For my previous post I did some research on YouTube Channels for Mandarin learning and I came across the fairly new account of Xiaolu 晓露, who does something very interesting in her videos: she evaluates the Chinese of expats in China.
How fluent is fluent?
Not just random foreigners in the Middle Kingdom, but popular YouTubers like 杰里德Jared, Thomas阿福 and others who speak Mandarin in their videos with native-like fluency – or so it seems to the average viewer. But how well – after spending many years in China – do they actually speak the language? Does their Mandarin have any flaws at all? That’s what Xiaolu sets out to ascertain.
Testing the Laowai YouTube Elite
And when you watch her videos, you wonder why nobody got this idea before her, since everybody has apparently been waiting for a native speaker – preferably a teacher like Xiaolu – to take a critical look at the Mandarin skills of the laowai YouTube elite. Although Xiaolu’s channel is still rather unknown, people quickly started commenting suggestions which candidate to “analyze” next. So more content is to come and maybe other online teachers will hear the call too.
Xiaomanyc 小马在纽约
Steve Kaufmann
A BRIGHT WORLD – 世界青年说
No bashing
Xiaolu doesn’t “judge” her laowai vlogger colleagues in a nasty way, she isn’t out to bash a bunch of expats trying to speak Chinese – that would be a cheap strategy to attract more views. On the contrary, her approach is friendly and constructive, doing some casual explaining on the side, both useful and enjoyable.
Test results and grading system
Xiaolu’s chosen format works well, even though I think it is not completely fair to judge someone’s Chinese skills based on one video. We should keep in mind that listening, reading and writing skills should be added to the picture too.
Another thing to consider is the difference between someone holding a monologue – which can be prepared – and actual communication with locals – which is harder to fake.
I’m also pretty sure that the gap between Afu’s and XiaoMa’s (referring to the embedded videos above) Chinese skills is bigger than Xiaolu’s grades reflect, giving the impression that both are more or less on the same level which – from what I’ve seen so far – they are not. So Xiaolu might reconsider her grading system a little.
Anyway, this is excellent and original content. I hope Xiaolu keeps up the good work. Here’s the link to her account.
P.S.
Only a couple of days after this short review was posted, I got the following reaction from Xiaolu, explaining the difficulties of accurate and fair grading:
Thanks for the review. I love it????. Some thoughts of my own: I did consider to get rid of the grades part. Because I don’t want people taking offense. But some of my subscribers actually quite like it. I just want people to learn Chinese in a different and fun way. And I never intended to criticize in anyway. I agree with you there is a fairly large gap between xiaoma and afu. The grade is only based on my personal view and I do get more strict with advanced learners. Xiaoma is the second online influencer I analyzed. I do feel his overall Chinese is below the score I gave to him. But I get frustrated sometimes between telling the truth and not hurting people, also hopefully encouraging them at the same time????
Xiaolu
