Video clip of Cork man teaching US rapper Snoop Dogg Chinese goes viral 

A Cork native went viral during the recent Winter Olympics following a video clip of him teaching Chinese to the famous US rapper Snoop Dogg.

Kenneth Browne, who works as a journalist for the Chinese TV station CGTN, was on duty at the Games in Italy when he taught the American music star how to say “happy new year” in Chinese during a brief on-air encounter.

Snoop Dogg, who was working for NBC and also shared the clip with his 88m followers, was attending the Winter Olympics as an honorary coach and ambassador for Team USA.

When Mr Browne — a graduate of University College Cork, where he studied Chinese and Spanish — asked Snoop Dogg for his message for the Chinese New Year, which commenced in February, the US rapper said: “Have a beautiful year, celebrate, put love in the air, let’s get cracking.”

Snoop Dogg subsequently spoke a small bit of Chinese to Mr Browne , who is a former columnist for The Echo on Spanish football.

After being told an interview with Snoop would not be possible due to his busy schedule, Mr Browne told The Echo it was a case of being in the right place at the right time when the rapper was passing by.

“He was coming out of his bit that he did with NBC. I was standing there with the microphone and had the cameraman ready standing next to me.

"Snoop walks straight over to me and shook my hand.

“He was like a class operator. He was like that with everyone, and had time for everyone.

“He was funny and fun to be around. Everybody wanted a bit of time with Snoop.”