Talk:Xiaoma

Fraudulent

This article doesn't really address the fact that he's a fraud who uses shortcuts to appear fluent while in reality being a one-trick pony. Surely this should be added? Bens dream (talk) 12:22, 24 June 2024 (UTC)

• To elaborate on this (because for some reason people seem to think it's appropriate to revert the above edit without providing any kind of reason), his leading sentence says he's a "polyglot", which is demonstrably false. Something like "self-proclaimed polyglot" would be far more accurate. Bens dream (talk) 15:32, 25 June 2024 (UTC)

  Okay, so where are your sources for this because so far it sounds like just opinion. It verges on slander. Do your sources satisfy WP:RS and not WP:OR. Do they comply to satisfy WP:NPOV? Snickers2686 (talk) 16:52, 25 June 2024 (UTC)

https://www.reddit.com/r/languagelearning/comments/1d3tejg/the_topic_of_xiaomanyc_being_a_fake_polyglot/, https://medium.com/@markandfarnsworth/how-to-lie-cheat-and-steal-your-way-to-fluency-78e03f4e2831, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbQerKaxs9s, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LY2NWCTaAZA - plenty of people out there proving that he's a con artist who scrapes by with the bare minimum with no level of actual fluency. Bens dream (talk) 17:02, 25 June 2024 (UTC)

Those hardly come off as reliable sources. The medium.com article is behind a paywall, which makes your claims harder to prove. And a reddit thread doesn't satisfy as a reliable source either. Seems like original research, which is why I asked if that's what your "sources" were Snickers2686 (talk) 17:11, 25 June 2024 (UTC)

It is original research, and better sources than Reddit or Youtube would need to be found before it can be included in the article, but it is true that he is not a polyglot. I have a degree in Ling, what he does in his videos is honestly not that hard, he speaks mostly in pre-prepared sentences that he memorized but does not actually understand on any deeper level, which works because the interactions are often quite predictable: he says rehearsed line in the language (often a banal question like "How much is this?" , the other person is surprised & compliments him (often in English even, as they can detect how low his level actually is from his poor pronunciation), and then he says something like "Thanks, I really love to learn languages," which of course is also memorized and rehearsed.

He speaks Mandarin quite well, otherwise he doesn't seem to be fluent in any of the other foreign languages he speaks in his videos. Even this video on his channel from a couple years ago has his friend saying in Korean at 3:08 that "He only speaks Chinese."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AB0896MUdqg&t=188s&ab_channel=Xiaomanyc%E5%B0%8F%E9%A9%AC%E5%9C%A8%E7%BA%BD%E7%BA%A6 FlyDayCTown (talk) 05:53, 22 February 2025 (UTC)

Mandarin Translation

Page should be translated into a Mandarin Chinese version CSCRiTiCAL (talk) 11:09, 25 October 2024 (UTC)

Requested move 22 November 2025

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: moved. Moved as an uncontested request with minimal participation. If there is any objection within a reasonable time frame, please ask me to reopen the discussion; if I am not available, please ask at the technical requests page. (closed by non-admin page mover) Jeffrey34555 (talk) 00:27, 5 December 2025 (UTC)

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Xiaomanyc → Xiaoma – The article subject refers to himself as simply Xiaoma, with Xiaomanyc (New York City) being the channel's name, not the individual's. See Yahoo:] "Arieh Smith, better known as Xiaoma, has hit millions of views..." Shivertimbers433 (talk) 01:05, 22 November 2025 (UTC) — Relisting. – LuniZunie ツ_(talk) 03:16, 29 November 2025 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.