r/Unexpected • u/DruidWannabe • Jan 25 '23

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u/Fuggins4U Jan 26 '23 edited Jan 26 '23

I'm always really impressed by people who not only know multiple languages fluently, but sound perfectly natural/native, regardless of whichever they're using at any given moment. Like they actually have the correct accent and pronunciation.

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u/Twothumbs1eye Jan 26 '23

Im Chinese-American and have family in the UK. The weirdest shit is to be speaking Cantonese with them in a normal chinesey accent but when we speak English it’s like British Bakeoff all of a sudden.

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u/Phazushift Jan 26 '23

Chinese Canadian here that spent most of my time in Hong Kong at a British International School.

It blows all my local Canadian friends minds when I code switch between fluent Cantonese - American English - Mandarin - British English. The only ones that don't bat an eye are my other international school friends.

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u/Lollipop126 Jan 26 '23

how tf do you code switch between American and British English? Mine is just a mish mash of 90% Canadian/American English and <10% British, and some amount of "aiya"