Bestie Flopped the Linguistic Vibe Check, No Cap

A language-enthusiast YouTuber is being called ‘racist’ for his speech delivered in the ‘Gen Alpha dialect of English.’

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Arieh Smith speaks in front of high school students in a video posted to his YouTube, May 7, 2025.

Screenshot via @xiaomanyc/YouTube

Arieh Smith, a polyglot and language enthusiast better known as “Xiaoma” from his popular YouTube channel, was invited to give a speech to high school students about the importance of learning languages. He spoke onstage in their “native tongue,” namely “Gen Alpha slang.” Here’s an excerpt of what he said:

For those of us who don’t spend hours scrolling online, Smith thankfully added “subtitles in Standard English” to his YouTube video of the speech. So here is what Smith meant:

Abigail Anthony

About the Author

Abigail Anthony

Abigail Anthony is a staff writer at National Review.

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