What Language Did Bruce Lee Speak? (Answered!)

Bruce Lee spoke Cantonese and English. He was born in San Francisco but spent some of his early years in Hong Kong. He was a dual citizen of Hong Kong and the United States, and his ancestry was very ethnically diverse. In his career, he used both English and Cantonese for his movies.

Bruce Lee is considered one of the most influential martial artists of all time, and is in particular credited with bridging the gap between the east and the west in terms of action cinema.

He massively popularized these kinds of movies, and one of the main ways he did this was by speaking both languages.

Let’s find out more.

In This Article

What was Bruce Lee’s native language?

Bruce Lee’s first and native language was Cantonese.

Lee himself was ethnically Chinese, but he was born in San Francisco in November of 1940 while his parents were on an international opera tour.

So, purely by the grace of having been born on U.S. soil, to Hong Kong parents, he was a dual citizen right away.

When he was four months old, though, his family returned to Hong Kong , which would then unexpectedly come under Japanese rule for the next four years.

He would star in a variety of Cantonese films from the earliest point in his life, even appearing in one film as a baby.

He also took on a Cantonese stage name, translating to the Little Dragon.

It was not until 1959 that his parents would send him to the United States.

At this time, he had some English on the basis of what his parents spoke and some that he had learned at school.

However, he was far from fluent, and could not speak English very well at that time.

Without a strong grasp of English, having been born to Hong Kong parents and spending virtually his entire youth in Hong Kong, we can confidently say that Bruce Lee’s native language was Cantonese.

Cantonese itself is part of the Sinitic branch of languages, one of many in the Chinese language family.

Native speakers of the various Chinese languages usually consider them to be variants of a single language.

However, unlike, say, American and U.K. English, most of these variants are mutually unintelligible.

So, for others, these languages are considered separate within the same family.

Around 70% of the Chinese population speak Mandarin, so let’s look at the distinction between the two for Bruce Lee’s purposes.

Did Bruce Lee speak Mandarin or Cantonese?

Bruce Lee definitely spoke Cantonese.

The main language in Hong Kong is Cantonese, and while Mandarin is overwhelmingly the most common form of Chinese on the mainland, Hong Kong is distinct both politically and culturally from the rest of China.

Of course, there is still a shared culture, but Mandarin is not spoken in Hong Kong.

Despite this, Bruce Lee had a very successful career starring in a great many Mandarin movies.

He was often asked in interviews whether he could speak Mandarin as well.

Surprisingly, he could not speak Mandarin at all, even having been in so many Mandarin movies.

Bruce Lee’s native Chinese was Cantonese, then, and he had only the most basic grasp of Mandarin.

What about English?

Did Bruce Lee speak English?

Yes, Bruce Lee spoke English, and is well documented doing so.

As I’ve said, one of the great successes of Bruce Lee’s career is that he was able to generate western interest in the kinds of movies that were being produced in his native country.

He starred both in Hollywood movies and in Chinese movies, and had international audiences for both.

Bruce Lee was 18 when his parents sent him to the United States.

His English was passable at the time, but he gained a much better grasp on it in the years that followed.

Despite this, he very rarely actually spoke English in even the Hollywood movies he starred in.

He was usually dubbed over.

However, he frequently spoke English in interviews, and did so at a perfectly adept level.

His English was somewhat accented, which is most likely why he was usually dubbed, but many have since argued his own English would have been perfectly fine.

Where were Bruce Lee’s parents from?

This is an important point in considering Bruce Lee’s native language and ethnicity, as his parentage was quite diverse.

His father was Cantonese, in fact a famous Chinese opera star.

His mother’s descent is a lot more complex and mysterious.

She was born in Shanghai to a woman of English descent and a Cantonese man, according to records.

Bruce Lee’s maternal great-uncle was a successful businessman in Hong Kong, but was of mixed Dutch Jewish and Cantonese descent.

The picture certainly becomes slightly complex when viewed this way, then, but ultimately it doesn’t really change what we’ve already said.

Lee was raised in Hong Kong, spoke Cantonese, and the majority of his direct parentage was Cantonese.

Culturally, he was always from Hong Kong, and though he became an international icon, he himself always thought of himself as Cantonese.

Bruce Lee’s ancestry was a fascinating blend of cultures and ethnicities, but his two main languages were Cantonese and English.

Without a doubt one of the most iconic figures of the 20^th Century by virtually any standards, Bruce Lee was able to become so successful in part because of his skill with language.

It helped him bridge a cultural gap that, before, was seemingly impossible to cross.

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Founder - @PollyWebster

Polly Webster is the founder of Foreign Lingo and a seasoned traveler with a decade of exploration under her belt.

Over the past 10 years, she has journeyed to numerous countries around the globe, immersing herself in diverse cultures, traditions, and languages.

Drawing from her rich experiences, Polly now writes insightful articles about travel, languages, traditions, and cultures, sharing her unique perspectives and invaluable tips with her readers.

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