Xiaomanyc

Xiaoma (小马) means little horse in Mandarin Chinese — it's the nickname he adopted after falling in love with the language during his year living in Beijing. The 'NYC' tacked onto his full handle signals that he is based in New York City.

No — by his own account, he grew up speaking exclusively English until the age of 18. His path into Mandarin began when he had the chance to live in Beijing for a year, an experience he describes as completely reshaping his relationship with language and culture.

He moved to Beijing at 18 and immersed himself in the language and local life there, which he credits as the spark that turned language learning into a lifelong passion. After that formative year, he went on to study dozens more languages and began documenting the whole journey on YouTube.

His signature format is 'surprise fluency' — he walks into a restaurant, market, or public space and speaks to people in their native language when they would never expect it, then captures their genuine reaction on camera. Titles like 'White Waiter Shocks Customers with Perfect Mandarin' and 'American Sushi Chef Shocks Customers With Fluent Japanese in Tokyo' are textbook examples of the style.

His channel includes videos shot in Tokyo where he surprises customers with Japanese, which follows the same immersion-based approach he used to reach a high level in Mandarin. As a polyglot who has studied dozens of languages, Japanese is one of several he has documented himself using in real, unscripted conversations with native speakers.

One of the most striking is Waorani, a language isolate spoken by an indigenous people of Ecuador's Amazon rainforest — meaning it has no known relationship to any other language family on earth. He has also made content involving Mayan languages, Somali, and Twi, a major language of Ghana, showing a deliberate pattern of seeking out languages far outside the mainstream.

He promotes a platform called YourTeacher AI, which he references directly in his Instagram bio as @yourteacher.ai. It's positioned as an extension of his broader mission to help followers learn languages through the kind of conversation-first, immersive approach he uses himself.

Migaku, a popular immersion-based language learning tool, and QuillBot, an AI writing and language assistant, have both sponsored his YouTube content. These partnerships fit naturally with his audience of motivated language learners.

Recent sponsors on his YouTube channel include MyHeritage, BetterHelp, Saily, QuillBot, and Migaku. The mix of a DNA and heritage brand alongside language and wellness tools reflects the internationally curious, adult-skewing audience his channel attracts.

He describes himself as having studied 'dozens of languages,' and his content backs that up — his videos and hashtags alone reference Mandarin, Japanese, Somali, Twi, Waorani, Mayan languages, and several others. He is candid that fluency levels vary across them, which is typical of serious polyglots who prioritize breadth alongside depth.