EXPERT CORNER

A new Teaching Chinese Online platform, Mandaring, is in soft launch. I was lucky enough to meet up with one of the Beijing-based Mandaring team a couple of weeks ago. Since then I have enjoyed being one of their guinea pigs, trailing their online lessons. 45 minutes of intensive speaking and listening left me tired, but satisfied, that I had learnt something new, and improved ever so slightly during the lesson. The teachers were friendly and the material was fresh and challenging.

The main feedback I gave related to the use of the student’s L1 (English in my case). I do find teachers here in somewhat of a hurry to tell me the English translation of any word I may stumble over for a few seconds. The advice I gave for teachers with students who seems to struggle with  ‘blocking’ lexis is to (i) repeat the word, slowly  (ii) provide synonyms and/or (iii) provide a sentence with the word in context. If the student still does not ‘get it’, it is likely that the word is not appropriate for his/her level. In which case, not knowing the word, is OK!

Apart from gaining access to an almost unlimited number of clients outside their immediate locale, it’s difficult to say how Mandaring will use their online platform to enhance the language learning experience. Will it be an exact replica of how they would teach a class in a face-to-face environment? What special feature(s) of their platform will differentiate them from their competitors? More about them once their platform is fully functional.

新学习汉语在线平台，Mandaring，刚刚软启动。几个星期前我很幸运地跟一位Mandaring团队的工人。从那时起，我很高兴成为他们的实验品之一，试试他们的网上课程。 45分钟密集的口语和听力留给我很累，但满意。我学到新的东西，并在上课时提高水平一点儿。老师很友好，材料是新鲜和挑战。更多关于他们，一旦他们的平台是功能齐全。