Niche Internet Microcelebrity Spotlight: Chinese Teacher Molly

Screen Name: molly_chineseteacher

Real Name: Molly

Internet Occupation: Language teacher

Reason for Fame: Mandarin Chinese has been ranked as one of the hardest languages to learn for native English speakers. With over 100,000 characters compared to the Latin alphabet's 26 letters, it is probably going takes more than a 14 day streak on Duolingo to master its intricacies. Luckily, we've got Molly to help with that. 

The Chinese teacher has become a TikTok star with her brusque videos that educate the viewer on how to say certain phrases in Mandarin. If you ever find yourself in a situation where you needed to tell a Chinese speaker to shut up, that they owe you money, or just generally yell expletives at them, Molly's got your back. Viewing a few of her videos at a time is like entering an alternate universe with a confusing but entertaining narrative of arguments and betrayal. This is peppered with the occasional instruction on how to tell the queens in your life that they slay, just to balance things out.

Notable Moments: As previously mentioned, much of Molly's content focuses on words and sentences that can be interpreted with humorous intent. Learning to make an order in a restaurant this is not (most of the time). As such, most of her videos feel like they are noteworthy by themselves. She also has a rival, @manna_teach_chinese. While Manna has a patriotic dress sense and an even more aggressive teaching style, her rival reigns supreme when it comes to impact and follower count (2 million vs. 419k). 

Memeability Level: 8/10. This is content that was practically born to be recirculated as reaction videos for years to come. Unfortunately for every wannabe student, English speakers tend to take to Molly's sassiness in their mother tongue better than the language she is trying to teach. If you pay attention though, you might actually learn something.