Photo Credit: OMG! American English presenter Bai Jie
How do Americans describe a big butt? They call it a ba-donk-a-donk. Jessica Beinecke has become an extremely successful online star not in America where she’s from, but in China, teaching Chinese teens American slang, like ba-donk- a donk among other things. She created OMG! Meiyu and it is so popular in China that it has become a bit of a phenomenon.
26-year-old Beinecke started studying Mandarin when she was 19 years old thinking it was a sure way to get a job after graduation.
“But you actually need to speak Chinese and have some other skill,” she eventually found out.
After graduating from college, she got a job as a translator with Voice of America, and was quickly asked if she wanted to try television. Eager to do something that could connect with Chinese youth, she developed OMG! Meiyu, which focuses on idioms like “sick as a dog” to popular acronyms like “BFF.”
“That’s not in textbooks,” Jessica says. “It’s learning to talk about things that young people find funny or what young people care about.”
All of the content of the show comes directly from fan suggestions. “I ask our Chinese followers on Chinese social media what they want to study,” she says. “They give me hundreds and hundreds of ideas every time.”
What’s her most popular episode? A video called “yucky gunk,” describing all of the gunk that comes out of your face… from snot to earwax. “Of course the episode that went viral was the one about my boogers,” she laughs.
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