Insights on Learning Chinese: Yangyang Cheng

Today we are delighted to speak with Chinese instructor Yangyang Cheng, the founder of Yoyo Chinese and the host of a highly popular Chinese teaching YouTube channel, which has garnered over 4 million views.

If you enjoy learning Chinese through engaging videos, be sure to visit her channel. You might also like learning with Lingflix, a platform that uses short video clips to teach Chinese. Lingflix transforms real-world videos—such as music videos, movie trailers, news, and motivational talks—into customized language learning sessions. You can start with a free 2-week trial of Lingflix. Visit the website or get the iOS or Android app.P.S. Click here to benefit from our ongoing promotion! (Offer ends at the close of this month.)

Before launching YoYoChinese, she taught at Pepperdine University, hosted the well-known Chinese TV program “Hello! Hollywood,” and provided private tutoring to clients that included Fortune 500 CEOs and Hollywood stars.

What led you to pursue a career in teaching Chinese, and what inspired you to create Yoyo Chinese?

My professional journey actually began as a financial auditor. I spent several years with Ernst and Young in both Hong Kong and the U.S., but I soon felt a strong pull toward entrepreneurship. I ventured into various small-business activities, from managing an online T-shirt store to organizing book tours and PR campaigns for a New York Times bestselling author. Concurrently, I was exploring opportunities in Hollywood through acting and modeling, which later proved crucial for my primary business—creating Chinese learning videos.

Gradually, while engaged in these pursuits, I launched a personal blog where I wrote articles aimed at introducing new American ideas and concepts to a Chinese audience. The site grew in popularity purely through word of mouth. As readers increasingly asked me to teach more about English and American culture, I began incorporating videos as learning materials. These videos spread widely and were greatly appreciated by my audience. Despite the growing popularity of my English videos, I always felt that wasn't my true calling. While there are many excellent English teachers in China, the West has far fewer outstanding Chinese teachers. Recognizing my deep passion and natural aptitude for teaching and language, I asked myself, why not teach my native language, Chinese, instead? I felt this was my true purpose.

My Chinese teaching career in the U.S. began in 2007 when I produced my first instructional video, “Learn Chinese with Yangyang.” This 9-minute video covered simple phrases like “hello,” “how are you,” “I am so and so,” and “thank you.” I also provided my own explanation of Chinese tones. The video was very well received, and I used it as the main feature to promote my Chinese tutoring business. This marked the start of my career as a Chinese teacher.

Later, I was hired by Pepperdine University to teach Chinese to their MBA students. I introduced fun games from improv acting classes I had taken and incorporated plenty of physical acting into the classroom. My students loved it. This experience demonstrated how effective creativity and fun can be in language learning. In addition to teaching at Pepperdine, I also tutored many private students, ranging from high schoolers to Hollywood celebrities. A common piece of feedback I received was that I explain Chinese concepts so clearly that they truly understand. They also find that learning Chinese with me makes the language feel easy and enjoyable, rather than intimidating and dull.

After several years of hands-on teaching and video production experience, I felt it was time to merge all my skills. After a year and a half of preparation, I finally launched YoyoChinese.com, a video-based Chinese learning site that I host. The site represents the next step in my Chinese teaching career. Now, anyone who wants to learn Chinese with me can do so easily and at a fraction of the cost of private lessons.

What do you consider the most significant challenges you face as a Chinese teacher?

I believe the greatest challenge is the limited availability of Chinese learning resources designed specifically from an English speaker's perspective. Even among existing resources, including some of the most popular textbooks, explanations of Chinese language concepts like tones and grammar are often dry and confusing. This is a key reason why I began designing my own curriculum and producing instructional videos.

In my office, you'll find Chinese-learning products of all kinds for all ages, from around the world. I study each one carefully to understand what is effective and what is not, and how I can apply these insights to benefit my students. By doing this, along with my ongoing study of the human learning process, I aim to overcome these challenges with my own solutions.

What common traits do your most successful students share? What qualities make someone a great Chinese learner?

I think the key characteristic my most successful students share is persistence. They are courageous and unafraid of making errors. Even if they know only one Chinese word, they will use it wherever possible. That's also how I learned English.

I recall one of the first English sentences I learned was, “How much is it?” After learning it, when I was taken to an international book fair in Beijing, I made sure to use that question at every possible opportunity. Many booth hosts assumed I was fluent in English and started speaking to me, only to discover it was the only sentence I could say and understand. The moral is that you need to use what you learn, even if you're uncertain about how to use it. The more mistakes you make, the better.

Furthermore, I believe an essential quality of a great Chinese student is having an open mind toward Chinese culture. As you immerse yourself deeper into a culture, your understanding of the language will also deepen.

What common errors do you observe among language learners? What should people avoid when studying Chinese?

I think one major mistake is that students often spend too much time learning Chinese characters at the very beginning. It's even worse when they try to learn the characters for the spoken sentences they are studying.

The Chinese language is about building blocks. For spoken Chinese, you should start with word components and progress to words, phrases, and then sentences. For written Chinese, you begin with strokes, then radicals, and finally characters. Unfortunately, these two processes are not aligned. What is easiest to say is not necessarily the easiest to write. If we combine learning to speak with learning to write into one process, you are forced to tackle very difficult characters right from the start, which can be immediately discouraging. I've seen many students drop out of Chinese classes simply because their teachers placed too much emphasis on learning Chinese characters too early. I advise my students to start learning the basics of Chinese characters only after they have established a foundation in spoken Chinese.

I've seen Chinese teachers require students to write characters repeatedly to memorize them. The direct result of this teaching approach is that students spend a great deal of time on something that isn't necessary for communication and is easily forgotten. This only reinforces their initial belief that Chinese is the most difficult language. It really doesn't have to be that way.

You mentioned previously being a TV show host. Has your entertainment background influenced your teaching style?

The two fields absolutely complement each other. For instance, being a Chinese teacher has helped me become more patient, more articulate, and a better listener. On the other hand, working as an entertainment reporter has made me more spontaneous, creative, and fun, which helps me connect better with my students. My entertainment career has also greatly benefited my current business. For example, being a reporter taught me all the essential elements of producing a great entertainment show, including scriptwriting, on-camera performance, shooting, and editing. Using these skills, I continually incorporate entertainment aspects into my teaching videos to make them more enjoyable and entertaining while remaining informative. I am very thankful for all my experiences.

What is your favorite part of the Chinese language to teach?

My favorite aspect to teach is Chinese grammar. The word "grammar" itself probably sounds dry and turns many people off, but for some reason, students find my explanations of grammar clear, simple, and even entertaining.

Grammar is actually incredibly important in language learning. A solid grasp of the target language's grammar is like having a strong, clear building structure. It provides a framework on which you can build vocabulary, making your learning process easier and more effective.

To achieve this, a Chinese instructor must not only be fluent and have a deep understanding of both English and Chinese, but they must also care deeply about their students. This ensures that everything—from pronunciation and word formation to grammar and even culture—is carefully broken down into manageable pieces and clearly explained from the student's perspective. That's exactly the kind of instruction I strive to provide. When teaching grammar, I like to explain it as if I'm telling a story.

What do you love most about your job?

Having a conversation in Mandarin with one of my students!

Do you have one final piece of advice for our readers on something they can do TODAY to get better at Chinese?

Many students struggle with remembering tones. I want to share a technique to help Chinese learners memorize the tones in a sentence: think of tones as a melody. I once taught Eliza Coupe, the actress from “Scrubs” and “Happy Endings,” to prepare her for a role that required her to deliver Chinese lines perfectly, as if she had lived in China for years. I had only two weeks to help her achieve this goal. I used the technique of treating tones like tunes, and instead of memorizing each tone individually, I helped her memorize the Chinese sentence as if she were singing it.

And One More Thing... If you share my passion for learning Chinese through movies and other media, you should explore Lingflix. With Lingflix, you can convert any subtitled content on YouTube or Netflix into an interactive language lesson. I also appreciate that Lingflix offers a vast library of videos specially selected for Chinese learners. No more hunting for quality content—it's all in one place! One feature I particularly like is the interactive captions. You can tap on any word to see an image, definition, and examples, making it much simpler to understand and remember. And if you're concerned about forgetting new vocabulary, Lingflix has you covered. You'll complete engaging exercises to reinforce words and receive reminders when it's time to review, so you actually retain what you've learned. You can use Lingflix on your computer or tablet, or download the app from the App Store or Google Play. Click here to benefit from our ongoing promotion! (Offer ends at the close of this month.)