A Mandarin Podcast By an ABC, For ABCs: Why I Started Real You Mandarin | EP01

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Have you ever noticed that you almost never hear other American-Born Chinese (ABCs) or American-Born Taiwanese (ABTs) actually speaking Mandarin? Like, full conversations, not just a funny TikTok where someone tests their Chinese at a night market. When was the last time you heard someone who sounds like you, who grew up the same way you did, just... talking in Chinese?

That's one of the reasons I started this podcast. And honestly, recording this first episode was kind of scary.

Why This Podcast Feels Different

I want to get this out of the way right now: my Chinese is not perfect.

I say this in the episode, and I mean it. I have a ton of vocabulary I don't know. I speak in Chinglish constantly. If you listen to this episode, you'll hear me switching to English every time I hit a word I can't say, words like "identity," "format," "motivation," "articulate." This is not a polished Mandarin podcast hosted by a native speaker. This is me, as an ABC, talking to you in the Chinese I actually have.

And I think that's exactly what makes it worth listening to.

When I was making content for Real You Mandarin's TikTok, I posted a video where I spoke entirely in Chinese. The comments people left genuinely surprised me. One person wrote, "why was this so easy to follow?" Another said it felt calming, rare, that they could understand every word for once.

That last one really got to me. Understanding every word for once. This person has probably consumed tons of Chinese-language content and most of the time they're struggling to keep up because the speakers are native level. But hearing someone at their level, someone who sounds like a friend and not a teacher? That felt different.

That's what I want this podcast to be. When you hear me speaking Chinese, I hope you feel 安全感 / ān quán gǎn / a sense of safety. Like you're listening to a friend talk, not sitting in a classroom being tested.

The Real Problem We're Solving

Here's what I've realized after years of thinking about this, both through my previous podcast ("But Where Are You Really From?", which covers Asian-American identity) and through building Real You Mandarin: the issue for us isn't that we can't speak Chinese. It's that we got stuck at a ten-year-old's vocabulary.

Most of us grew up hearing and speaking Chinese at home. Some of us went to Saturday Chinese school. But at a certain point, probably around high school, we stopped. We didn't formally study Chinese the way a language learner would, building up from foundations through intermediate to advanced. We just absorbed what we absorbed as kids, and then our English took over.

So now we're adults. Fully formed adults with complex opinions, emotional depth, life experiences. And when we try to express any of that in Chinese, we sound like children. Not because we're not intelligent, but because we literally don't have the words. It's mainly 大人會用的單字 / 大人会用的单字 / dà rén huì yòng de dān zì / "adult" vocabulary that we're missing. The words you need to talk about your career, your relationships, your mental health, your political views, how you actually feel about something beyond "good" or "not good."

And in English, you're probably incredibly articulate. You know exactly what you want to say and how to say it. But then you switch to Chinese and suddenly you feel like you've lost your voice. That gap between who you are in English and who you can be in Chinese is what we're here to close.

Our Complicated Relationship with Chinglish

If you're an ABC or ABT, you know exactly what Chinglish is. Mixing English words into Chinese sentences because you don't know the Chinese word. Every single one of us does this. I do it constantly throughout this episode (you'll hear me say things like "format," "digital nomad," "extension," "safe space" mid-sentence in Chinese).

And here's the thing: I think Chinglish is actually a really unique part of ABC and ABT culture. I genuinely love it. It's ours. But there's a difference between choosing to use Chinglish because it's fun and natural, versus using it because you literally can't say the Chinese word. The goal of this podcast, and of Real You Mandarin, isn't to kill Chinglish. It's to make sure that when you use it, it's a choice, not a limitation.

We get away with it at home because our parents understand enough English to fill in the gaps. But that also means we never actually learn the Chinese word. This podcast is designed to break that cycle.

How the Podcast Works

This first episode is just me, solo. But starting from Episode 2, every episode features a different Chinese teacher guest. Since I'm an ABC and not a Chinese teacher, when I don't know how to say something, I need someone there to help in real time. So the format is: I sit down with a Mandarin teacher, we have a real conversation about a real topic, and when I mess up or hit a word I don't know, the teacher corrects me right there, live. You and I learn together at the same time.

The vocabulary you learn is always in context, embedded in a real conversation, not a flashcard list. So you're not just memorizing words; you're hearing how they're actually used in the kind of conversations you'd want to have in real life.

Key Vocab From This Episode

主持人 · zhǔ chí rén · host (of a show)

安全感 · ān quán gǎn · sense of security / feeling of safety

表達自己 / 表达自己 · biǎo dá zì jǐ · to express yourself

留言 · liú yán · to leave a comment

創辦 / 创办 · chuàng bàn · to found / to start (a business)

訂閱 / 订阅 · dìng yuè · to subscribe

文字稿 · wén zì gǎo · transcript

糾正 / 纠正 · jiū zhèng · to correct (someone)

These are all words from the actual episode, not textbook vocabulary, but the kind of words that come up when you're talking about real life in Mandarin.

Why I Built Real You Mandarin

I spent five years making another podcast called "But Where Are You Really From?" about Asian-American identity. During that time, I lived as a digital nomad (數位遊牧 / 数位游牧 / shù wèi yóu mù) in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan for three years. Living in Asia as an Asian-American is its own experience. You look like you belong, but the second you open your mouth, everyone knows you grew up somewhere else.

That experience, combined with hearing from so many ABCs and ABTs who felt the same frustration I did, is what pushed me to create Real You Mandarin. I partnered with a Chinese teacher named Jane to co-build the first course, Real You Mandarin: Beginnings, which covers real-life topics from dating and news to mental health and filial piety versus individual freedom.

The podcast is an extension of that same philosophy: learn vocabulary through real conversations about topics that actually matter in your life.

Ready to Go Deeper?

If this episode resonated with you and you want to go deeper, this is exactly the kind of content we cover in our course Real You Mandarin: Self-Expression. It's 5 modules, 43 video lessons, and 1300+ flashcards covering everything from expressing your emotions and navigating interpersonal relationships to parenting, aging parents, and self-growth. Basically, all the conversations that actually matter in your life.

Not sure if it's for you yet? Try a free lesson first. No commitment, just a taste of what learning Mandarin can feel like when the content is actually relevant to your life.

Get the Full Transcript

Want the full transcript of this episode in Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Pinyin, and English with key vocab highlighted? This one's actually free. Download the EP1 transcript here. If you find it useful, check out our Podcast Transcript Membership to unlock all future episode transcripts.

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