41r Interesting theory and I can relate. Im Welsh living in Wales and English is my first language we were taught welsh in school but like you found it hard to learn and so wasn't taken seriously by many students! To this day I understand a little and can speak hardly any.
Anyone know what his level is in Chinese (~C1?) and how long he studied it? Was it the full 12 years since ~2008?
@@betos-08 B2 IN 12 YEARS
@@betos-08 he's probably C1 or C2 by now, I would think
@@betos-08 Using it is even better than studying
He's fluent forsure, nlot sure about his level. Check out Ari's vids.
As a native I would give him a loose C1, or strict B2+ rating. The person that I know is not a native asian, speaks/writes strict C2 level mandarin is this guy：th-cam.com/users/c%E5%BE%B7%E5%9B%BD%E8%87%AA%E5%B9%B2%E4%BA%94/featured he talks about many political matters professionally almost only to the natives, I don't think average mandarin learners will be able to fully understand his videos.
Another guy th-cam.com/channels/8FnQA_ZSeHwxAX9igzyeCg.html speaks comparable strict C2 level madarin, these two are almost the best well known mandarin speaking foreign youtuber till this moment.
I'm trying to avoid politics. I'm into foreign language learning and hope one day can promote cultural exchanges.
My problem with Chinese is that is hard to maintain, I have to read books and watch goofy Tv shows to keep it fresh.
For me ,I hate how mandarin differs from region to region and in eritten and spoken form .
How do you spell the "shung shung" comics?
Xiang Sheng
Thanks so much Steve!
Xiaoma!
I think is that most Asian countries, especially China, was very poor just a couple decades ago, so they have a very utilitarian mindset compared to the average Westerner. Everything has to have a purpose, including learning languages.
Great ! Love both
Let's have an interview soon! Stay tunned 🖖
He said he got conversational after a few months only. dude, that's something
Well, the understanding of being conversational can be very broad tbh. One thing is to say hello, how much is this, I'm from the USA, and another thing is to actually conversate with people, sharing your thoughts and ideas on different things.
By conversational he probably means: enough to get by.
To talk about your lifestyle or private hobbies and stuff is really not a big deal. However, in an academic or more constructive environment, like for example, attending a conference or have a formal meeting with some specific group of individual experts, that is still considered conversation, but does require much higher level of language organization skills aside from professional terms and formality. An average person should have no issue putting real effort into learning a language for a year to get to a B1+/B2 scale on CEFR level, which is expected to be reasonably fluent in casual settings.
He said a couple months of being in China after a full year of study. And he’s also setting the bar very low for what “conversational” means. It doesn’t mean he can converse about anything (nobody in the world can do that in any language). I assume he means he could have some very basic conversations. To this day, his Chinese is still not amazing.
Can you guys speak some Chinese next time, I think it's would be interesting for us, and Steve I really wanna make some video conversation with you, peace!
Would be cool if xiaoma and steve could speak fully in mandarin in this video
That would be funny to see. Steve would put Ari to shame, as his Chinese is far superior.
@@artugert thats the whole point
史蒂夫和小马的频道我都很喜欢。
What do you think about them saying chinese people don't find knowing a lot of languages as cool?
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
哈哈哈哈哈哈哈居然在这里看到小马😂😂😂
Ni hao!
I would attribute Ari“s success to his ability to communicate with people very effectively, his emotional expressiveness,gestures etc. That is the case with pewdepie and many other successful youtubers. Of course there is an inspirational effect as well ,but if it wasnt for his overall charme and (physical) appeal, he wouldnt be as successful.
Don't forget about the clickbait
Am I the only one who thinks xiaoma is not that good? I can hear his 老外accent from miles away, he also messes up a lot of tones.
No, you’re not the only one. And I’m glad I’m not the only one saying it. In addition to subpar pronunciation, he can only talk about very basic things. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s annoying when a lot of people think his Chinese is amazing, when it’s not.
I could have sworn in one of his videos, he said he was adopted and grew up in China. 😂😂😂
Learn American English With This Guy Pretty sure I heard that too.
It's was joke by him
It’s was joke to see if the Asians he was speaking with actually believed it. If they did then he assumed his Chinese was that good.
@@DallasTexas8888 That makes sense.
He said it in jest like when he said to someone in Kenya "I'm looking for a Masai wife";-)
I could be wrong, but didn't he have a video about claiming to become fluent in Mandarin in two months?
"XiaomaNYC Uses His Fluent Chinese to Connect Cultures" sounds like White Savior syndrome. :-D
Honestly I don't like how some polyglots/language learners try to "inspire" when they're really just trying to show off, especially when they do one of these things:
1) When two polyglots talk to each other in languages that are not their native ones, which is clearly showing off and doesn't make any sense to use a language when neither person is a native speaker.
2) When polyglots talk in front of a camera (regardless if there are subtitles or not) in multiple languages where they have a main message and break each section in a different language (i.e. saying one thing in Spanish, something different in German. something else in Chinese). If there are English subs but the viewers don't understand it, they're walking away from the video having understood just one or two pieces of the whole message.
3) When (phrasebook) polyglots (maybe with someone recording them) go around engaging (potentially disturbing) random people and starting and trying to maintain conversations with them just using them for practice when they could be busy.
4) When languages learners exaggerate their proficiency in a X number of languages (i.e. when someone says they can "speak" a language but can hardly converse freely for even two minutes or just spout some phrases they memorized)
5) When language learners aim to take exams which are basically bragging rights on paper and nothing more.
wow you sound so angry, I kinda agree with the 4th point tho,
He better watch out for the CoronaVirus.
He lives in ny
@@marcelosilveira7079 one of the worst places to have been
xiaoma, you give polyglots a bad name. stop using " you know, like" in every sentence!
He’s a kid!!! Give him a break!😂
@@parisdupree8940He’s in his 30’s.