Fred Cheng Reveals His Chinese is at Primary-school Level
Born and raised in Canada, Fred Cheng (鄭俊弘) revealed that his Chinese skills are only rudimentary. Although he studied three years of Chinese, his Chinese language skills are only at the level of primary-school children. This caused Fred to have a difficult adjustment when he returned to Hong Kong in 2001 to pursue an entertainment career.
“When I first moved to Hong Kong, I had to constantly refer to a dictionary when reading my script; I only understood about 60 percent of the lyrics I was singing!” Appointed the ambassador of a national campaign that encourages creative writing among secondary school students in Hong Kong, Fred said, “It’s rather ironic,” but expressed admiration for the quality of writing possessed by Chinese lyricists, stating that he was much more confident when writing lyrics in English.
On the subject of TVB recently allowing non-contract singers to appear on the station’s programs, Fred is not worried about his own reduced exposure. He said, “This is a good thing, as it increases the variety of singers who appear onstage at TVB. I never regarded increased competition as a problem.”
As for whether TVB revised their long-time policies due to recent absence of popular singers, Fred said, “I don’t know. Actually it’s interesting to see famous singers and new talents perform together. This is adds novelty to the audience experience.”
Due to his popularity, Fred will be fully booked with job commitments this Christmas. While he will be unable to spend the holiday with family and friends, he looks forward to sharing the time with fans.
This article is written by Jingles for JayneStars.com.
he can speak cantonese really well, difficult to believe that chinese is not his primary language. anyway, my chinese is also at primary school level but i can still get by with reading the newspaper…well mostly….
I agree. He does speak Cantonese very well for someone who was born and raised in Canada. He doesn’t have an accent like Eliza Sam and other actors who were born outside of Hong Kong. I would have expected that he can read Chinese. I’m from Canada too but I wasn’t born here. I immigrated here when I was 6 and I can speak, read, and write Chinese.
Jasmine,
It depends on how strongly Chinese is enforced at home. Since Fred has a close relationship with his grandma, that helps as he has a chance to speak with her.
If he grew up watching TVB, that increases his listening fluency as well.
I agree with Jayne’s comment. Environment is a huge factor.
If you had emigrated to Canadda at 6, it means you did not even learn Chinese at primary school level.
So how is it you can speak, read and write Chinese?
And btw, if you had learned up to primary 6 of Chinese, you already have a good handle on Chinese for everyday use and can read and write novels and newspapers.
Only thing let is to brush up and improve, not a problem since the base is there.
Some Chinese-Canadian can’t even speak English properly. Same for him too. Have you heard him speak in English. Lol
Not a big deal, really. Many people immigrate to the states or Canada at a young age. It’s a privilege if your parents can afford to put you in a Chinese school so that you can continue with where you left off. Even better if you can commit your time to your Chinese school studies. Unfortunately, not everyone has that privilege.
I agree. My siblings quit going to Chinese school which is unfortunate. I kept up the studies and am able to read the newspaper in Chinese however, if I watch an ancient chinese series, it is a bit hard to understand some of it (if they are reciting poems and couplets, I don’t really understand it too well; I can however understand at least 90% of what they are saying). Hope he keeps it up.
LOL, It’s as if they speak a foreign language in some of those ancient series! Thumbs up to you for understanding 90% of what they’re saying. I would have to rely on subtitles for a while before I get there.
What’s the big deal?
My Chinese is even worst than him cause I can’t even write my own name in Chinese. Many Singaporean students tends to forget what they have learnt in 2nd language (Simplified Chinese, Malay and Tamil) classes back in collage days cause it is not a requirement in Polytechnics and Universities.
In short English language is king in Singapore and if you are weak or do not know English you can forget about getting an office jobs cause more than 95% of the jobs in Singapore requires English.
Wow!!! That’s a very big Surprise for Fred!!!! My chinese is sort of bad but at least my Cantonese is at better….hehehe!!!
Huh? What then of Jason Chan, Eliza, etc etc etc?
Very surprise. He does not have any foreign accent at all. Furthermore, his cantonese is better than some HK born people because his diction is clear and he has no ‘lazy tone’.
Btw, love the themesongs he sang for TVB, especially the themesong of ‘Cold Mountain’ and ‘The Ultimate Addiction’. He sang with so much feelings.
Agree with you! This artist is worth to support!
so true!
me too! i think so too btw he’s Cantonese is pretty good then the other actors such as Eliza Sam! ^^
Fred speaks well on Cantonese and he does not have any foreign accent when speaking cantonese. His mandarin isnt bad too.
Glad to see him from “Nobody” to “Somebody” now and very proud of his achievements for the past one year. Look forward to his second album in 2015!
Just met him recently in Malaysia and he is a very nice guy. We sang the song -“Panda” together with him and it was so touching. Proud of you, Fred! Add oil!
He’s one of the very few overseas born TVB artists who can speak Cantonese fluently and with no accents.
Support Fred!
Like the way Fred speaks Cantonese. Very natural and clear.
What a humble guy.
I was surprised when finding out he is a CBC too. Some seasoned DJ’s have commented Fred’s Chinese conversation is sophisticated, and his performance in a RTHK radio drama could melt your heart, he could act with his voice. He mentioned before he spent lots of time reading out now. It is sad many actors/actresses could hardly speak clearly in dramas, let alone act with their voices.
His Cantonese is so good, I was actually surprise to learn that he was from Canada:).
I am not from HK yet I speak very fluent cantonese. In fact my friends say I speak like a Hong Kong. Thanks to TVB “teacher”.
hahah me too! i learn most of my Cantonese phrases from TVB dramas.
i always thought Fred could read chinese but honestly in TVB nowadays it dont really matter anymore lol
i just finished watching over achievers, i was sooo dissapointed at the end, they rushed it so much and it completely was too forward… like wayne and his friends somehow figured hugo was the bad guy without any evidence.. they guessed the whole murder… and the end was so bad, hugo jus gets killed by dee , they should have made him go to jail by using evidence, i thought that nancy wu’s character was going to pretend to like him and go undercover to get evidence about him to send him to jail