Famous tutor Lin Yixin defies the market and opens 131 classes at the peak of self-reliance, full of students as idols

After class on weekdays, there will always be long queues of students outside the large tuition houses, just to enter the classroom to listen to the class and see the demeanor of the famous teacher.

In the early hours of the morning, some students still lined up outside the cram school, and even fainted due to exhaustion, just to wait until dawn to enroll in the cram school next month.

Walking on the street, there is no shortage of bus bodies and billboards on the streets and lanes along the way.

He is Lin Yixin, a tuition teacher, known as YY Lam. He joined the tutoring industry as soon as he graduated in 2011. He has a reputation and has become a legend in the Chinese tutoring industry.

The DSE Chinese subject is called the Book of Death, and the harder the exam, the more popular it becomes.

In 2015, when he was still teaching in Zunli School, he was offered a full-page advertisement by Modern Education for an annual salary of 85 million, setting a record for the highest salary in the tutoring industry.

In 2018, the prospectus of Elite Club (the holding company of Zunli School) further disclosed that Lin Yixin's income accounted for 30% of the group.

Having worked in Zunli School for 10 years, he has gained both fame and fortune. He can even retire directly. But at this time, he set up his own business and opened a new tuition club against the market.

In August of this year, Lin Yixin's contract with Zunli expired and announced that he would not renew the contract and founded Ninghao Education on her own.

From now on, I will no longer just sit on the podium to teach, and everything will be done in one hand. Lin Yixin, who is always energetic, also showed fatigue when interviewed.

But when it comes to a new chapter in his life, his tone is still excited.

Reporter｜Edited by Xu Zexin｜Huang Yingxin Photography｜Huang Yingxin

Lin Yixin, 34, came from a grassroots family, and a family of six lives in a 400-foot flat.

Both parents have to work for their mouths, mother works in a bakery, and father is a decoration worker, and doesn't have time to take care of Lin Yixin on weekdays.

He didn't have many toys and entertainment since he was a child, let alone buy extracurricular exercises and go out for tuition, but this has nurtured Lin Yixin's interest in Chinese.

In summer, the air-conditioning cannot be used frequently at home. When he is bored, he will go to the public library with air-conditioning to pass the time.

Lin Yixin likes to read martial arts novels and science fiction novels, especially the Wesleyan series.

When I saw that the protagonist of the novel could accomplish great things, I also had a longing: "When I was a child, I would fantasize about myself as a character in a martial arts novel, because boys have a kind of achievement (a vision) and want to meet people's expectations of me."

Get the teacher to encourage contact with writing work

Since the beginning of junior high school, Lin Yixin, who has a good Chinese performance, began to write martial arts novels because of his love for books.

Every time he finished writing a novel, he would read it to the Chinese teacher at the time.

Lin Yixin was especially grateful for the teacher's encouragement, which made him courage to contribute to the newspaper, and succeeded in making money for the first time, so he became more interested in Chinese:

That kind of happiness is indescribable. I earned 90 yuan when I was a child. I still feel that someone appreciates you through writing.

Since then, Lin Yixin has devoted more time to Chinese, such as participating in the editing and editing of the Chinese Cultural Society, responsible for typesetting, writing and writing columns.

Although he is interested in Chinese, he said that he is not a hard-working student and only achieved 4B in the examination, which is not particularly good.

Sometimes after school, I just play cards with my friends, or even hang around in the game console shop. When I go home, my clothes smell of smoke, which makes my mother very worried.

Until one time his mother knelt before him, begging him not to waste his studies.

So he made a promise to his mother, hoping that her mother would believe him.

Lin Yixin pointed out that this experience inspired him to deal with things in the future: "Remind yourself to always do your own thing and don't worry about it."

In order to fulfill the expectations of her parents, Lin Yixin finally obtained a 3A2B score in the A-level examination, and was successfully admitted to the Chinese Department of Chinese University, and later graduated with first-class honors.

He then progressed to the Master of Philosophy in the same school, during which he received private tutoring.

Because he liked the flexibility of tuition teaching, after graduation, he chose to work as a tuition teacher.

Carrying others' expectations of fame with pressure

When Lin Yixin entered the industry, it was at the time when the Diploma Examination was launched.

The Chinese subject is called the scroll of death, and the pass rate is only 50%.

The Chinese subject has not reached Level 3, so many people look at the university and sigh. Lin Yixin coincides with the meeting. The students have multiplied exponentially. During the peak period, there are hundreds of classes a week. Real people are mostly playing videos outside of class. More than 12 follow. Li branch also has his courses.

When he first stepped into the tutoring world, Lin Yixin vaguely remembered that he had not yet become famous at the time, and only had the mentality to give it a try.

At that time, the classroom regulations did not print the teacher's appearance, and very few students enrolled. Some students mistakenly believed that he was a female teacher because of his name when they signed up.

With his quiet work in the industry, Lin Yixin’s cram school has changed from only more than 20 students to three classrooms. At the peak of 2016, the six courses offered by 12 branch schools and a total of 131 classes were full, and they needed to be added. Set up a new class.

A heavy "Forest Farm Essentials" notebook has become the candidate's "Book of Heaven". Every year, nearly 2,000 students get a grade 5 or above in the HKDSE exam, and about 200 students get a 5** score. After 10 years of hard work, Almost no one knows the three words "Lin Yixin".

After becoming famous, his burden gradually became heavier.

When he first entered the industry, Lin Yixin paid attention to the rise and fall of the number of students every day. He believed that every additional student seemed to have more recognition.

However, as the number of people gradually increased, he was burdened with the expectations of students for a long time, and at the same time faced with the criticism of unknown netizens, he had to maintain a leading position in the industry. There would inevitably be invisible pressure, but this encouraged him to do better.

Lin Yixin smiled and said that she has had a characteristic since she was a child:

I have an advantage and a disadvantage, that is, I care about other people's perspectives.

The more you care, the more at all costs you will want to accomplish that.

When he was a child, bearing the expectations of his teachers and parents, he studied hard and entered the Chinese Department as he wished.

Now, he is carrying the expectations of the students and the outside world, striving to achieve good results for the students and keep the work for the team, but when faced with criticism, he can only adjust his mentality and hope to do better:

No one wants to put pressure on me, but everyone thinks that Lin Yixin should do it. This has also become my expectation of myself. I think it is important not to disappoint you.

Success lies in Pinbo relying on team support

For work, Lin Yixin only rests at 3 or 4 in the morning every night. After only four hours of sleep, she has to go back to the office at 8 o'clock in the morning to continue working.

He said that he was almost open throughout the year: "In the first year of tutoring, there was no rest time. Even normal thinking time and sitting down would feel very luxurious." In order not to disappoint others, Lin Yixin always put herself at the end, describing the beginning. Worked "fighting":

First of all, don't hesitate to do what you want to do, just ask where your bottom line can go.

To teach thousands of students, he can still lecture vigorously every day, thanks to the teaching team behind him.

There are more than 40 people in the team, many of whom were former tuition students who were responsible for making teaching materials.

He described himself as a perfectionist. He joked that most of the team happened to be Virgos and "workaholics". Therefore, everyone hit it off and had high demands on the work. Sometimes they even picked each other and vowed to make perfect teaching materials. All night long.

Lin Yixin was fortunate to have the help of the team, describing them as "comrades in arms who were born to death." Before the epidemic, he would travel with a group of colleagues. After work every night, he would eat hot pot in the office and support each other on the road.

Although Lin Yixin has a large number of students, few who actually met the previous side, most of them were just students in the video class through the screen.

But every year before the diploma exam, he will also spend the whole night with the team to cheer up the students:

I kept answering the phone all night and said: "It's better than scheming, upper yourself!

"repeatedly.

Unique teaching method to make music videos to cheer

Different from traditional tutoring, Lin Yixin's unique teaching method is very popular among students.

His class is almost full every month, and almost anyone who wants to enroll in face-to-face classes is hard to find, and he needs to queue up all night to sign up.

He said that he was afraid of boredom, so when designing tutorials, he would conceive interesting forms.

He used to shoot short videos on YouTube, teaching idioms and classical Chinese, adding effects and illustrations to make the process of learning Chinese more interesting.

It even produces game shows, such as reorganizing sentences as game items, competing with other tutors, and setting punishment tasks to attract students to watch.

In addition, music videos will be made. In the future, we plan to prepare stage plays based on 12 sample essays in Chinese for the HKDSE.

He also takes time to teach himself a musical instrument every year, such as playing drums, playing bass, and playing saxophone. He hopes that students feel that they will learn together and walk with them.

Lin Yixin also spends hundreds of thousands of her own pockets every year to organize a Christmas party at the Queen Elizabeth Stadium, attracting nearly 3,000 students to attend.

Although it is a laborious extra job, Lin Yixin hopes to narrow the distance with the students:

I hope that tutoring is not just about taking classes, using each other, giving money, and that person will teach you, but can build certain connections.

With the aura of a "famous tutor", the cover of the textbook is a portrait of Lin Yixin, students will naturally regard him as an idol, and will give him gifts from time to time, record songs for him, birthdays, etc., and more students privately messaged him on social platforms, saying Fancy him as the object of association.

These behaviors, such as "chasing stars," made him criticized by the public as a "cult." The image of the tuition teacher has been excessively idolized.

Lin Yixin said that she would be very caring at the beginning, but she would not pretend to be unhappy because she was admired by students.

Sometimes he laughs at himself: "It's good if you are a cult, and you just listen to me." He pointed out that if you can become a spiritual mentor to students, it would be a good thing.

Complete a decade and start again for change

After 10 years of teaching at Zunli School, he can retire according to the principle.

Lin Yixin chose to set up her own door and create her own tutoring brand, and everything must start anew.

On the day of the visit, the new school building had not yet been renovated, and three branch schools were set up at once. He said: "The ten years to report for the Endu Report. I have done everything that should be done. I want to try to run a company." He inspired him. It was the star Metz who opened a new chapter in his life. Metz was born in the same year as Lin Yixin, so he particularly resonated with him.

Just when everyone thought that Metz would never leave Barcelona, ​​he did. This decision also encouraged Lin Yixin to take the first step and achieve his goal:

It turns out that some things in life are not forever. If you don't try, what can you do next?

There seems to be nothing to do.

Lin Yixin announced that he would not renew his contract and will establish himself as a "top teacher" accounting for 30% of the parent company's income. Lin Yixin's Prince's Revenge: A person can succeed in a short period of time. Continue to stay behind Ken Sir's holdings of "Chuang Tsai", turn around and join Lin Yixin's group tutoring Wang Guomou loop to pay the way

[This article was reprinted with authorization from the internship publication "University Line" of the School of Journalism and Communication of The Chinese University of Hong Kong.