It has not even been a year since Hong Kong actress-host Carol Cheng started her YouTube channel The Do Show, where she interviews her famous friends, and already the platform is taking off.
The 66-year-old was recently invited to Los Angeles where she got to speak to the stars of Dune: Part Two, Timothée Chalamet, Austin Butler, Zendaya, and Florence Pugh.
This is her first English interview on her channel.
Not that that’s an issue for Carol. The accomplished host is fluent in the language and has even starred in two seasons of Mediacorp English sitcom Oh Carol.
However, Hong Kong YouTuber Michael MMG, who is the nephew of actress Celine Ma Tai Lo, didn’t seem too impressed by Carol’s interview and took to his channel to criticise her English and pronunciation.
For example, the YouTuber, who referred to himself as instructor Ma, pointed out that when Carol entered the airport VIP lounge, she pronounced “lounge” as “launch”, and also referred to a touchscreen tablet as pad.
“Pad? So filthy,” he said sarcastically, before pointing out that pad is another word for sanitary napkins.
He also had an issue with her “old-fashioned” choice of words, “cheesy” questions and how some of them were awkwardly phrased.
One example was when she asked Timothee and Austin: “Do you have any special messages to say to your fans in Hong Kong?”
Ma found the question too long and the use of “messages”, which refers to “a short piece of information”, odd. He suggested changing it to “Do you have any message for your Hong Kong fans?”.
He also took a dig at Carol’s academic qualifications, saying: “Do jie only graduated with a Form Five (equivalent to Singapore’s O-Levels), but this doesn’t define her. Everyone sees her efforts and what she produces, saying ‘Wow, her English is so fluent’, she has a strong presence, and can handle the entire interview.”