While many of the guys in the latest season of “Love Island USA” have yet to master the language of love, they do seem to be picking up lingo from another culture fairly quickly.
Thanks to some coaching from islander Carl Schmidt, who speaks Mandarin and is of Chinese descent, fellow Season 8 finalists Sincere Rhea, Zach Georgiou and Bryce Alakai recently revealed that they’ve learned a couple Chinese words. And in an interview with Glamour magazine, the boys showed off a bit of their skills.
In the video, shared Sept. 1, Sincere tells the outlet, “We can say some things in Mandarin,” before asking the crew to demonstrate.
“You guys ready?” he asks.
Zach cuts in, saying “Ni hao ma? Wo jiao Zach,” which translates to “How are you? My name is Zach.”
Bryce continues the convo, adding, “Wo jiao Bryce. Ni ne?” which roughly translates to “My name is Bryce, how about you?”
“Wo jiao Sincere,” Sincere adds.
“Ni men dou shi wode pengyou,” Carl says, which translates to “you are all my friends.”
“Feichang hao,” a few of them chime in, which means “very good!”
Not bad, boys.
As Carl tells the outlet in the video, “Mandarin’s really hard because it’s tonal.”
“You have to have the right pronunciation and the right tone,” Carl says, before adding that he also received some criticism for his Mandarin skills during the season.
Carl came into Season 8 during the second half of the show as a bombshell, quickly becoming close with fellow islander Aniya Harvey. As one of the few cast members of Asian descent in the show’s history, Carl wasn’t shy about introducing aspects of his culture to his connection. In an early interaction between the two, Carl taught Aniya some Mandarin. Though it appears that the guys of the villa also got a few language lessons from Carl, who also speaks some Japanese.
The video comes just after the Season 8 reunion aired on Aug. 31. Among the highlights was the reveal that Carl and Aniya, whose nonlinear relationship on the show eventually had a happy ending, had not yet defined their relationship but were still exploring their connection. Their moms, however, are besties.
“They’re out hanging out right now,” Aniya told host Andy Cohen. “They’re texting each other, calling each other.”
