To help lost people reunite (团聚) with their family, a woman from East China’s Shandong Province has become a self-taught “dialect master (方言大师) ”.

Tan Yinghuan is a 43-year-old woman from Dezhou. She has taught herself a lot of dialects from different areas in China over the past nine years. And she has helped more than 300 people reunite with their lost loved ones.

In 2014, Tan joined a chat group that shares information on families looking for lost loved ones. She met a girl named Xiao Jiang. The girl grew up with her adopted (领养) parents. By studying the dialect and childhood memories of the girl, Tan found the hometown of the girl. One year later, the girl went back to her hometown and reunited with her birth parents. That was the first time she felt what she did was really helpful. Since then, Tan has spent all her free time helping people look for their family.

As those people are from different parts of the country, Tan finds it difficult to understand what they say. If she doesn’t understand it, she would record it and listen repeatedly (重复地) , sometimes for days or weeks on end.

“I am glad to use what I have learned to help others,” Tan said. “I don’t want anything in return.”