Shadowing Practice: Do Chinese People HATE Chinese Americans? (The Harsh Reality) - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Charleston, Charleston, made in Carolina.
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You might be looking at the title and thinking, well, why would Chinese people hate ABCs?
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Aren't they just Chinese people but in America?
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And you'd be right for asking that.
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Anyway, I'm here to tell you that contrary to what you might think,
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a lot of mainland Chinese people in China actually hold a very negative view of ABCs, some more than others.
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I've been living in China as an ABC for over three years now, and although in my day -to -day life,
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I don't really face any discrimination, hatred or anything like that.
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I can pretty confidently attribute that mostly to the fact that I look Chinese.
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Both of my parents are Chinese and so
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if you just saw me walking on the street you wouldn't really assume
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that I'm a dirty American looking for oil wells to dig up.
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Guys, I think I found oil.
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No, I just look Chinese and if people never talk to me then I'm pretty sure that assumption would stay that way.
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And of the few times that I've spoken to local Chinese people and explained that I'm from America studying in China,
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I'll admit that most of the time I'm met with positivity.
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Just for one example, I was getting my hair cut about a year ago
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and when I made the reservation on the phone,
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I spoke Chinese and it wasn't really obvious that I was an American or a foreigner of any kind.
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But after I showed up and was getting my hair washed in those little salon chairs,
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the guy was asking me if I was a student from around here, of which I said I was.
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The conversation led into how I was actually here as an international student from America whose first language was English, which I guess was super impressive
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and surprising to the employee who then spent the next five minutes asking me everything about what America was like
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and if I enjoyed it here in China and why I came here for university, etc.
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Clearly the guy met no ill will towards me
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and his questions were all asked with a tone of curiosity
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and glee as he was also saying how his dream one day was to visit America
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and see all the beautiful blonde Americana women on the beach and enjoy the life he'd idolized from watching Hollywood movies.
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I didn't have the heart to tell him about how the US was actually pretty messed up at the time
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and that I wouldn't really recommend going unless he wanted to risk experiencing real American But outside of the real world,
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like the going outside and touching grass world, let's just say that people's views on ABCs are a bit different.
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I'm talking about the internet.
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And on the internet, mainland Chinese people freaking hate ABCs.
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Now, there's a number of reasons why the topic of ABCs is controversial in China.
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For one, China has largely been a very homogenous country for most of its history, with the Chinese people having been contained within
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China for thousands of years.
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Only recently did they start venturing out and immigrating to other countries, which is still something that's not necessarily easy to accept.
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There's a lot of pride when it comes to the Chinese people.
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So when Chinese people, with a lot of this pride, open up their phones and scroll on Douyin, WeChat moments, Bilibili, or whatever it is,
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and see ABCs on the other side of the world in the groups, kicking down at China, becoming self -hating Chinese.
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This is my hack for the Asian gals who are young.
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You don't have the love of your life yet.
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If you want to have gorgeous kids, marry someone not Asian.
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Those mixed -race babies are gorgeous, and it's too late for my kids.
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And it's too late for my kids.
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You can see how it's pretty simple for them to just arrive at the conclusion that all Chinese expats,
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and especially their kids, are a bunch of bitches.
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And this attitude gets even worse when you start talking about these same kids
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and how some of them have the audacity to come back to China for college.
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What?
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Even if you're not Chinese and you're just some random guy in Texas watching this.
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Yeah, I'm talking about you, Jake.
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Everyone knows about the Gaokao.
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It's the exam of all exams.
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Around 18 years of age, these kids who have been training for this test since before
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they could put on their own clothes have to go to one of the most stressful, traumatic, difficult exams that exists in the world,
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and the outcome of which plays a large determining role in their future.
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One being the selection of colleges that they can apply to.
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Applying to colleges in China is actually not that different than in America.
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Me personally, I applied to over 25 colleges in America, where the only real restrictions I faced were my grades and my GPA.
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Just to keep it simple, basically China has 39
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Ivy Leagues and 100 or so
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Tier 2 schools.
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And so for someone in China applying to college, the Golcou score is going to be their primary limiter for applying to certain schools over others.
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Score high, apply to Ivy.
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Score kind of high, apply to Ivy and tier 2.
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You get the picture.
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But this whole process can be skipped if you're an international student.
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I sure as heck didn't go through the Golcou, and I still managed to attend Fudan University, one of China's Ivy League schools.
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And so you might be able to see where some animosity comes from.
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On the internet, a prominent opinion from mainland Chinese people, mainly parents, is that they absolutely loathe ABC international students.
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We're seen as traitors to the country, cheaters, scammers, undeserving, and entitled all at once.
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So for most mainlanders, an ABC in a Chinese university is just a person who loopholed the Chinese education system
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and stole a seat from a real deserving Chinese student.
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And I'm not making any of this up.
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I actually have examples of this exact kind of attitude against me personally.
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On another one of my YouTube videos, for example, I received a handful of comments like this, which more or less translates to,
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you ABCs can only get into good schools and find good jobs because of your American citizenship privileges.
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If you were in China, you wouldn't even be able to pass the entrance exam.
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Not wrong per se, but just indicative of all the things I've already talked about.
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Or this comment here, which is just more animosity against foreigners.
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If you are a banana, stay out of China.
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We don't want you here.
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Stay home and don't cause trouble in the minds of Chinese.
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Or this one, which translates to, They chose to leave
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China when it was impoverished, and chose to abandon the United States when it was in decline.
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Those who ride on the fence will not be respected.
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And this definitely isn't limited to YouTube.
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I was interviewed by my friend on Red Note, or Xiaohongshu, just talking about food recommendations,
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only for the video to blow up and consist of 99 % comments like these.
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It's true, but many famous overseas returnees won't be able to get into a 985 university
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if they took the exam in China, so studying abroad is a shortcut.
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For context, 985 refers to Chinese Ivy League universities.
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Or this one, which translates to, look at that, must be sugar addiction.
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Asians really have no resistance to America's high -sugar junk food.
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I mean, this guy's just calling me fat, come on bro.
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Or this one.
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What brings you to China?
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Official answer, I'm here to find my roots.
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Real answer, tuition is expensive and they didn't give me an offer.
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And there were unfortunately many more comments like this, but I really wanted to tackle this last point in particular,
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about how the only reason someone like me would come to China for school is because I couldn't make it in America.
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And this is really what encapsulates a big problem with Chinese people's attitudes towards ABCs,
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which is just jumping to conclusions and not understanding the Western world.
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During my college application, I actually did get into many good universities
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but still chose to come to China
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because I truly did want to come back to my roots and be closer to my family.
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So although reading comments like this can be hurtful in the moment, in the end, I can reassure myself
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that these people really just don't have any idea of what they're talking about
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and that what they think of me and the reality of the matter are two completely different things.
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There are more comments like those but I'll just leave it there.
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I don't want to throw myself a pity party or anything.
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This is just to show with my own experience that a good number of Chinese people really do view ABCs as deserters,
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bad people, simply for having parents who immigrated to other places 40 so years ago.
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Anyway, before I go any further and fuel the fire, I'll just say my final thoughts for the end of the video.
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Me being born in America from two Chinese parents doesn't inherently make me a bad person, nor should that be the case for anyone.
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And just because I went back to China for college doesn't mean I'm a traitor to the US
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or that I'm crawling back to China.
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What a doozy of a video, eh?
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Well, I guess now that I'm getting more into this video creation thing, I should also have a proper outro.
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Thanks so much for reaching the end.
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If you liked this video, please let me know with the buttons below and
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if my yapping was interesting please leave your thoughts in the comment section
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stay positive and spread love y 'all see you all in the next video
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Do Chinese People HATE Chinese Americans?”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: Chinese, China, Abc, America, comment. This video has 124 sentences and 1675 words to shadow. The speech runs for 7:05. The speaker talks fast, about 236 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 84% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| examination noun | /ɪɡˌzæm.ɪˈneɪ.ʃən/ | The act of examining. |
| mainland noun | /ˈmeɪnlənd/ | The continent; the principal land, as distinguished from islands or a peninsula. |
| translate verb | /tɹænzˈleɪt/ | To change spoken words or written text (of a book, document, movie, etc.) from one language to another. |
| conclusion noun | /kənˈkluːʒən/ | The end, finish, close or last part of something. |
| gorgeous adjective | /ˈɡoɹd͡ʒəs/ | Sumptuously dressed. |
| exam verb | /ɪɡˈzæm/ | Shortened form of examine |
| tier noun | /ˈtɪɚ/ | A row or range, especially one at a higher or lower level than another. |
| traitor noun | /ˈtɹeɪtɚ/ | Someone who violates an allegiance and betrays their country; someone guilty of treason; one who, in breach of trust, delivers their country to an enemy, or… |
| tone noun | /ˈtəʊn/ | A specific pitch. |
| topic noun | /ˈtɑpɪk/ | A subject; a theme; a category or general area of interest. |
| necessarily adverb | /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/ | Inevitably; of necessity. |
| impressive adjective | /ɪmˈpɹɛsɪv/ | Making, or tending to make, a positive impression; having power to impress. |
| wash verb | /wɑʃ/ | To clean with water. |
| refer verb | /ɹɪˈfɜː/ | To direct the attention of (someone toward something). |
| steal verb | /stiːl/ | To take illegally, or without the owner's permission, something owned by someone else without intending to return it. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| blow up verb | To explode or be destroyed by explosion. |
| dig up verb | To excavate something. |
| go back to verb | To stem from; to originate in. |
| go through verb | To travel from one end of something to the other. |
| open up verb | To open. |
| show up verb | To appear, arrive, or attend, especially suddenly or erratically. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- I'm talking about the internet.
- You don't have the love of your life yet.
- We don't want you here.
- Official answer, I'm here to find my roots.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on | I've been living · have been training |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | been contained · can be skipped · was impoverished |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | countries, which is · kids who have · person who loopholed |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | I've spoken · I've already talked |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 44 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, don't, didn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: examination /ɪɡˌzæm.ɪˈneɪ.ʃən/, conclusion /kənˈkluːʒən/, wash /wɑʃ/, discrimination /dɪskɹɪmɪˈneɪʃən/, controversial /ˌkɑn.tɹəˈvɝ.ʃəl/
- Long words — get the stress right: examination /ɪɡˌzæm.ɪˈneɪ.ʃən/, necessarily /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/, discrimination /dɪskɹɪmɪˈneɪʃən/, controversial /ˌkɑn.tɹəˈvɝ.ʃəl/, citizenship /ˈsɪtɪzənʃɪp/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like examination, mainland, translate.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.