I LOVE how committed you guys are! And I think you’ve made the right decision, the future is here, and you guys are the perfect couple to represent how open-mindedness can bridge so many gaps!
One proud mum here!! Fabulous video guys iv always wondered what you were like at school 😂😂 school together in Scotland now school together in China - amazing well done xx
Taking a week long language course is a rather novel travel experience!! Easily one of the best and most rewarding experiences I’ve ever come across from among travel vloggers. Proud of you two. I hope you keep it up and continue to grow into your China journey by communicating with the Chinese people 👍🏽
I live in Wales but my wife is Chinese from Nanning, I am completely useless at learning the language but both my daughters speak Mandarin and Cantonese fluently, so I have three translators with me when in China .
@@Alan_and_Shannon I wish I did language when I was young, the older you get the harder it is, my girls aged 11 and 12 speak English-Welsh- mandarin- Cantonese and French. I can barely speak English :-)
Mandarin is not an easy language, but nothing is impossible if you put your heart, willingness and time into it. Yes in a week you can learn some basic everyday stuff but if you want to learn how to speak fluently, it might take a few years. It’s also depends how fast someone learn. Some people only takes a year or so but some can take longer. Yes guys… mandarin is definitely a beautiful language and I hope you guys continue learning. All the very best.
You two are amazing. Comparing the first day to the last day, there is a big difference. You two are very inspiring. Now I am thinking maybe I can try to self learn Mandarin.
You can study by yourself. Also add once a week,. I recommend having someone to help with the tune. That is a key to be understood by native. You able to practice conversationally it make a big difference in your study.
@@Alan_and_Shannon In fact, you'll be surprised how quickly you'll get there!! 😛Think of it a way for you to simply spell out Chinese words with the common English alphabets, and then the input method in the computer/smart phones automatically matches all the correct characters for you (yes, and they auto-correct the characters as you type out the full sentence). In real life, many Chinese people these days don't even remember accurately how to write out certain characters in real life, because they also spent all of their time typing pinyin on their phones, instead of writing them stroke by stroke 🤣 If you want to try, the most popular and the smartest input method for Chinese is Sogou (搜狗)
As an American who crazily decided to study Chinese decades ago, has lived in Taiwan and China and still retains a decent amount of both spoken and written Chinese, you guys gave it a good try! 👍 It takes time and effort but it's not the most difficult language out there. Learning Chinese characters takes much time and effort but is absolutely necessary to function in China.
@@Alan_and_ShannonYou guys really impressed me. Keep at it and you will benefit in many ways in the future by knowing this language. Take my word for it. Just put an effort in it and you will definitely make it. Good luck! Love you guys!! ❤❤❤
I am a big fan of yours and I am glad that you are starting to learn Chinese. You will be able to communicate with Chinese people and begin to understand this 5000 year old culture.
I'm a Cantonese speaker and started learning Mandarin in the last few months and can relate to this. I think given that's only 1 week, your mandarin is improving. The key is to keep speaking it and let the locals correct you. I'd also recommend watching Chinese cartoons with pingyu subtitles etc.
Learning Mandarin is useful for you if you plan to do travel Vlog...you be surprise that many places around the world that some people can speak Mandarin. It will give you another mile to communicate with people around the globe.
Good for you guys to learn a new language. It is always challenging to learn something new. You guys have done a good job. All the best. Johnny from Singapore
Very interesting vlog that's unlike previous ones! To a limited degree, the 3 East Asian languages complement one another as Japanese and Korean languages use the Chinese characters (Japanese kanji and Korean hanja) and 60% of the vocabulary of both languages are borrowed from Chinese. Some words sound quite similar / same for all 3 languages. Have fun!
Bravo for taking the time and effort on your travels to attend classes and learn a new language! You guys are doing great in such a short time, and it will definitely get better especially when you are in Chinese speaking environment. A good way to pronounce the words more accurately is to stick strictly to the four tones, pay close attention to the sounds from a native speaker and mimic as much as possible how they say it. All the best!
You two have done very well in just one week, and that's a great school. I hope you guys plan to continue. Being there gives you the best opportunity to practice what you have learned. Keep up with your great work!
You have earned my respect with your commitment to learn chinese! Bravo! and I'm inspired to learn some basics before my trip later this year. Your video is different from the other foreign travelers in China - I l really liked it
If you are coming to China it will definitely help you having a basic understanding of numbers or how to order food etc. So glad you are enjoying our content 💙
I am so happy to see that you have reached the stage of learning Chinese radicals. Excellent job! Chinese radicals are as interesting as the roots of words in English and Latin-based languages like Italian. It’s wonderful to see you having this experience, and I am glad for you!
My friends, you are great. You can learn so much in one week. I hope you can continue to learn Chinese. When you know some Chinese, you can begin to appreciate China's ancient poems and discover the beauty of culture.
Actually, I know how to learn a tonal language. For instance, I know nothing about Thai, but I got hooked on a video which is about Thai talent show and I watched it many times, so I imitated (or followed) how people talk, react etc (similar to learning an accent), and then I realised I am actually picking up their tones. So I guess you need to learn by ears.
What a healthy attitude! Actually going as far as to learn Chinese after a visit to China. If you have done another two weeks of slogging, Jimmy, you would surely be able order sweet n sour haggis from the local Chinese takeaway in Dear Green Place!
You guys are doing great in just one week. With some basic vocabulary and understanding, surely it will help you get by with the locals a bit easier. Really look forward to see you practising your mandarin skills in your future vlog. Also, when it comes to writing Chinese characters, the basic rules of chinese stroke order are: top to bottome, left to right, and move from outside to inside if there is a frame....and have fun.
It would be wonderful if you could spend an entire year studying Chinese :) That would be an opportunity for you to do more content in China and put into practice what you learn...
@@Alan_and_Shannon I fell in love with Chinese writing when I first started and focused on understanding its history and how it operates at the deepest levels. Do not do this if you are wanting to be proficient in travel/friend conversation - it takes years and years of work that you should use to focus on learning the HSK 3 level vocabulary in daily conversation. But - if you do want to learn the best parts of Chinese, follow the path back through time to see how it came about: Oracle bone script 1200 BC, Seal script 700 BC, RADICALS > ErYa 爾雅 - first dictionary 300 BC, Clerical script 260 BC, Regular script 230 AD, Man'yogana 万葉仮名 - [Inariyama Sword 471 AD] (source of Japanese writing: hiragana, katakana)
In Berlin I met a guy who was Asian with a English accent. In Scotland I met an Indian man with a Scotish accent. It really throws you for a second until you get used to it
Language is a useful tool. I really would like to perfect my mother language Chinese first. My English is good enough to communicate. I want to learn Arabic and Spanish next . If time allows I will pick up French and Russian!
I enjoy watching your experience learning this language. Should be proud of your progress. When you get more progress in the language. You will figure out you cannot always translate English to Chinese or the other way around.. Some sentences structure of how you say a sentence switches certain words or the opposite of English. For example, He is protective of his environment in Chinese is 他对保护自己环境。Tā duì bǎohù zìjǐ huánjìng. I wish you did more time in learning you find the language grammar and uses of words be little harder to understand when get immediate level. I am glad went out of your comfort zone and try it out. Also want to say, also almost went to this school but decide for a different one. I recommend trying immersion program in the language. Where only allow to speak the target language you are learning for 24:7 for few months.. That how I got used the language and how to put sentences together with grammar and words I learned. I hope you had enjoy your time too.
Fair play guys, ye made great improvents from basically zero in Day 1 to the end of the week. I speak basic Chinese and thought the teacher should have corrected your pronunciation on a "few occasions" especially with words beginning with X. Looked up the school online after and thought maybe about doing a refresher course there for a week as it seems pretty good. Tell me this though, were they lenient on your pronunciation because it was a "sponsored video" and it didn't cost you a lot? If I pay the fees they're quoting, I'd want them to be stricter with my mistakes if ya catch my drift! BTW I met ye both before in Guangzhou in January. I got you both a bit drunk in my pub in Guangzhou and ye were too hungover the next day to do Hotpot ha ha.
Thank you very much, they pushed us to learn a lot more in 1 week I think that’s why they were less strict on the pronunciation. But everyone at the school is different levels so you can tell them before hand what you want to achieve from the course. That was such an amazing night, one we still talk about🤣
Kudos guys!! Just a little heads-up for learning chinese. At some point, you will have to get into the chinese characters because that's the only way to make sense of the language. By Ping Yin you will learn how to say certain things but eventually you will feel like you are trying to cast spells. Only getting to the characters you will start to see the grammars and logics of chinese. It's hard though.
@@Alan_and_Shannon Exactly the same as how you learn any phonetic language - start from simple words/characters then to more complex ones :D Of course it would be too much and I wouldn't recommendi it at all if you don't plan to spend more time in china in future.
Never ever wondered what chinese with scottish accent would sound like....now I am super curious.
🤣🤣🤣
@@Alan_and_Shannon😂
you steal my words👌😂😂😂
帶口音不是一件可笑的事,只要努力學習,終有一日成功,欣賞你,加油！（我的英文也帶著很重的口音😂）
Or Australia accent, even Indian accent
This video deserves all the likes and comments. 👏
Much appreciated 💙
I LOVE how committed you guys are! And I think you’ve made the right decision, the future is here, and you guys are the perfect couple to represent how open-mindedness can bridge so many gaps!
what a lovely comment♥️
One proud mum here!! Fabulous video guys iv always wondered what you were like at school 😂😂 school together in Scotland now school together in China - amazing well done xx
Shannon is speaking so well!
Taking a week long language course is a rather novel travel experience!! Easily one of the best and most rewarding experiences I’ve ever come across from among travel vloggers. Proud of you two.
I hope you keep it up and continue to grow into your China journey by communicating with the Chinese people 👍🏽
Was an awesome experience, we would love to go back in the future to progress our skills
I live in Wales but my wife is Chinese from Nanning, I am completely useless at learning the language but both my daughters speak Mandarin and Cantonese fluently, so I have three translators with me when in China .
That's incredible that your daughters can speak both mandarin and cantonese, amazing skills to have. I wish we learned it when we were younger
@@Alan_and_Shannon I wish I did language when I was young, the older you get the harder it is, my girls aged 11 and 12 speak English-Welsh- mandarin- Cantonese and French.
I can barely speak English :-)
@@roypearce-ne6dn that's super impressive!
I truly appreciate that you two go out of your way to learn Mandarin and genuinely appreciate Chinese culture. 🥰
Was such an amazing travel experience and is helping us now on our travels around China😄
Mandarin is not an easy language, but nothing is impossible if you put your heart, willingness and time into it. Yes in a week you can learn some basic everyday stuff but if you want to learn how to speak fluently, it might take a few years. It’s also depends how fast someone learn. Some people only takes a year or so but some can take longer. Yes guys… mandarin is definitely a beautiful language and I hope you guys continue learning. All the very best.
Yes it definitely takes more than a week of learning. I hope we can continue progressing
You two are amazing. Comparing the first day to the last day, there is a big difference. You two are very inspiring. Now I am thinking maybe I can try to self learn Mandarin.
You can study by yourself. Also add once a week,. I recommend having someone to help with the tune. That is a key to be understood by native. You able to practice conversationally it make a big difference in your study.
PinYin is a genius creation not only for pronuniciation but also keyboard typing the Chinese. Good start 😊
Long way to go before we are at that level
@@Alan_and_Shannon with patience anything is possible :)
@@Alan_and_Shannon In fact, you'll be surprised how quickly you'll get there!! 😛Think of it a way for you to simply spell out Chinese words with the common English alphabets, and then the input method in the computer/smart phones automatically matches all the correct characters for you (yes, and they auto-correct the characters as you type out the full sentence). In real life, many Chinese people these days don't even remember accurately how to write out certain characters in real life, because they also spent all of their time typing pinyin on their phones, instead of writing them stroke by stroke 🤣 If you want to try, the most popular and the smartest input method for Chinese is Sogou (搜狗)
拼音没有拉丁化之前我们也有注音符号，中国台湾至今使用。键盘输入汉字我们除了拼音输入法外，还可以通过汉字笔画输入法输入
As an American who crazily decided to study Chinese decades ago, has lived in Taiwan and China and still retains a decent amount of both spoken and written Chinese, you guys gave it a good try! 👍 It takes time and effort but it's not the most difficult language out there. Learning Chinese characters takes much time and effort but is absolutely necessary to function in China.
Hope you enjoy your Chinese language lessons!👍I’m learning Scottish in Scotland 😂
🤣🤣how is that going?
on your way to winning street arguments with chinese grandmas
😂😂😂
There's no way😂😂😂
Very nice, guys. Have fun there. Enjoy! ❤👍
Thank you ❤️
@@Alan_and_ShannonYou guys really impressed me. Keep at it and you will benefit in many ways in the future by knowing this language. Take my word for it. Just put an effort in it and you will definitely make it. Good luck! Love you guys!! ❤❤❤
I am a big fan of yours and I am glad that you are starting to learn Chinese. You will be able to communicate with Chinese people and begin to understand this 5000 year old culture.
I'm a Cantonese speaker and started learning Mandarin in the last few months and can relate to this. I think given that's only 1 week, your mandarin is improving.
The key is to keep speaking it and let the locals correct you. I'd also recommend watching Chinese cartoons with pingyu subtitles etc.
This is pretty cool! Learning a few things will definitely enhance your experience in China!
100% it’s been a great help already
Learning Mandarin is useful for you if you plan to do travel Vlog...you be surprise that many places around the world that some people can speak Mandarin. It will give you another mile to communicate with people around the globe.
Wow You are doing it! Good luck Guys!
How did we do?
Great progress for learning just one week! Happy to be your language partner if you need to practice 😊
Study well and looking forward to listen to you speak mandarin
Amazing,you guys always surprised me
u guys progress for 1 week is amazing... keep learning.. and keep up the good work
Thank you we surprised ourselves
So cool seeing you both improve from the first to last day! Well done Alan and Shannon 👏👏
Good for you guys to learn a new language. It is always challenging to learn something new. You guys have done a good job. All the best. Johnny from Singapore
Thanks Johnny, we had a great week at Keats school
Very interesting vlog that's unlike previous ones! To a limited degree, the 3 East Asian languages complement one another as Japanese and Korean languages use the Chinese characters (Japanese kanji and Korean hanja) and 60% of the vocabulary of both languages are borrowed from Chinese. Some words sound quite similar / same for all 3 languages. Have fun!
老兄，你说的数据应该是正确的，但是我学说日韩语还是很难，唉！
Enjoy and learn !
Was a great challenge
@@Alan_and_Shannon Forget your previous pronunciation habits
Ask your Mandarin teacher to recite the following:
She sells seashells on the seashore. The sea shells she sells are on the seashore.
No way wish we thought of that haha
What a fantastic idea!! Well done Alan and Shannon! 👏👏👏
For the spirit of learning, I am not hesitant to give you both a big thumbs up.
look at these two guys, could be the role models for learning of all the new young guys. Not easy, please stick on. Good luck
You two are just a very cute couple! ❤. Your travel channel is fun to watch!! ❤❤
Thank you for following our journey💙
Seems like you're the First vloggers to go to record and go to a language school. Awesome! 👍
I think so, amazing experience
Wow that’s great 加油👏 keep on going ! Jia you
Wow well done for first time having conversation in Chinese🎉
How, what a fantastic initiative you guys are taking. Huge respects!
Bravo for taking the time and effort on your travels to attend classes and learn a new language! You guys are doing great in such a short time, and it will definitely get better especially when you are in Chinese speaking environment. A good way to pronounce the words more accurately is to stick strictly to the four tones, pay close attention to the sounds from a native speaker and mimic as much as possible how they say it. All the best!
Not bad for a start!! Clear enough for a Chinese person to understand
You two have done very well in just one week, and that's a great school. I hope you guys plan to continue. Being there gives you the best opportunity to practice what you have learned. Keep up with your great work!
Yeah Keats school is unreal, the best place to learn
You have earned my respect with your commitment to learn chinese!
Bravo! and I'm inspired to learn some basics before my trip later this year.
Your video is different from the other foreign travelers in China - I l really liked it
If you are coming to China it will definitely help you having a basic understanding of numbers or how to order food etc. So glad you are enjoying our content 💙
I am so happy to see that you have reached the stage of learning Chinese radicals. Excellent job! Chinese radicals are as interesting as the roots of words in English and Latin-based languages like Italian. It’s wonderful to see you having this experience, and I am glad for you!
One of our favourite travel expereinces
Hope you guys enjoy your time in Kunming
Loved it!
It's really amazing! you guys are very brave to learn the most hard language in the world! And doing so good in such short time.
That's the right way to understand more about Chinese culture.
the school is great fun, great effort
Amazing school
My friends, you are great. You can learn so much in one week. I hope you can continue to learn Chinese. When you know some Chinese, you can begin to appreciate China's ancient poems and discover the beauty of culture.
We had the best teacher Steve to help us
這老師，不太行，媽麻馬罵，最重要教4音調，@@Alan_and_Shannon
wow, you guys are awesome and so hard working. brilliant.
What.. You guys are crazy! Crazy hardworking. Impressed.
haha i love it, thank you
Well done! Definitely can tell the difference from day 1. Now go practice at the night market 😊
That is so wonderful. I wish you every success with your learning experience.
Woo! This is impressive 👍🏻👍🏻
Thank you, surprised we learnt so much in just 1 week
your handwriting is so good.
it must be a very special experience, good luck for your language learning!
Absolutely loved it, we didn't want to leave
That's good for you guys to learn mandarin.👍
Thanks!
Thank you❤️❤️
There are 4 tones in Chinese pronunciation. It's a challenge for the foreigner.
Very difficult, made improvements from day 1 though
á？ǎ！
Actually, I know how to learn a tonal language. For instance, I know nothing about Thai, but I got hooked on a video which is about Thai talent show and I watched it many times, so I imitated (or followed) how people talk, react etc (similar to learning an accent), and then I realised I am actually picking up their tones. So I guess you need to learn by ears.
What a healthy attitude! Actually going as far as to learn Chinese after a visit to China. If you have done another two weeks of slogging, Jimmy, you would surely be able order sweet n sour haggis from the local Chinese takeaway in Dear Green Place!
You guys are doing great in just one week. With some basic vocabulary and understanding, surely it will help you get by with the locals a bit easier. Really look forward to see you practising your mandarin skills in your future vlog. Also, when it comes to writing Chinese characters, the basic rules of chinese stroke order are: top to bottome, left to right, and move from outside to inside if there is a frame....and have fun.
It is definitely going to make things easier for us having basic skills
this is amazing!
Awesome experience
Good luck guys
Props to you guys for trying to learn Chinese. 👍🏻
Always good to learn more new languages because it can help with retaining a sharp memory!
100% agree with this, we hadn't learned a new skill in a while. Felt good to be using our brain lol
学汉语，非常酷！看来你们越来越喜欢中国，为你们感到骄傲👍👍
you guys are really encourage me to learn foreign language
Felt really good to be learning something new, especially when you can put it into practice
keep up the good work!
Thank you so much ❤️
Sunday = 星期日 xin qi ri, where ri means Sun or day in Mandarin. Straightforward
Well done Alan and Shannon
We just left Kunming a few days ago. The flower market is amazing. We are in xiang ge ri le now.
love the flower market🌸
Amazing! You learned so fast!
Thank you that is a massive compliment ♥️
love you guys
I've been doing mandarin blueprint for a year and have made amazing progress, I highly recommend diving into their course!!
Amazing , we will take a look!
It's so fun to watch you two learning Chinese. For beginners, it's a bit torturous. The four tones in Chinese are indeed a bit difficult.
Very!! Thankfully we made some progress from day 1
Good job guys❤
Thank you, we absolutely loved this experience!!
真心为你们骄傲！继续努力~
Great! You will enjoy your trip in China more after learning some Chinese.
Will certainly make things alot easier
You guys are cute! happy learning~
Learning any languages is fun but it's also a marathon and a daily routine.
Great job！ lovely couple❤
A good week of learning!
Really nice from you guys! you're taking it very serious❤️
Good good study, day day up!
Study hard and make progress every day!
wow, I'm super excited to know the outcomes, lol.
Thumbs up for your courage and dedication🫡👍
Have every nice day !
I think at the end of the week, I am not sure about you two, Steve would definitely sound Glaswegian. 😂
🤣🤣 we were exchanging him with some Scottish lessons
It would be wonderful if you could spend an entire year studying Chinese :) That would be an opportunity for you to do more content in China and put into practice what you learn...
Definitely there are many people at the school studying for a long period of time, it’s amazing to see the progress you can make
@@Alan_and_Shannon I fell in love with Chinese writing when I first started and focused on understanding its history and how it operates at the deepest levels. Do not do this if you are wanting to be proficient in travel/friend conversation - it takes years and years of work that you should use to focus on learning the HSK 3 level vocabulary in daily conversation. But - if you do want to learn the best parts of Chinese, follow the path back through time to see how it came about: Oracle bone script 1200 BC, Seal script 700 BC, RADICALS > ErYa 爾雅 - first dictionary 300 BC, Clerical script 260 BC, Regular script 230 AD, Man'yogana 万葉仮名 - [Inariyama Sword 471 AD] (source of Japanese writing: hiragana, katakana)
Enjoy learning, dont put too much pressure on yourselves. Mandarin isnt easy, but take heart. 加油❤
In Berlin I met a guy who was Asian with a English accent. In Scotland I met an Indian man with a Scotish accent. It really throws you for a second until you get used to it
Language is a useful tool. I really would like to perfect my mother language Chinese first. My English is good enough to communicate. I want to learn Arabic and Spanish next . If time allows I will pick up French and Russian!
Wow you sound very intelligent
@@Alan_and_Shannon not at all! 🤓. I’m so clumsy when I speak. I just learn the meaning of those words. You guys are doing much much better 🥰🥰👍
great job!
Cheers, loved this experience!
I enjoy watching your experience learning this language. Should be proud of your progress.
When you get more progress in the language. You will figure out you cannot always translate English to Chinese or the other way around.. Some sentences structure of how you say a sentence switches certain words or the opposite of English. For example, He is protective of his environment in Chinese is 他对保护自己环境。Tā duì bǎohù zìjǐ huánjìng. I wish you did more time in learning you find the language grammar and uses of words be little harder to understand when get immediate level. I am glad went out of your comfort zone and try it out.
Also want to say, also almost went to this school but decide for a different one. I recommend trying immersion program in the language. Where only allow to speak the target language you are learning for 24:7 for few months.. That how I got used the language and how to put sentences together with grammar and words I learned.
I hope you had enjoy your time too.
Sunday in Chinese actually means Sunday. The last character in Sunday in Chinese means the sun.
6:30 There's a great Chinese poem about stone and lions you should try... :D
Good Luck !. 😁😁😁😜😜😜😎😎😎🥸🥸🥸🤣🤣🤣
I will be back to see the result.
pressure is on
You guys are hilarious, keep it up 😊
Fair play guys, ye made great improvents from basically zero in Day 1 to the end of the week. I speak basic Chinese and thought the teacher should have corrected your pronunciation on a "few occasions" especially with words beginning with X. Looked up the school online after and thought maybe about doing a refresher course there for a week as it seems pretty good. Tell me this though, were they lenient on your pronunciation because it was a "sponsored video" and it didn't cost you a lot? If I pay the fees they're quoting, I'd want them to be stricter with my mistakes if ya catch my drift! BTW I met ye both before in Guangzhou in January. I got you both a bit drunk in my pub in Guangzhou and ye were too hungover the next day to do Hotpot ha ha.
Thank you very much, they pushed us to learn a lot more in 1 week I think that’s why they were less strict on the pronunciation. But everyone at the school is different levels so you can tell them before hand what you want to achieve from the course. That was such an amazing night, one we still talk about🤣
Good start 🎉🎉🎉🎉
Wow, in such a short time, you both sound exactly like the local Chinese.
Wow thank you!!
wow, next level 👍
Wow, thanks!
Kudos guys!! Just a little heads-up for learning chinese. At some point, you will have to get into the chinese characters because that's the only way to make sense of the language. By Ping Yin you will learn how to say certain things but eventually you will feel like you are trying to cast spells. Only getting to the characters you will start to see the grammars and logics of chinese. It's hard though.
Trying to learn the characters seems impossible🤯 where do you even begin?
@@Alan_and_Shannon Exactly the same as how you learn any phonetic language - start from simple words/characters then to more complex ones :D Of course it would be too much and I wouldn't recommendi it at all if you don't plan to spend more time in china in future.