Award-Winning Mandarin Chinese Tutors serving Cambridge

We had dinner together in a Chinese restaurant today. The student's parents wanted her to practice her Chinese in a real-life conversation and she did a great job. She ordered her dish and talked with the waiters in Chinese only. She was a little nervous, so she practiced a couple of times before she ordered. This was actually the first time I'd seen her speak Chinese to native Chinese speaker, other than me. It was encouraging to see she'd learned so much in our sessions.

We worked on how to describe a party picture and to make a possible story by looking at the picture. We also practiced story telling by looking at other pictures in the textbook such as a restaurant and people talking on the phone.

We went over the new chapter. We reviewed new vocabulary and new grammar structures (more substantial than usual). We went over written, speaking, and listening exercises in the workbook.

We reviewed the vocabulary and grammar from last class, checked homework, and continued with the Lesson 1 vocabulary, dialog, and grammar. I'm trying to explain and practice at the same time which is more authentic in the Chinese language environment. I left some writing practice as homework, and I also asked her to review all the characters and prepare for the dictation next time.

The student got A in the test one. She is excellent. The student was encouraged to practice writing Chinese characters and reading texts. The student will benefit from spelling/pronunciation drills.

In our session, we worked on listening and dialog. I used the student's textbook examples as the start to improvise a dialog with her. I made sure she understood all the new phrases and vocab that was used in the Q & A. Then, we analyzed the several "term words" (with contrast meanings) so she has a better way of memorizing them. At the end, we recorded a couple of phrases that were the essence of this chapter so she could listen and practice on her own.