Why everybody’s talking about Hong Kong 12-year-old Hillary Yip’s language app
The tech-savvy girl launched her language learning application MinorMynas at age 10 after struggling with Mandarin lessons
Hillary Yip Ying-hei is definitely not your average 12-year-old. On top of attending school and surviving the gruelling academic demands on a daily basis, the seventh grader also runs her own business.
Growing up in the age of technology, Yip, like many other children, understands full well the significance of keeping pace with innovation and the digital transformation. That tech-savvy mindfulness prompted her to launch an online language learning application at the age of 10.
The idea came to her after a long struggle with learning Mandarin.
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“I came up with MinorMynas in the summer of 2015 when I was learning Mandarin in Taiwan. My Chinese was absolutely terrible when I first arrived but after the exchange programme I just saw how much I improved and that experience really stuck with me.”
MinorMynas is an online educational platform that helps children of all ages pick up another language through chatting by live video calls to those their own age. Through live interaction, children can engage in conversations to learn one another’s mother tongue.
“What I find interesting about the application is the connection between kids because what’s out there in the market is pretty robotic with not much to do,” Yip said.
“While MinorMynas aims to give them an opportunity to bond with other kids their age and break cultural barriers.”
