Victor Mair has a post at the Log on a remarkable American woman in China; it begins: “The star of this popular Voice of America program is Jessica Beinecke (Bái Jié 白洁). Her Mandarin is quite amazing; indeed, I would say that it is nothing short of phenomenal.” Having listened to a fair amount of Mandarin from English-speakers (including myself, back when I lived in Taiwan), I too find it phenomenal, and encourage you to check out the sample videos he posts. There is, as usual, a good discussion in the comment thread.
OMG! American English.
May 9, 2015 by 4 Comments
> a remarkable American woman in China
I believe she’s actually in New York, which makes her skill all the more remarkable.
Oops, I missed that, and you’re absolutely right!
Impressive, though to me the most amazing thing about that post is that Victor wasn’t familiar with “Oh em gee.”
I remember silently watching bits of some silly Hollywood movie on a flight from Taiwan to the U.S., where the ubiquitous ‘OMG’ in the English dialogue was always subtitled 我的天 wo de tian ‘my god’.