“Sipurite”: SA Gent Teaches His Chinese Girlfriend How To Order a Burger in English

• A South African man living in China showed himself taking his Chinese girlfriend to Burger King and trying to teach her the English names for everything
• From everything she tried to say, her attempts had both of them in stitches and a nearby table joining in on the laughs
• Viewers were just as entertained, with many also stopping to point out that the South African man speaks fluent Chinese

A South African man living in China gave the internet something to laugh about on 2 April 2026. Jerry, who shares clips about life between South Africa and China, took his Chinese girlfriend to Burger King and turned the whole meal into an English pronunciation lesson.

He started outside before they even walked in, asking her to say Burger King. She gave it her best shot and came out with something closer to baogeking-ke. He tried a few more times, couldn't get through to her and eventually gave up and took her inside. Once they had their food and sat down, the real lesson began.

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A full meal of pronunciation fails

Ice cream became aisikerimu. Hamburger came out as hambaogeh. Chips turned into qibusita. When he tried to teach her Coke, she said cola first and then when she attempted Coke, but it came out as koke. A person at a nearby table heard her say it and tried to copy the pronunciation, which sent everyone into laughter.

The moment that finished him off was Sprite. She couldn't quite get it and said sipurite, and then at one point came out with surprised instead. He looked at the camera like a man who had run out of options.

The clip ended with him admitting it was too difficult and the two of them just enjoying their meal together, laughing through the whole thing.

Why the language gap is so wide

Chinese and English are about as different as two languages can be. Mandarin is a tonal language, meaning the pitch of a sound changes what a word means. English doesn't work that way at all.

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On top of that, many English sounds simply don't exist in Chinese, which is why certain letters and combinations come out very differently. English also puts certain consonants together in ways that feel unnatural for Chinese speakers. This leads to extra sounds being added in between to make words feel more natural to say.

This is why someone saying Sprite as sipurite or Nuggets as naogesi isn't laziness; it's just how the brain fills in sounds that aren't familiar.

Watch the Instagram clip here.

People love the Burger King lesson

People who couldn't stop laughing and complimenting the couple on the Instagram page:

@samceasor said:

"She's so beautiful... Does she have a sister 🤔😅"

@iambankole wrote:

"Sprite ❌ Super-right ✅ 😂"

@judithcourageatayero wrote:

"😂😂😂 Sis be doing too much. Chibuzor? As how na?"

@djnileboi said:

"Her pronunciation is not distracting me from being shocked about the brother speaking Chinese fluently 😱😱😱"

@ayoadesanya said:

"She's cute. Please let her eat 😂😭😭"

@chikoko34 wrote:

"She laughs so beautifully 😍🤣"

More on interracial couples

• Briefly News recently reported on an interracial couple in Cape Town who went viral for a video of their language barrier in action.
• A Xhosa woman teaching her Asian husband her language ended up going viral.
• An Afrikaans man explained how he ended up in an interracial relationship despite the beliefs he grew up with.

Source: Briefly News