Today you’ll meet Cherry Man Ching Yeung, a Skillabration teacher with over two decades of experience in teaching Mandarin, Cantonese and English as a Second Language.

In this episode, Cherry discusses her life in Hong Kong, Chinese culture, how she learned English, and why she started teaching.

Cherry provides insights into teaching Chinese and the importance of learning a foreign language with a teacher. She shares how she keeps her lessons engaging and uplifting for her students.

Highlights from the Episode: 

• Cherry’s career as a teacher and anecdotes from her life
• The first word she learned in English
• Chinese culture 
• Tips for learning Mandarin
• A sample lesson from Cherry

At Skillabration, we're dedicated to sharing skills with parents to support the youth of today. Let us know who you'd like to hear from on our next episode. 

We would greatly appreciate your support by liking, sharing, and rating our podcast—your feedback helps us expand our mission to share real-world skills with the youth.

Connect with Skillabration:

Get on our email list! We’d love to hear your suggestions for the podcast. https://skillbox.skillabration.com/p/skillabration-podcast-newsletter

Sign up for classes with our teachers here: www.skillabration.com

Connect with us on socials:

youtube.com/@skillabration-school

https://www.facebook.com/skillabrationschool/

https://www.instagram.com/skillabration/

Welcome to the Skillibration podcast, where it's career day every day. Your host, Nikki Lubing, is the owner of Skillibration, an online foreign language school for k twelve homeschool students. Nikki's experience learning Spanish as a second language led her to building a variety of skills that set her up for life, from soft skills to financial literacy. It's her mission to provide those same skills to youth around the world through the Skelebration podcast. Next, we'll be interviewing guests from a variety of backgrounds and careers, ranging from teachers to business owners and blue collar workers. We're excited to uncover their wisdom and experiences. Whether it's mastering a new language, honing leadership skills, or learning the ins and outs of money. We're here to take your skills from zero to fuego.

Let's go. Hi, Cherry. Welcome to the Skillibration podcast. I'm so happy to have you here. Cherry is joining us. She is one of the teachers at Skillibration. She teaches Mandarin and Cantonese to our students ages eight through 18, and she's primarily doing one on one tutoring right now. So cherry, we're going to just start with a little bit about your story.

You speak Mandarin and Cantonese, but you also learned English. And right now our focus on the podcast is about foreign language learning. So I would love to hear a little bit about how you learned English, what that was like for you. And even if you want to share about, like, Cantonese and Mandarin, was that like, did you learn it growing up in your home? Tell us all the details.

So first I would like to talk about my experience as an educator and how I started teaching. So first I started teaching when I was very young. Probably the informal experience is that where my, I prepared my younger sister to go to school, to start her school. So I have a circle time with her, with some squishy toys, and I put one and two on the bed and then we sing together and make campfire. Like the pretending one. Yeah. Yeah. So I have been teaching formally for more than 20 years.

So one time I was praying for my future career. So I was walking pastor center at the shopping mall when I was 16. But don't try to guess my age. So they are hiring. They were hiring teachers to offer homework help and prepare for spelling test. So I got hired. And then after I finished every day I taught there with my school uniform. And then the class size there increased from free to more than 20 students.

And then when I suggested my boss to have a Christmas party with the students, she said yes, she never know what is Christmas, because she's a traditional chinese grandma. But, yeah, she said yes. And then all my coworkers say, wow. I was surprised. I was never agreed with anything. Yeah. So. And thank you for the online teaching opportunities.

First, I started teaching ESL and also face to face. I taught students Cantonese and Mandarin. And then, thanks to the experience, that's a celebration given to me. I taught Cantonese and Mandarin online.

I think the audience would love to know more about your language learning experience. So tell me a little bit about that.

Okay, so because I was growing up in chinese speaking countries, so our English. We learned English as a second language, or because, yeah, we were ruled by. By British. And then we have to learn English. So guess the first english words I learned. What? What do you think?

Maybe hello, or how are you?

I learned about this one.

Oh, she's showing us an onion.

Yeah. And then it's a story about onions. So when I was around six years old, I went to a clubhouse. A four year old girl came to me with an onion with ice like this.

With us with a smiley face on it.

Yeah. And then she kept saying, onion. Onion. Like, I was in a. In a play. I was in a playhouse, and I hide under the slide inside the playhouse. But she's. She's still looking through the window and say, hey, onion.

Onion. And then I got very scared. So finally, I went to my mom. I said, what means onion? Mom? So later, yeah, my mom helped me out when we started playing. Then gradually, we finally played and laughed crazily together. I also showed her onion, and we went on the slide with onion. Yeah, it's fun. And then the second story is that I remembered my first great english teacher.

She taught us about feeling like, I am thirsty. I am hungry. Then she said, okay, everyone stand up. I am thirsty. When you're thirsty, how do you look like? And then we do some gesture action. And then she says, okay, let's do it together. I am thirsty. And then we all laugh.

It's a fun experience. So that's how I started learning my language.

I don't know if you want to share a little bit about how you came to the US. Do you want to share that story a little and how long you've been here?

So, actually, how I came to us is another story to share about the benefits of learning a foreign language, because learning a foreign language open up many opportunities for me. And then my big life event starts from a foreign language. English, a weight, and a key to the. To the world. So, actually, my husband is american. And then we watch chinese drummer on tv. And then sometimes he repeated some phrases after me and we had fun together. Yeah.

Like, we say rice noodle, we say mi feng. And then he remembered the character name from the drummer is Yu Fen. So when we talk about rice, we keep thinking about our chinese character's name. And because of my husband, I came to America.

And then you said, that's some of the benefits of learning a foreign language, is it opens up opportunities for you. Did you want to share any other benefits that you think are, like, why kids should learn, start learning Mandarin or Cantonese?

Yeah, because for me, so for me, I make a lot of friends. I can introduce my chinese language, Cantonese, Mandarin, to my lovely students and get to know their culture. So maybe, who knows? One day maybe you will have a career. You also can use Chinese to share your experience and make new friends. And for me also, I taught language online. I work from home, especially during COVID So it's a good opportunities because students are still young. Like, the future is waiting for them. So.

And nowadays, more and more people are learning Chinese. You would be surprised. Like, some south asian countries, like India, like Pakistan, or even like Africa, like, people there are also learning Chinese. Yeah.

Why are they learning Chinese in those countries, do you know?

For them, they think they can go to China one day. Yeah. And they can. They can make friends there. They can work there. Yeah. Okay.

So for job opportunities, business opportunities, perhaps interacting with chinese businessmen or women.

Yeah. And for my students, especially in class, I heard a student who wanted to learn Chinese because her best friends speak Chinese also. Yeah.

Oh, yeah, exactly. I get that a lot, too. With my students for learning Spanish, they either want to communicate with friends in Spanish or family members.

Yeah, family members. Like, some students told me, like, it's secret code. Like, my mom speak a little Chinese, so I grew up in the US, and then when we talk about our secret, and then outsiders cannot join us.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. I agree. It is like a secret. That's how I feel, too, with speaking another language. What about in your classroom? Tell me a little bit about what it's like learning a foreign language, learning Mandarin or Cantonese in your class. How do you make students feel comfortable? How do you make it accessible to them and not boring or overwhelming? Because I know some kids, like, they get overwhelmed with asian languages because it's a little. Well, it's, like, a lot more difficult than other languages. Right?

Yeah.

Maybe they want to give up. So what. What do you do to encourage them?

So I try to relate the language to their hobbies and interests. For example, for some students who like chorus or play or playing guitar. Yeah. So when they are learning ping in or yipping, those are the basic sound system of our Chinese, of Cantonese and Mandarin. I would ask them, oh, I imagine you are trying to matching the lyrics with the music, like the tone. Right. So because Chinese is a tonal language. Yeah.

So that's how your voice go up and down. Yeah. So you fine tune your voice like you tune your guitar sometimes. Yeah. And then one student, he is interested in engineering. So like actually writing chinese characters is like building a house. You need to fit the chinese character in a box. So I tell him, oh, it's like a.

The box is like a construction site. So now we are building a house. And the strokes, those lines on the chinese word, like think about, they are like bricks, they are nails, they are woods. So you start building a house. Yeah. And also visualize them. Like let them own the language. For example, there is a chinese word like flying.

Maybe I can try to share the screen. Let me see.

While cherry is looking for that. Just so you know, the podcast is going to be on Apple, Spotify and YouTube. So if you want to see the video version, you can check us out on YouTube to see what cherry is sharing.

Yay. So for example, these chinese words is fei. So it means flying. Right. So you can, like. I will ask students, hey, what do you see how is related to flying? And you say, ah, look, there are wings. Yeah. So if they are like very artistic, then, yeah, they can draw rings on it, right on top of the root fade.

So, yeah, that's a way they can own a part. And then we do action. Like total physical response. Like flying. Yeah, like at the back. Yeah, flying. Yes. So they own a part and it's fun.

They take part in this. They are engaged, so they don't feel boring or overwhelming. We had a lot of fun. Yeah.

Nice. That's great. Thank you for sharing in my experience with learning Spanish, because Spanish is my second language and there's definitely ups and downs. It can be really, like, sometimes it's really difficult. And as a student, I felt maybe I don't want to do this anymore. Maybe it's too hard. So what kind of mindset would you have tell students to have about learning a foreign language, especially Mandarin or Cantonese?

I think you need to see is like as your dream. Like. So like, imagine that you are using like the tiger language. Now we are talking about is Chinese. So imagine that you are, for example, what do you want to use Chinese to achieve like, oh, you are ordering food in a chinese restaurant. Yeah. So you need to be patient. You need to change different ways.

You express. Like for example, you want to order a large coffee, you will say da, da. And then you use your gesture. And then, and then people say, ah, what? What? Shimmer. Shimmer. And then you can use your gesture. And then the. Sometime the.

The waiter also help you out bigger. Right. And then you can repeat after him. Like, imagine. Have fun. Yeah. Practice. And then like, also, like my mom, she set a goal to learn and work on this consistently.

So my mom, when she was young, she studied in night school and she also worked in a Tesla factory. That was her. Like how, how older Chinese grow up. They have to work, they have to go to school. So when she finally lay down on her bed, she took out the dictionary. She set a goal. I learned one word a day. And then at that time, there was no Internet.

So she read pages by pages. And then actually she didn't finish high school, but gradually later on, she got a job. She helped classify english letters for different departments in the company. They both say, wow, I hire you because, you know, it's more vocabulary than local university students. Yeah. Wow. So that's how she set a goal. She worked on it consistently no matter how hard is it? Yeah.

And this was her learning English, correct?

Yeah. This is how she learned English.

Wow. So she self taught.

Yeah, she learned. Yeah, she learned by herself.

That's amazing. Congratulations to her. I bet she's very proud of you too.

Yeah, she helped me with English. So like, what's celebration? Believe we learned a skill and is there skill that we can celebrate? Yeah. Yeah.

Thanks, Keery. That's exactly right. Like learning a language is a skill and a celebration. And that's why it's celebration. So you talked about the Internet not being available when your mom was learning. So this day and age, do you think kids could learn without a teacher? What's your opinion about that?

I think nowadays, yeah, especially for the beginner level, you can almost find every theme, every vocabulary or online. Yeah. And then actually, just like the time without Internet, even you use textbook from different publisher. The knowledge is the same. Right. The first chapter would be ABCD. And hello for English. Right.

In Chinese. Also ni hao Jia Jian. Right. But hello and goodbye. Right, but yeah, but having a good teacher is. Is important because you can. Teachers can keep you on schedule, like if you want. I remember one student asked me, why.

Why do we need to go to school? Yeah. I woke up so early every day and I said, yeah, because teacher keep you on schedule and set goes together with you so that, you know, this week we have to finish, like three pages. Yeah. And also teacher breaks things down for you. Like our teachers, like from celebration. Like for me, I break things down for students. Like, for example. Yeah.

That's how I prepare with the technology. I am not very familiar. For example, we just talk about the word fey. Right. So I will say, oh, let's say together. Yeah. Like fish. Like in english fish.

Right. And then this is a. A. Yes. Good job. High five, Nicky. And then there is a first tone. So it's like high and flat.

Like you sing the. You sing as a soprano in quite like faa. Okay. Try to get a fang. Yeah. It's me flying. Yeah. So that's how I break it down for students.

And then you got to practice with the teacher. Yeah. Even sometime kids repeat after me. They may need a few time practice to get the things right. So a teacher can check with you which one you need to improve and work more on it. Right. So which one you did a good job. That's.

That's great. Yeah. You need people cheer you, celebrate with you for your success also. So that's how we are different from all night. Like all night. Learn. Learning, like self taught from Internet. Yeah.

So you have authentic experience with teacher. Like. Like me. I speak Chinese. I. Teachers from celebration, they speak Spanish. English. Yeah.

So you can practice with native speaker. Yeah.

That's important, too. So that's one of the other questions we were going to discuss is learning through immersion versus maybe more traditional method. And so if families aren't really familiar with, you know, the immersive type of learning environment, it's when the teacher is only speaking the language, the target language, and maybe using little to no English or whatever the. The students native language is. So what is your opinion about that kind of environment? I mean, you said your mom learned without immersion, right? She's just going word by word, letter by letter. So. Yeah, I'd love to hear your thoughts about that. Maybe comparing it to her story, too.

I think. Let's talk about a good point for an immersive environment. So the environment. Train your ears to be used to the sound of a foreign language. Yeah. And actually, you can catch a sound and slowly. Oh, my teacher taught you this? Oh, I have heard it somewhere before thing. Right.

And then. And then it's more flexible and be creative to express yourself. Right. So maybe from textbook, we learn, like, only one or two ways to express ourselves. Right. We can't list, like, ten ways, 100 ways. But actually you can in real life experience. Right.

So actually it's also depends on your learning style. And per your comfortable level, you can always achieve total immersion gradually too. Like nIft teachers said that, like, evaluate with you and then find out you are level one. Maybe we can use 70% your native language, let's say English, and then 30% Chinese, like in my class. And slowly we can move to 50 50 or 70% Chinese and 30% English. So it's a gradual experience. And I remember when I was young, I was. I had.

I had chances to expose to immersive environment and bilingual environment because I lived in a country like Hong Kong. English is an official language at that time. Yeah. So I remember we have those as activities like english day. So whole day you have to speak to your peer in English teacher, set up those fun fair, and then you. You can. You could buy things and sell things in English. English only.

And those Halloween parties, you can just up a little bit because we need. We needed to wear school uniform. Yeah. So at that time, you can have some fun. Your hair. Yeah. Your style. Yeah.

It is a fun experience because you learn to express yourself. Learn not to get frustrated when people not understand you. Oh, what else you can do to help yourself to get. To get understood. Right. And then my teachers also gave us a sample questionnaires, and then she said, oh, you can walk to the harbor. We have Victoria harbor in Hong Kong, which is very famous to the world. So we walked along and many visitors, like, with your friends or your adult, and then you can go and ask.

Ask them those questions from the question years, like, oh, how long have you been in Hong Kong? How do you find it? Yeah, that's how. Yeah, I learned.

Nice. Yeah, that's exciting. I think that's a lot of fun. It could be. Were you ever nervous on english days? Like, oh, no, what if I can't speak or. Yeah. How did you feel?

We need to be very creative, actually. I'm someone who, like, who always like new experience. So be creative. Use your gesture, use drawing. Right? Use your drawing. Pointing. And teachers or the students in charge will repeat, oh, what you want and then tell you the new word. Yeah.

If you didn't know something, you would draw it out or use your gestures to communicate. Right?

Yeah. By the time I was in school, teachers or the students volunteer will say, oh, this one is called brah, brah brah. Okay, let's try again and repeat after them, and we can learn. And as I growing up in the school next time I can be a volunteer there. Yeah.

Nice. Yeah, that's great. First I want to ask you this, is your class immersive or how do you run your classroom with beginners? Because most of your students are beginners, right. Or do some of them, you say sometimes they do know some mandarin, but would you still consider them beginners or are some of them intermediate? Who typically comes to you and how do you teach?

I am teaching students from different backgrounds. Some of them like they are from Asia, they already explore angeries, maybe from drummer. Yeah. Or some of them, their parents grow up here in the US, but they also speak some Chinese. Yeah. So, yeah, it's quite diverse. So in the class, I actually, I believe come. Like that's why we have to come to class with a teacher and learn how to communicate.

Right? So. Oh, like we will assess, like how comfortable the students is, right. Like, or just directly ask him or her. Or do you feel comfortable if we start from Chinese first, if you don't understand, please stop me and ask me. Or as a professional teacher, we also know that when students got confused. So, yeah, we can explain. Yeah. So actually we as a teacher, we are very flexible and response to the cater and teach to students need.

Yeah.

Okay. So then my other question is, do you think kids learn more easily than adults with foreign language?

Yeah, I think in general they are more easily. Yeah, they learn more easily than adults. Because children are flexible. They are willing to learn new things. Their brain is still growing and they are forming neo neural connections for new experience. That's why like in celebration, we encourage that, right? So we enhance the experience, we develop and we enforce. Yes. How students learn.

And then, you know, students make mistakes and learn. Right. Like think about the time when we were young when we learned how to walk. When we fall and we still stand and give hold onto something, we stand again and be very persistent and we want to get some food. Our mom say, no, what you do, you walk, you climb and you try to reach it until your mom find out. Right. So that's how students learn easier. Yes.

For adults. For us, we need motivation, right? For example, maybe you want to work in maybe chinese company. You want to make a chinese friend, maybe your spouse speak chinese, for example. Yeah. So different kind of motivation adults learn. Different is of course, some adults learn, learn language more easily. Yeah. So for us, I think we always be open mind like kids.

Open minded like. Like children. Yeah. So that's how it helps us learning. Help us with learning. Yeah.

Do you know why? Or have you ever read about why some people learn a language more easily than others.

I think maybe they have, they are open minded. Like, they won't feel shy. Like, oh, what if I don't understand? What about people? What people think about me? Yeah. So don't be discouraged. Yeah.

Maybe they're a little more fearless with speaking the language. That's something I've noticed too, especially with, even with young students, like middle school students. I used to teach English as a second language. And so when I noticed that the kids who were speaking more, they weren't as scared to speak around their peers, they would learn a lot more quickly. So I see what you mean when you say that.

Yeah. When you learn mistake ticket as a fun time. Like, I remember when I teach adults face to face, like, I also asked them, oh, we say hello. Like nihau in Mandarin on they ho. How about in your language? Yeah. And then some of them, like, speak Hindi. Other languages. Yeah.

So I say, how do you say that? Then I repeat after them, I made mistake. And we have fun, right?

Yes.

Yeah, it was a fun time.

Yeah, I noticed, like right now. So some parents listening might be wondering if we offer classes for adults right now. We do not. But if we ever got enough demand for it, we definitely would consider that on our own website on skillibration.com. But right now, all of our classes are hosted on out school and it's only for kids k to twelve. Oh, pre k. So it's a three, three to 18. But at skillibration, we currently have, for Spanish we have five through 18, and then for Mandarin we have eight and Cantonese we have eight through 18.

But again, if we get demand for those kind of classes, we definitely would open up to that. I know some homeschool families, like they, I've seen moms, they say, I want a class where I could take the class with my child. So like a mommy and me class. So that could be something potentially that we offer too. So make sure you get on our email list because you know you'll be the first to hear about it when we do have that. And you can communicate with us and let us know that you're interested in something like that. Okay, so great answers to these questions. What are your thoughts on the advantages of group classes versus one on one classes for foreign language?

For foreign language? I think the group classes, you can get some, like peer support. Yeah. And then you can practice. It's kind of like provide you an experience that you can, like how do you use the language in your real life? And, and then you can have peer correction time. Yeah. Yeah. And that, of course, there is still a teacher presence to. Yeah.

To help you out. So you can also get to know, like, my individuals. Right. And. Oh, we both. We all like languages. Let's make friends. And then for one on one, we can cater students special needs.

Specific needs. Like, if you don't like this topic, then what topic do you like? Tell us about your interest. Yeah. So we can tailor made the materials for you. And then for some students, their learning style, they want to feel safe first. Right. At least I get things right first before I speak. So teachers provide a safe place and an encouraging place for you to learn.

And then we can also focus on overcoming the difficulties with you. Like, which one you want us to work on more together? Which one of you already do very well. Yeah. So you can spend more time with the teacher in a one on one class. Yeah. And then I think about the question we talked before, especially, like, actually when students learn language just from us, although parents would really like to join because our teacher teaches so well. Right. And then your students can also teach you at home.

I remember one student learned how to say hello in class. And when she. When he went. When he finished the class, he taught his dad how to sing. Hello, Nihau. Yeah. So next time, when parents want to come to say hi to me, he came to say hi to me. Hey.

Say, hey, Li hao. Yeah, teacher. Like that. Yeah.

Nice. So let's talk a little bit about the phonics or pronunciation. What tips do you have for learning Chinese specifically? And then, you know, because it's a tonal language. I mean, maybe you did mention that Chinese is a tonal language, but maybe you could explain. Explain that a little bit more for people who don't know anything about Chinese.

Yes. So Chinese, we not only have phonetics, we also have tones. Yes. So I usually teach the tone, the phonetic system, the sound with a context. Yeah. For example, when we say coffee. Yeah. So it's very, very close to English.

Yeah. Good job. And then you say cafe. Right. Cafe. Right. So I usually break it down with the student. Right.

And then. And then this is first tone. Right. Like you sound. Yeah, good job. Like you're saying it's a subpoena. And then. Yes, very good.

So it's a fae. So, yeah, that's how I break it down for students.

Now, I have a question here. Are the tones only with the vowel sounds?

Yeah, usually.

Okay, so you're only. It's not like you're going to change a consonant, like a. Like, it has to be with a letter, like Ma.

Ma.

With the a sound or with the e sound.

Yeah.

Is that right?

Yeah.

Okay.

To make it simple. Yeah. So we also, like, we demonstrate different thing, make phonetics learning fun. Not just repeats after, like, ABCD all the time. Do you want to ask me that? Like, tips. So that is a leather. That is like, sounds from the phonak system. Like, it's like this.

It's not like two eyes with a smiley face, a little bit tail. So this is like, most students have a problem with. And then.

So, for listeners, for people who don't have the video, she's showing us the u with the two dots over each line of the U.

Good. So, um. Yeah, it looks like a smiling face. So my. My tips for land is, like, saying about you, a grinning goldfish. So how is it? So, first, let's green together. Green in round the leaves. Like goldfish.

How goldfish look like. Yeah. So first green, then round the shape. Okay. 3210. Good job. They can get it correct the first time. Yeah.

So that's how we learn.

No, no, it's not my first time. I've taken mandarin lessons before.

Wow. See, she also practiced what she preached, right? She learned a language, too.

Do you have more to share about that with learning tips? Do you have, like, what about listening to video music? Do you encourage your students to do that?

Yeah, of course. You can always, like, associate your hobbies and interest with learning. Like, if you watch a video, like, let's say you are interested in cooking, for example. So you can turn on the cc, right. Closed caption. And then you can repeat after them. That's how I. I learned how to speak when I was young.

I remember even it's the news. My parents keep having the news on tv. And then I would go near the tv and keep humiliating after that. Yeah. So you don't have to be perfect. Just one word at a time. Like, don't be discouraged. Oh, so many things.

I don't know. Why don't you just focus on one word that you hear, and you tap it on your shoulder, say, oh, good job. Right? Yeah. And then also another tips for learning language. Like, you can associate the words with your gesture. For example, one chinese word is like, means smelly. It's chou, but smelly. So I will ask the students, like, when you think something is smelly, imagine the smelliest things in the world.

And then what you do, you do. Yeah. So every time. Yeah. For. For students who have some experience with me, I will say, oh, shi chao. Yeah. So what is so smelly for you? Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah. So with my gesture, with their notes. Yeah. Then they. They get it every time they have this. They associate with the song.

I love it. I'll remember that.

Yeah.

Tell us about. Let's go into some of the questions at the end here. Tell us about culture and learning a foreign language. Maybe you can share some about your culture and maybe some interesting facts that you think the audience would like to hear.

Yeah. So for the language, like Chinese, like in Mandarin or third person singular, he she eat. We say ta ta ta ta. Interesting. Yeah, interesting. Cantonese. He, she is. Is khoi koi koi.

Yeah. So it's same. Yeah. Like, same word. Yeah. So it's easy to remember for cultural wise, like. But actually we drink soup. We don't eat soup.

So when I first learned English. So people say eat soup, I think how you eat the soup, then you just drink like this. Because traditionally, chinese soup is thinner than western soup, and our bowl is more like a cup. Yeah. So maybe that's the reason why we say we drink soup. Yeah.

Do you share about your culture while you're teaching Chinese?

Yeah, definitely. So, for example, when we teach about the word, like home, family, the word is like. So first it has the character itself have a cover. It's called the COVID for the treasure box. Yeah. So family is a treasure for us. And then in the family, like, they traditionally, they keep pig with them. They live with pigs, actually, this means pig.

So you can see the pig. The nose. The pig nose, tail and laying down like that. Right? Yeah. It's a family world. And then they only. It's very important for the family because they. They will use the pig, like, especially in chinese new year, if they share with their family, like family gathering time.

Yeah. So I will ask the students, oh, what about you? What do you think is so important for family? For your family? Yeah.

Okay. So why do you bring up the pig, though? Is that because the symbol, the character looks like a pig, or is that. Is that part of the word?

The word both.

Okay.

Okay. Yeah, both. So it, like, in ancient time, it means pig also, and it's a drawing. Yeah. Okay. Of a pig. Yeah.

Okay, got it. Okay. And that word relates to family.

Yes, because. Yeah. It's about celebration. Yeah. Like Chinese New Year celebration. Yeah.

My year is the year of the pig on the chinese calendar. On the chinese astrology.

If they are chinese listener or they have those background, then they can calculate how old Nikki is.

It's okay. I'm not afraid to say it.

Yeah. We are both 25 years old.

Okay.

Okay.

Are you the year of the pig, too?

No, I think. No. Yeah. Yeah.

I'm not gonna say yeah. All right, so maybe before we get into the next question, do you want to share a little bit about that? Like, the. The chinese symbols for the birthdays. Do you want to talk about that a little?

So, traditionally speaking. So those are the zodiac signs. Yes. So, like, some people. Okay. Culturally believe that if you were born in the year of the pig, so that affect your characters that affect, like, on this day, like, what you can do. What you can do. So that's why on.

If you have. If you have ever come across a chinese calendar, they will write, today, you can do this. You can't do this. Sometimes it's even, say, today you can't take showers.

It's, like, superstitious, basically.

Yeah. So, yeah, it's tradition. Of course. You don't have to follow. It's just. It's just a fun fact to know. I don't follow it also, but I just read it, like, for.

For fun.

For fun. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So there's different animals that align with different birth years, and it's a little different than, like, in America or western astrology, where it's by month or there's 13 signs or whatever, and then. But in chinese tradition, I don't know how many animals there are, but.

Twelve.

Oh, twelve. Okay. Got it. So, yes. And it's by birth year.

Yeah. And the mouse is the fastest one. Yeah. There is an interesting story about them, about those animals of the ear. Yeah. But there are, like, a few versions. I tell. What? I tell you a little bit about the version I know.

The mouse. Guess why the mouse is the fastest animals. What do you think?

Is it the lightest?

Why? Why is. Why the mouse is the fastest animal to reach the other side. Yeah. So actually, there are different. I can't remember all the twelve also, like pig, ox, chicken, mouse, cow, tiger. Like, I would think a tiger will. Would be the fastest, but actually it's a mouse because mouse is very cunning, so somehow he. He.

Right. He is rode on the back of the ox, so the oxygen. And then as the ox swim. Okay. He. He jumped. So. So there's.

There the west girls. He jumped on the. On the ground first. Yeah. So, yes.

Okay, great. That's so interesting. Thank you for sharing.

Yeah. So that's why before the aux. Yeah, she or he. He or she or it. Already there. Yeah.

Tell us about what people might want to know. About your country and other countries that.

Speak Chinese, for example, let me tell you something interesting. In the farmers market, for example, like a store owner, like. Like maybe he or she, they will say, oh, hey, when they see me, they will say, hey, beauty, beauty, come buy vegetables. And then when. Yeah, beauty. So when you're thinking that you. When I'm thinking that I'm the most beautiful woman in the world, and I heard they say, they say, one more time, hey, beauty, beauty. When you.

When you turn the back, they are calling someone else behind you. Yes. So you find out that they call everyone beauty. Grandmother, children, me.

That's to get your attention to come into the market.

Yeah. I think in America they don't do that. Right? Yeah.

No, yeah. Not, no, no. But in Mexico, when I was little, there's vendors either on the street or on the beach, and I think they learned a little English from the tourists, but maybe they didn't know exactly what the word meant. And they would say, hey, lady, lady, come buy my junk. You know what junk is? It's like things that aren't very good, you know, good quality. And I think, like, the tourists are probably saying, oh, this is junk. They don't know. They're like, come and buy my junk.

And people can't think about. Exactly.

Exactly. So we're going to do a little bit of a rapid fire round before we end our podcast here. I'm going to ask you four questions. Just answer as fast as you can. What's your favorite lesson to teach?

My favorite lesson to teach is that, like, I don't only care about the class itself, but I also care about the learners. Yeah. Like, one student has a school sheet called Harry, so I get my own Harry when I say nihau. Hello to him.

Yeah, I know that student. Yeah, we both.

And then I say niho. Yeah. And he speaks slowly. He speak more and more, too. He was a little bit shy. Yeah. But he now more open up when we speak with Harry. Yes.

Okay. Got it. Favorite food related to chinese to your country?

It's hot pot. Yeah. So it's a big stove with a. So you put the pot on the big stove, like, in the middle of the table. Usually it's like electronic. Electronic ones, so your house won't be on fire. And then the family and friends sit around the table, and then you cook the sliced meat of your choice, or the veggies. You put it in your favorite box.

Yeah. Like bon bov or vegetables bars. Yeah. And then. Yeah, you can. Until it's cold. Then you put it in your small bowl, and then you dip in some chinese sauce, maybe hoisin sauce. Yeah, soy sauce.

And put some chili. And then you enjoyed it with your family.

Yeah, I've had the chinese hot pot one time in Taiwan.

Oh, wow, that's so yummy.

And then I've had korean hot pot too. Have you ever had the korean style?

Yeah, that's.

I like that too. Yeah, it's good. All right, back to you. Cherry. What? One thing students love about your class.

Yeah. Because I engage them and I involve them. I have them. I invite them, I encourage them. They express their ideas. The story I told everyone. What is so important about your family? What do you think? Yeah.

Okay, great. I love it. And then what's the most interesting fact about your language or culture?

So we take our shoes off before entering people's house or our own house. So we think that this helped the host to keep the house clean so the holes don't have so much cleaning up after you. Right? Yeah.

Okay, interesting. Do you have shoes that you wear specifically in the house, like house shoes or house slippers?

House slippers. Yeah. Sometimes my mom says, oh, you guys are. You guys, like, sometimes if you feel like, little bit sad, very little, or tired, she will say, oh, you get. You know why you get a little bit tired or sick? Because you don't wear slippers. That's why you catch a cold. That's what traditionally people say about. Joke about it.

Yeah, love it.

You can join Cherry's classes if you go to skillibration.com. And we'll put links to her classes in the show notes as well. Cherry, is there anything else you want to share before we say goodbye?

Come join us. Yeah. And have fun. Yeah. And learn. Yeah.

How do we say goodbye in Chinese? In Mandarin? And then what about in Cantonese?

Bye bye is the same.

Bye bye.

Yeah, same as English. Yeah, actually. Yeah, same.

Okay, interesting. How did that happen?

I think because before we were ruled by british government and then something culturally like roasted pork or. Yeah, they also used their cantonese term of roasted pork also. So we borrowed from each other. Yes.

Another interesting fact for us. Okay, thanks, everyone. See you.

Thanks, everyone. Thanks, Nikki. See you.