Rare is the Chinese teacher who spends the weekend interviewing hot actors like Keanu Reeves and Adrian Brody while on a racetrack, or icons such as Angelina Jolie and Arnold Swartzenegger on the red carpet. And 29-year-old Cheng Yangyang says she owes it all to language teaching. 

Hollywood Access

"It's nice sometimes to be able to drop names saying I interviewed this star and that star and it makes my life sound more glamorous than it is," said Cheng, who has not only been producing Chinese learning videos on yoyochinese.com, but for the past year has also been the Los Angeles correspondent for Hello! Hollywood (think a younger version of Entertainment Tonight in Chinese). 

Not a journalist by training, Cheng was scouted for the glamorous job from her popular series of videos on her first site, yangyangcheng.com, where she taught American slang and pop culture through episodes of shows like Friends and Sex and The City.

What she lacked in experience she made up with enthusiasm, though there were a few missteps along the way. "I was at this movie premiere with several other reporters, waiting anxiously along the sides of the red carpet. The lights dimmed, the crowd hushed and the limos patiently waited to deliver the stars of the show," Cheng said of her first assignments as a Hollywood reporter.  "Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a 'somebody' and on reflex I shot out over. Flushed with the victory of scoring a fantastic interview with this A-Lister, I turned back to face my crew, only to realize that I had been holding my microphone upside-down the whole time."

 

Cheng interviews. [globaltimes.com]

The Golden Rule

"I always felt that was not my true niche," explained Cheng about her switch from teaching English to teaching Chinese. "There are many great English teachers in China but there are not nearly as many great Chinese teachers in the West."

Cheng later created yoyochinese.com, and instead of using Chinese TV as a teaching material (she admits it doesn't really capture the attention or interest of students), Cheng simply made her own video clips, featuring her in front of a virtual blackboard while breaking down complex sentences into bite-sized parts. 

One useful example of how she works is what Cheng calls The Golden Rule, which reduces everyday phrases to a set word order (Subject + When + Where + How + Action), and all the student has to do is plug in the details to make natural sounding sentences. 

"Songs are a great way to learn English, but not Chinese," explained Cheng, who instead recruited a hip-hop artist to help her create short, Sesame Street-like rap videos that teach everything from counting to short phrases. "Tones get embedded in the lyrics so no one would understand you.  But with rap you learn through rhythm, and tones stay clear."

It also helps that she sounds and thinks like a native English speaker, using cultural references and natural spoken English to explain grammar points and expressions. 

"Just like we usually like a subject in school because we like the teacher, when a student feels the teacher is fun and closer to them, they project the same feeling onto the subject they are learning.

Me being more Westernized definitely helps make my students feel less intimidated by the language."

Happy talk

Originally a finance major at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Cheng got her start as a private Chinese tutor in the US.

"My first student was a banker who wanted learn Chinese to meet a woman he had met through the internet, I only had 10 lessons to get him ready for China, so we just focused stuff like 'You look wonderful tonight, Can I take you to dinner?' you know, very gentlemanly Chinese. It seemed to work out for him." 

Her experiences eventually landed her a Chinese teaching gig at Pepperdine University, where she was able to experiment with teaching methods and incorporate some of her acting and improv experience into the classroom, some gained while checking out troupes such as LA's Upright Citizens Brigade. 

Cheng says her teaching and video production experience prepared her for Hollywood, while her acting and improv chops helps get notorious non-talkers to give up some quotes during interviews, like Jay Chow at the Green Hornet premiere.

"He usually likes to give really short answers and he likes to act cool. Just for fun and to make Jay feel comfortable, I asked Cameron Diaz if she would like to marry Jay. Suddenly the room was bursting with laughter and Jay was giggling like a shy little boy. So, when it came time to ask Jay questions, he was very friendly and cooperative."

At the same time, Hollywood has made Cheng a student, teaching her a ton of small lessons through her reporting, like never let your boyfriend take nude pictures of you, and don't be dazzled by personae.  However, according to Cheng, her biggest lesson came during an interview with Chinese actress/director Xu Jinglei, which applies to anything from reporting to language learning.

"She told me, 'There's no shortcuts in life. Sometimes, when you feel you've found a shortcut that should take you to your destination faster, you always end up spending more time on the road.' That is like a breath of fresh air that cools me down, making me more certain about the path I chose for myself."

(Source: globaltimes.cn)