The level of my Mandarin was very close to zero when I found out about Natalie. I knew how to read and write some Chinese characters because I came from Japan. However, when it came to speaking and listening all I knew was “Nihao” and “Xiexie.” Natalie tutored me every two weeks for about a year. She was very flexible when setting up a session. During a lesson, she was very professional and patient. Sometimes I couldn’t remember some words or phrases from the previous lesson and then she took some time to go through the key points quickly. It helped me recognize what I didn’t understand yet. Natalie was always attentive to what I needed at each stage of my study. Mostly, I was trying to improve my speaking and listening abilities, so we read a dialogue together all the time. She corrected me every time I mispronounced a word. She used different textbooks and materials, so I never got bored with her lesson. In last few lessons before she left Vancouver, I realized how much my Mandarin was improved. I could read and understand a two-three page passage. I could read out many commonly used words without pinyin. I could hold some basic conversation. I felt the progress. It’s all because Natalie is an excellent teacher. I highly recommend her to anyone who’s serious about learning Mandarin.
初めてナタリー先生の事を知った時は自分の中国語のレベルは殆どゼロに近いものでした。日本人なので幾つかの漢字は最初から読み書きはできましたが、スピーキングとリスニングに関しては「你好 (ニーハオ)」と「谢谢 (シエシエ)」がわかるくらいでした。先生には二週間に一度のペースで約一年ほどお世話になりました。次のレッスンの予約を取る際もとても柔軟に対応してくれました。レッスン中はとても真剣で常に集中していました。時々、自分が前回のレッスンで習った事を思い出せない時がありましたが、その際は重要ポイントを絞って復習もしてくれました。自分がまだ何が理解できていないかを洗い出すことができました。学習を進める中でその時々で自分の必要な部分にしっかりとフォーカスしてくれました。自分の場合はスピーキングとリスニングを特に上達たせたかったので、毎回のようにテキストの会話文を一緒に読みました。間違えて発音した時はやさしく訂正してくれました。色々なテキストや教材を使っていたので、いつも楽しくレッスンに飽きるようなことはなかったです。先生がバンクーバーを去る前の最後の数週間のレッスンで自分の中国語が如何に上達したかを実感しました。2−3ページの文を読んで理解する事ができたり、ピンイン無しで重要な単語の多くを音に出して読めるようになったり、簡単な会話のやりとりができるようになっていました。ナタリー先生は素晴らしいです。中国語を真剣に学びたい人にはとてもお薦めします。 |
I've studied Chinese with her for 7 months. She is pretty cool and friendly. I'd never learned it before so we started with 'Ni hao'. We met once or twice a week. Since my working schedule changes every week, so we always had to check each others' availability. I would say you can take lessons whenver you are free. She prepared all materials for my class. Vocabulary cards, role-play, tv show or scripts. You should let her know clearly what you'd like to get by learning Chinese. That's better for both you and your tutor. It might be just for fun. Or for your kids, business, flying to China. Once you let her know what you need in the class, she's gonna prep your class to meet what you want. At first I wanted to prepare for HSK, Chinese exam for people whose first language is not Chinese. So we practice making sentence, structure and grammar with a textbook. In a few months, I changed my mind to go to Beijing! After that, we focused on having conversation in a variety of situation like shopping or going to hair salon. I really really enjoyed studying with her.
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Natalie has been an excellent tutor for me as I have lived in Taipei for the past six months, it’s just a shame that she has now gone to Canada because I’m struggling to find as good of a teacher. I think my method of learning is different to other students but Natalie was able to adapt to my learning style and help me improve in my Chinese drastically. In six months I have learned Zhuyin (the Taiwanese alphabet) so that my Chinese pronunciation would be more accurate, I can write over 200 traditional Chinese characters, can have basic conversations, order food, find where places are and have learnt some simple grammatical rules. More importantly, this wouldn’t have been possible without Natalie’s patience, dedication and the fact she always brings a smile with her. 謝謝 and thanks for being angry at me when I didn’t do the homework.
Good luck in Canada, 天川George Wilcox |
Natalie tutored me while I was working in Taiwan and helped me improve my Chinese considerably with regards to professional vocabulary and Chinese used in daily life. She was able to meet with me on short notice, could accommodate my schedule, and provided material that was suitable to my exact needs. Natalie explained Chinese word usage and grammar patterns in an easy-to-understand way. After meeting with her, I was able to immediately apply what I learned in real-life situations. I would highly recommend Natalie to anyone who is looking to improve his or her Chinese proficiency.
Zack Grannan August 27, 2014 |
Teacher Natalie always behaves like a professional teacher. Her teaching method is not only good, but also flexible. She is young, energetic, and always passionate in teaching. She is also a very good friend. Moreover, she helps me to be motivated in learning Chinese. Even though I often forget some new words, she always patient to give me reviews. My Chinese language improved a lot after being taught by her. I wish I could take more class with her, but unfortunately I need to go back to my home country. I really recommend teacher Natalie as your Chinese teacher.
Guru Natalie selalu berperilaku seperti seorang guru profesional. Metode pengajaran nya tidak hanya baik, tetapi juga fleksibel. Dia masih muda, energik, dan selalu bersemangat dalam mengajar. Dia juga merupakan teman yang sangat baik. Selain itu, dia membantu saya untuk termotivasi dalam belajar bahasa Mandarin. Meskipun saya sering lupa beberapa kata-kata baru, dia selalu sabar untuk memberikan ulasan. Kemampuan bahasa Mandarin saya meningkat pesat setelah diajar olehnya. Saya berharap saya bisa mengambil kelas lagi dengannya, tapi sayangnya saya harus kembali ke negara asal saya. Saya sangat merekomendasikan guru Natalie sebagai guru Mandarin Anda. |
To whom it may concern
16th Jan,2015 I am an engineer working in Taiwan and is from India. I have had the opportunity to take the ‘Chinese Speaking’ class from Ms. Natalie for the last one month. I have completed ten hours of learning in this course so far. I would like to record my experience of this class. Natalie has been gracious enough to customize the class to make it suitable for learning only ‘Spoken Chinese’. In the first class she explained the importance of ‘tones’ while speaking. Also had given some examples in English to relate to the tones. She is a very committed and calm teacher. In all the classes she makes sure to review all the previous class vocabulary and grammar. Most of her teaching are always accompanied by visual graphics like images and expressions. These come in very handy while practicing and helps to memorize with ease. In teaching any language it’s very important to talk more and with more people. In an effort to improve this she tried out a very nice experiment. She wanted me to ask the people around for a marker pen in Chinese. This was a very nice exercise and also helped me to get rid of my shy nature of speaking Chinese. Another aspect of her teaching is to touch upon real-life situations. She has taught me to order food, go to a saloon, go shopping and manage everything in Chinese. This has been the most helpful part of the class and I would like to thank her for the same. It has been a pleasure to learn under Natalie and am happy to say I’m picking up the language faster now. I look forward to more lessons and would recommend any foreigner who’s interested to learn Chinese. She’s also fluent in English that makes it very easier to clarify doubts. I wish her all success in the future. Thank you, Sudharshan |