I’ve been an ASL (Additional Language) teacher for over 20 years, and in 2013, while living in New Zealand, I began teaching Mandarin in public primary schools in Auckland. Like many language teachers, I quickly realised that engagement was everything — especially when working with young learners. Vocabulary lists alone weren’t enough. I wanted Mandarin learning to feel fun, memorable, and alive.
With a background in classical music, I started doing what felt natural to me: making up songs on the spot to help students remember Mandarin words, tones, and phrases. The response from children was immediate. They sang along. They remembered. Mandarin stopped feeling intimidating and started feeling enjoyable.
Those early classroom songs eventually grew into what became the Chinese Buddy YouTube channel, where I went on to write and produce over 100 original Mandarin songs for kids and beginner learners. At the time, I had no experience with animation, very limited sound production knowledge, and no background in video creation. Everything — animation, editing, recording, and publishing — was self-taught. For nearly two years, I wrote a new song almost every week, often staying up all night to finish animations on my own.
As the channel grew, I found a clear niche in second-language Chinese learning, particularly for teachers and students outside of China. While the YouTube channel gained millions of views, it didn’t provide a sustainable income. That led to a difficult but necessary decision: placing much of the content behind a paywall so that Chinese Buddy could continue long-term as a quality educational resource for Mandarin teachers.
Over time, my interests expanded beyond music and education into technology, data science, and web development. That journey eventually led to the creation of Character Coach, a web application that allows teachers to bring their own Chinese content to life through interactive online quizzes, games, and character-based learning experiences — all while integrating original Chinese Buddy songs.
Today, I live in Taiwan and continue building tools that make learning Mandarin more engaging, effective, and enjoyable. Chinese Buddy started with a song in a classroom, and it’s still driven by the same goal: helping teachers and students connect with the Chinese language in creative, meaningful ways.