Mandarin learning from zero

I started taking classes at Silk Mandarin about 5 months into living in Shanghai and I'm so happy I made the decision to study with them. I had been taking some informal lessons before that and reached more or less HSK 1, but my friend convinced me that if I was serious about learning Chinese I should take actual lessons. It took me about one year to pass HSK 2 and 3, and one more year to pass HSK 4. There's no way I could have learned this much and learned so quickly without my teachers, Christina and Lexie. I've been taking two classes a week with Lexie for the past year and I'm about to start HSK 5 with her now. The school has a great curriculum and provides really helpful resources, like flashcards. I love Lexie's teaching style. We spend a lot of time chatting about our common interests and our personal experiences, which has helped me speak more fluently and become better at understanding how Chinese people actually speak. The lessons have also helped me learn all of the characters I need for HSK. The way the lessons are set up help build on the vocabulary I already know and integrate the new words into the lessons. I feel very confident with my reading skills. Listening can be a bit more difficult, but Lexie has been really helpful for me to work on that specifically. I find the teachers are very attuned to different students' learning styles and willing to adjust for them. I also like the warm atmosphere of the office. Everyone is very friendly and the events Silk holds are very fun.