Meet the Trainer: Effy Zhang 

Effy Zhang moved to California from Shanghai with her husband in 2019 and has been working with the Mandarin-speaking older adult population here ever since. Now, you can find her online with Senior Planet on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.  

What are your favorite parts of being a Senior Planet trainer? 

You grow to be close with the seniors and they trust you after a while. Most of the participants are so scared that they will break their devices if they just play around with them, so they don’t do anything with them. I like to encourage them that if you see a button and are curious about what it does, just click on it and find out what it does. I want to give them the confidence that they can explore themselves. 

We got a lot of feedback like, “My grandson didn’t know this feature on Zoom and I actually taught him about it, because I attended this class.” Which makes me feel proud. 

There was an amazing story from one of your classes about someone’s Apple watch saving their life, can you share it? 

After a year of teaching the weekly online Mandarin Multilingual Technology Program, I noticed that one regular participant, Mr. Zhang (no relation), didn’t show up for four or five weeks in a row and I started to worry, especially since I knew he lives alone. 

And then one day, magically, he showed up online again! He said that one day he woke up and went to the bathroom. It was dark, so he fell and lost consciousness. 

While he was unconscious, his Apple watch called his emergency contact and 911 for him. They came and took him to the hospital – and that’s how they saved his life. He said that if he had never joined our class, he never would have known how to set up his emergency contact in his apple watch. He feels like Senior Planet and the Apple watch saved his life. 

That’s so amazing. 

I actually had similar feedback from a few other participants. One lady just typed in the chat one day that she had lost consciousness, and her Apple watch had saved her life as well. So, Apple watches are very useful. 

What are some of your passions outside of work? 

I like running! I’ve done a few half-marathons and I’m preparing for a marathon. I like computer programming and coding, too. 

The Chinese New Year is coming up! Are you celebrating with your family? 

Yes! This year, we’re probably going to stay here and cook some traditional Chinese food. We have a tradition where we eat fish because it means you will have an abundant year.  

What does aging with attitude mean to you? 

I think it means being brave and enjoying the fruit of your life’s effort! And keep learning new things – then you will be aging with attitude. 

Pam Hugi is Senior Planet’s Community and Advocacy Manager. Based in Brooklyn, she is a contributing writer for this site.