Award-Winning Mandarin Chinese Tutors
serving Des Moines, IA

Florence's Chinese proficiency is strong enough that she sat for the SAT Subject Test in Chinese with Listening, giving her real experience with the listening comprehension, reading, and writing skills that Mandarin learners need to develop. She tackles tricky areas like measure words, sentence-final particles, and character recognition with a methodical approach shaped by her computer science training at Duke.

Having prepared for and taken the SAT Subject Test in Chinese with Listening, Eileen knows firsthand where English speakers stumble — tonal distinctions, measure words, and character recognition under pressure. She breaks Mandarin practice into targeted drills that build reading fluency and listening comprehension simultaneously.

Ingrid is pursuing a double major in Asian Languages and Cultures at Northwestern, where she's studied Mandarin through advanced coursework up to the fourth level. She breaks down tonal pronunciation, character recognition, and sentence structure in ways that make the language accessible to learners at any stage — from pinyin basics to reading and writing full passages.

Beyond classroom fluency, Kathy teaches Mandarin Chinese with attention to the details that trip students up most: tone pairs, measure words, and the logic behind character radicals. She covers reading, writing, and spoken skills, adjusting the balance depending on whether a student is preparing for exams or building practical communication ability.

Having taught at a Mandarin school, Nova approaches Chinese instruction with an ear for the tonal precision and character stroke order that textbooks often gloss over. She's particularly effective at bridging the gap between conversational ability and written literacy — teaching students to read and write characters while reinforcing proper pronunciation. Her 5.0 rating speaks to how well that balance works.

As a native Shanghai speaker and ICA-certified Mandarin instructor with formal accreditation in teaching Chinese as a foreign language, Angela tackles everything from tonal pronunciation and stroke-order writing to classical grammar structures. She designs lessons around how English speakers actually struggle with Mandarin — distinguishing tones, parsing measure words, and building sentence patterns that don't map neatly onto English syntax.

Mia has studied Mandarin Chinese through advanced levels and brings a structured, patient approach to teaching tones, character recognition, and sentence construction. Whether a student is tackling measure words for the first time or working through reading comprehension passages, she breaks the language down into patterns that build on each other.

Learning Mandarin means training your ear for tonal distinctions and building comfort with a writing system that has no alphabet. Yuyi is a native speaker who also understands English-language learning patterns deeply, so she can pinpoint exactly where pronunciation, character recognition, or sentence structure is breaking down for each student.

Teaching Mandarin through all four levels — from tones and stroke order to advanced reading and composition — Tina draws on her Columbia training in applied linguistics to explain how the language actually works structurally. That means students learn not just vocabulary lists but the logic behind character formation, measure words, and sentence patterns that make Mandarin click.

Connie is a Chinese language major at Dartmouth, which means she's tackled everything from character stroke order and tonal pronunciation to classical grammar structures and formal essay composition. That academic depth lets her explain the logic behind Mandarin's grammar and writing system instead of relying on rote memorization. Whether a student is working through radicals or sentence patterns, she connects each piece to the bigger linguistic picture.

Learning Mandarin means tackling tonal pronunciation, character recognition, and a grammar system that works nothing like English — all at once. Sherry's linguistics background gives her concrete tools for explaining how Mandarin sentence structure, measure words, and aspect markers actually function, turning what often feels like rote memorization into something more systematic.

Yan is a Chinese language tutor who brings both native fluency and formal teaching training to Mandarin instruction. She tackles tones, character writing, and conversational patterns by designing custom materials that match each student's level — whether they're learning pinyin basics or preparing for more advanced reading and composition. Her four years of classroom teaching in Boston sharpened her ability to explain tricky grammar structures in ways that actually stick.