LisaMandarin - Testimonials

Hear what some of my students say...

Lars Thurow, Germany

Dear Lisa,

Thank you very much to give me the possibility to stay with your family and to get taught by you in Chinese. Concerning to the style of the lesson (without any word of English), I was able to improve my spoken Chinese as well as my listening comprehension very much. Now, I feel comfortable to deal with daily situations and to have a small talk. Through this, I was able to make friendship with Chinese and so I got a deep view inside Chinese culture. I wish you all the best for your school and your family!
Lars

Spencer Woodman, USA

Dear students,

If you're serious about learning Chinese, Lisa provides an excellent setting that combines in-house, one-on-one language classes, with immersion into a family where only Chinese is spoken in a part of town with virtually no English speakers. Chinese is the sort of language that simply cannot be learned without one-on-one classes or a degree of immersion; and this program gave me both. Lisa was a great teacher who was never afraid to correct my numerous grammatical and pronunciation errors, which is pretty much exactly what I want in a Chinese teacher. Outside of class time, there was certainly no shortage of opportunities to speak the language. There were almost always family members present who were willing and enjoyed speaking with me, and outside of the apartment-complex I made numerous Chinese friends who I saw almost everyday.
Beijing is a huge city. I have some friends here, who wasted two or more hours a day just commuting to class. Here, that's not an issue. When I got to Beijing two and a half months ago, though I had studied Chinese rather hard for two years previous, my Chinese was simply terrible. Now, it is worlds better and Lisa's program is largely to thank for it.
If you're looking for an area with a bunch of Westerners and expatriate bars to get hammered at every night, this isn't the place for you. If you're actually trying to learn how to speak this difficult language, I strongly recommend Lisa's home stay.
Spencer

Nathalie Hemmerle, Germany

Dear students,

During summer 2007 I lived together with Lisa and her family. Although I stood there for one month only, my detention there was really effective - especially my listening comprehension could be improved. In the beginning of my language lessons, Lisa and I went to a huge bookstore in order to buy a couple of appropriate textbooks. Hereby Lisa arranged our language lessons according to my individual needs. Taking place four hours a day, we by turns stood at her place for more theoretical exercises or spent some time outside, gaining more practically oriented experiences. One day for example we went to see the so called 'Summer Palace'. En route we talked a lot about general topics, improving my way of expression as well as my listening comprehension. As we arrived at our destination we started a simple role play simulating tour guides. Lisa gave me an introduction into Chinese history and sometimes translated texts from information panels. In return I tried to tell her about information written in my German guidebook. During my leisure time I visited interesting sights near by, met up with some friends and spent a lot of time with my host family. Among other things we visited the local market purchasing fresh vegetables and fruits. Afterwards we enjoyed preparing local dishes and eating in together (Baozi, Jiaozi, et cetera). Later on in the afternoon I had the possibility to see a typical Chinese kindergarten accompanied Lisa picking up her son Haohao. Furthermore we sometimes went shopping, Lisa showed me how to do calligraphies and I enjoyed celebrating the birthday of Zeng, Lisa's husband. Recapitulatory I want to say that living with Lisa and her family means not to be alone in an unknown country. No matter what problem or question occurred I always could ask Lisa and she dependably was able to help me out. Possibly appearing cultural peculiarities or barriers have been managed adequately and with a lot of understanding. Lisa and her family acted very appreciative and interested, for example when sharing the impressions of a long day of sightseeing with the whole family being there listening attentive. All these experiences left a very good and positive impression to me. Therefore in my opinion home stay is one of the best ways of learning a foreign language and experiencing a foreign country's culture. Finally I once again want to say thank you very much to my Chinese host family! I enjoyed a wonderful and really interesting time!

Alex (first time)

I gathered my first Chinese experience about two years ago, when I spontaneously decided to attend a Chinese crash course at my home university. The course arouse my interest in really being able to speak this language which apparently has no connection to German, my mother tongue. I spent about two years with attending university classes and self learning, eventually thinking I had made it to a competent level. Anyway, my self confidence was high enough to finally go to China and continue learning. From my previous experience concerning language learning in the case of Japanese, I already knew that only a homestay could maximize progress. That time I realized, that my conversational ability had improved fairly, especially compared to students which had not participated in a homestay program. Therefore it was clear for me, that in order to learn spoken Chinese I had to stay at a Chinese family's home.

In fact I found out, that five weeks together with Lisa's family indeed had the anticipated effect. Although I had really tried hard before at my university, I could not speak very well at the beginning. But because of a really good language course and shared daily life at my host family's home, I could improve my conversational ability pretty much. My focus from the beginning on was conversation in Chinese, therefore Lisa and I selected a suitable textbook which she ingeniously integrated in class as usual, although she had never seen it before. Moreover after class it was also always possible to ask questions about the previously learned contents, so that it was not always easy to separate class and leisure time. Concerning the understanding of the Chinese language and culture, Lisa's family was of high value for me, too. Without their help, as a foreigner I maybe would have chosen the more comfortable way to speak English the whole day long. Put in a nutshell: I don't hesitate to recommend Lisa's program strongly to all people who seriously want to learn this fascinating but difficult language.

Alex (second time)

Hallo 姐姐！

现在六点左右。我准备我的东西，马上得去机场。中午我到日本，不能跟你们一起吃饭了！我已经想你们啊！三个星期不是太长时间，对吧？但是，我觉得我的汉语提高了很多，也可以明白电视的节目了。谢谢！

Well then, thank you very much for the three weeks. I always enjoy being with my Chinese family! I think you gave me more, I ever can give you back, but one day you should visit me and Germany. I hope I can give you a nice impression and some fun then.

Please keep on the good work. I have learned a lot and I think that you've really found out a very good way to make your students learn Chinese as fast as possible. Well, I have to go now..... See you soon!

坏亚

Andrea

Dear Lisa,

Thank you so much for letting me be a part of your family.
When I arrived here 3 weeks ago, I couldn¡¯t speak any Chinese. Now I can because of your great lessons that were always focused on my problems. I got a much better feeling for structure and grammar and sharing your familylife gave me the chance to practise my pronunciation every day.

I am so glad that I found a teacher who is not that strict. Your lessons were always prepared well and you corrected my mistakes again and again but always in that wonderful friendly way that I really liked.

It is not only this great way of teaching me wherefor I want to thank you, it¡¯s especially the fact that you always took care that I felt well and like a part of your family.

Dedicated to all students who want to learn chinese: If you are looking for a very qualified teacher with a very open character, if you also want to live in a lovely Chinese family and also want to taste the best Chinese meal you ever can get, come here! I will come back-for sure!

Kolli