Greetings,

I have studied Mandarin Chinese for nearly 10 years. I have lived, worked, and studied abroad in China. I began learning Chinese in 2002 by moving to Taiwan and living in the country. I learned the language daily and also learned the common mistakes and pitfalls foreigners do when learning Mandarin. Learning this "natural" way allowed me to perfect my pronunciation as well as grammatical understanding of real world language use. I entered Brigham Young University in 2004 and fine-tuned my language in its rigorous Chinese language program. During my time there I participated in a study abroad in Nanjing University in China where I was on a television show featuring my Chinese language. As part of the curriculum we were tested by the ACTFL in which I scored an advanced high rating. After graduating from Brigham Young University I worked in Beijing as a translator and further refined my language.

My advantage is I know what it is like to learn Mandarin from knowing nothing. I know how to teach it effectively because it is the same way that I taught myself. I know how the American learner thinks and how to best help those learners achieve their goals.