hello,it's shy for me to talk here...

[katherine]

I'm just a student in senior high school in China.I don't have good skills in using English.But I'll try my best to share my thoughts with you!I like Tony and his films very much.I think you're the same with me.I'm so glad to come here and find so many friends!
_________________
I'm not a shining star,it's no need for this!

[news]

Welcome!

Well, one thing we have in common is that we like Tony's acting. You're the first one posted messgage on this Forum index!

My first day of Cantonese is about 2 weeks away from now and I hope that one day I would be able to write something in Chinese on this board. So, you've made quite an accomplishment of learning English!! I took four years of Mandarin in h.s. (high school), but I forgot most of it.

[Susie]

Katherine,

Honestly, your English is perfect. And this is a wonderful place for you to exercise your English skills, even when it may be imperfect at times. (But who is always perfect?)

The nice thing about the Internet is that anyone can overcome their shyness because we're basically anonymous. No one can see us so there should be less reason to be shy. I think, in contrast, people become more aggressive and assertive because of this anonymity, but that's not our deal on this site I'd like to think.

So be free with your thoughts and questions. More than likely, you'll have people who will be interested in engaging in a conversation with you, as news and I are.

[katherine]

[Susie]

thank u Susie! you gave me so many encouraging words.i really moved.i'll do my best to prove my English skills and talk fluently with you.i should say thank you again! [/quote]

I'm glad you're encouraged by my words. The Internet really is the best place for a shy person to become more outgoing because you really have nothing to lose. In fact, you can gain some friends from the Internet. If there were regular chats from this site (although it may be difficult with the fans being all over the world), I would bet some of us could become very good friends. Even without chats, you'll always find a friendly voice here.

Don't worry about your English. I've rarely come across perfect English (even I'm susceptible to bad English). As long as we understand what we're trying to say, it's all good.

From my attempt in learning other languages, I know that the only way you can improve your language skill is to simply use it. So make this forum your channel to use your English. If you have any English questions, I will do my best to answer them. (I don't have the best English grammar but I think it's more than passable.)

I wish I was even half as fluent as you are in English with Chinese (either Cantonese or Mandarin). I feel I am hopeless in being able to memorize the Chinese characters.

That leads me to ask News where you are studying Cantonese? Are you studying it in a Chinese school or a broad language school like Berlitz?

Maybe when I'm more disciplined I might try to wing it via a language software program that I can run on my computer.

[news]

Susie,

It took me a long, long time to find a school that offers Cantonese class for adult in Boston, MA area. There are several places offer Cantonese & Mandarin classes in my town, but almost all of them are for little kids.

I'm enrolling with Boston Language Institute (BLI) http://www.bostonlanguage.com/ and it runs for eight weeks span. It meets 3 hours per week. I don't know where you live, but you can try your local language school in your town. Besides BLI, Boston Adult Ed and Cambridge Adult Ed also offer Mandarin classes for adults for an inexpensive price for a month and half.

Being able to speak another language other than my native language is such an accomplishment for me that's why I give Cantonese a shot. I think if you don't give your best effort into something then you would never know the outcome. Having said that if you ever anticipate of learning Chinese I think you should. I think you're a good writer and you epxress thought very well.

I enjoy writing tremendously, but my writing needs some improvement. Like you said practice makes perfect and so until you attempt to learn Chinese then you would never you know how would you perform. This is based on my assumption that you haven't learned Chinese ever before.

Base on my personal experience I find that by enrolling into school it motivates me to learn more and it's more effecient than self-taught. I bought a Cantonese book about 7 years ago and I have never passed chapter 3 due to lack of motivation.

Speaking of language, I have always curious when and how did Tony Leung his English which I think his English is quite good and his pronuciation is clear based on clips that I saw on CNN.

[Gal]

hey News,
when did tony go on CNN?

I saw the making of Hero, and Tony's English pales in comparision to Donnie Yen's and Maggie's. But not too bad i guess.

[Susie]

News,

Thank you for your information. I don't live in the Boston area so I won't be able to go to those schools you listed. I think there may be some classes offered under the experimental branch of the state university here. But as you said, if one can't put in the total effort, it's going to be wasted. I've learned French throughout high school and I'm not remotely fluent even though I received nothing but A's. And regretfully I lost a lot of my fluency in my native language - Cantonese - from my assimilation in the States. I never went to Chinese school (not that there is one in my area) like how many Chinese children are enrolled in Chinese school in addition to their regular American schools as the case is in San Francisco. So I'm hopelessly illiterate in Chinese, but I'm barely fluent in conversational Cantonese. I can still get by with oral Cantonese.

I'm thinking my best hope is language immersion because when I was in Hong Kong for about a month, even my relatives noticed that my Cantonese improved. So I may one day spend an extended time in Hong Kong, maybe even work there for a while.

I think being fluent in multiple languages is an achievement to be proud of. Good luck and success in your language studies.

[anon]

Donnie Yen's English may be better than Tony's because he grew up in the States along with having his younger childhood in Hong Kong/China from what I've read.

Maggie spent some time in England for school so her English should be excellent.

As for Tony, from what I've heard, his English is very good. It has an Asian British hybrid accent (like Maggie and Michelle Yeoh). Only occasionally (and rarely) does his English seem disjointed or awkward (maybe from not knowing what to say).

Even though English is taught in HK, fluency isn't a guarantee. And I would think that during the time Tony was growing up in HK, English might not have been as readily taught in schools. But I may be wrong.

So it's impressive that he has such a command of English and Mandarin, along with HK's dominant dialect of Cantonese.

To answer the question about Tony's interview with CNN, there was a video clip sometime back that was posted here. (I think it was in promotion of ITMFL.) There was also a link to a radio interview where you can hear him conversing in English with the interviewer.

[news]

Susie and Gal,

Just arrived to work and also just finished reading the responses. I don't have time to reply to your message, but will do when I have spare time later.

Take care,

[news]

Anon and Gal,

It's true that Donnie Yen grew up in US and in fact his mom has a martial art school right in Boston, so his English without question should be good or better than Tony. I don't know much info about Maggie's education background, but since she used to marry to a non-Chinese husband, her English skill without a doubt is good as well.

I saw clips posted on this site (Sandy) and with his busy schedule and such a diligent guy lilke him ever since he joined the entertainment the result of his current English skill is very impressive!!

Tony's interview with CNN can be found at http://www.tonyleung.org/multimedia/videoclip.shtml
I have strong "gut" instinct that it's just a matter of time that Tony will invade into the US's entertainment business. He's waiting for the right/good script. His talents are too precious to go unnoticed by American/world audiences.

[mu99le]

This is how Tony got his nearly-perfect English (taken from older news in Sandy's site):

Asked how he learned English, Tony said even though he never took any professional training classes, but as a kid he attended Kindergarden strictly taught in English. Later on in life, he had many opportunities of communicating English with foreign crew members. The key of learning any language is not be afraid of asking. Don't shy away from speaking, or asking for help.

the clips of complete interview's here:

http://www.tonyleungcw.org/caifang/english1.zip
http://www.tonyleungcw.org/caifang/english2.zip

there, you know it now. I know many ppl who have inner "art" talent so they can learn any languages swiftly even though they learn them informally, and I'm sure Tony's one of them. Don't mean to boast, but I'm among those "social sciences" ppl who hate maths and have big passion of reading and language, so I can master my English quickly even though I only learn it in school and rarely use it in my everyday conversations. That said, I feel inferior to many of you guys who have excellent English (especially Susie, news, and Sandy) and I'm challenged to use this forum to improve my skills more.

[Susie]

From your previous posts, you've been modest about your English. But I assure you that most of the time, your English is very good. The mistakes you sometimes may make are very minor and they don't detract from getting what you're trying to say.

It's enviable to have a natural ear for languages. I don't have it.

Yes, the only way to improve is to force yourself to practice your newly learned language when you can. As I've offered to Katherine, if you need any help in your English, please feel free to ask. I don't like to correct people's grammar unsolicited because I think that is obnoxious. (Besides, sometimes my grammar needs correction! ) If you want the help though, I will try my best or I'll research for the correct answer.

[mu99le]

Thank you for your compliment, Susie! That's why I post as many messages as I can here since I enjoy practicing my English and to be able to share the same interests in a shared language is a rare experience! And for me, your grammar is flawless!

[caidanbi]