Skibidi

There is a guy I follow on YouTube called Xiaomanyc (obviously not his real name), who is a polyglot. He’s the most average looking white dude who lives in New York City, but he has a real talent: he is completely fluent in Mandarin. His schick is going to Chinatown, and starting a conversation in English, and then cutting to Chinese. The look of shock and appreciation is always lovely to see.

In recent years, he has expanded beyond Chinese to a number of other languages, from Urdu, to Twi, to even some Native American languages. People are always impressed and surprised, and it has been a motivation in my own language learning.

The other day, I saw this video, where Xiaomanyc was asked by a local middle school for Language Week. Instead of talking about his own experiences learning, he decided to do the entire speech in Gen Alpha Slang, which even as a millenial, feels like an impossible dialect to decipher. Regardless, it’s a great video, and teaches us that a) language is constantly evolving and b) nothing drives home the importance of learning languages than hearing someone try and speak your own.

Enjoy!