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By Marni Rose McFall
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Capturing the attention of an audience of high school students can be tricky, but the linguist and polyglot Xiaoma found a clever way around it.
Taking his "skibidi rizz" to the highest level, he was invited to a high school to give a speech about the importance of languages. Which he did, entirely in Gen A slang, much to the delight of his audience.
In an email shared with Newsweek, Xiaoma said: "I've studied a ton of languages in the past and what I've always found is that people like to be heard, and they like their languages to be heard."
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"It's a mark of respect to be able to speak someone else's language, and I felt that Gen Alpha slang is too often dismissed as stupid nonsense slang when it is in fact simply the way that young people these days speak. So I wanted to be an adult who tries to really see young people where they're at and genuinely try to engage with them on their terms," Xiaoma said.
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Why It Matters
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 78.3 percent of individuals aged 5 and older speak only English, and around 20 percent of the U.S. population is either bilingual or multilingual, meaning they can speak more than two languages.
As of 2024, 21 percent of adults in the U.S. were found to be illiterate, with 54 percent of adults having a literacy rate below a sixth-grade level, according to the National Literacy Institute (NLI). Low literacy costs the country up to $2.2 trillion a year, according to the NLI.
What To Know
Xiaoma is a polyglot and linguist who not only speaks dozens of languages, but has built up a significant online following (he has 6.6 million subscribers on YouTube), where he creates content about languages. That content has racked up millions of views online, and he has seen him surprising strangers in different languages. He has even gotten a free pint of Guinness in Ireland when he ordered in Irish (Gaeilge).
In a video viewed over 1.1 million times as of reporting, Xiaoma visited Westtown School, in West Chester, Pennsylvania, where he delivered his speech.
"Your school invited me to give a guest lecture about the importance of learning languages," Xiaoma he told the audience of high schoolers. "But it occurred to me that all of you are already in some sense multilingual, whether you realize it or not."
Xiaoma, who describes himself to the audience as an "aging millennial," explained that he had spent "weeks" immersed in videos on TikTok to try to learn the dialect. He then tells the children that he will try to deliver the speech in Gen Alpha slang, to which the audience bursts into laughter and then applauds. Luckily for older generations, he included a standard English subtitle in the video.
"It's low-key a huge w to be vibing here [It's genuinely a tremendous honor to be here]," he said.
"Now, I know it's giving delulu for this cheugy millennial to speak in such skibidi brain rot [Now, I know it seems ridiculous for this outdated millennial to speak in such bizarre slang]."
He continued, "Language evolves because you're constantly cooking new ways to pass the vibe check [Language evolves because you're constantly innovating new ways to express yourselves]."
"Languages aren't just suss grammar rules, fam [Languages aren't just a bunch of confusing grammar rules, friends], they're the ultimate rizz for becoming a real one everywhere you pull up [They're the ultimate social tool for genuinely connecting wherever you go]."
And Xiaoma didn't stop there either—he took his new dialect expertise to a college graduation ceremony, and delivered a formal commencement speech in Gen Alpha dialect.
What People Are Saying
Xiaoma said in an email shared with Newsweek: "I believe language is one of the most powerful tools we have for connection, and by learning to speak their 'native dialect' of Gen Alpha slang, I hoped to show them that all languages, even the ones born online, have value, structure, and beauty. It was my way of saying: I see you, I respect you, and I'm willing to learn your world just like I've learned so many others. To be there on that stage was one of the most emotionally intense things I've ever done and the students and school loved it!"
What Happens Next
Xiaoma may well continue to cause a stir with his unconventional content and approach to getting people interested in language and linguistics.
Update 5/15/25, 5:05 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with comment from Xiaoma.
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