Enjoying my Online Mandarin Lessons with Instant Mandarin
I started learning Mandarin with Instant Mandarin as an absolute beginner. I did a lot of research into different online Mandarin schools before finally picking Instant Mandarin. I really like this school for the following reasons: - 1-1 language instruction: The lessons are private (just you and the teacher), which means that the teacher goes according to your pace and aptitude. I feel that private lessons are particularly important for Mandarin, which is a tonal language. - Great motivating teacher: My teacher is excellent. She always keeps me motivated and having each lesson is so much fun. She is quick to answer any question that I may have, and I always feel like I am learning a lot in every lesson. - Great Curriculum so far : Chinese can seem like such an intimidating language for people with no experience in Asian languages. The curriculum that I have been learning was designed in such a way that you learn it very step-wise, in manageable amounts. I never felt overwhelmed - Reasonable price: Mandarin typically takes a long time to learn, so it was great that Instant Mandarin is so affordable. - Great Admin Support: The Admin is very prompt and helpful. The language learning platform is also good and I have not had any problems with it crashing or working poorly - Progress: I made a lot of measurable progress in just a few months of studying a few hours a day + 3 Chinese lessons a week There are some points to keep in mind: - I think this is likely the same for any Mandarin classes (in person or online), but you may need to do extra work in certain areas, depending on your needs, ex: - I wanted to learn to write Chinese characters, so I worked on that on my own (it’s not really possible to teach in an online class, but there are many books and online resources that you can use to learn) - for pinyin pronunciation, I supplemented what was taught in class with other free online resources, as I found that I needed more practice - I wanted more reading and writing practice, so I bought graded readers and also used a Mandarin textbook and workbook to review what I had already learned in class (NOTE: I actually found the explanations in the textbook much more confusing and unclear than what I was taught in class, so I was glad I was attending Instant Mandarin classes) Overall point: Although there are many things that you can learn on your own, I couldn’t have gotten this far without regular classes at Instant Mandarin. I am looking forward to continuing and learning more with my teacher :)