That's Mandarin Chinese Language School Reviews

I studied at That’s Mandarin for two weeks. I learned a lot of things. I studied a lot of characters and learned how to use the new ones in stories. For Dragon Boat Festival cultural studies, I told a long story about Qu Yuan and the teacher said I did a good job and gave me a small prize. I was really excited. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, we have field trips. I went with the other campers and teachers to the Natural History Museum, the Shanghai Zoo, and the Film Museum. All those places were really fun. We had to do different tasks and they all required us to use Chinese. I am very happy at camp and I want to come back next year, if Mom and Dad say I can and I do well in my classes in Singapore.

I start class at 9am. In the morning, for three hours, I study Chinese. My favourite classes are video classes and character writing ones. The teachers gave us Tom and Jerry cartoons and then told us to tell a story. Then we wrote down that story. I had a lot of fun.
In the afternoon, we usually went outside to play. My favourite day was when we went to the Natural History Museum. It’s a fun place. Inside, they have a lot, a lot of dinosaurs. They were my favourite part.
In the culture classes, I painted a mask, ate zongzi for Dragonboat Festival, learned the story behind Dragonboat Festival, and because I knew the story of Quyuan and could tell the rest of the group, I got a small prize and I was very happy. I also drew him as a dragon and a dragonboat.
I studied for two weeks. I studied a lot of things and had a lot of fun with other campers. After I go back to Singapore, I will miss That’s Mandarin.

At school, I write a lot of Chinese characters. I also watch short films and say sentences about the films. We get points if we say a long and correct sentence. We review the work that we do a lot. We also make sentences. I like my main teacher, Xu laoshi. She makes the class super fun. We get to watch lots of funny films. After that, we have bunch of competition with points. At That's Mandarin, I also love to go out and play. We've gone to a museum with a bunch of cool, prehistoric animals. I also like to play games we played like 6 games yesterday, but all in chinese. My favorite game was "Luobo dun" which also can review the words we learned through it.

This is my second year studying at That’s Mandarin, but I have been studying Chinese for a lot longer. That’s Mandarin has taught me more during my classes here than any other Chinese School, I have studied at in the past. During my classes I learn very fast because it is a one on one situation. Each class uses it’s time very effectively and I’m able to learn a lot in the 4 hours that I am here each day. Both my teachers have been very helpful in understanding how I learn and have changed their style of teaching to fit that which makes each class very productive. The tools that the school uses to teach are also very easy to understand and having the one on one program allows the teachers to correct every mistake I make as I make it, which helps me correct any improper grammar that I may use. Every year my mother gives a choice as to where I want to go in China to study Chinese and every time I say I want to come back to Shanghai to go to That’s Mandarin, Because I only have one month each year to study Chinese and this school is able to teach me the most in that short amount of time. If given the choice again to come back and study Chinese I will choose That’s Mandarin because of all these reasons. The only thing I will say was a slight problem was the switching around of teachers. Each time I switch a teacher they have to try and figure out how much I know and what I do not know which in my opinion wastes a little bit of time since sometimes information gets retaught. Other than that That’s Mandarin is a great Chinese school and I will definitely choose it again in the years to come.

We spent five days in China with That’s Mandarin at Summer Camp. It was a really different experience than what we have in Singapore. Because, in Singapore, we don’t learn Chinese everyday, only twice a week. We like speaking Chinese a lot and Thomas got to make new friends really quickly—the first day. Every morning we got to school at 9 and had class until like 12, then we had lunch, then we would do all kinds of activities. Our favorites were the mask painting and the trip to the Museum of Natural History. They had all these kinds of dinosaurs and they moved! It was really fun to do that with all the other kids. And with our teachers. They were really nice, too.

That's Mandarin gave me a great insight into Chinese langauge. I enjoyed learning from different teachers since all had a different way of teaching. Therefore I also learned to adjust and greatly adapt to dialects. I am very happy about my experience at That's Mandarin as I was able to learn a lot in just a samll amount of time.

I spent 6 weeks at That's Mandarin. It was a very enjoyable 6 weeks. The staff and teachers were very friendly. My level of Chinese increased substantially, mainly in the areas of speaking and listening. The teachers were very patient and explained all my questions in a thorough and professional manner. I would have no hesitation recommendion That's Mandarin to any student wishing to further their Chinese level.

That's Mandarin was everything I had hoped it would be. I took a four-week intensive 1-on-1 program to try and push my verbal skills to the next level.

Thanks to a great group of teachers who were patient, persistent, creative, funny, and energetic, I was able to achieve my goal.

I highly recommend That's Mandarin to anyone who is interested in improving their ability to speak and understand Mandarin.

I came to That's Mandarin to study intensive Chinese. I took 6 hours of private lessons 5 days a week for a month. I also lived with a Chinese family. I have been self-taught, using online resources and books to learn speaking, grammar and characters for 3 1/2 years, up until my lessons at That's Mandarin.

My classes were each two hours long. The teachers all allowed for conversation and review the first hour, which was very helpful and also fun to just get to talk. One class was spoken translation from English to Chinese. This was excellent and my favorite, as it helped me learn my many weaknesses in Chinese grammar and word order. The second class was listening to a recording and repeating it back. This was harder than I thought it would be, but was useful in both listening skills, and in teaching me cultural aspects of modern China as the recordings were about specific topics. My final class was reading in Chinese characters. I learned many new characters and words from this class. I had told my teachers initially that I was not interested in coming to That's Mandarin to learn writing characters as I've been working on that on my own, and wanted to use my time in China to improve my speaking and listening. That’s why I didn't have a writing class.

My family experience was great. The husband and wife had his parents living with them. Their son was in college and I used his room. None of them spoke a word of English, so at breakfast and dinner we conversed in Chinese. They prepared great meals and were excellent hosts. They even had a washing machine so I could wash my clothes in the apartment, but the grandmother offered to do that for me, which was very nice.

The location of the apartment was in a bustling area about 2 miles from the school so the walk was easy. I could have also taken a cab or a three wheeled bike. The school is in a great part of Beijing called Sanlitun, and there are tons of restaurants and businesses around the area. Every day I'd walk home a new way to see more of Beijing.

The only problem with the school was that the plumbing was not very functional. For a long day at the school, like I had, this was a problem and should be addressed in a better way.

I had no problems with the teachers on the teaching. They were very helpful and I cannot recommend this school highly enough. I ran into many fellow students who had tried other schools and said that That's Mandarin was the best.

I chose them because they had private lessons, and when I contacted them initially, and the woman learned I was doing an intensive course, she advised me to do a home stay rather than have an apartment (I was nervous about a home stay). That opened up modern Chinese culture to me, through the food and conversation. It would not have been anywhere near as valuable an experience had I lived in an apartment with an English speaker.

I am currently taking a 2-hour class online once a week with That's Mandarin, via Skype, to continue learning and to not lose what I did learn. I'm making progress and it keeps me motivated in my self-studies. I plan on going back for another intensive month of studying next year in Beijing.

As someone who works in the media industry in China, I wanted to have a better understanding of the work I am doing in the country. In addition, as my career aspirations in the media will have me residing here for a long period time, I want to be able to communicate with my subjects and colleagues through their language more, although their English skills are good.

I found That's Mandarin by chance and I have been very impressed with their professionalism and efforts to improve all aspects of my Chinese skills.

One thing that attracted me to That's Mandarin is their one-on-one classes for those who are working in Beijing. As I have a very busy schedule I do not have the time to be in classes all day. Fortunately, That's Mandarin tailors the classes to what you would like to work on. I wanted to take the Chinese Proficiency Test (HSK), so That's Mandarin worked with me to develop a plan to prepare for it. Thanks to the teachers' encouragement and hard work, I passed the level three HSK exam. Now I am working my way to taking the level four exam.

Classes are very relaxed and the teachers make learning Chinese fun compared with courses at universities in China where teachers may fill your head with vocabulary and not give students the opportunity to participate in the classes. Teachers at That's Mandarin want students to be active because it is the only way for them to improve their Chinese skills.

The work that the staff do at That's Mandarin is great and I believe that anyone who is looking to learn Chinese should give them serious consideration.