Carlos Vidal wears a shirt with the print "chok yeung", a Cantonese slang used to tease someone making pretentious, model-like poses for photos. With the same name for his first language video, Vidal has won massive hits on YouTube. Provided to China Daily

He wasn't born here, he has spent little time here, but Carlos Vidal, a 25-year-old Canadian from Vancouver, has become an Internet star with his videos teaching people Cantonese slang. Ming Yeung reports.

Cantonese is considered to be one of the toughest languages for foreigners to learn, but that hasn't stopped a white Canadian from teaching people Cantonese slang on YouTube in a simple yet entertaining way.

Carlos Vidal, a 25-year-old undergraduate from Vancouver, would have never imagined he would be immensely popular in Hong Kong and Canada for his weekly video clips of Hong Kong slang.

Before he knew it, he has become an online sensation who was followed by over 30,000 subscribers. His online videos have been viewed more than 4 million times.

With his near-perfect pronunciation, it is hard to believe Vidal started learning Cantonese in 2005, when he came to Hong Kong as a volunteer missionary for his church.

Except Jacky Chan and kung fu movies, Vidal basically had not known much about Hong Kong before he came, let alone its language.

New to the city, Vidal realized the only way to learn the local culture and interact with ordinary people was to speak in their own language.

"I'm a visitor to this place, so I don't expect people to learn English just to talk to me," he told China Daily in an interview.

For starters, Vidal studied basic Cantonese with the aid of textbooks and a dictionary. In line with his video slogan "Learn it! Speak it! Memorize it!" he realized there was no shortcut for learning a new language and he would not be proficient in the lingua franca without directly communicating with the local people in everyday situations.

This was certainly no easy task because Hong Kong people talk fast and it can be difficult for beginners to keep up.

"What I did was memorize vocabularies for all different situations like going to the grocery store, riding on the bus, getting directions and so on," he recalled.

His persistence paid off after two years of immersing himself into the dialect and not allowing himself to be ashamed of making mistakes.

For two years going after back to his hometown, the student union president majoring in human resources at the University of the Fraser Valley all but stopped practicing Cantonese until he met his girlfriend from Hong Kong in the same class.

Having watched YouTube videos for a while, Vidal started posting his videos on random subject in October 2010, a perfect way to blend his hobby - making videos - with business ideas.

People began to recommend and circulate his videos online, giving him great motivation to continue his work.

The born performer did not deny he likes the attention and makes friends with people from all over the world.

"When my videos had a few thousand views, I was really happy," he admitted. "It's not a million people, but it's still a lot of people."

Followers began to snowball but only when he uploaded his first language video named "chok yeung" in January did he get a massive hit. Saying someone is "chok yeung" is to tease them as if the target is making pretentious, model-like poses for photos.

By then, the entertainer discovered his niche and he knew he had found something upon which he could focus.

He made another highly rated video - "gung jyuh behng", describing girls affected with the "princess syndrome", in which he mimics how materialistic and spoilt Hong Kong lasses demand that their slavish boyfriends buy them designer bags and take them to fancy restaurants.

Some people may find the video insulting, but he explained: "It's only a stereotype. Definitely not every girl behaves like that."

The ever-increasing popularity is generating a pressure for him to keep up the work and challenging his creativity.

"People expect your upcoming videos will be as hilarious as the old ones," he said. "But it's hard."

Every famous person will not make lots of friends without making a few enemies. While many people like his videos, Vidal still gets a few who say, "your videos suck" or "I don't find your videos funny".

But he was not discouraged because his videos get 95 percent "thumbs up" and only 5 percent "thumbs down" showing that people are giving him overwhelming support.

"I understand not every one will like my sound or my personality but for the people who do, I try to entertain them."

In April, Vidal was even accepted as a YouTube partner, which means he gets paid a commission every time someone views his video.

Vidal said he is more motivated now, because the money he makes from YouTube allows him to improve the video quality and buy better cameras.

Vidal just revisited Hong Kong in April, thanks to an airways event in which he participated. It gave him a chance to meet up with fans.

And by chance, his funny clips caught the attention of some Hong Kong pop singers such as G.E.M. and MC Jin who invited him to be their guest on some music videos.

Graduating next year, Vidal plans to work for an international company and will not solely rely on YouTube.

"Things come and go," he commented on the cruel fact of the ever-changing cyber world. "A couple years ago, some people made lots of videos and now they are not that famous.

"I don't mind," he said. "If anything I can look back 10 years from now and say 'yeah! I used to have a YouTube page that people liked to watch and I had so much fun'. It's an experience you can't trade for anything."

(HK Edition 08/05/2011 page4)