Many immigrant families worry about their children’s ability to learn their mother tongue while mastering the local language. Hugh Yao, Founder and CEO of LingoAce, provides his insight on how he tackled this very issue for his own kids.
Like many immigrant families, my wife and I were worried about our children's English when we moved abroad. But soon we found that for our children, the environment had a huge impact on language learning. Their English was getting better and better, but their Chinese was getting worse. In the beginning, it started with poor expressions of meaning, and soon became exclusively replying in English even when we were speaking in Chinese to them.
When this happens on a TV show, I simply can’t accept it. A parent speaking in their mother tongue, only for the child to reply in English. I always hoped that our children would be bilingual in their mother language and local language so that they could leverage their language skills for their future endeavors.
Let's start with my story first. Because of my work, I often needed to travel to different countries around the world and meet people from different cultural backgrounds. Being bilingual has significantly benefited me. It allowed me to understand the logic behind different languages, which makes both my business and personal relationships more collaborative and easier to understand perspectives that are different from my own.
On the contrary, I began to worry that my child would no longer have this advantage. When I realized my son wasn’t able to understand complex discussions we were having at home, my anxiety forced me to look for solutions that would improve his Chinese, while ensuring that his English did not deteriorate.
At first, I tried to teach him myself. However, after two lessons, I realized I was in over my head. While I am a native Chinese speaker, I don’t have any teaching experience. With everything else going at work and in life, the time I had to devote to teaching him was scattered. In the end, my kids didn’t learn anything and everyone was tired. Then I tried in-person cram schools. The timing was always wrong: making sure they were dropped off and picked up on time was a nightmare. During the pandemic, everything shifted online. I listened in on the lessons and it was clear that my kids were simply not interested.
As a parent, it was important that my children not only learn Chinese, but have fun doing it. I wanted my children to fall in love with their culture, history, and the beauty of the Chinese language. After researching various online language learning products, I decided to start my own business: an online platform suitable for overseas children to learn Chinese. LingoAce became the solution to meet the needs of parents like me. Parents who want their children to be bilingual and fluent in Chinese.
When we launched our first set of classes, my son naturally became the first LingoAce student. Very quickly, he went from a distracted boy that didn’t want to listen in class to a highly-engaged child. He connected to the stories, the interactive curriculum, and happily shared his experiences with the rest of the family. We saw his progress and felt a deep sense of accomplishment as both parents and entrepreneurs.
When my daughter began studying with LingoAce, our enlightenment version was also launched. In order to ensure that our curriculum and teacher quality was solid, we didn't tell a single person that she was my daughter. The members of my team and even her teachers didn’t know. I wanted to make sure that we had the same positive attitude and high-quality service for all students and families.
Now, I switch between two identities to view our classes every day. One is from the perspective of an ordinary parent. In this way, I can better understand a child’s language learning journey: whether they truly enjoys our curriculum, their progress, and the advantages and issues within our curriculum. The other is from the perspective of an entrepreneur.
I consider whether our products can meet the needs of more children, whether our platform can help teachers and students interact easily and happily, and whether LingoAce can make their language learning journey fun. Through LingoAce, children can learn Chinese, feel a sense of achievement and love for the culture and connect with the world around them.
To date, LingoAce has helped hundreds of thousands of children learn Chinese. I believe there will be more in the future!
