Program Reviews

I am very pleased with That's Mandarin as a school. The school is located in a central and vibrant part of Shanghai which is also easily accessible by public transport. The school's facilities are excellent, the staff really do try to solve your problems and are familiar on how to deal with foreigners. The teaching is also very good. 

I signed up for the this programme because although I knew quite a lot of vocabulary  I could not communicate and it is helping me communicate more confidently everyday.

The course comes wIth an app Mandarin Cafe which helps you to study conveniently. The course is also well structured so you can achieve your desired Chinese level by a certain date.

I would recommend That's Mandarin to anyone.

• I have received a superb service from all the staff members. They have always been promptly prepared to deal with all my needs and ensured I was receiving good teaching. At That's Mandarin, not only I have improved my Chinese but I also built new friendships, with students as well as teachers. Learning here means being part of a large family, you interact with everyone and you get the chance to know a lot of people from different backgrounds. Teachers are really friendly and professional, they try to accommodate any demand you may have regarding teaching methods, choice of the topics, etc. Their support have really been a great relief for me as I had been travelling a lot during the weekends. In fact, I have always received helpful tips and language support to book my trips, even outside their working hours. Overall, it has been a very pleasant experience and I would definitely recommend the school for those who have high expectations and aim for a remarkable experience in Beijing.

I am 47 years old and arrived in Beijing with no Mandarin. However, only 7 months of part-time classes at That's Mandarin helped me to manage everyday life situations.

My teachers’ approach responds to my immediate needs. From the beginning I was able to practice in shops and restaurants, with neighbours and bank clerks. My teachers encouraged me and made sure that little achievements counterbalance the frustration that inevitably occurs when learning a very difficult language.

The one-to-one-classes are very focused, lively and often funny. It is obvious that the teachers are responsive to individual learning styles on the basis of years of teaching experience. Their sound expertise enables them to apply a range of different teaching methods, which cover structural grammatical knowledge as well as playful exercise. The classes deepened my interest in Chinese language and culture and they motivated me to pursue my studies. A thousand thanks to the school and to my teachers for this great gift!

As for the whole program , teachers and staff at That´s Mandarin have been very kind and the online system I think is very useuful, as we can review every day lesson.

Nivira
Morning excursions are very fun,
I think 2 hours of class per day is not enough, I would introduce more classes, writing, listening, etc..
As for the teacher, she learnt more the first week than the second, maybe cause the group she was in was more advanced
In general she was very happy about the teacher.
It was very kind of you to give them the final day presents and the certificate...

Marta
Teacher was pretty good and I learnt a lot. She also helps me moving around Beijing. Online system is very good.

Places：We went to the Great Wall, The Forbiden City, The Zoo, National Museum of China, Fake Beach and we also went to a different shoping places and other.

We have eaten amazing chines food and we also had pizzas , sushi and many other delicious types. I loved going to many different places on the week, after school me and the kids in my apartment and in the school went out to play sports, go shopping, go to the movies and many other places that i forgot the name of but had amazing experience. The classes are fun we have a 45 minute class than we have a brake for 15 minutes till the hour is other. During those 15 minutes you can do whatever you would like to do, you can play outside, listen to music, go to a market and ask a teacher before you go so they would know where are you. The teachers are usually very very nice including the master but master can sometimes be stricker than other teachers because she is the rule maker and you have to get used it and just listen, by the rules that she made the school lives for 12 years even more! The Great Wall of China is very hard to climb but it’s amazing experience and you have a slide down if you are very tired. The Fake Beach is fake because instead of the ocean it’s 4 to 5 different pools and 5th one is the biggest. The Forbidden City was great but the garden is very very beautiful. And just saying i went crazy on the souvenirs and because of this i had to buy another suitcase but that will be a carry on! And i will be back for sure next summer:)

During the two weeks I spent at this camp, I had a lot of new and different experiences. During the mornings, we did different activities every day, and it also gave me a chance to get to know the other participants at this camp. I had the chance to make a lot of new friends, all from different countries. we all had lots of fun when we went on the field trips as we learnt more about the Chinese culture and language. During the actual lessons, I feel like I really expanded my knowledge of Mandarin a lot more. Because this was my first year learning Mandarin, I wasn't really able to hold a good conversation, but now I think that I've improved enough that I can. I found the classes at this camp useful, as they were taught in a different format than what I was used to, which I found both beneficial and interesting. The teachers at the camp were all very nice, and kept encouraging us to learn and ask questions.

I really enjoyed my classes with both Xin Laoshi and Wang Laoshi.
It is clear Xin Laoshi is an expert in the history of Chinese characters and how the characters have developed over time. She was always able to explain the background and historical context behind each character, which not only helped us learn the meaning, but deepened our understanding for Chinese culture. She is also really great at explaining the definition or context of a character without using English.
Wang Laoshi is helpful with teaching conversational Chinese, which is often missed in other language programs. She pushed us to practice speaking as much as possible, which helped us review past grammar structures and vocabulary. Wang Laoshi has a very bubbly personality and keeps students engaged and motivated.

During the two weeks I spent at this camp, I had a lot of new and different experiences. During the mornings, we did different activities every day, and it also gave me a chance to get to know the other participants at this camp. I had the chance to make a lot of new friends, all from different countries. we all had lots of fun when we went on the field trips as we learnt more about the Chinese culture and language. During the actual lessons, I feel like I really expanded my knowledge of Mandarin a lot more. Because this was my first year learning Mandarin, I wasn't really able to hold a good conversation, but now I think that I've improved enough that I can. I found the classes at this camp useful, as they were taught in a different format than what I was used to, which I found both beneficial and interesting. The teachers at the camp were all very nice, and kept encouraging us to learn and ask questions.

I have attended 1 to 1 lessons at Beijing That's Mandarin for a month during the last summer and I think I got a beautiful experience. I really like the organisation of the course and the teachers. Every lesson is planned taking into account the exigencies of each student and If you want to change time and day they can arrange a new schedule for you very soon.I needed to prepare HSK exam in a short period of time and all the team was very helpful with me. I specially appreciate the supplementary materials and the suggestions of the teachers to pass the exam. If I had a question they can suddenly explain the problem and make a lot of examples in order to let me understand, because sometimes Chinese language is very difficult, specially for an Italian student like me. Apart from the method and the organisation, they also have different interesting extra activities for adults and kids. I guess it is also a good school for group lessons because teachers are very friendly. If I have to choose private lessons I will go there again.

Hello, my name is Rob and I attended That’s Mandarin 2 Week Full Camp. Before this camp I took Chinese for two years when I was living in Singapore. That’s Mandarin was one of my favorite camp that I have been too. The environment was amazing! All the teachers are nice and I would always look forward for the next day’s plan. Even though we would have fun by playing games or watching a movie we would always learn something out of it. For example, we watched a short film were a dinosaur was trying to get a cookie jar. During the short the teacher would pause it and make us make sentences about the story.

Even if you just started Chinese, it would be pretty easy to learn if you go to That’s Mandarin. By the end of my two weeks I could ask for the price and have a small friendly conversation with locals. I feel that this camp has made me feel better when talking Chinese and made me more confident. We also did some great activities outside to practice my Chinese. We would have to take a photo of the item and ask someone how much it costs.

Some of the other activities were to go to a Musem and even The Great Wall of China. All of the experiences made me understand more of the Chinese culture. One of my faveriote expreriences was when I climed the Great Wall of China. Our class climed until our legs couldn’t work (6 Hours). Even though musems are boring the ones that they brought me to where amazing!

An optional experience is to live in a apartment with other students. I would say this is a better option than being with you parents or whoever he/she is going to come with. I say this for many reasons, one of the main reason is that you always have a person that knows chinese. They would bring us out to local markets and very local resturants. This gives your child/teen to experience the local life of Beijing. Yes you could always go to the markets or resturants but there is something about being with a chinese speaking teacher wich makes it feel like you are more local to Beijing.

This is such a great school if you want your child/teen to learn chinese!