Hi, I'm Angela and I'm an American-born Mandarin speaker just like you.

I'm a second-generation Taiwanese-American, avid language learner, and founder of Real You Mandarin. I've spent the past 5 years exploring my Asian-American identity by hosting the But Where Are You Really From? Podcast, and through the past 3 years of being a digital nomad living in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, I've become more attuned to not only the cultural differences of east and west and how that shapes our values and outlooks on life, but also the importance of language in showing your truest self to the world and those around you.

For many of us children of immigrants, we grew up speaking our mother tongue at home, but either never had formal education in that language, or stopped at an early age. We never learned the necessary vocabulary to express ourselves as adults or navigate our motherland societies alone, and often had culture clashes with our own families trying to explain why our values and wants for life are so different having grown up in the west.

I was frustrated feeling like I could never fully express my opinions or world views in the same way I am able to in English, and felt compelled to create Real You Mandarin to help people like us unlock our true selves. But being an American-Born Taiwanese (ABT) myself, I knew I couldn't do it alone. So, I decided to team up with my Taiwan-based Mandarin tutor to pilot the first course under the Real You Mandarin umbrella ("Real You Mandarin: Beginnings"). Read on to learn more about my partner Jane Liu, and stay tuned as I partner with other like-minded Mandarin teachers to help build out even more enriching courses in the near future.

(For those wondering about the "avid language learner" piece, I speak the following languages in descending order of strength: English, Mandarin, Spanish, and Japanese.)