Staff Spotlight: Giacomo Verde

Giacomo grew up in Italy and now lives in Shanghai where he works as a Digital Marketing Executive. He is in love with the Chinese culture and food, and during his free time, he loves to play badminton with friends.

My favorite travel memory is definitely the trip to Beijing in 2013. It was my first trip out of Europe, and it gave me so many good memories. I went in January 2013 for a month during the time when my girlfriend was studying Chinese in Beijing. I had the opportunity to stay with her and to visit the city.

The impact of China on me has been huge. I was able to come into contact with a culture totally different from the European culture. Definitely the life there is faster, especially compared to the little town where I came from. I was very surprised by the efficiency of public transportation and of the city in general.

I loved the variety of the food there which is completely different from the Chinese food that I ate in Italy. I was impressed by the beauty of the monuments, and above all, by the atmosphere that I experienced in the Forbidden City and in the Summer Palace.

It was also an opportunity to get in touch with the Chinese language and its beauty and logic. This experience has encouraged me to study Chinese and to find a job in China.

Since I started to work in Silk Mandarin, I have been able to grow a lot both from a professional and personal point of view. I'm in charge of the company's online marketing, and I immediately had to face very interesting challenges that made me improve my decision-making and problem-solving skills. I improved my way of working in a team, but above all, I got to know new people and cultures from all over the world. This is one of the most interesting aspects of the work in Silk Mandarin.

The best story I heard was that of a French student who went to Inner Mongolia on holiday. He told me about all the wonderful landscapes that he had the pleasure to visit and how he stayed in a yurt with a local family. He considered it a wonderful experience, and thanks to that, he had the opportunity to know more about local people and how they live in nature – completely different from the life in Shanghai. He recommended me to go, and I will definitely go in the future!

I would choose the Intensive 30 program. This is the best program if you want to learn Chinese in a fast and thorough way, fully learning all aspects of the language – listening, reading, writing, and speaking. This program includes classes both in the morning and the early afternoon. This allows you not only to study new topics and review the old ones in the morning but also to practice the language more during the afternoon lesson. It is definitely the best way if you want to achieve great results in short time.

What makes the company unique is definitely the desire to improve every day from a professional and personal point of view, to deliver quality to our students in all aspects. Our boss encourages all team members to do better, and he is always ready to listen and support group members if there are any difficulties to be addressed.

The team is growing and getting stronger every day. Another aspect that makes Silk Mandarin unique is certainly the teaching methodology used – the Slow Motion Technique – a technique created by the experience of our boss and teachers and that teaches Chinese with just one rule, making the learning process easier and faster.

One of the times I was most proud of the team was during the annual fair called Shanghai Expat Show. During this fair, the whole team worked hard to show our methodology to the many visitors, and all this brought us excellent results in the following months.

Hard work, ambition, and continuous improvement. I think the ways to be a successful company are especially these.

And moreover, you need to be ambitious, and you need to continually improve, developing professional and interpersonal skills. In this way the desired success can be achieved.