Program Reviews

Yep that is right. I wish I had started working with Silk Mandarin sooner than later. Initially, I was taking Chinese lessons with other institutions and honestly after every lesson I would feel discouraged and unsettled. As an engineer, I am use to learning with structure and proper format. My goal when living in China was to learn Chinese. I was told by my parents that the best souvenir you could ever get from a country is learning the language. Everything else is materialistic. This is why I am so happy I found Silk Mandarin. All thanks to my friend Elke who introduced me to the school. I was at first skeptical giving Silk Mandarin a try as it was my 5th attempt in looking for a proper Chinese school. However, after the first consultation, I quickly learned that I had been learning Mandarin incorrectly the entire time. My husband and I immediately signed up for one on one tutoring. I love their learning materials and tools. Especially the talking cards and their online tutoring platform. My tutor Shirley was and still is fantastic. She was patient with me and really helped me unlearn the bad habits and develop the proper structure to learn and fall in love with Mandarin all over again. It makes sense and its really not hard if you have the proper teaching. Fast forward today, I can now speak survivor Chinese and passed HSK 1 and 2. Now that I no longer live in China I do have the option of continuing taking lessons because they teach online world wide. Yess!!! I am forever grateful to my friend Elke, my Silk Mandarin teacher Shirley and the Silk Mandarin team for giving me the confidence to not give up on learning this live long souvenir. I wish I had found them sooner. If you are interested in learning Chinese and are looking for a proper Mandarin school look no further. It's Silk Mandarin!!!

After a few months in this school I can only recommend it. I started with one of my colleagues our course, at the beginning we had doubts about the academy, but after some lessons we saw that it was exactly what we were looking for, a flexible school with modern teaching techniques that can adapt to our needs and help us to keep improving our level.
At the same time we were super lucky with our teacher, Amélie, who makes of the lessons a very fun and productive activity.
All in all, 100% recommendable

I had been studying mandarin for 9 years when I moved to Shanghai 2 years ago. After an accidental meeting with Silk Mandarin’s founder, I decided to give this school a try. Over my previous 9 years, you can imagine I have been through my fair share of schools and teachers. Silk Mandarin is world class and my teacher Andy is easily the best I have ever had. Its a joy to come to class and my level has skyrocketted over the last 12 months. The facilities are really great and the staff helpful/friendly. Highly recommended!

I was introduced to Silk Mandarin by a friend, he had a great experience and got to HSK4 level quite quickly with intensive group classes.

It only took me attending the free introduction class for me to see that Silk Mandarin’s ‘Slow Motion’ approach was simple, structured and going to work for me.

I don’t have time for the more full time classes, so I’m taking 2 night 1:1 classes with Amelie each week, it’s only been a short time and she has helped me get to half way through HSK2 level already!

I heard about Silk Mandarin from a Vegans of Shanghai food workshop at Silk Mandarin. I really appreciated how they broke down the meaning behind each character and radical in a way that made sense to me as a foreigner.

I took a crash course for basic Chinese in L.A. right before coming to China. I had basically no fluency in Chinese.

My Chinese class at Silk Mandarin is definitely my highlight of the week. Taking Geminii’s class with my classmate Jade is so enjoyable and fun. I end up laughing to the point of tears at times.

Geminii explains everything in a way that makes sense to my foreigner way of thinking. She gives the background of the Chinese way of thinking and why things are said the way they are in Chinese. It makes everything so much more digestible for me. I need to understand the logic of a culture in order to truly understand the language, and Geminii strives to fulfill that every lesson.

Geminii caters the class to make it involve different methods and activities for learning so that it never get monotonous or dull.

Wherever we are at as a class, she will make sure that we can all participate and understand in some way that is appropriate for our learning style. It has truly been a joy to learn Chinese from Geminii at Silk Mandarin.

I’ve been studying at Silk Mandarin for about 8 months now. When I first came to Shanghai I new that I wanted to continue studying Mandarin. I had started learning some in college and wanted to continue studying the language while in China. For my first few months in China I worked with private tutors but never felt I was getting what I needed out of the classes. Silk Mandarin has improved my Chinese language learning in such a positive way! I feel that through studying at Silk their method helps me to focus on reviewing things I already know and working to continue building on that foundation which has helped me actually advance at a constant pace and retain the new things I learn! I’ve been very happy with the teachers, students, and facilities at Silk and they have been very flexible and easy to work with when I encounter scheduling issues- always making it possible to find a class that fits my needs. I’m getting close to finishing HSK4 and I don’t know I would’ve done it without the help of Silk Mandarin!

I happened to be in Shanghai for two weeks and decided to do the intensive lessons for two weeks, after doing some research online, I decided to go with Silk Mandarin. Yanqin was my main teacher (we had one-one-one lessons) whilst I was at Shanghai and she was amazing! She was so knowledgeable with Mandarin and her teaching approach and energy is one of the best out of any teacher I have met. You can tell she is very passionate and loves what she does, and her enthusiasm really encourage and motivates you to learn. She remembers what she has taught you, she reviews and emphasises on ones she sees you struggle on, and you can feel that she cares about your learning and progress, which I believe are very important traits in a teacher.

I am still doing lessons with Yanqin via online (starting HSK 2 now), and her teaching approach is still just as effective! I also had some lessons with another teacher, Christiana, and found her teaching approach also quite good and she has a lovely personality. I would highly recommend Yanqin and Christina to anyone who wants to study at Silk Mandarin. It’s an awesome school. All the staff there are friendly, approachable and helpful, especially Amy and Vicki who were always happy to chat and answer my questions. They made me felt so welcome when I arrived and when I departed Shanghai.

I am not sure whether other Chinese schools have this, but Silk Mandarin provides these really cool magic talking cards (with Chinese characters and pictures) and a talking pen which I felt helped me immensely with my learning. The school uses a “slow motion technique” to help students remember the grammar which I think is very clever and useful!

Also, during my time in Shanghai, I was at a homestay (organised by Silk Mandarin) with an older couple who were extremely nice and helpful. Mary was the host and she is one of the loveliest people I have ever met. She was incredibly accommodating towards me and spoke to me in Mandarin to help me learn. It was a very special and unforgettable experience. I would recommend Silk Mandarin to anyone, and I would love to attend the school again sometime in the future. The face-to-face lessons and online lessons are both equally good, and you will definitely see progress.

When moving to China about 2 years ago I was determined to learn Chinese. So after a good month of settling in I went looking for a school. I chose for Silk Mandarin and after meeting with Shirley for a demo class I was hooked. Not only her enthusiasm, but also her experience and the learning methodology Silk Mandarin has to offer made me wanted to start immediately. I chose for a one on one class, but my husband went for the online approach due to his job. And now I have completed HSK4 and ready to continue to start HSK5!

I would recommend Silk Mandarin, because they really help you understand the language, have created useful tools like cards and a talking pen, offer tailor-made classes, and most of all they have an amazing team of highly skilled, motivated, and passionate teachers.

I’ve been studying at Silk for over a year now and I’m on my way to finishing HSK 4! I spent a year in China thinking “I can get by..” and “I’ll just pick it up” but choosing to study at Silk was one of the best decisions I made! The teachers are amazing and really adapt learning to your own needs and learning goals. I’ve studied with Jessica, Christina and Andy and I have nothing negative to say about any of them! Their slow motions technique just makes sense and is super logical which makes learning so much easier!

I first came to Silk Mandarin about two and a half years ago, just going to classes on the weekends because I lived a little bit out of Shanghai. Right from the beginning, actually from our very first demo class, the staff were extremely friendly (in a good way, not a creepy way) and made my girlfriend and I feel right at home.

This for me is actually the most salient point. Speaking a language is difficult only in a psychological sense. If a student has motivation and confidence then they will learn the language, whatever it is.* Motivation can only really come internally from the student, but the confidence part can be nurtured externally. This for me is where Silk really excels. They will help you to have the confidence to speak, what is for Westerners, a very difficult language. They will speak to you frequently in Chinese, with enthusiasm and genuine warmth. They will encourage you to speak back in Chinese, with patience and an open ear. From the teachers to the support the staff, the whole environment is geared towards speaking Chinese. They will help you to feel like speaking the language is not only very possible but also enjoyable, and in my opinion there is no greater thing a language school can do for you than this.

Speaking of teachers, it's been a while now but my first teacher was Amelie老師, teaching me from 0 to HSK 2. Teaching grown men who can barely say "tingbudong" correctly, Amelie is of course extremely patient, and also extremely funny. I enjoyed my classes with her and she helped me to get progress quickly even when I wasn't being a good student. (do your homework in the HSK books, it makes a world of difference).

My latest teacher for HSK 3 was Jessica老師. Jessica is an enthusiastic and positive teacher, who knows a lot about the ancient origins of many 汉字. She also has a good story to share which helps to form a mental connection between words in your language and in Chinese.

As I said, it's not just teachers that help you learn at Silk. Amy/Lina, always comes over for a chat in Chinese, which is super helpful for applying what you've learned. I really want to thank Amy for this because it must be extremely boring listening to my baby Chinese, but it's always something that I've really appreciated.

Likewise my thanks also goes to Jasmine. At one social event of Silk, over a beer she asked me about my studies and told me that she was worried about my motivation - which was completely accurate. My job at that point was very stressful and I wasn't applying myself properly to my studies. This chat was a good wake-up call to me, and a reminder that people cared about my progress. It's easier to motivate when other people also care about your success. After that I took my homework more seriously and tried to go over the weekly characters that we had learned more often. The results were instant and I was able to stay comfortably on top of the material for the remainder of the term's classes.

I'm not just recommending Silk in words. I've put my money where my mouth is and purchased an introductory class for a colleague and friend from work. He enjoyed his first class very much and has gone straight from HSK1 to 3 with Silk in the space of a year.

If you have the motivation and put the work in, you can progress very quickly with Silk. And if rather like me, you are an interested learner, but sometimes life gets in the way, Silk will still help you to slowly improve. Your progress is largely down to you, but for the learning environment, support, and teaching quality I would find it hard to imagine a better school in Shanghai, or indeed in China for that matter.

*this is obviously just my opinion.