TWIN CITIES CHINESE TUTOR
SERVICES
Are You or Your Child A Good Fit For My Tutoring Services?
STRONG FOUNDATION
The first year is a critical one because it builds the base of the language knowledge, and students will have to rely on this foundation throughout their Chinese speaking careers.
It is also the introduction of a new language, and it needs to be something that students enjoy and are excited to learn. Often times if the student is struggling, it can be very discouraging for them as well as affect their feelings toward wanting to learn another language!
I tailor my teaching toward the specific needs of the students and focus on practicality in their future communication and interaction with Chinese natives.
GROWTH
In intermediate to advanced levels, I incorporate knowledge of Chinese culture, custom, and social and professional etiquette in my teaching throughout the courses.
I believe that learning a language is like learning to swim. Traditional systems often stopped at connecting the new words and sentences to our mother language. We will get better at "translating", but still have trouble speaking and forming sentences.
In my experience as a language teacher as well as a student, in order to speak a language fluently, we need consistent reinforcements and exposures to establish and enhance the "muscle memory". which connects the new language directly to our THOUGHTs and IDEAs, and skip our mother language entirely.
CUSTOMIZED METHODS
The organization of my teaching is highly customized to the learning style, time and expectations of my students.
To most of the adults I have worked with, I found a two-tier approach being most effective. On a weekly basis, it involves four 30-minute daily conversations, and one 1-2 hours face-to-face writing and reading lesson session.
The daily conversations are intended to improve the speaking and the application of new words and sentence patterns. These frequent sessions are intended to mimic an immersion environment. I will usually only speak Chinese during those sessions. Since there are relatively shorter sessions, we can do it through phone calls or skype when it's most convenient to you.
In the lesson sessions, we will focus on new sentence patterns and vocabulary. I will provide explanations and tips in both Chinese and English. And we will spend time to work on character writing and reading. I will recommend suitable textbooks. But I can also work with your textbook if you already have one that you like.