This Man Has the Best Chinese of Any Foreigner Who’s Ever Lived
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 มิ.ย. 2024
- Go to buyraycon.com/xiaomanyc for 15% off your order! Brought to you by Raycon. Today I’m talking with Julien Gaudfroy, who in my opinion has a pretty strong claim to having quite possibly the best Chinese of any foreigner ever. He has been a host on Chinese radio and television for many years now, has acted in Chinese movies, and has also been a performer of Chinese crosstalk comedy xiangsheng which is known for being extremely difficult linguistically. And on a personal level I’ve been jealous of his Chinese for at least a decade now! During this interview we spoke together in Chinese and English about how his Chinese got so good, what was his xiangsheng (Chinese crosstalk) training like, how that impacted his Chinese abilities, his experience in the Chinese media world, Dashan (Mark Roswell), and his training as a classical musician.
You can find Julien on social media here:
Julien's new vlog TH-cam channel (under construction, many videos soon) : / @julian-eu8hz
Julien's personal cello videos channel : / juliengaudfroy
今日头条 vlog channel : www.toutiao.com/c/user/token/...
西瓜视频 vlog channel : www.ixigua.com/home/383034724...
Bilibili vlog channel : space.bilibili.com/1577120264
Julien performing Xiangsheng (crosstalk with Risteard O Deorian) : v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMjY2OD...
0:00 Sponsorship
1:09 Introduction
2:00 Julien introduces himself in Chinese (with subtitles!)
14:20 We switch to English
15:22 How Julien got so good at Chinese
21:08 Julien’s story with xiangsheng (Chinese comedy)
34:47 Is Julien a “white monkey”?
36:16 Discussing China’s most famous foreigner, Dashan (Mark Roswell)
40:49 Censorship in China and the evolution of the media landscape
48:31 Life in China vs. France
56:11 Do musicians learn languages better?
1:04:19 Julien’s advice for people who want to learn Chinese
1:09:01 Conclusion
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They were both speaking the same language, but Julien's chinese made me hear Xiaoma's american accent in his chinese. This is insane!
ikr? he so good
@Kalevipoeg Your anecdote about your wife reminds me of an experience that my mom had in Taiwan. She moved from Taiwan to the USA at age 26 in '89. 20 years later during a visit in Taiwan, the cab driver remarked that my mom must be American because the way she spoke had already changed from the way everyone else spoke there.
I’ve always heard xiamos accent it seems like he doesn’t even try to sound Chinese and only cares about learning the language
Yes!! That Julian is spot on!!
Xiaoma seems to be hesitating and Julien’s accent seems stronger.
This is where the term "speaking fluently" really shines, quite literally Julien's pronunciation sounds like a wavy stream of words with so much dynamics and natural intonation, it's crazy!
Most Chinese in Beijing speaks like this. There are different accents when speaking Mandarin Chinese, just like there are different English accents.
@@oileengrace8228 I was referring to the audible contrast between Xiaoma and Julien, two non natives speakers.
@@cozymode70
Yup I understood you
@@lucasm4299 but you're not Oileen wtf
Ok this is on a new level. I literally cannot tell he is a foreigner, he sounds like he's been in Beijing since 50 years before he was born
maybe he was
Let alone he use cheng yu precisely. 见仁见智 His Chinese is on different level. better than authentic. sounds like an educated Chinese college student.
As much as we admire this guy’s insane mastery of Chinese, are we just gonna ignore the fact he speaks fairly good English for someone who’s never lived in any English speaking countries
For me as a practitioner of english idiom, could said this guy domain the language better as much native speakers.
@@jeremyurday37 you need to work on your English lol
Yes I was thinking that too!
@@jeremyurday37 you talk like you learned all the English words but didn't learn grammar or what the words mean
Fuwei Yang, I had the same reaction as you did at how flawless his English was also! I am French too, I have lived in the USA for 37 years, and I can say that English is tantamount to my first language now as I have spoken it longer than I have my own native language, French, although I still speak it with my wife...
Can I just say, it's a pro move from Xiaoma to have a deep conversation with someone in Mandarin. Sure his videos have clickbaity over-the-top titles, make of that what you will. But he's not a charlatan just ordering food and making chitchat for clicks. He legit speaks Chinese.
He's basically at a native speakers level
Tbh even if he wasn’t that fluent his food order videos are massively entertaining
@@eksibaklava1434 I agree with this completely. For any white person to have even a rudimentary knowledge of Chinese is impressive and surprising. Most people in China Towns across will probably go their entire lives without ever encountering a white customer capable of ordering food comfortably in Mandarin.
Xiaoma has already made several videos featuring languages in which he is not fluent, and they are still entertaining.
@@jojag5 so you saying there is lot of black or hispanic people ordering in chinese? Because i dont rly understand why say it like that. I would assume its pretty rare for them to hear non chinese speakers of their language no matter the skin color.
@@wdvnge You have a strange interpretation of my comment. Saying that it's rare for white people to speak Chinese does not imply that it is common for black or hispanic people. Not really sure why you took it in that direction. To be clear, there's a lot of non-native Mandarin speakers out there who aren't Chinese, but most are Asian. For example, form Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Korea, Philippines, Indonesia etc. Not particularly uncommon to find people from those countries who can speak Mandarin as a second language. It's very rare to find non-Asian people who learn Mandarin. There's a reason these people are so shocked when they see Xiaoma. Probably the first non-Asian person they've ever seen speaking Mandarin.
Two foreigners conducting an interview in neither of their native languages… I am so beyond impressed and amazed
It's like any immigrant speaking English in America really... but Mandarin being 100x harder 😂
@@Joseph3391399 Not to mention that aside from mandarin, that french guy seems to also speak english very well, not much accent.
@@Joseph3391399 "harder" really depends on what language you're coming from, Japanese speakers often report that English is one of the hardest languages to learn and Mandarin is a lot easier because they have so many similarities, whereas for most Europeans, English is an extremely easy language to learn because it's so heavily based in Romance and Germanic languages, but Mandarin would be extremely difficult because it's nothing like any language here
@@xenotypos he probably speaks English a lot living in China. He probably doesn’t get to speak french as much because even Africans are learning Chinese now, so unless he’s in France or Quebec, he’s speaking Chinese dialects and English.
@@xenotypos Yes, I think he even said that he also taught French and possibly also English to Chinese mainlanders (and vice versa) when he was living/working overseas in China... If I ever needed a teacher to learn either of those 3 languages; I know that Julien would be the one that I could trust 100% !
Omg, I am Chinese, this guy’s Chinese is perfect, literally no accent
Right dude he’s so well-worded, he speaks so natively, it’s insane. I’m blown away by his Chinese, I can’t believe it. It’s such a pleasure to listen to him talk. Anyways, it’s a pity I don’t speak Chinese
He still has a slight French accent in both Chinese and English.
@@jaredf6205 not in mandarin
Sounds like a northeastern China accent but not a strong one like a Beijinger.
@@andrewdunbar828 He actually has a strong Beijing accent and it's quite impressive
this is a certified hood classic.
Cheesy beans baws in yo jaws
I'm dying mate :D . the word friend I think is similar to the other one :D
My algorithm is so crazy i went from a Drakeo the Ruler video to this one.
@@connerross612 yo algorithm different
@@fall3nkid323 the algorithm hit different
Please make a Chinese course Julien! Your work ethic and level of mastery is so inspiring. Thanks Xiaoma as always!
Wow. His pronunciation and tones really allow you to see the difference between them. This was very cool to listen to.
Honestly he makes him look/sound like a noob.
Xiaoma would not be offered or allowed to work as a host as his overall Chinese is not good enough. His accent and tones rule him out
@@darrylkassle361 if he lived in china like julien his tones and accent would be a lot better
This is insane. Makes xiaoma sound like the student and Julien the teacher lol
I mean. Some people are motivated but 10 hours a day learning .. is on a different level for 5 years. That was the part of this whole hour conversation that chocked me the most and made me realize that there is always someone working harder then you do hahahah
You have to bear in mind most people don't have this time to dedicate to a language. I am a physicist so unfortunately although I like Spanish I can't spend 10 hours a day on it.
i've never even worked for 10 hours straight on anything
"I was a professional cellist" this is actually quite important in relation to how his accent and pronunciation are this spot on. Cellists tend to have an abslute or close to absolute hearing. I would bet money this is a factor in here.
Agreed. Also, Chinese is a tonal language, so if your hearing is tuned to distinguishing tones you'd have an advantage in learning Chinese.
Perfect pitch is not something you can learn. You're born with it.
Doesn't matter if he was cellist or factory worker. He was gifted by nature with that talent. Same as Xiaoma. But this factor doesn't play big role between Xiaoma and Julien. Julien speaks better because he live in China last 20 years and every day speaks Chinese language . Xiaoma practicing Chinese in China town USA. He is even more talented than Julien but he is practicing another 14 languages. Julien only focused on Chinese lang. Plus he is older than Xiaoma.
i have noticed over the years that musicians or singers tend to have an ability to mimic a native accent.
@@MellonVegan relative pitch is however, and chinese tones are relative
as a professional classical singer I'm with Julien; we're used to practicing a LOT *and* in the case of singers, we're literally trained in perfect diction. I can basically make any sound. He is absolutely right; when people ask me about music, this is what I say: there is not room for mediocrity in classical music. You literally will never have a job. Perfection is expected. Always. Forever. It's a burden but it's a particular skill set and perspective as well.
Technical perfection may be ONE of the goals in classical music (and not particularly the most interesting or meaningful one), but how often is it actually achieved? I guess a case could be made for Heifetz (violin), Michelangeli (piano), Fischer-Dieskau and Schwartzkopf (lieder).
@@enriqueali do you work in the field? Cause technical perfection (or akin to) is achieved literally daily by everyone. Your listing of random musicians is really comical honestly. All I can say is that technical perfection is the baseline upon which all of the other goals of artistic expression are expected to balance atop of.
This is absolutely true. I trained as an opera singer from a young age and now I'm doing linguistics. It comes very naturally to me.
@@enriqueali many many musicians would have this obsession, and they work to have it. after the technicalities come the personal way to deliver the plays, maybe you talk about those musicians because you love them better ?
I've always felt how weird for music to need litteral perfection but I mean you can't perform if it's not... Other arts are surely not like this. Maybe it has its own advantages. Maybe I can try learning languages huh.
his chinese is inspiring me to get back into studying
Yeah same, I haven’t done any study in about 3 months but now I want to get back into it
Why would you wanna learn Chinese one of the most useless languages in the world
@@OnlyInhuman90 you good?
@@OnlyInhuman90 Not useless. It’s a huge language and many people speak it.
@@OnlyInhuman90 -300,000 social credit
In France we often says that we are not very talented for foreign languages. That guy proves it's not true for everyone! He is so brilliant! Bravo Julien, je vous admire!!
i haven't seen many french speaking other languages than french xd (j'suis canadien) he's clearly prooving french speaker can be talented xd
@@Kolvatn don't alot of French people speak german
@@mynameiswalterhartwellwhite420 not really, actually we spend way more time learning english than german, also usually we have to choose between learning spanish or german, and even those who choose german are rarely fluent.
@@hukijiki1828 Interesting. I know many French do speak English, but I figured German would be more popular, Switzerland speaks German ( Swiss German is a dialect but still same language I believe) Belgium speaks German (French is also an official Belgian language though) and obviously Germany itself all border France.
@@hukijiki1828 French is a somewhat popular language in the area of the US I live in (pretty small town) but here it's either Spanish or French. Although they teach mandarin too, but not many people take it.
I don't know Chinese but you can hear the level of expertise (if you will) between the two. Xiaoma still has an American undertone but Julien I couldn't tell if I closed my eyes and heard his voice for the first time.
14:20 Yeah _"I hear a little something"_ too 😆
17:40 He basically adopted another art form (57:45), from playing cello to learning chinese (reading, writing, learning tones). He's very passionate about his craft, whatever it may be at the time (15:42 19:56).
1:12:23 Shout out to Moses aka Laoshu 🥺❤️ -still not over his loss-
*For those in the comments:* it's about his _tone_ and the flow of his words, you can _hear_ he's been at it longer....which he has. 🙃 Xiaoma is still great at what he does, no one is denying that...wouldn't be here if he wasn't. Smdh
His Chinese is better than 99% of native speakers. 😂
You don't know chinese but you can still hear these dialectal differences? Yes I'm sure u can
@@g8le * yes the
"Level of expertise is quite noticeable
Negative much..🙄
Xiomas Chinese is as good as his English. That’s just how he speaks.
Did moses past away i didn't know loved him watch his videos from time to time
What append do you know how he pass he was so young
Speaking French, English, and Mandarin, this man can talk to people on every continent, and generally most people in the world! Boss moves.
He just needs spanish and hindi he'd be set.
@@realtonysolo and Arabic
No. English, Mandarin, Hindi, Spanish, Arabic, Russian and German. THEN he's set.
Portuguese too and dutch
@@AJ-ds5gf he doesn't need learn Hindi because most of Indian people can speak English
Julien: [speaks Chinese]
Me: ok he's a Chinese guy
Julien: [speaks English]
Me: holy**** he's French!
Underrated comment. So relatable and funny.
I don't like your profile picture.
@@_MrTrue It's all relative.
@@SenorJuan2023 lol it's Albert Einstein without moustache
@@josuke21 no its albert einstein with nicolas cage's face XD
I'm one of those people who saw the picture and thought "oh this is the foreigner who was on TV all the time!" but couldn't remember his name. I'm sharing this video with all my friends who are currently studying Chinese because it's truly inspiring. Thank you Xiaoma!
His speaking is so fluid it’s so pleasant to listen to!! I gotta learn a new language asap! I love this channel!
I hadn't really noticed Xiaoma's accent till now hearing Julien's accent side by side
I noticed he had an accent after listening for a few seconds and only studied a small amount of Mandarin.
I have a lot of respect for old people, grandparents, etc. It's really cool to see a young person such as yourself spending time with your grandmother and cherishing her life's stories. I am European-American, but I rarely see people our age have this kind of respect for the older generation here in the US. Cheers.
Damn
who's*
*than
Very motivating
@@Jess-737 It's not that deep.
My first language is English. I understood English rules and parts of speech better by learning Spanish than I did growing up speaking English/learning English in school. Why? Because when you learn your native language, there's a lot slang and there are a lot of shortcuts you learn growing up with the native language. When you study a second, third, fourth, etc language, you usually learn the rules FIRST and then the slang comes way later. There's more structure when you learn a second language, therefore, you're probably going to speak it better than a native, naturally. It also might affect how well you understand your native language, when you learn a second language.
Julien speaks Chinese better than most Chinese natives. The way he talks is just elite style that few Chinese natives without elite education could dream of. It is self-evident that the way he studied Chinese is just "Shi Zi" class - a practice that ancient Chinese intellectuals followed for thousands of years. The "Shi Zi" class would learn and read for decades to satisfy the desire to be knowledgeable to the extent of extremity.
What is shi zi?
That's right! That must be why he sounds so pleasant to me. It must remind me of the scholar characters from my favorite historical dramas.
@@austinsowers2974 shi zi happens.
@@austinsowers2974 I assume he means 士子, which in ancient times referred to scholars/ intellectuals.
He’s fluent in my ancestral language …. WOW Julian definitely made us hear the combination and difference between both of the same language and accent
Does fluency mean that he even doesn't have an accent. That's the part where most of the people fail
I’ve been learning mandarin for three years already, but I am nowhere near as good as xiaoma and especially Julien, but watching this I became much more motivated to become more fluent. Thanks for this!
3 years is already quite an investment in time and energy... Don't give up just now, my friend. Keep on working HARD at it, and you WILL eventually conquer it!
@@OtomoTenzi thank you!
same! It's my 3rd years of learning Chinese but i can't speak it at all ><
I'm going to learn every day from now on and going to achieve hsk5 till the end of the next year haha (also will learn english more)
加油
@@xiaoshua wow I wish you the best of luck! I’m also investing more time in learning it lately. 加油！
hey xiaoman, love this video. nice to see you tackling more cultural / sociological / expat-life related topics and getting the chance to hear about Chinese comedy scene, thoughts of a host on entertainment industry in china for a foreigner, etc. for those of us who are interested in the 'lifestyle' aspect of diff countries, it can be hard to get good info about china that is balanced and not super polarizing
How much we can absorb of foreign languages and cultures is incredible. Julien’s Chinese might be perfect, but his English is also very impressive!
yeah his ability to communicate in English is good
Totally, I'm from New Zealand and this guy obviously has an American accent, very talented.
I wish my english (as a german native speaker) would be as good as Juliens... but his mandarin... unbelievable
So no one's going to comment on his practically total fluency in not just Chinese but also English?
It's crazy how he is fluent in both Mandarin and English as well as of course French. If he added Spanish fluency to that, he'd be able to speak to most of the world in some way...
Well it's very common for continental Europeans to start off with a base of being fluent/ near-fluent in their mother tongue plus English just from normal schooling and watching tv shows and playing games before they turn 18. That's not to say they didn't put a lot of work into learning those two (or more) languages, but it's very common. And then if they learn new languages from there, then they become trilinguals, quadrilinguals, and so on
almost everyone is fluent in english nowadays, because of the cultural imperialism and soft power
@@RemplacementTV Not really. I work in a department in the UK with many foreigners and most of them don't speak English this well, this guy's English vocabulary is good. Most of them couldn't hold an interview in English for this length of time and hold interest.
Omg, I am Chinese, this guy speaks better than me...
Xiaoma's chinese is insane but the difference between him and Julien is that Xiaoma's brain still sees 2 languages, still distinct in its matter while for Julien, french and chinese is virtually one language.
How do you know this?
@@brendon2462 He's been in his brain. That's some Elon Musk shit.
Can you elaborate further I'm genuinely curious?
I kinda get what you're trying to say, though I look at it slightly different. I know french a bit. But when I think to say a simple word like cheese/fromage, my brain has to translate cheese to fromage. And if a French speaker says fromage, I'm translating in my head to cheese. Even though I'm proficient, if I was a master then when a French speaker said Fromage, I wouldn't have to think about what it is. Fromage to me would simply be what it is to a native speaker, Fromage.
julien speaks three languages, but keep in mind our guy has a far wider repertoire
What an entertaining and educational video! It is indeed a out-of-body experience hearing you guys talking. Julien’s Chinese is even better than mine and me is a native Mandarin speaker. The perfect pronunciation of the standard Mandarin, the use of idiomatic expressions, and the thinking in Chinese are legendary. Xiaoma’s Chinese is perfect, Julien is... It beyonds perfect.😂 I enjoy this video and thank you for inspiring me hone on my English.
Absolutely great content Xiaoma, thanks for this interview. Julien provided some amazing insights that can be applied to any area of life
If I just listen to the audio, I could’ve never guessed what you would look like
I love your channel and followed you for some time. Watching you learn new languages is probably my favourite part. Have to say, I love your commitment to always learning and noticed you speak about Dashan many times. I finally checked him out. Wow, wow and wow. It’s obvious you and Juliet are fluent. But damn, Dashan is on another level. Incredible. I work in teaching and a Chinese teacher I work with said Dashan is by the far the most authentic and fluent foreigner she has ever heard. I asked her what the difference was and her response was that ‘he includes so much Chinese history/tales in his conversation’.
What touches me is not how well he speaks mandarin - he understands and appreciates the chinese culture - tolerance and inclusive of all the cultures
China is one of the most racist countries on the planet.
@Cat Pundit They are talking about Julien. He's tolerant and open-minded.
If Julien never broke his arms he would've never become a Chinese celebrity.
I don't know what it is but even though I don't have any interest in learning Chinese I still watch every single video of yours and it's a blast.
XD
Julian inspired me to improve my Mandarin Chinese, and with this interview, he also motivated me to study English. When the video was first published, I only watched the part in Chinese. When they started speaking in English, I realized that Julian also speaks English, which gave me the motivation to take learning English seriously. A year and a half after starting to learn English, I returned to this video, and I can say that now I understand a lot more. Julian is undoubtedly a great idol for me.
Saw Julien for the first time on “Chinese Bridge”. He was one of the judges. I was taken aback by how fluent his Mandarin was/is. His pronunciation is also flawless and accent-less.
Thanks Xiaoma. I’m going to start learning chinese. I’m from Spain and I’m musician too. Felicidades por tus videos, son entretenidos y animan a la gente a aprender nuevos idiomas.
his accent is crazy good but then he drops phrases like 见仁见智 into conversation. So legit!
What is that? I tried looking it up but got nothing
WOW. This is so cool. Thanks for making videos like this happen!
The guy speaks better Mandarin than many Chinese people in my view. He does sound like a Chinese host.
Thank you Xiaomanyc for continuing to provide us with high quality content. Greetings from Bogota, Colombia, South America.
Only learnt a few words of Chinese but I am fascinated by the language so I come to these videos often. As a Frenchman having lived in the UK for over 25 years, I have a reasonable grasp of English. Julien says his English is not as good as his Chinese, wow, f...me, his English is fantastic! (Even if American). His French substrate is discernible BUT you have to pay attention. I am in awe. Inspiring.
Amazing interview. It was great to hear Julian perpective of learning a language.
Bruh I don't speak Chinese at all but this dude sounds legit 😂
Absolutely amazing.
Well done, both of you!
You can never run out of people that motivate you to stick in learning a language to fluency!
Yooooo, hes so good its sounds like xiaoma is just learning
I started self-studying Chinese a week ago, and I'm very hungry to learn it
Then get off these videos and go study
@@ShakeruShien you got me Ling Ling... (2setviolin citation)
加油！
You should go eat something then. Always learn on a full stomach.
how's going
It seems like the highest form of respect for a culture is to learn their language, because it’s difficult it takes dedication. I respect them so much. I’m Latin American and I wish I had this type of dedication when learning Spanish. My family does but my parents don’t really have one specific reason they didn’t teach my siblings and I. My grandparents spoke to us and we’d answer in English. I do feel grateful for any amount I do understand and can speak but I’m not confident in it enough to speak it, so I still answer in English.
A real shame, same for me and my mother tongue Bengali. It’s important to speak your mother tongue to have a good sense of your cultural identity and maintain relationships with family. This is a real tragedy in my own life
My mother's father was an Italian immigrant but he died when she was very young. She doesn't know the language at all and I have been fighting to recover it. It will be my 4th language when I am fluent
This is a shame when this happens. When I was in Bolivia one of the people we were we with was from the US but one of her parents was Mexican, her Spanish was actually worse than mine.
I never learned my mothers lower German mother tongue but as long as my grandfather lives I might try to learn it when I get to make a vocabulary.
Just shows how one's passion really goes a long way. I wish to have the same thing too! Great video btw!!
thx...enjoy this ep w/ Julien...haven't seen him in a very long time...
holy
that is incredibly impressive
as someone who grew up speaking chinese at home
Thank you so much for making this happen..
Julien is such an interesting guy and so engaging to listen to, I could spend 10 hours a day listening to what he has to say
He really is. His intensity serves him well.
Very good insight from Julien at 41:53 about how nowadays, in America and in China, most of the pressure to censor oneself comes from peers ("cancel culture") rather than from authorities.
Cancle culture is initiated by the authorities/media complex
Listening to this guy talk about Chinese tongue twisters has convinced me that I haven't _really_ learned my native language!
Fascinating interview. Thanks for posting.
Great interview!
His Chinese is awfully good, but let’s hear him say ‘th’ in English.
😂
😂
His english isn't too bad tbh.
@@Namaster88 his english is better than 95% of french people
@@Nesggy exactly
Thanks again for new video.
Sounds to me like he is the best with the language because he wanted to be, and had the work ethic to make it happen. He was 100% dedicated to it. Obsessed. Love it!
Didn't anticipate spending over an hour listening, but this was worth every minute. Fascinating insights and highly entertaining.
You guys are great! I have been learning Mandarin on and off since 2011. Like Xioma stated in another video, you have to listen. I watch movies with out subtitles, that way I can recognize some words. I learn the 2008 Olympic song with the PinYin.
It's so brilliant to see two non native Chinese speakers speaking full on Mandarin 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Great interview, thanks for the exposure Xiaoma!
It is not often that I am able to appreciate quality conversation from individuals regarding interrelated topics! My brain thanks you.
I am totally amazed of Mr. Julien who speaks incredibly good Mandarin!
Well, his pronunciation is so native and smooth ☺
Wonderful video..both spoke well. Thanks for sharing it 👍🙂👏
OMG you interviewed my favorite foreigner speaking Chinese!!
your a very likeable young man and i love watching your clips. Bless you
Xiaoma and Julien, you guys are without a doubt the coolest Chinese language teachers on TH-cam!
I’ve always (as being half Chinese already) been so inspired to learn chinese and this really makes me want to learn (read and write) seeing him speak like that and have a career in China is so inspiring
I'm amazed at both his ability to speak Chinese in such a manner and his inability to blink while doing so! Julien rarely blinks!
Meanwhile Xiaoma...blinks so hard 🤣. Such contrast between the two
His years on television are showing!
So I guess the difference that everyone can tell is the way Julian is speaking fast with a perfect accent while xiaoma is taking pauses. The other dude is not even thinking about any words but you can sense that Xiaoma is trying to figure out words at some times.
Dude is incredible at english, too. Insane language skills. He must have lived in an english speaking country.
This is basic English for Europeans lol...
@@starlessnight1164 Actually, no, this is not the typical English skill for Europeans. His accent is almost natively American...VERY slight French accent. That rarely ever happens.
Apart from the accent, his English is good. There are many Europeans in the department where I work and most don't speak English this well. Actually some of them speak it surprisingly badly considering they have to present and write papers in English.
@@holliswilliams8426
Your anecdote doesn't mean fuckall.
My point is that his grasp of English is absolutely the fucking norm among English speaking Europeans. Ones that hold fluency level. It's not special in any way shape or form.
Very interesting conversation, thank you!
Julien is an inspiration. This is the second interview of his I've heard and he really reminds me of Luca Lampariello when he explains in detail!
I lived and worked in Singapore as an IT consultant for 5 years.
But my chinese can last for about a 3 minutes phone call. LOL
And these guys are making my senses go crazy. WOW
To be a linguistic is my second dream job.
Guys he's not sleeping. It's a tic caused by weather and allergies, especially if he wears contacts. It's a subconscious thing. I do it to sometimes. It can also be an anxious/nerve thing.
Great interview, Xiaoma
Wow Julien! I am American and I don't speak any Chinese, but you can hear Julien speaks so authentically! Like his accent sounds like he was born and raised there! And I can totally hear Xiaoma's American accent.
What I love about this interview is that he was so authentic and real about his learning journey. You can’t expect mastery at anything if you half-ass it and only dedicate 15 mins a day. This was such a good interview, just an exceptional human. This is definitely motivational when it comes to my own journey learning mandarin.
That's the thing about the insane classical musician work ethic - you apply it to anything, I mean ANYTHING, and you'll get really, really, really good at it in very short order.
I love how Xiaoma interviews so
politely
I‘m a bit “deranged” myself and enjoyed this interview immensely. To get to know another culture so well through the total mastering of its language is something I can relate to, totally. Came across this video by chance. Super happy. 🙏🏽
Guys: You are an inspiration.
Classical music is a perfect launch pad... as it's a pursuit where there is NO WHERE TO HIDE. Classical musicians are use to "stand and deliver" so Julien's work ethic was already well developed.
Inspiring, awesome love both of you
his translations are very on spot, as a chinese i can understand from both english and chinese this is so fun to watch
Wow!! Wow!! I literally cannot tell the difference between his speaking and a native speaker!! His whole voice changes!! This was awesome!
I can relate how he feels about learning Chinese or any language or music instruments.
Omg I've been watching your channel a lot and idk any Chinese but I watch a lot of Chinese drama and tvshows and I never really heard any difference in your Chinese but now that hear julien in a side to side comparison I can definitely hear a difference, he sounds just like the people in the cdrama I watch 🤣
The most important thing he said in my opinion is that people complimented him for being talented, but in fact, he was putting in 10 hours a day of practice. That has more to do with his accomplishment than talent. It's a great message for younger people, and why I think sports are a great example. You can't claim to be a victim, not put in the work or rely on others and get results. The pandemic has shown a lot of people would rather be taken care of rather than have the freedom to chase a dream. Do what this guy did. Overcome adversity and go get what you love.
100% agree.
So many were jealous of my accomplishments and some even told me God just gave them to me. They didn’t see me working 80 hours per week towards my goals. They didn’t see the sacrifices I made they were unwilling to make. They only saw the result and wanted to steal or devalue my success with calling it “luck”.
You don’t get lucky doing nothing. Even one has to buy a lottery ticket to win.
Now that sounds like some REAL WISDOM right there!
@@NathanHedglin Well put