MANDARIN CHINESE TUTORING
Since 2005, we’ve helped students improve their confidence and grades in Mandarin Chinese.
We’re especially proud of the fact that other educators (teachers and professors) and high profile members of the Princeton University Administration trust us with their children’s academic success and recommend our services to others.
We have a 15+ year track record of supporting students in elementary/middle school Chinese & high school Chinese (e.g. regular Chinese, Honors Chinese, AP Chinese, SAT Chinese Subject Test).
Our private 1-on-1 Mandarin Chinese tutors are fluent in Chinese and have won academic awards for their language proficiency. They have studied in China, come from Chinese-speaking backgrounds, and have taught at the college level.
How Does It Work?
- Free Consultation – We learn more about your child
- A Perfect Tutor Match – Our team thoughtfully matches you with an amazing Mandarin Chinese tutor
- Progress Tracking – Stay in the loop with detailed progress reports after every session
Available Online or In-Person
- Online – Over the past decade, we’ve successfully helped students all over the world using Zoom, virtual whiteboards, and other technologies.
- In-Person – Locally in the Princeton, NJ area
100% Satisfaction Guaranteed
- Experience You Can Trust – Near-perfect ratings, 50,000+ hrs of tutoring experience, and 500+ happy reviews
- Not completely satisfied with a session? Let us know, and we’ll make it right or refund the unused sessions.
What parents say about our Mandarin Chinese tutors
Our team includes award-winning Princeton University undergrads and Master’s/PhD graduates who are rigorously screened and are extremely effective at communicating the material.
A brief “case study”:
An adult student reached out to us looking for help with Mandarin Chinese.
She had previously studied it in school up to an advanced level but it had been many years and she wanted to refresh her memory.
She specifically wanted to focus on grammar and pronunciation so that she would be able to communicate and participate at a conference.
We matched her with Wei, a lecturer at Princeton University. Wei taught Mandarin to English-speakers in Beijing for many years before earning her Master’s in Chinese Linguistics and Language Acquisition from Chinese University of Hong Kong. She also taught Mandarin at Brown University and UNC-Charlotte.
At the end of the sessions, the student reached out to us:
“Wei is quite simply the best teacher in any subject that I have had– she’s incredibly patient, experienced, talented, and encouraging, and she is helping me to get my Chinese to a higher level.
I really appreciated her attention to correcting my pronunciation and grammar, increasing my vocab, and to illumining the principles as well as practice.”
We receive messages like these every week.
We regularly track progress
Progress reports are shared after every session so you always know what’s going on.
A Real-Life Example:
Student: Louis
Tutor: Wei
Subject(s): Mandarin
Date: 8/13
Time Tutored: 18:00 – 19:00
Next Scheduled Session: Sat, 08/17 11:00 AM
Material Covered:
Today we covered Lesson 7 (Sports) , vocab and dialogue 1. We went over the vocab list together, with tone and pronunciation correction and practice; then we read dialogue 1 together twice; then we took turns to ask and answer questions about sports. With some help, Louis can build up longer and more complicated sentences, in both statement and question form.
Last but not least, Louis practiced writing words 1-19.
About Tones: Now Louis is aware of 3+3–>2+3 rule, and his tone 4 has improved a lot, which we are glad to see; and he still needs more practice on tone 1+other tone combinations and tone 2+3 combinations.
About Pronunciation: There are some pronunciations caused by the “misleading of Pinyin”, which means Pinyin doesn’t reflect pronunciation 100%, for example, Pinyin QIU sounds like QIOU, and SHUI actually sounds like SHUEI. (More examples in the note.) As always, I gave Louis the note after the session for his reference.
How is your child performing in Mandarin Chinese?
LEARN HOW WE CAN HELPAddresses common student issues
A deep understanding of the subject matter allows us to personalize our approach.
Why is Mandarin Chinese important?
Many students come to us for support with Mandarin Chinese classes, AP Chinese Language & Culture, Chinese SAT Subject tests, or simply for enrichment.
Why do some students struggle with Mandarin Chinese?
Mandarin Chinese can be one of the most difficult languages for English speakers to learn. This is because the language is so different from English. Chinese is a tonal language, meaning that a single syllable can have four, sometimes five different meanings depending on which pitched tone is used. In addition, there are many sounds in Chinese that do not exist in English, which makes forming some of the sounds feel unnatural. All these factors make Chinese pronunciation difficult for many English speakers.
The Chinese writing system is also notoriously difficult for those used to the English alphabet. Chinese does not have an alphabet. Instead of memorizing a small set of Roman letters, which can be combined to form different words, words are represented by characters. The character for every word must be memorized. This means that learning to read and write Chinese requires a tremendous amount of rote memorization. It is difficult to look at a word and make an educated guess about what it is, or to “sound it out” – you either know it or you don’t.
Because Chinese requires so much memorization and repeated drilling to get an “ear” for the tones, learning it is often a matter of sheer hours put in. It takes a lot of time to learn the language – more than students get in the classroom. Tutoring in a one-on-one setting puts the student at ease and facilitates more conversation. And of course, the best way to learn how to speak is…more speaking! Our tutors encourage students to speak and to make mistakes. If possible, we like to conduct tutoring sessions entirely in Chinese.
Let’s Get Started
We’ve produced consistent results over the past 15 years by combining a deep and nuanced understanding of the material, truly world-class tutors, and exceptional customer service.
What else differentiates us?
- Smaller boutique company
- Obsessive attention to quality
- Never any high pressure sales tactics
- Trusted resource with a strong reputation
We’d love to learn more about your student and see how we might be able to help!
TALK TO JESSICA