Private 1-on-1 Chinese Language Programs

My daughter and I attended That's Mandarin Summer Camp in Beijing last summer. We enjoyed it so much that we are returning again this summer!
While my daughter was in camp, I took 4 hours of private lessons a day. Many families did the same (unless they were already fluent Mandarin speakers). My daughter loved the camp and thought it was a lot of fun. The first half of the day the kids are broken up into groups and take Mandarin lessons based on their language levels. Every hour they get a ten minute break for snacks and/or games. Then the children have an hour long lunch break. I really liked that lunch is provided. Everyday the kids have 4 options to choose from.
After lunch, the children have a cultural activity 3 times a week (cooking, art, music...) or go on a field trip in Beijing. My daughter loved the field trips! The camp always had many teachers watching the kids and sometimes other parents went along as well.
Additionally, I have been taking skype classes with That's Mandarin 2x a week since returning home to California. I really like their teaching method and the continuation of what I learned over the summer so this has been working well for me. Occasionally, we have skype connection issues but considering we are (literally) 6,000 miles apart it works well most of the time.
During the summer That's Mandarin offered weekend and evening cultural programs. The weekend ones all went on as planned but some of the weekday programs were cancelled due to lack of enrollment. I imagine during the actual school year there are more cultural programs with a higher degree of student participation.
We have really enjoyed taking classes and attending summer camp at That's Mandarin! Highly Recommend!

I like very much the methodology of the learning in this school, the emphasis on speaking is exactly what I need and the notes the teachers are taling for us are very helpful. The first teacher we had was not that helpful - she had little motivation herself and was really terrible at explaining the grammar. Our new teacher is brilliant - she explains everything in detail and is really patient and pushy at the same time.

I would highly recommend That's Mandarin. It's fun and challenging. I can finally say a sentence or two in Chinese. The teachers are really nice and helpful. They do answer all your questions and very patient with all the students. If they struggle to explain something first time they will always think about it and come back to you the next lesson. The coffee in the reception area is also very nice.

That's Mandarin convinces with its great locations, the relaxed but very engaged teachers and their open, unconventional teaching style. It has been a lot of fun so far and I definitely want to continue studying Mandarin Chinese here! After only four weeks I feel like I have learned so much more than I would have imagined before I came to Beijing.

The groups are small, we usually are between two and three students, and everyone gets a lot of attention. In the beginning, the focus is purely on speaking, which is really helpful for your everyday life. After two weeks you'll be able to speak with the taxi driver and ask your way around the city. It really is a great experience to study at That's Mandarin and I can fully recommend it to anyone who wants to learn Mandarin Chinese.

I've had Mandarin lessons in London and Beijing, and the teachers at That's Mandarin are easily some of the best. They make lessons interesting and relevant, and are adept at matching the content to the student's ability. We had a lot of fun and laughter in our class while learning at the same time. The class content was matched to our needs so that we could start to use our language skills immediately.

I have been having one to one lessons at That`s Mandarin for two years.
The staff and teachers are all extremely friendly and helpful.
The methods of teaching are quite different from other Chinese language schools. Instead of simply listening to the teacher throughout the lesson I have translated stories, summarised short videos and improved my listening skills through listening to audio excerpts. This has forced me to use and extend my Chinese vocabulary.
I would particularly like to thank Tang laoshi for her patience at my complete inability to compose sentences on the spot, for constantly recapping vocabulary that has slipped my mind and for bravely trying to teach me characters!
I would highly recommend one to one lessons at That´s Mandarin.

We practise and learn by telling a story and adding more information and vocabulary every day. It is a very small group, so we get a lot of attention. We have a break and socialise with the other students, there is a nice atmosphere and all the teachers and staff are very friendly. The school offers coffee and tea for free and there is an open space with a few tables to study before or after your lessons. You can also access a website to practise the language for the duration of your course.

Learning at That's Mandarin is always an adventure. No lesson is ever alike, and the teachers encourage that. I have had some lessons where we spent majority of our one on one session talking about weekend plans, food and even popular media (like films and tv), all in Mandarin of course! And yet somehow I always end up learning complicated sentence structures and useful vocabularly along the way.

The best thing is that even though you are learning, and learning a lot for the matter, you never seem to leave the classroom bogged down or stressed. Indeed, its academic, but as academic, as time consuming and as high pressure as you want it to be. It gives you the perfect environment in which to navigate your own path in learning the Chinese language, to find your own adventures and memories.