Non-Chinese Cantonese speakers

[Quest]

There's no problem with people speaking with accents, but the fact that a white girl speaks Cantonese extremely fluently with zero accent is still a rare occurence, and that makes it interesting. It's interesting to me because I have never seen another person like her, not because it's unimaginable that a native born natively raised girl can speak the local language.

[wannabeafreak]

It's interesting to me because I have never seen another person like her, not because it's unimaginable that a native born natively raised girl can speak the local language.

Yes you have...

Corrina and Sharon Balcome. That's 2.

[calibre2001]

OK she's not alive anymore but she learnt the Ningbo dialect instead

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiang_Fang-liang

http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache:zl7ChrqXxkQJ:www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-01/12/content_408126.htm+chiang+kai+shek+dialect&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=27&gl=uk&client=firefox-a

[tooironic]

maybe I'm out of the loop, but is there something similiar on youtube, featuring Mandarin-speaking foreigners?

[huisheng]

Try "dashan" or "大山" on YouTube.

[floatingmoon]

Gregory Charles Rivers 河國榮

Anyone heard of him? He speak fluent and clear Cantonese, and been involved in many TVB productions for years.

A while ago, I saw a interview of him. It's interesting to know how he steps into the HK media career.

[huisheng]

I have a feeling he's gay. He used to be a student at my old school where he studied medicine for a year. Seeing Leslie Cheung in one occasion in Australia, he decided to go to Hong Kong where his idol was based. He did and has never gone back since.

[floatingmoon]

>_> ah....He is already married.

+.+ also, it's not a big deal to be gay/les.

[huisheng]

I didn't say it was, did I? But it's worth telling. I'm watching 同事三分亲. The actor who plays 韦一 is another Cantonese speaking foreigner.

[calibre2001]

I read somewhere that he has already left TVB.....

[floatingmoon]

I read somewhere that he has already left TVB.....

Yes, 河國榮 left TVB, that's sad....less chance to see him on tv. But I hope audience get to see him in other media production in the future.

Am I his fans? um...not really. But he is one of the actor that I like to see in drama.

[wannabeafreak]

Gregory Charles Rivers 河國榮

Anyone heard of him? He speak fluent and clear Cantonese, and been involved in many TVB productions for years.

A while ago, I saw a interview of him. It's interesting to know how he steps into the HK media career.

Did you even bother to read this thread or just decide to read the last page and decide to post this?

I have a feeling he's gay. He used to be a student at my old school where he studied medicine for a year. Seeing Leslie Cheung in one occasion in Australia, he decided to go to Hong Kong where his idol was based. He did and has never gone back since.

What rubbish are you on? He's been married for 20 years. I met both him and his his wife.

[Quest]

This is mandarin, but whose daughter is this:

Have you spent more time on Chinese than she's been alive?

[huisheng]

First of all, I have nothing against him or gay people. And I think one has issues thinking being called gay is offensive. I'd offer an apology if Mr Rivers finds what I said offensive though. I saw his name in the famous UNSW alumni list on Wikipedia. As the information there said he was a Hong Kong-based actor, I was tempted to learn more about him. Unfortuantly what I got from googling is pretty much what I said previously. So I assumed he was 40-ish and single. UNSW is one of the best Unis in the country and people are dying to get into Medicine. Since he gave up his study and thus a promising career opportunity because of his obsession over Cheung, and supposedly he was never married, I suspected he was gay. Being gay makes one a minority. Being a minority makes one different. Being different is worth knowing. This is how my logic went.

[LaVandez]

This is the new reality that's creeping up on people who haven't been keeping watch. This is going to be more and more common and less of a shock to people. I like having these people out there who are just tearing it up when it comes to the language it's great to aspire to even if you never reach the top of the mountain.

[skylee]

Stephen Selby did a press conference (about protection of the Beijing Olympics brand) in Cantonese yesterday. Take a look if you are interested -> http://webcast2.info.gov.hk/pc2008/020808f.wvx

He was good, very fluent (although 推出正版正貨 became 退出正版正貨 ).

[Hoy Sum Fu]

Accent seems to be abit more important to cantonese natives when spoken by foregners in general. When I use my cantonese to a chinese stranger, after abit of shock that a caucasian is speaking cantonese at all(the monkey talked:wink:)the facination often dwindles to stern concideration of my accent (my accent is poor at best). But, at least in my experience, usually in a nice way. I'm so glad to hear so many none chinese do speak canto . However, I was suprised during my stay in HK how many caucasians who had been there so long knew little, if any native tongue (maybe I just didn't run into many). Funny enough, I seem to be accepted to speak chinese by older folks than younger over all. I do tai gik kuen with old timers in my hood and they are always very cool and in general easier to understand than the kids.

I must admit, I dislike language snobbery where ever I encounter it. When english speakers get down on new immigrants that haven't 'mastered' english yet it cheeses me.

I can understand them fine, what's wrong with extending alittle attention? To me, accent is like the cultural and artistic sensibility of a region described in tone. Since I am not a native HK I chose an accent that I thought was nice and stick to it,trying to 'feel' the twang.

[Hoy Sum Fu]

Probably most of the accent issue is just aesthetics.

In english, some accents really are attractive sounding to most natives. For instance, many find french, italian, russian sound very 'sexy' or interesting when thick in english.

Others are not perceved so.

Is this the same in cantonese? Do some foreign accents sound better in Chinese than others. Do closer regeional languages tend to sound better than others far way:roll:? (This rules some what applies to the romantic languages)

Although I can recongnise different accents in cantonese, I don't really have much discernment:roll:

[xieco]

>>Accent seems to be abit more important to cantonese natives when spoken by foregners in general.

I agree. If you do talk to me, I'd have the same shocks too, indeed. Tones are so important to my ears that, frankly, a slight accent already sounds out of tune. Indeed, natives, such as many of those in HK, often poke fun at "other-Chinese" accents by imitating them in a stupid way - let's say, the accents that they imagine, which belong to some imaginary, poor and stupid immigrants from somewhere else - I dunno. The typical stereotyped accent is the Mandarin-based one. And... I did meet people who went as far as to say the Guangzhou accent was 1) more standard than us, hence "oh, poor me/us" responses, or 2) that's not even standard at all! Guangzhou is village-talk, ours (Hong Kong) IS the standard. My parents ARE from Guangzhou, so their and my accent is a mixed one, and ... regardless of this, I don't see any distinctions except in a small part of vocab.

>>Since I am not a native HK I chose an accent that I thought was nice and stick to it,trying to 'feel' the twang.

As a young learner of some other tongues, I do feel the same. I'd only hesitate for seconds before speaking a foreign tongue... back with some inserters from Cantonese/Mandarin (both are Chinese, I think). I mean, like when I speak English, I often end up adding a lot of "em", "aha"...dunno if that's English, but maybe that's the last twang I want to retain in my own accent. It doesn't feel a part of mine to speaking entirely NOT like me - perhaps that's true for you too.

>>Is this the same in cantonese? Do some foreign accents sound better in Chinese than others.

Maybe people (me included) are more used to a Mandarin-based accent. I hear that much more often than any others. Well, as you might know or you might "know" through observations, I personally hardly (that's my problem, hopefully) meet ANY foreigners who do learn Cantonese. If someone does, s/he must be terribly interested, and s/he must be somewhere in forums like this one, or has something to do with Hong Kong, in particular - teaching Chinese stuff as a foreigner, studying Cantonese as a subject, having a native-speaking wife or something. I did meet a couple of them, and yeah, they somehow keep the twang you talk about.

So my problem with comprehension is, since foreign (i.e. non-Chinese) accents are so "sporadically" heard only, they are difficult to comprehend. But naturally, you know, the more you hear of someone's accent - your non-native speaking friend, or someone else, you get to know much better how that person speaks in that language.