COVID-19 has been rough for everyone, including some teachers in the Philippines who are facing trouble renewing or finding contracts in schools.
This was the case for teacher Danieca Arreglado Goc-ong from Cebu, who then unexpectedly gained attention from Filpino netizens by uploading her videos teaching viewers how to sing songs such as the movie Frozen’s theme song “Do You Wanna Build A Snowman” on Tiktok.
Image credit: Danieca Arreglado Goc-ong
Danieca Arreglado Goc-ong was a teacher in Cebu before her work contract ended, but didn’t manage to renew it due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She then brought her lessons online to social media for entertainment purposes, and uploaded videos with her comedic singing and voice.
Now better known as Teacher Dan or DanVibes, she has over 276,300 followers with 2.6M likes on her TikTok account.
Her TikToks consist of hilarious yet educational out-of-tune singing lessons where she writes lyrics on a whiteboard and adds annotations to indicate when singers should increase or decrease their pitch, arrows to signify loops and hooks in their voice, and notes on when to pause as well. She then sings and brings her viewers through the songs, not forgetting to remind them about the techniques.
Video credit: Danieca ChikaDora
In one of her most iconic videos, she wrote the lyrics of Disney’s theme song from the movie Frozen, “Do you Wanna Build A Snowman”, on the whiteboard with annotations.
When saying the first word of the song’s opening remarks – “Elsa?” her voice was so high-pitched and funny that it stuck with viewers. The TikTok teacher proceeded to demonstrate how she would sing the rest of the lines in an animated fashion.
She rose in popularity thereafter with her following videos. Her skits are so funny, they’ll have you clutching your stomachs in pain laughing – hey, free ab workout!
Danieca Arreglado Goc-ong (Teacher Dan or DanVibes) teaching us how to sing “Into The Thick Of It” from cartoon The Backyardigans.
Image credit: @danvibes_official
The TikTok teacher’s hilarious videos have gotten her featured on many Filipino TV shows, including ABS-CBN Talk’s Show “Magandang Buhay”. There, she happily introduced herself as the “Queen of Piyok” or queen of voice cracks, and the founder of the term “volumatic” that she coined in her singing lessons to describe a singing technique, amongst many others.
She also mentioned in an interview on TV show TVPatrol by ABS-CBN News that she wants to share good vibes in her videos. Looking at her videos’ comment sections, it is safe to say her videos are definitely a mood-booster, with her incredibly bright personality and happy disposition bound to brighten up anyone’s day.
The COVID-19 pandemic has been tough on all of us, but thanks to people like Teacher Dan who never fails to greet us with a big smile, we’ve gotten a much-needed laugh.
In times of job insecurity, a positive attitude such as TikTok Teacher Dan’s is an example to learn from – to always find and look at the bright side of things even if they are not apparent. We hope she’ll snag a new teaching gig too, now that she’s showcased her memorable teaching skills online for many to enjoy.
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Cover image adapted from: Danieca ChikaDora on YouTube
This article was produced in collaboration with National Youth Council Singapore‘s Asia-Ready Exposure Programme.
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