background and being creative its
spontaneity that really spurs my love
for life and when ever moments become
really kind of dry or dead or depressing
I usually changed my voice so every time
I might walk out of a door I might
change my accent and it came from a love
for exploring the world of sound I was
born with only one ear that was hearing
and that actually exploded me into the
world of sound and to be able to take
sounds apart in my new detail and that
led me to explore languages Cantonese
Cantonese it’s not hard at all it’s
chanting easy it’s even in the name of
the language itself that we can tone
with ease
it’s not called cannot Tony’s for a
it’s really unbelievable that I’m
standing here today talking about
Cantonese because if you talked to
anyone who knew me before 2015 Chinese
with the last language that I wanted to
learn because I was too busy getting
was really lucky to have him brought up
in international schools throughout my
childhood and we were surrounded by
people who were from different countries
and since I was five I really enjoyed
meeting friends from different countries
so I learned phrases like know take a
take a Mustang Gasol and no he Patti no
moon or a in Korean which meant you’re
very ugly and your teeth are very yellow
which was very funny when we were seven
years old I still remember the friend
who taught me how to say aapke Nam keahi
we frequented a Turkish restaurant
almost every other day yeoksam lard
NASA’s zoom eadamson and my first friend
I met when I was interviewing at the
Ruskin he was polish his name was
caustic and he showed me a drawing I
said what’s that mean and there was this
letter L with the stroke across it
he said that letter is L war
Panama’s war mr. butter it was a little
yellow cartoon character with big googly
eyes and over the years we developed a
strong friendship and I often went to
Poland with him and he taught me more
and more polish so one day we were at a
club in Warsaw and he I initiated him to
translate the song for me one more time
by Daft Punk so it goes
yes Jared’s Benjamin Shabab each attack
Otaki Jimmy Tong Cheech and it was
resonating with people on that level in
their home language that was the
equivalent of the meaning of life for me
it’s an experience that can be more
precious than a plane ticket to go to a
new city because essentially you’re
visiting a part of their heart and their
and so Cantonese two years ago I found
myself teaching Cantonese in Berkeley
this friend was teaching Portuguese it
suddenly dawned on me that one of the
most important things about tonal
languages is that if you use a different
tone it’s another meaning so it was
really important for me to show him
exactly where the tones started and
where i’ma go I don’t want my opinion
Mayo puto no hana mahad opinion I
learned how to speak Putin while without
having to deal with any of the Chinese
characters because there is this really
great consistent system where you read
the words you look at the symbols and
you know exactly how to say it why
wasn’t there an equivalent system for
Cantonese without a lot of numbers and
extraneous symbols above and below the
letters and letters that imply a tonal
change
there are even tonal accents that try to
differentiate between tones that are
different I thought all of this is so
absurd and yet on one hand you have
people who don’t know how to say Hong
Kong in the local language so I’m going
I’m going to show you by putting out
your hand one hand is your tonal device
doremi faso in just five tones you can
say the entire cantonese and putin wah
language I found that the nine tones
while I was trying to notate exactly
where the tones were for my friends the
bass down I notated the scale all the
way from doremi faso Lotito but actually
the whole language only existed within
the Remi Faso and at some point we
needed to write tone symbols because it
would be inconvenient to have to draw
the tone chart out every time so out of
curiosity I plotted the symbols out for
puto ha no no no no
and so both languages turned out to
exist within doremi faso and at some
point i looked at my hand and said well
if it was always so much brain work to
try and remember these tones it could be
much easier if we remembered certain
movement patterns with the sense of
hong kong the legendary fragrant Harbor
hung Gong Gong
now how about some words about where we
are today tune one
Ling nan University how do you say that
in Cantonese turn more perfect Lingnan
University Lane by Hart Lane Die Linke
Nam big school big school meaning
University now you never know when you
kept your phones out so please
please one cup of hot coffee
mmm Boyet bui
Goffin mmm boy yeah boy
ye yatha can you hear this song in the
phrase and actually from now on if you
listen to the musicality of people
speaking even in english nanana nana
there’s a certain song to it nananana
nanana and saying cantonese without
tones is the equivalent of singing songs
without the melody mispronouncing
Cantonese words is like saying Merry
Christmas
as Merry Christmas we don’t have the CH
sound in Cantonese we still see chow
mein on menus instead of tau mean which
I would spell with TS so seeing
Cantonese without the tones and the
right pronunciation
is a total killjoy without the true
Cantonese spirit like singing we wish
you a Merry Christmas we wish you a
Merry Christmas we wish you Merry
Christmas and a Happy New Year
I’m done remember the language is not
called cannot tone easy or cannot Tony’s
it’s can Tony’s tonal languages are
amongst the world’s most difficult
languages to learn as quoted by the
Foreign Service Foreign Service
Institute for diplomat training as the
languages requiring the most amount of
hours to learn with the chance and easy
method that might change because now
Cantonese Putin hua Thai and Vietnamese
can be contained on your hand II earth
sounds Leo Qi ba Jiu Tai Ning song Sam
see ha ha check that GAO’s Vietnamese
move Kaiba Nam bye
I forgot the phrase oh no Dom Jean boy 1
to 10 on your hand think about it
you [Applause]