Silk Mandarin Has the Best Teachers Hands Down!
I have been studying Chinese with Silk Mandarin for the past couple of years, and I can honestly say that no other language school teaches Chinese with an emphasis on quality, attention to detail, and Chinese culture the way that Silk Mandarin does. I have tried a couple of other language schools to see if I could take classes at a cheaper rate. The first time, I was forced to ask for a refund after a month, because the quality of instruction was so underwhelming compared to the excellent language instruction I received from my wonderful teacher, Yanqin laoshi. This other school merely focused on teaching as many vocabulary words as possible and completely ignored grammar and other important aspects of learning a language, such as culture, and everyday use of language by ordinary Chinese. The second time I looked for slightly cheaper classes, the teacher was always on her phone during the test trial lesson. So, I didn’t bother to make further inquiries into their language learning packages. At Silk Mandarin, Yanqin laoshi and I don’t just focus on learning new vocabulary words, but also on important grammar structures, common phrases, sayings and slang that everyday Chinese would typically use, pronunciation, important techniques to accelerate my language learning, such as Silk Mandarin’s “slow motion technique,” and Yanqin laoshi also teaches me about Chinese culture to better contextualize certain words and characters, so that I can better remember them in addition to learning about Chinese culture. I find this very valuable, because language and culture are deeply intertwined. Furthermore, everyone, including Sylvia, a customer care representative/manager for Silk Mandarin is very supportive and has my best interest at heart with regards to accelerating my language learning. As for my teacher Yanqin laoshi, I feel very blessed and fortunate to have Yanqin laoshi as a teacher. She is one of the kindest most empathetic people I have ever known. When I first took classes with Silk Mandarin, I was working one of my first jobs out of college in Shanghai for an education consulting company. One of my managers delegated a lot of work to me at the last minute right before the holidays, which stressed me out greatly for a period of 3 months. Sometimes, I would come to class crying in tears. I would imagine its pretty difficult to do your job as a teacher when a student is always crying in your class. Haha. However, Yanqin laoshi was always so kind and patient and allowed me to talk about my feelings about work with her using Chinese. So, I had a therapist and a teacher in one. Good bang for my buck! Haha. This way, I was still able to learn Chinese and make good use of our time together, despite being in tears. Also, one time I told Yanqin laoshi that I hadn’t seen my family in like two years because of the strict lockdowns and would probably be spending the Chinese Autumn Festival alone and she was so kind to send me a huge box of moon cakes! I was so pleasantly surprised and touched by this kind, heartwarming gesture. Also, recently, I was really upset about not being able to purchase medicine for my facial acne during the lockdowns here in Beijing, and Yanqin laoshi helped me successfully purchase the medicine after one of our classes. Yanqin isn’t just an excellent and hardworking, skilled teacher, but she has also become my good friend. ~ ~ As for Yanqin’s teaching skill, I have yet to have a Chinese teacher as skilled in teaching as Yanqin. In fact, Yanqin is a far better teacher than the vast majority of professors I had in college. I gain so much knowledge about the Chinese language from every single class I take with Yanqin. She is incredibly passionate and hardworking about teaching Chinese and has even told me that she loves her job and plans to teach Chinese to students eager to learn the language for the rest of her life. Of course, she is young and doesn’t know what the universe has in store for her with regards to her teaching career and life. ~ Yanqin laoshi spends extra time outside of her teaching hours developing elaborate and comprehensive exercise sheets and learning aids to help students understand important grammar structures and words. Another thing I really appreciate about Yanqin laoshi is that she really wants students to “understand” Chinese and not just memorize a bunch of grammar rules and vocabulary words. So, she typically goes into great detail to explain certain words and grammar structures that are more profound to Chinese language than others. She is somehow able to do this so efficiently, as during every class we have together, we are still able to get through a lot of material. I really love and appreciate Yanqin laoshi as my teacher and wish nothing but good things for her. I hope this review helps. ~ ~