Umme Maisun: The 10-year-old influencer from Bangladesh

Every generation has a child prodigy – a genius kid who is a master at one skill or more, at a very young age. William Cullen Bryant, a famous American poet, was considered a child prodigy, publishing his first poem at the age of ten. Like him, one of the greatest pianists of the recorded era, Martha Argerich, performed her debut concert at the age of eight. 

Bangladesh also has one such genius named Umme Maisun, a 10-year old online kid-educator. She is the youngest teacher in the country. Despite being a third grader of a Bengali medium school, she has gained wide fame as an online English educator. 

How she started

In mid-June this year, Maisun hosted a video on 'How to introduce yourself in English' on the famous Facebook platform of Robi Ten Minutes School. This video gained views from more than a million people and garnered thousands of comments and likes overnight. 

So far, the video has gained over 5.5 million views. This opened a new avenue for the kid as Robi ten-minute school gradually uploaded ten more videos of her. All of these videos have collectively gained 150 million views so far.  

Maisun's journey in the digital world started with the channel 'Maisun's World' on YouTube. Since September 2019, with almost 50 videos, the channel has 50,000 subscribers. Maisun also has more than 150,000 followers and 80,000 likes on her Facebook page. 

'Asking for help for homework', 'How to greet people', 'Video about orange', 'Four ways to improve your English', 'One day at Butterfly Park', 'How to introduce yourself' are some of her most viewed videos. 

Maisun on the international platform

Awareness 360, a global youth-led organization, conducted a Facebook Live on July 15, 2020, to feature some outstanding kids from around the world. They invited seven young change-makers from Africa to Asia, the Caribbean to the USA – with different skills. Maisun was one of them. 
Representing Bangladesh, Maisun focused on her techniques and learning tricks. Moreover, she mentioned her efforts to inspire millions to learn English. 

The story behind her journey 

"When she was 6 years old, we started to notice her skills in English," Maisun's father Asraf Rubel told The Business Standard. "Once, Maisun's cousins who live in the UK, visited Bangladesh. Talking and playing with those younger sisters left her puzzled at the time as she realized she could barely communicate with them because of her poor English skills." 
That childhood grievance gave her the zeal towards learning English. 

"After that, Maisun discovered a solution and started to practice English standing in front of the mirror for hours. She had also grown a habit of reading English books and watching cartoons or movies. That is how she nourished her skills in English and overcame the fear of the language." Asraf said.
 
A versatile genius

With an eloquent and almost flawless English speaking skill, Maisun knows well how to make a first impression as a host. She also does travel-vlogging, handicraft-making and painting. She is also a bookworm with captivating expertise in reviewing books. 

Despite her love for English, Maisun always believes that "Bengali language should always be considered as the root". Hence, besides reading a lot of English stories, Maisun puts a considerable amount of time learning about Bengali literature.

Talking about her dream, Maisun said, "I would love to use my knowledge as a researcher to explore the mysteries of science. My dream is to become a computer scientist." She also mentioned her passion for travelling the world as a vlogger. 

This bright student of Bangladesh Mahila Samiti Girls' High School lives with her parents in Askardighi of Chattogram. Nowadays, she has become very popular among her classmates and relatives.  Maisun has started to write stories in English as well.