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By Taguhi Melkonyan
The founder of the Lenaslittle-ones page with millions of followers on social networks, who is now a recognized teacher in the USA and whose published short education videos have managed to attract millions of people living in various countries of the world, is an Armenian woman. We are talking about Lena Khachatryan, who lives in the United States, and recently revealed her true nationality to her followers. The Lenaslittle-ones page has more than 1.1 million followers on Tik Tok alone, and some of the videos posted on that platform have around 20 million views. The Armenian teacher knows five languages, organizes the daily life of children with innovative teaching methods, and spreads her experience and skills through videos.
In an exclusive interview with Armenian News-NEWS.am, Lena Khachatryan spoke for the first time about her nationality, the reasons for settling in the USA, her family, her huge work with children, her activities in social networks, and some other relevant topics.
Many people in Armenia watch your videos, but few know about your being Armenian. Tell us about your life’s path, how did you settle in the USA?
Everyone knows me and addresses me as Lena, but few people know that my real name is Yelena. I was born in Yerevan, unfortunately, at the age of 5, my family and I had to move to Europe. I grew up and was educated in Poland, I speak Polish very well, and today I have many followers from Poland itself. It can be said that Poland is my second homeland. I have been living in the United States for 10 years, in Los Angeles, where I found the love of my life. I have a beautiful family and three children. Everyone knows me as a teacher who lives and works in Los Angeles.
Today, your education short clips have millions of views on various social network platforms and are loved by children and parents living in various countries of the world. How did you come up with the idea of making such clips?
I have been teaching children for many years, I have a kindergarten in Los Angeles, which is intended for children from newborn to five years old. During these years, I tried to do my best to make the children's everyday life unforgettable and to increase their interest and love for learning. My friends often turned to me to find out what methods I use to teach the children that they love attending classes so much. And I started making short videos to share my experience with others. In the process, the number of my followers increased; it turned out that many people teach the same songs, games, and exercises to their pupils. It was very nice to know that even the American teachers conduct their lessons in kindergartens using the same methods. Through these videos, I also try to motivate children, increase their interest in education.
Your followers sometimes try to guess your nationality in the comments of the videos, but few of them have realized that you are Armenian. How do your foreign followers react when they find out your nationality?
Yes, many still do not know that I am Armenian and still try to guess my nationality. When they asked about it in the comments of the clips at first I was silent. I was interested in people's opinions; many thought I looked like an Arab woman, an Egyptian or a Spaniard. One day I decided to open the secret and tell about my nationality. In my videos, you will notice the flag of Armenia in the background, I often tell my followers or just strangers about Armenia, and I am very happy that through me people can know who an Armenian is, what qualities he/she has, what kind of soul he/she has, etc.
In today's world, no one is safe from cyberattacks. Months ago, your Facebook page, which had more than 600,000 followers, was hacked, and you had to open a new page. Did the law enforcement officers manage to find out anything? In general, after that incident, wasn't it difficult to get motivated again and resume activity in the Facebook domain?
That incident was terrible, not because I lost a page with hundreds of thousands of followers, but because obscene photos were posted on that page, and children and parents saw it. Unfortunately, no one helped me with that; neither US law enforcement officials nor other officials. During that time, thousands of people called, offered their help, but the relevant institutions did nothing to help me, while I kept repeating that my audience is children and parents and it is necessary to stop the management of the illegal page as soon as possible. It is extremely difficult when a person can work very hard, gather a qualified contingent, put soul and heart into every clip, and in a second it all “falls into the water.” It took three months before that page was closed. After that incident I was really broken, I didn't want to open a new page and start everything from scratch; but my family convinced me, people following me expressed their support. Now my followers are increasing again, people are finding me again, and I continue to post videos on Facebook, but this time I am trying to be more careful. Those who deal with social networks should be very careful, because no one is safe from such attacks and unpleasant situations.
Nowadays, children spend a lot of time in front of a computer, [smart]phone or tablet, and learning in classroom conditions is gradually becoming boring and uninteresting for many. In such a situation, how is it possible to "return" children to real life and teach them new skills?
Yes, times have changed; the children's preferences and interests have also changed. For example, in the United States, there comes an age when children cannot continue their education without a computer. My work is with children up to five years old, which is very pleasing to me. How the child spends the first five years of his life is extremely important for the development of the child's life. What I do is very important for the healthy development of the child; singing, reading books, developing games and exercises, etc. I try to teach parents how a child's daily life can be organized without a [smart]phone or computer. But, unfortunately, not every parent has the time or opportunity to personally deal with their child's development, as it was before. Today, children spend 8-10 hours of active time a day in my kindergarten; together we sing, dance, do exercises, train the brain, attention, concentration, etc. Those who read and follow me should realize how important the fact is how we organize the time of children before they turn five years old, how much attention and love we give to children.
With your busy schedule, how do you manage to spend time with your family? Isn't it difficult to teach your children Armenian, to preserve our traditions and customs in a foreign land?
I have three children. My work schedule is quite tight; I spend my time day and night in the kindergarten. I grew up far from my homeland, in a foreign environment, but my family—my grandmother and grandfather—did everything for me to remain Armenian. Thanks to them, I still remember Armenian and pass on what I learned to my children. Everything depends on the person, his/her merits, professed values. Even though we live far from the motherland, I teach my children Armenian, I read Armenian books to them, I always cook Armenian dishes, Armenian music plays in my house; that is, the Armenian soul is always present in our house, and that is the most important thing for me. No matter how much a child grows up in a foreign land, [he/she] should feel the Armenian soul and not lose his/her identity. I am looking forward to when I will be visiting Armenia with my family.
What are your upcoming projects that you would like to share?
There are many projects, unfortunately, time is very short and my schedule is busy. For me, my children are in the first place, whose education I personally take care of. I would like to introduce innovations in classes so that people can see how capable children are at a young age and how much they want to learn. One of my goals is to give an Armenian orientation to my social platform, to inform people about Armenia and Armenians. I have several projects in Armenian that I would like to do as soon as possible. As they say, God willing, I hope to implement at least half of my projects and plans before the new year.
