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From https://asiasociety.org/china-learning-initiatives/engaging-students-interest-china-outside-classroom

Engaging Students’ Interest in China Outside the Classroom
Viral Content May Be the Cure
by Eleise Jones

Contrast these two perspectives: one of an award-winning Chinese language teacher, and another of a software-engineer-turned-YouTube-vlogger. The former—Ying Jin, from Cupertino, California—confesses, “I had a Twitter account for 11 years before I actually ever used it,” while the latter—Arieh Smith a.k.a. Xiao Ma (小马在纽约)—produces multiple highly-energized, bilingual videos each month, in addition to sharing his food and travel photos on Instagram.

After being named ACTFL’s 2018 Teacher of the Year, Jin was introduced to a community of educators through Twitter hashtags such as #langchat and #leadwithchinese, which language teachers use to share their ideas. She’s now connecting with dozens of other Chinese teachers through the WeChat platform.

Smith, a self-identified introvert, has built audiences in the hundreds of thousands on YouTube, Bilibili, and Weibo. He started with short clips of himself speaking Chinese; now he introduces Asian food, celebrities, and technology to people from all over the world passing through Times Square, NYC.

Regardless of their differences in generation and engagement on social media, both Jin and Smith are working from a shared premise: Chinese language and culture is exciting, and definitely not too difficult to learn.

Read the full article at https://asiasociety.org/china-learning-initiatives/engaging-students-interest-china-outside-classroom