ADVENTURES IN CHINESE

Name: Ariel Jing

Age: 29

Years teaching Chinese: 4 years

Current location: TailorMade Chinese Center Beijing

I chose to become a Chinese teacher because I have a very inquisitive personality and enjoy communicating with and helping others. Language teaching not only involves translating words and meaning， but also exchanging cultures and philosophies. I’m happy to help my students with Chinese as well as introduce elements of Chinese philosophy to the wider world. I started my teaching career four years ago， and have discovered that the largest issue learners have is a lack of confidence when speaking in class. I’ve lost count of the number of times I exhort my students to “be confident!” Sometimes I record typical mistakes my students make and show them the huge differences between the meanings of words with different tones. One of my students once pronounced “仲裁”（zh7ngc1i， arbitration）as “種菜”（zh7ngc3i， to plant vegetables）. After I told her what she said， she laughed for a while， but now I know she’ll never forget it!

Name: Silvia Neubauer

Age: 33

Years studying Chinese: 2.5 years

Current location: TailorMade Chinese Center Beijing

I’m from a town in the very west of Germany and came to Beijing almost two years ago. Until last summer I worked in a German company， but in August I started an intensive language course with TailorMade Chinese. I’d already studied Chinese at home for a while， but due to my work commitments I had to interrupt the course several times， and seemed to have to start from zero every time I picked it up again. Since I’ve been with TailorMade Chinese I’ve made good progress. They develop their own textbooks， which provide the words and phrases you really need as a foreigner in China. I also took classes in Business Chinese， which I need for work. The teachers explain new characters in a way that really makes them stick， and emphasize practicing spoken Chinese， all in a fun way. I’m enjoying my classes very much and am happy to be able to delve deeper into Chinese culture and understand the more colorful facets of Beijing life.