Christine Kuo and Grace Wong on Overcoming Language Barrier
One is from Toronto; the other is from New York. One can trace her heritage back to the aboriginal Taiwanese tribes, while the other has Fuzhou as her ancestral home. On the surface, Christine Kuo (苟芸慧) and Grace Wong (王君馨) do not appear to share much in common, but those who know the TVB stars well will notice that they are actually quite alike.
Christine and Grace immediately bonded when they first met each other on the stage of TVB’s Miss Chinese International Pageant in 2009. Christine was a contestant, while Grace, the runner-up at the 2007 Miss Hong Kong Pageant, was the guest performer.
“At the time, [Grace] and Ron Ng (吳卓羲) had to perform “Passionate Desert” <熱情的沙漠> together!” exclaimed Christine.
“Yes!” responded Grace. “At the time, half of the girls (contestants) had to dance with Ron, while the other half danced with me. Christine was in my group.”
Overcoming Language Barrier
Both first generation North American immigrants, Christine and Grace shared one thing in common – language barriers. The beauty queens struggled through criticisms of their poor Cantonese since coming to Hong Kong. This was especially hard for the Mandarin-speaking Christine, who did not learn Cantonese until after she joined the beauty pageant.
“Not only do we have to learn how to speak the language, we also have to learn about Chinese culture,” said Christine. “A simple phrase can have so many different meanings. That was why I went through a period of self-struggle; I was thinking too much, with too many thoughts racing through my head. Was that phrase meant to be positive or negative? As a gwaimui, that is a big challenge to overcome!”
Christine continued, “When I first joined the industry, I would hear people say, ‘Let’s have tea when we have time!’ But that doesn’t really mean that they will have tea. I didn’t understand this at first, because in the past, when I say let’s have tea, I really meant it! It turns out that this phrase is another way to say ‘See you later’! Also, when I was filming Super Snoops <荃加福祿壽探案>, whenever [the cast] would say ‘Kill you’, I would get really confused and think why they wanted to kill me!”
Grace jumped in, “I can understand. Sometimes when I don’t enunciate clearly, I’ll sound like I’m speaking profanity. This is really embarrassing, especially in front of seniors!”
“That is the most stressful thing!” Christine nodded in agreement. “As public figures, our area of influence is large; for example, our actions can affect children. The more we worry about it, the more mistakes we will make.”
Grace recalled an incident when she pronounced “zahk yu chung” (Quarry Bay) as “gaht yu chun” and no one understood what she was talking about when she was asking for directions. “My adventures at the restaurants are even funnier. I pronounced ‘siu maai’ (燒賣) as ‘siu mai’ (燒米) and ‘dahn taht’ (蛋撻) as ‘dahn kah’ (蛋卡). I also mispronounced ‘hah fu cho’ (夏枯草) as ‘hup fu cho’ (合枯草). The funny thing is, I also spoke it that way when I was in New York, but no one bothered to correct me!”
Christine expressed that she has been really embarrassed by her poor Cantonese, and praised Grace for her courage. “She is willing to speak despite the flaws. When I ride taxis, I would be too embarrassed to speak to the driver and just write him a message to where I wanted to go. I should be more like Grace – keep challenging myself, so I will feel more confident with Cantonese.”
“I agree,” said Grace in response. “Don’t be afraid that others would mistake your meaning. One who does not know is not guilty. Don’t stress yourself too much.”
Source: Oriental Daily via ihktv.com
This article is written by Addy for JayneStars.com.
Grace Wong’s Cantonese is getting a lot better recently, but not Christine Kuo.
Maybe, but I thought they were trying to overcome their language barrier by digressing and telling people that they are virgins………hahaa……that will distract the audience from the awful Cantonese they speak.
I always thought Grace’s Cantonese is fine anyway.
I agree. Grace’s Cantonese is doing well. Christine, on the other hand, should learn the language first before she tries to act with it. I also learned Canto later in life (around age 20); I believe it’s never too late to learn. But the learning should come before the public application of the language. Too bad Christine doesn’t understand that =|
Grace’s cantonese is ok. No problem understanding her. Christine… very difficult. Why not TVB cast her as some foreign princess in some wuxia series so that she alone can speak mandarin. That should ease our ears and her problems.
Grace Wong’s Cantonese was quite okay even in ancient drama series. She did quite well in “The Life and Times of a Sentinel” as one of the concubines.
Never had a problem with Grace. But wow, has anyone been watching A Great Way To Care II? Christine is horrible. I feel that with Christine, her problem isn’t JUST language barrier, she just can’t act. In AGWTC2, I really can’t tell if her character is suppose to be sad/no expression or she just can’t act (who am i kidding, it’s the 2nd one).
This is just my honest opinion, agree or disagree?
I agree with you 100%
Totally agree with you ………. 120+%. She should be a vase, someone to look at only.
Agree.. Her sad look, angry look and happy look are almost the same.
That scene where she was trying to wrestle a knife away from a female patient, i had to read the subtitles to understand what she said, and her expression during tht scene was more like se was saying the lines a bit louder than the rest. Still no expression..
Grace’s acting and cantonese, i think its fine..
agree with you all!
Rebecca Zhu was bad, but it was her very first drama series. At least she had some kind of emotions and expressions in her character in SSSS.
Christine Kuo has filmed over 10 drama series, plus some movies.
Come on guys. Im an ABC myself and i believe that christine already did a great job despite her non-canto speaking background. At least she puts in the effort and tries…some people dont care less. We gta give her space for improvement. Theres no point demotivating her by posting up these comments, and you can never compare one person to another. Everyone is unique
Nothing agsinst Christine. But she is an artist in the HK entertainment industry. And nothing irks the viewers more than to hear someone speaking Cantonese with an accent that they can’t understand.
If she does not want to try to speak Cantonese and Hong Kong is a Cantonese-speaking place, she can go to film drama series in Taiwan and Mainland China. If she wants to be an actress in Hong Kong, she has to learn to speak better Cantonese. Period.
If you are an ABC, it is your choice to learn to speak Cantonese or not. If your job does not require you to speak Cantonese, there is no need for you to learn or be good.
Christine is a newcomer and mandarin speaking so it is much harder to lose the accent. I understand her frustrations with trying to lose the accent and it certainly does not help with the public and netizens hammering her about it. Sure, I think her acting needs a lot of improvement which with acting classes and experience would help. I cringe at her scenes too. Everyone just needs to cut her some slack cos she is trying her best i am sure. She is a beautiful girl i give her that, maybe better for her to be a model. I feel people are bullying her and its mean and unfair cos she has feelings too. We are all human and she’s asian too. Why all the hurtful words? Cyber bullying (or any form of bullying) is a real problem these days and shame on those who partake in this act of cruelty. It’s no wonder ppl fall into depression, become isolated and take their own lives.
Jayne, do you or your team filter these comments? I know that everyone is entitled to their own opinions but I think some ppl are being plain nasty. Not just to this actress but many others too. This is a great website for all the articles but ppl who make negative comments about stars is a bit excessive. I dunno, maybe I’m too sensitive.
I second that Joey! I stopped making comments and just read the articles since no matter what you say whether it be good or bad or even completely neutral, you get attacked. Then there are those who clearly have no regards to how the artist or even some of the other commentors feel. And of course there will always be these ‘defenses’ … ‘if you don’t like it, don’t read it’ or ‘if they don’t like to hear “criticisms” don’t be in the entertainment industry’
Well there’s really not much anyone can do. It is the internet.
Joey, you are sensitive and understandably so but I believe no comment should be filtered unless it is filled with swear words. Other than that no comment should be filtered because what makes one opinion better than the other just because one is more negative than the other? I personally feel comments that goes oooh and ahhh over certain favourite idols should be filtered to for being offensive to those who dislike the star. Since this is also not possible, then no filtering allowed unless it goes into personal insults of person making that comment, pretending to have that opinion actually made by another, etc.
Frankly whatever uttered against Christine is much better than what was uttered against Aimee Chan which goes on personal attack. If you have read those comments I am sure you will feel any comments about Christine’s lack of Cantonese and her acting abilities are fair comment.
Funn:
Ooh and Ahh is offensive to those who dislike the stars? What have this world come to?
*sigh*
Funn, yes I agree with you. Unless there are obscenities, comments should not be deleted. Everyone is entitled to an opinion. No one’s comment is any better than another’s. I’m not implying that at all. I guess I’m just frustrated with those who think its ok to verbally bash and bully a star just because they are famous, in the public eye etc. Famous ppl don’t ask for fans nor haters. If u idolise a star, good for u. just don’t be rude to those who dont idolise ur star or if u have an opposing view. out of respect for one another and human courtesy and decency i dont think its appropriate to bully a star, be it Aimee or Christine or Yoyo.
I never used to comment but I guess I hope everyone remains courteous towards each other and of the stars even if they are ur fave or not. I know this sounds corny but “keep the peace” ppl 🙂
Alice, you know, blind love. Like even falling down a star got praised. You will know what I mean if you visit those blogs about Korean stars. I swear they only need to breath and the fans will praise them for… I don’t know, existing I suppose.
I meant stair, not star
Perhaps coming from someone whose dialect isn’t cantonese, I really don’t mind accented cantonese. I don’t expect someone who has been staying overseas to be speaking perfect cantonese. Even on the streets in HK, people don’t sneer at my broken cantonese.
However I agree that Grace is a better actress than Christine. She did really badly in Great Way To Care 2.
These days, it doesn’t take much to become a fadan, even if you can’t speak canto properly, can’t act for sh*t you can still make it. So pretty much any pork chop asian chick on the street can make it. Now that’s TVB for you.
her acting is fine. i like her wayyy more than any other current title holders and she conducts herself in an elegant manner. she is natural in expressions, the only thing is her speech can use improvement.
Do you guys realize that Christine Kuo always brings up she is a “gwaimui…” when she obviously is not. The reason why she has an accent is not because she is a native English speaker, but a Mandarin speaker. It bothers me when she keeps on bringing up she is a “gwaimui.” Does she even know the meaning of what a “gwaimui” is? And yeah, I actually like Grace.
Honest opinion. I find all these actresses with accented Cantonese easier to understand than Yoyo Mung sometimes.
I’ve never have a problem understanding or catching what Grace said. In AGWTC2, I also have no problem understanding Christine Kuo and Aimee Chan. But, I sometimes couldn’t catch what Yoyo said even when I listen to her dialogue a second time. I have to read the subtitles. Yoyo Mung’s pronunciation is very unclear.
Because HK-ers generally speak with lazy intonations. I admit, I can’t understand Christine if she speaks fast. She herself is conscious enough to speak slow and when she does, it gives off a feel of calculated move. She was natural though in Mandarin.
Which is why I love Raymond Wong, Kong Wah and the likes. Clear, crisp
If you are a Hongkonger, you would not complain too much about Yoyo Mung’s Cantonese. She does speak with some lazy intonations, but a lot of people in Hong Kong do, especially the younger generation. People there get used to it.
Christine Kuo is no way a “gwaimui”. Her English is not great at all. She speaks with Chinese accent, and you can tell right away that she is not a native Canadian. Aimee Chan speaks like a native Canadian because she was born and educated in Toronto. Christine Kuo only immigrated to Toronto when she was about 12. How can she be called a “gwaimui” when her English is not good at all? Only people who cannot speak much English would call Christine “gwaimui”!!
I totally agree! It is so irritating when she blames her accented Cantonese on being a “gwaimui” when she is not one.
Not sure where the gwaimui came from. ANgela Tong is a gwaimui by definition.
Anyway a lot of stars say they went to study overseas but look at their English? Kenneth Ma for one. I love him but I wonder, how he actually studied overseas if he can’t even speak properly?
You can call a CBC or ABC with a “gwaimui” personality, but she is in no way a “gwaimui”. This term is commonly used by people in Hong Kong on those overseas-born girls who speak mostly English and poor Chinese.
But Christine Kuo cannot call herself a “gwaimui”. Her English is okay but not great. She can say that she has a “gwaimui” personality because she has grown up in Toronto, Canada.
Christine speaks English with a slight accent. But she speaks proficiently and grammatically correct English. Why is her English bad?
I mean Michelle Ye speaks English with the mandarin accent as well but shes articulate.