<p>Maybe it is difficult for English speakers to learn the four tones of Mandarin. 
When you read Chinese characters in a sentence all with a high level tone or falling tone, it sounds like a foreigner who has not mastered oral Mandarin. This phenomenon of imitating foreigners' accents always occurs in Chinese films and TV series.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-03-26T11:48:36.857Z
Here's an example of this imitation of tones: http://youtu.be/Yhxg3tFIldY?t=4m56s
congusbongus
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-03-26T09:46:21.293Z
2014-03-26T09:46:21.293Z
Qingrong
<p>English as far as I know is represented by just making some crazy "lul-lul-lul" noises (I'm sorry I really don't know how to describe it -- it's the sound that sounds like "lul-lul-lul" while your tongue is being pushed out of your mouth and then brought back in again, kind of like the sounds babies make)....</p>

<p>－－－－</p>

<p>I've heard Sichuan people say "剥了壳壳吃米米" to make fun of the way Japanese people speak (the phrase itself does have meaning too though - it's just unrelated to the topic)...</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-03-27T10:09:19.553Z
2014-03-27T10:09:19.553Z
Mou某
<p>It's rare nowadays since most educated Chinese people can speak English more or less. In China, English class starts from junior high school. And it is mandatory for a person to get junior high school education at least. Some parents even teach their kids English in kindergarten.</p>

<p>Even when people with less English education try to impersonate English speaker, they are actually speaking simple but legit English phrase like "Yes sir. No sir. Madam. Thank you. I love you."
I can only recall some expression used in the generation of my grandparents (now 80/90 years old) referring English writing as "豆芽脚脚" (the tail section of beam sprouts).</p>

<p>No offense, but English is not that hard comparing to Chinese. </p>

<p>However, some people do imitate how foreigners speak Chinese.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-12-06T09:26:57.590Z
2014-12-06T09:26:57.590Z
AKFish
<p>I do not mean to cause offence with this question; I ask only to potentially become better acquainted with Chinese vernacular, and, I must admit, a little out of curiosity.</p>

<p>A politically incorrect and borderline racist way for an English speaker to stereotype the sound of spoken Chinese is "ching chong ching chong" or variant thereof.</p>

<p>Do the Chinese have an equivalent standard gibberish for impersonating English speakers or other westerners?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-03-23T14:16:56.593Z
Interesting question, but I can't recall any -- maybe there're some for Japanese speakers.
Stan
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-03-23T19:46:47.483Z
I am aware of some gibberish that do other Asian languages, as well as those do Chinglish or Hinglish, but not any for standard UK or US English.
NS.X.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-03-24T05:52:36.483Z
叽哩哇啦 maybe? Usually means speaking loudly, but can also refer to someone talking in an incomprehensible language (to an outsider, they are simply shouting out nonsense). But this is not specific to any language and is not particularly offensive.
deutschZuid
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-03-24T10:35:58.383Z
I can't think of any. Maybe it's because most syllables in Chinese begins and ends with vowel, which makes it hard to imitate English with Chinese. But we do imitate how foreigners speak Chinese, and sometimes in an offensive way.
arax
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-03-24T14:05:33.987Z
Care to describe how that would sound @AlexSu?
Mike Chamberlain
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-03-26T13:17:56.897Z
@MikeChamberlain just read every word in the first tone.
Archeosudoerus
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-03-26T15:30:06.330Z
The only thing I can recall (which is rude) is 鸟语or说鸟语(may refer to all Western languages)..
Bolu
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-03-26T19:48:21.587Z
鸟语or说鸟语 is used to mean that someone speaks foreign languages or some Chinese dialects that are totally not understandable, but it is not for imitating. For imitating foreign speakers, we just intentionally put the wrong tones on the characters in a sentence. But this is only for fun, not offending at all.
孤影萍踪
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-12-05T21:19:13.113Z
The closest I have heard (as Alex Su says) is friends imitating Americans speaking Chinese -- and the imitation is entirely flat of tone.
Colin McLarty
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-06-13T13:01:09.300Z
@deutschZuid I looked up 叽哩哇啦 on my Pleco which has a number of decent dictionaries bundled in it and none of them had it. I couldn't find anything with the pinyin jiliwala (minus the tones). Could it be you're thinking of 滴里嘟噜 (di1li5du1lu1)?
goPlayerJuggler
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-06-28T21:25:23.873Z
@goPlayerJuggler No, I meant 叽哩哇啦. 滴里嘟噜 is to talk in a quiet and secretive manner, opposite to what 叽哩哇啦 means. Just google it really. First result: http://www.zdic.net/c/d/72/115829.htm
deutschZuid
<slang>
Do the Chinese have a (potentially politically incorrect) way of imitating English speakers?
# Do the Chinese have a (potentially politically incorrect) way of imitating English speakers?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2014-03-23)

I do not mean to cause offence with this question; I ask only to potentially become better acquainted with Chinese vernacular, and, I must admit, a little out of curiosity.

A politically incorrect and borderline racist way for an English speaker to stereotype the sound of spoken Chinese is "ching chong ching chong" or variant thereof.

Do the Chinese have an equivalent standard gibberish for impersonating English speakers or other westerners?

**Tags:** slang

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Interesting question, but I can't recall any -- maybe there're some for Japanese speakers.  
> **username_2**: I am aware of some gibberish that do other Asian languages, as well as those do Chinglish or Hinglish, but not any for standard UK or US English.  
> **username_3**: 叽哩哇啦 maybe? Usually means speaking loudly, but can also refer to someone talking in an incomprehensible language (to an outsider, they are simply shouting out nonsense). But this is not specific to any language and is not particularly offensive.  
> **username_4**: I can't think of any. Maybe it's because most syllables in Chinese begins and ends with vowel, which makes it hard to imitate English with Chinese. But we do imitate how foreigners speak Chinese, and sometimes in an offensive way.  
> **username_0**: Care to describe how that would sound @AlexSu?  
> **username_5**: @MikeChamberlain just read every word in the first tone.  
> **username_6**: The only thing I can recall (which is rude) is 鸟语or说鸟语(may refer to all Western languages)..  
> **username_7**: 鸟语or说鸟语 is used to mean that someone speaks foreign languages or some Chinese dialects that are totally not understandable, but it is not for imitating. For imitating foreign speakers, we just intentionally put the wrong tones on the characters in a sentence. But this is only for fun, not offending at all.  
> **username_8**: The closest I have heard (as Alex Su says) is friends imitating Americans speaking Chinese -- and the imitation is entirely flat of tone.  
> **username_9**: @username_3 I looked up 叽哩哇啦 on my Pleco which has a number of decent dictionaries bundled in it and none of them had it. I couldn't find anything with the pinyin jiliwala (minus the tones). Could it be you're thinking of 滴里嘟噜 (di1li5du1lu1)?  
> **username_3**: @username_9 No, I meant 叽哩哇啦. 滴里嘟噜 is to talk in a quiet and secretive manner, opposite to what 叽哩哇啦 means. Just google it really. First result: http://www.zdic.net/c/d/72/115829.htm  

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## 3 answers

### Answer by username_10 on 2014-03-26. Score: 3

Maybe it is difficult for English speakers to learn the four tones of Mandarin.
When you read Chinese characters in a sentence all with a high level tone or falling tone, it sounds like a foreigner who has not mastered oral Mandarin. This phenomenon of imitating foreigners' accents always occurs in Chinese films and TV series.

> **Comments:**
> **username_11**: Here's an example of this imitation of tones: http://youtu.be/Yhxg3tFIldY?t=4m56s  

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### Answer by username_12 on 2014-03-27. Score: 1

English as far as I know is represented by just making some crazy "lul-lul-lul" noises (I'm sorry I really don't know how to describe it -- it's the sound that sounds like "lul-lul-lul" while your tongue is being pushed out of your mouth and then brought back in again, kind of like the sounds babies make)....

－－－－

I've heard Sichuan people say "剥了壳壳吃米米" to make fun of the way Japanese people speak (the phrase itself does have meaning too though - it's just unrelated to the topic)...


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### Answer by username_13 on 2014-12-06. Score: 0

It's rare nowadays since most educated Chinese people can speak English more or less. In China, English class starts from junior high school. And it is mandatory for a person to get junior high school education at least. Some parents even teach their kids English in kindergarten.

Even when people with less English education try to impersonate English speaker, they are actually speaking simple but legit English phrase like "Yes sir. No sir. Madam. Thank you. I love you."
I can only recall some expression used in the generation of my grandparents (now 80/90 years old) referring English writing as "豆芽脚脚" (the tail section of beam sprouts).

No offense, but English is not that hard comparing to Chinese.

However, some people do imitate how foreigners speak Chinese.


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