Program Reviews

Before I signed up, I was about to commit to another school on a friend's recommendation. The sales rep hadn't really done much to sell the programme to me and I didn't really get that much of a good vibe about it at all - almost as if they viewed my business as a foregone conclusion. Fortunately I came across some marketing for Silk Mandarin on the same day. This explained their general philosophy, specifically mentioned teachers’ qualifications and gave details of some introductory promotions. I was struck by a level of professionalism that was totally lacking with the other option.
I arranged a level check that day. In that session, I was looked after by two very friendly and competent staff, Lina and Jasmine, who really took time to assess my exact situation and requirements, giving me various useful options and letting me choose the programme that was going to work best for me. I could tell that they both had a passion and dedication for the school that felt almost like the exact opposite of the other place I was about to spend so much money with. I was able to start lessons the same week and I am extremely glad that I did. While I will never know what the other school might have been like, I can only say that the first impression SM made was excellent and things only got better from there. I have been a Shanghai resident for over 6 years but had put off learning Mandarin formally until now so one-to-one classes seemed more appropriate than an absolute beginner’s class, even though I was starting with HSK1. This allows me to progress at my own speed and obviously means I get a huge amount of spoken practice during sessions. My teacher, Amelie, is excellent - she pushes me very hard at my own request and will always patiently find a way to help me understand when I'm struggling with any particularly tricky language points. Lessons are fun and varied, and always a lot of hard work too - perfect for me. I can imagine that she has a different style for other students or for group classes. She made an effort to find out about me personally, which means that whenever we practice language, she is making it directly relevant and immediately useable outside of the classroom. Even after a long day at work, I look forward to the challenge of our lessons because they really do feel tailor-made.

The school itself is conveniently located and all staff are incredibly friendly and never let you get away without practising some basic Chinese. I couldn’t recommend the place more highly. I am certain that reading that article on that day was fate and I am so glad I ended up here and not elsewhere... phew!

I started learning Chinese last year with silk mandarin and will continue this year as I can see the results and want to improve more.
They provide you with good and helpful materials, such as books, exercises, vocabulary cards,... The staff is very friendly and always there to help you. The teachers adapt the lesson's speed and difficulty to your level to ensure you with your own best learning experience and a good progress.
The schedule of the different classes can be arranged to fit your needs and they are flexible with arrangements.
The group sizes is not too big (we're 3 students in my class) and depends on you level and schedule.
They also organize some nice social events during the year and not just only teach you the language but you will get to know more about the Chinese culture, too.

Before to join to Silk Mandarin, I did a LOT of research into schools in the area that offer qualified classes of Chinese language. While searching I have got many inappropriate disputes on schedules, communications and in the end environment. Silk Mandarin has been recommended to me by student of school, which I should be very thankful her for it. I was incredibly pleased with the small group classes and the help given by all of the instructors! The school staff is very practical, humble and experts of their fields. They build a very comfortable environment to learn a language. School is located in a most center of city, which is very convenient to public transportations. I was even more excited to find out that they could schedule your classes according to your time, where not all schools are able to do so. Moreover, to keep motivated and interest all students and teachers, they often arrange well organized indoor/outdoor events. I attended classes for two months and I had immersion experience and it was well-worth time and I think I will continue it to reach conversational level of Chinese language with Silk Mandarin. Our teacher Amelie Zhuan is very outgoing teacher with passion of teaching and enthusiasm. I am really pleased with the program they made to me and am very happy to give it my highest recommendation!

I started learning Chinese last year with silk mandarin and will continue this year as I can see the results and want to improve more.
They provide you with good and helpful materials, such as books, exercises, vocabulary cards,... The staff is very friendly and always there to help you. The teachers adapt the lesson's speed and difficulty to your level to ensure you with your own best learning experience and a good progress.
The schedule of the different classes can be arranged to fit your needs and they are flexible with arrangements.
The group sizes is not too big (we're 3 students in my class) and depends on you level and schedule.
They also organize some nice social events during the year and not just only teach you the language but you will get to know more about the Chinese culture, too.

I came to Shanghai to finish my master and study Chinese at the same time.
I think the best part of this course is the flexibility regarding the schedules. They have different groups for all the levels so you can choose the one which suits your needs. Another remarkable thing is how the teacher adapts the class to your level and cares to make sure you are seizing the time with the course.
They provide different materials and resources to learn according to your level and looking for your own best way to learn.
The staff is very friendly and they make sure to keep track of your progress. They attend you whenever you need it.
They also organise some social activities during the year to socialise with all the students and the staff; also some activities related with some Chinese festivities to know more about the culture and the language.

Everything was great. I really cannot complain about anything. Super recommendable. Place is amazing and so the teachers. My teacher was Christina who is excellent at teaching Chinese. Their procedure of teaching with ppts, writing in the phone and other ways, make silk mandarin an incredible institute.

I started in September of 2018 and did HSK 1 and HSK 2. Already booked and looking forward to star HSK 3 in the following month. Teachers are all really nice who talk to you during break time so you can also practice with them all the new words and grammars you just learned during class. I greatly recommended you to start learning Chinese with silk mandarin as you won't regret at all.

I should say 我非常爱Silk Mandarin。

新年快乐！！

I moved to Shanghai in April this year knowing not one word of Mandarin, and started 1-one-1 classes with Christina at Silk Mandarin in May. 6 months later I am half way through HSK 3 and I have not looked back. Thank goodness I was lucky enough to find Silk Mandarin (through word of mouth) right at the beginning of my learning as my proficiency in the language has already surpassed many of my expat friends and colleagues who have lived here for 3+ years. Mandarin has a reputation for being a challenging language to learn, which makes it all the more critical to find a good teacher and school to make you feel confident with your ability and most importantly motivated to progress through the course. When speaking to my friends who haven’t had good learning experiences, the common theme seems to be it’s hard to retain the discipline to keep studying when you don’t see your ability improving and so life inevitably gets in the way! I am happy to report that my ability to interact with Chinese people improved so remarkably that if anything, I became more motivated to continue my learning as my original objective was to learn ‘survival Chinese’ only. I really enjoy my lessons with Christina as she tells me lots of anecdotes and funny stories to make the content more interesting and memorable, and because I want to get the most out of her classes I always try my best to do self review. I would highly recommend Silk Mandarin to anyone wanting to optimize their learning in the most efficient and enjoyable way. Thanks!

I did a 6 week course of intensive Chinese. It was 4 hours every day from Monday through Friday, 3 hours with 2 others as a group class and 1 hour one on one. Teacher Christina was great. Instruction was very fast paced, clear and organized with substantial homework. We have covered up to Hsk 3 in that time frame. I haven't been to any other Chinese school in Shanghai, which I am told there is a huge number of, so I can't compare and contrast the overall quality but I had no issues with Silk Mandarin, it is a good place to learn Chinese. Everyone, from teachers to staff at the School is encouraging of students' learning Chinese and help converse with you in Chinese any time you want. Since I was there through December and January, there were no activities at the school besides one Christmas party mid December, due to it being offseason.

First, I want to say that Silk Mandarin is by far the best school there is to learn Chinese. I have tried many other schools and most recently I tried studying at Jiaotong University. I wasn't happy with all their teaching methods. Specifically with Jiaotong the classes were to big, and there was no feeling of connection with the teachers. My good friend Alex gave me the recommendation to try Silk Mandarin. After the first trial, I was hooked. One thing I love is their use of the flash cards. These are really creative and help me a lot with my reading and vocabulary. The most important thing though is it helps with my grammar. Jessica was my first teacher, and she helped me so much. I needed to start HSK3 intensive course, but I never studied characters before. She used these cards by making me create sentences, and it made the class fun. Again, it wasn't just learning vocabulary and characters. This helped tremendously with my grammar. Jessica is such an enthusiastic and motivated teacher. After all our sessions, I was sad to leave her class. Teaching Chinese is her passion, and you can see that every time you walk into the classroom. David and Marsha are both my teachers now for HSK3. Once I met David, I knew this intensive course was going to be so much fun. David gives off a very welcoming vibe. We joke about each other and share stories. He is also super knowledgeable about characters. He knows anything and everything about radicals and how to help remember these new characters you start to learn. Marsha has been helping me now for a few weeks with extra practice on material learned from the intensive course. She helps me review translations and answers any other questions I have that I missed. The most recent grammar structure I learned was "把“. It didn't sink in totally after the first class, so she grabbed a separate grammar book with multiple examples in English. I then translated these into Chinese, and she continued to help through step by step. Overall the teachers are all professional, patient, and outgoing. They truly care about your learning experience no matter if you are doing part time or full time. It's a family at Silk. I am real happy with my decision studying here, and I suggest to everyone to at least try it for yourself.

In September last year (2018) I started learning Chinese with Silk Mandarin in Shanghai. From the first visit I felt in very good hands. Since I had some basic knowledge of the language, especially through several individual lessons with a private teacher, the Silk Mandarin team used the trial lesson to test my Chinese knowledge (if there has been any). So I didn't have to start all over again. The demo lesson was also a great opportunity to get to know Silk Mandarin's learning method and, together with a teacher, to set up the individual curriculum according to the learning goal. All materials used are perfectly coordinated and allow each student to deepen their knowledge after class easily.
After the trial lesson I was assigned a teacher - Amelie. Amelie is a great person and teacher, always in a good mood and makes learning Chinese fun while pushing me to reach the next level. She adapted the curriculum based on my language skills initially. Contrary to my experience with private teachers, with Silk Mandarin you are pushed and driven to perform. Every teacher has the goal to make his/ her student better; I didn't have that feeling with any private teacher before. The pace is demanding but with, reasonable learning effort, feasible. The lessons are fun, even on days when you are not convinced of your learning process - it simply takes time. But all teachers (Amelie in my case) always manages to motivate me in a low.
The school also offers several activities (excursions etc.). So far I have only made it to the Christmas party, which was a nice and well-organised event, which left a great impression on every visitor.
Silk Mandarin literally focuses on the learning success of its students and focuses everything on supporting every single students to master Chinese.
I can highly recommend to learn Chinese with Silk Mandarin.