Tip to tip: Japan discussion from last year I was kind of expecting them to go for a sort of Hainan to Heilongjiang sort of route, which would make travel easier by giving the opportunity to...
I was kind of expecting them to go for a sort of Hainan to Heilongjiang sort of route, which would make travel easier by giving the opportunity to travel along the coast until about Beijing. Based on the map in the beginning, they instead are aiming for Inner Mongolia, which will take them across some very mountainous terrain. They'll also be missing out on most of the major population centers, save for Chongqing and Xi'an. Looking forward to seeing how this goes!
Some of the conversations they have make me want to curl up into a ball and die, and I imagine it would be even worse if I spoke Mandarin. But I love this road trip stuff and some of the people...
Some of the conversations they have make me want to curl up into a ball and die, and I imagine it would be even worse if I spoke Mandarin. But I love this road trip stuff and some of the people they met were so sweet... I'm always surprised by how much time people are willing to spend helping strangers out
I imagine China will be much harder than Japan not just because it's way bigger, not just because their Chinese is way worse and they're seemingly awful at tonality, but also because there's far fewer English speakers there (according to Wikipedia, China is third last in the world in terms of the proportion of the population that speaks English; over a quarter of Japanese people speak English and there's lots of English signage even). Looks to be an entertaining trip!
The best thing about the previous tip to tip is entirely how the focus of the series was on the people they met, and much less about their own grandiose YouTuber personas. I think I mentioned it...
But I love this road trip stuff and some of the people they met were so sweet...
The best thing about the previous tip to tip is entirely how the focus of the series was on the people they met, and much less about their own grandiose YouTuber personas.
I think I mentioned it in the thread @Fal linked how Ludwig isn't necessarily my type of content creator (loud, brash, etc), but he reins it in for this show and engages with the people they meet as people.
The Japan trip was a remarkable showcase of kindness and while I haven't yet been able to see the China episodes, I'm assuming the same will be displayed.
Oh man, I speak Mandarin and its rough to listen to sometimes. Them repeatedly confusing 'where are you from' for 'where are you going' was probably the worst one lol I enjoy seeing the nice...
Oh man, I speak Mandarin and its rough to listen to sometimes. Them repeatedly confusing 'where are you from' for 'where are you going' was probably the worst one lol
I enjoy seeing the nice hospitality they're getting, it reminds me of when I was in China when I was younger (and had worse Chinese).
I loved the first tip-to-tip so I'm super excited for this, but I also know just enough Chinese that I think listening to them talk will be a lot more painful in this one.
I loved the first tip-to-tip so I'm super excited for this, but I also know just enough Chinese that I think listening to them talk will be a lot more painful in this one.
Episode two is out. This one was just a laugh out loud episode throughout. Their brain unwilling to hear the fourth digit until it's literally written down is so funny you couldn't come up with it...
Episode two is out.
This one was just a laugh out loud episode throughout. Their brain unwilling to hear the fourth digit until it's literally written down is so funny you couldn't come up with it yourself.
The people around them are kind and hilarious in their own right
Old guy's got jokes.
"You just asked him in Chinese if he understands Chinese."
They're continuing the trend of vastly overestimating how far they got, or perhaps vastly underestimating the size of the Chinese landmass. Either way, it means they're immediately lost without even trying while staying somewhat on course by sheer luck.
I didn't expect this would be worse than Japan but even so, I'm still glad it delivers on all fronts. I'm happy they kept the focus on the interactions with people.
I definitely expected it to be worse than Japan (in terms of their ability to speak the language, at least) but I think they're working hard with their Chinese so I hope they manage to interact...
I definitely expected it to be worse than Japan (in terms of their ability to speak the language, at least) but I think they're working hard with their Chinese so I hope they manage to interact with people more successfully over the course of the trip. Getting further north where more people speak Mandarin will help too -- as funny as the old man's joke was, the girl's question was actually "Do you understand Putonghua (Standard Mandarin)?" probably in contrast to Cantonese, which is what the old guys they were drinking tea with were all speaking afaik. Granted, Lud and Michael didn't understand much Standard Mandarin either, clearly...
I wish they'd write down something that describes their challenge so the conversations aren't entirely people suggesting they use their phones lol, but I figure we'll see them find some way to adapt as the days go forward. My favorite part of tip2tip Japan was watching them try hard in the face of the language barrier and how much locals were friendly and tried to help them, and I'm definitely not disappointed with that in this one!
Honestly they mostly just have no idea about Chinese geography, which is fine - that's part of the fun. But Wuhan is really far north from them. It's about halfway. There's no way they could be...
They're continuing the trend of vastly overestimating how far they got, or perhaps vastly underestimating the size of the Chinese landmass
Honestly they mostly just have no idea about Chinese geography, which is fine - that's part of the fun. But Wuhan is really far north from them. It's about halfway. There's no way they could be anywhere near Wuhan unless they strapped the bikes onto an airplane.
Pace-wise, they're fine-ish. If they could see themselves on a map, they would think that it's fine.
Episode 5 released! Being invited by people is always a highlight on my own trips and it's always a delight to see how people can be so open and generous to strangers. Spoiler tagging is a bit odd...
Episode 5 released!
Being invited by people is always a highlight on my own trips and it's always a delight to see how people can be so open and generous to strangers.
Spoiler tagging is a bit odd on this series but still..
Being the first waiguoren in that town is crazy. And Li spoke a little bit of English too!
More than the beautiful vistas, those days of humanity will stick with you for life.
This episode was legit so heartwarming. Exactly what I wanted from this new series. episode spoiler the even wilder part is that the red tent they rocked up to? a funeral. the time they were given...
This episode was legit so heartwarming. Exactly what I wanted from this new series.
episode spoiler
the even wilder part is that the red tent they rocked up to? a funeral. the time they were given was when the funeral banquet started.
They've tried something but their pronunciation makes it pretty incomprehensible. I don't think 冒险 (adventure, challenge) is necessarily the best word for their trip to use in an ult anyway, but...
They've tried something but their pronunciation makes it pretty incomprehensible. I don't think 冒险 (adventure, challenge) is necessarily the best word for their trip to use in an ult anyway, but it would probably work better if they could consistently pronounce it! That's the word the subs keep representing as "cat sound" and "cat line" -- they're better at pronouncing the last syllable in this episode but unfortunately it really does sound like "cat"-something when they keep using the wrong tone on that first syllable.
Someone in the comments mentioned that 挑战 would be a better word for "challenge" and I think that option's main advantage is that imo the sounds are easier for beginners like them to say and it's harder to mix up with other words even with bad tones. Not that these guys would know that, though.
They do have ults. In fact his notebook in episode one has a page titled "ULTS", and you can hear the sound play when he says they're "Two foreigners on a motorcycle to Beijing".
They do have ults. In fact his notebook in episode one has a page titled "ULTS", and you can hear the sound play when he says they're "Two foreigners on a motorcycle to Beijing".
I think it feels much less like an ult than in Japan both because he's significantly less good at pulling it off, as well as, imo, because this phrase in Mandarin is much simpler than the...
I think it feels much less like an ult than in Japan both because he's significantly less good at pulling it off, as well as, imo, because this phrase in Mandarin is much simpler than the equivalent ult from the Japan trip (but perhaps I'm being too influenced by my own experience studying Chinese).
Tip to tip: Japan discussion from last year
I was kind of expecting them to go for a sort of Hainan to Heilongjiang sort of route, which would make travel easier by giving the opportunity to travel along the coast until about Beijing. Based on the map in the beginning, they instead are aiming for Inner Mongolia, which will take them across some very mountainous terrain. They'll also be missing out on most of the major population centers, save for Chongqing and Xi'an. Looking forward to seeing how this goes!
Some of the conversations they have make me want to curl up into a ball and die, and I imagine it would be even worse if I spoke Mandarin. But I love this road trip stuff and some of the people they met were so sweet... I'm always surprised by how much time people are willing to spend helping strangers out
I imagine China will be much harder than Japan not just because it's way bigger, not just because their Chinese is way worse and they're seemingly awful at tonality, but also because there's far fewer English speakers there (according to Wikipedia, China is third last in the world in terms of the proportion of the population that speaks English; over a quarter of Japanese people speak English and there's lots of English signage even). Looks to be an entertaining trip!
The best thing about the previous tip to tip is entirely how the focus of the series was on the people they met, and much less about their own grandiose YouTuber personas.
I think I mentioned it in the thread @Fal linked how Ludwig isn't necessarily my type of content creator (loud, brash, etc), but he reins it in for this show and engages with the people they meet as people.
The Japan trip was a remarkable showcase of kindness and while I haven't yet been able to see the China episodes, I'm assuming the same will be displayed.
Oh man, I speak Mandarin and its rough to listen to sometimes. Them repeatedly confusing 'where are you from' for 'where are you going' was probably the worst one lol
I enjoy seeing the nice hospitality they're getting, it reminds me of when I was in China when I was younger (and had worse Chinese).
I loved the first tip-to-tip so I'm super excited for this, but I also know just enough Chinese that I think listening to them talk will be a lot more painful in this one.
Episode two is out.
This one was just a laugh out loud episode throughout. Their brain unwilling to hear the fourth digit until it's literally written down is so funny you couldn't come up with it yourself.
The people around them are kind and hilarious in their own right
Old guy's got jokes.
"You just asked him in Chinese if he understands Chinese."
They're continuing the trend of vastly overestimating how far they got, or perhaps vastly underestimating the size of the Chinese landmass. Either way, it means they're immediately lost without even trying while staying somewhat on course by sheer luck.
I didn't expect this would be worse than Japan but even so, I'm still glad it delivers on all fronts. I'm happy they kept the focus on the interactions with people.
I definitely expected it to be worse than Japan (in terms of their ability to speak the language, at least) but I think they're working hard with their Chinese so I hope they manage to interact with people more successfully over the course of the trip. Getting further north where more people speak Mandarin will help too -- as funny as the old man's joke was, the girl's question was actually "Do you understand Putonghua (Standard Mandarin)?" probably in contrast to Cantonese, which is what the old guys they were drinking tea with were all speaking afaik. Granted, Lud and Michael didn't understand much Standard Mandarin either, clearly...
I wish they'd write down something that describes their challenge so the conversations aren't entirely people suggesting they use their phones lol, but I figure we'll see them find some way to adapt as the days go forward. My favorite part of tip2tip Japan was watching them try hard in the face of the language barrier and how much locals were friendly and tried to help them, and I'm definitely not disappointed with that in this one!
Honestly they mostly just have no idea about Chinese geography, which is fine - that's part of the fun. But Wuhan is really far north from them. It's about halfway. There's no way they could be anywhere near Wuhan unless they strapped the bikes onto an airplane.
Pace-wise, they're fine-ish. If they could see themselves on a map, they would think that it's fine.
Episode 5 released!
Being invited by people is always a highlight on my own trips and it's always a delight to see how people can be so open and generous to strangers.
Spoiler tagging is a bit odd on this series but still..
Being the first waiguoren in that town is crazy. And Li spoke a little bit of English too!
More than the beautiful vistas, those days of humanity will stick with you for life.
This episode was legit so heartwarming. Exactly what I wanted from this new series.
episode spoiler
the even wilder part is that the red tent they rocked up to? a funeral. the time they were given was when the funeral banquet started.
I watched a couple days ago. I don’t think Ludwig has prepared an ult like he did for Japan? Or did I miss it?
IIRC he (or maybe its Michael?) does and attempts it in the first episode, but his pronunciation makes it pretty incomprehensible
They've tried something but their pronunciation makes it pretty incomprehensible. I don't think 冒险 (adventure, challenge) is necessarily the best word for their trip to use in an ult anyway, but it would probably work better if they could consistently pronounce it! That's the word the subs keep representing as "cat sound" and "cat line" -- they're better at pronouncing the last syllable in this episode but unfortunately it really does sound like "cat"-something when they keep using the wrong tone on that first syllable.
Someone in the comments mentioned that 挑战 would be a better word for "challenge" and I think that option's main advantage is that imo the sounds are easier for beginners like them to say and it's harder to mix up with other words even with bad tones. Not that these guys would know that, though.
They do have ults. In fact his notebook in episode one has a page titled "ULTS", and you can hear the sound play when he says they're "Two foreigners on a motorcycle to Beijing".
I think it feels much less like an ult than in Japan both because he's significantly less good at pulling it off, as well as, imo, because this phrase in Mandarin is much simpler than the equivalent ult from the Japan trip (but perhaps I'm being too influenced by my own experience studying Chinese).