Awhile ago I came across a youtube clip done by two Chinese called Off The Great Wall. It’s Dan and Carmen, two young people who are Chinese but have spent most of their lives living abroad. They speak English natively and do funny/interesting videos about Chinese culture, language, and other things. I started with their now very popular clip about the complicated family tree (it’s mind boggling).
But my favorite video of theirs is the Egg (you know, white on the outside, yellow on the inside). It’s one of their funniest videos especially the whole “real chinese” part. (Dan “talking” to the girl is especially funny to me.)
You’ll notice there is a white guy in that video who busts out some mad Chinese named Ben Hedges. I followed his link at the end of his video and came across his Chinese language learning channel called Learn Chinese Now. The guy is a total goofball and his Chinese is amazing (he was born in Hong Kong and studied in Taiwan so he knows both Mandarin and Cantonese fluently). This is one of my favorite videos of his about when foreigners get tattoos in chinese.
But to actually learn Chinese? It’s too simple for me. It’s beginners stuff and while I liked watching and learning some of the culture stuff, I got a little bored. That’s why I really like his new channel called 老外看中国 A Foreigners View of China. They are videos of China all in Chinese with no English subtitles. He speaks clearly and at a normal speed so I can not only understand him, but feel really proud that I do. Here’s a video about a baby panda born in Taiwan.
If you notice in the first tattoo video of his, there is a girl who plays the waitress. Well, that girl has also shown up in Off The Great Wall’s videos and is part of a new channel called The Run List. The Run List is more a news based show that focuses on Chinese news, but not exclusively. They’ve done shows on organic food labels and such but mostly stick to Chinese topics such as Chinas’ reaction to Syria and the Bo Xilai trial. It’s much drier than the rest, but some topics are interesting.
I’m guessing that all these guys live in New York City because they keep popping up in each others youtube videos then disappearing for awhile, then popping up again. I’m kinda jealous because it looks like a fun group and I’d love to hang out and be in some of their videos. But until I go back to America someday I’ll just sit here in China and watch their videos and learn a thing or two while I’m at it.
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