Teachers open the door. You enter by yourself.

2010-08-02T03:21:00.000-07:00

Can you learn a language on your own, then travel into the country and talk fluently with its inhabitant? I have heard stories that confirm this. Language genius that makes it look so simple to learn a language.

My experience is less worthy of a blog entry. I've had long and painful hours at school trying to learn German and English, I have been bad and hopeless as a pupil, then as a grown up moved into both countries - first Germany, then Great Britain, then Germany again- and have reached a level of fluency in both language that allow me to survive. I am aware that this blog may sound "French" at times and would need a good review from time to time, but I can get the message through.

As a grown-up though I discovered that learning languages could be challenging but fun and decided to learn Greek. The reason? I had fallen in love with the country during a short holiday on the Santorini Island. I bought the book "Teach yourself Greek" and learned on and off until my next trip to the country, where my Greek was good enough to make the people smile and my friends laugh. It was great fun.

Later, long after I had given up on Greek, I turned toward Chinese. There must be something in non-roman alphabet that I find attractive. Again I started on my own with the Rosetta Stone's software and started to organise a trip to China. Quickly I felt that I needed some human interaction to progress and looked for a teacher.

Now, how to you find a Chinese teacher in London? Try Google. The search for "Chinese tutor London" returns over 13 millions pages. Beside the classical language school that offer individual or group tuition, you will find independent ads and links to tutor agencies. I found my first tutor on gumtree, she was nice but lived too far from me and her tuition turned out to be too expensive for my budget. It took me a few other attempts to find a tutor that made me want to study every week. Some tutors I met were fully unprepared and were also quite cheap. However I sometimes felt that we were both loosing our time. I would probably have chosen a professional tutor from one of the school if they were not so pricey. But at 30 pounds and hour I thought twice.

The best teacher I probably had was called Suki and she was my teacher in Beijing. When I told her what professional teachers charged in London she rolled her eyes and laughed!

Suki was truly inspiring. Learning Chinese with her was discovering a country and a culture. Her lessons were punctuated by anecdotes and stories, all in Chinese, that were captivating. We were five in the class and it was perfect.

Back in London, I wanted to find another Suki, someone who would push me to study further and harder than I would ever do on my own. Above all, she had taught me to love the language. She had open a door.

Teachers open the door. You enter by yourself. This Chinese proverb sums it all. You can try very hard to learn on your own, but you need someone to give a sense to this learning. I believe that finding a tutor or teacher is like finding the right shoe to your foot. You may want to try several before taking a decision on the long term.

This is why I decided to offer a free service to prospective students of the Chinese language and put them in touch with tutors free of charge. The tutors on Chinese Tutors Centre are independent, they do not pay a margin to another organisation and this is why their hourly rate are very reasonable. You can find an experienced tutor for 15 pounds and hour. The tutors on Chinese Tutors Centre need to be good teachers and prove it before a student accept to carry on learning with them.

Every time I receive excellent feedback on some tutors have introduced to prospective students, I am happy to think that somewhere a door has been open that that a student is about to enter the amazing journey of learning Chinese.

Nihao world

2010-07-26T12:11:00.000-07:00

I stood lately in the elevator of a department store in Frankfurt wondering at the Chinese translation of the diverse floor sections: women's clothes, accessorizes, homeware, etc... I couldn't check if they were correct. Barely recognised any character actually.

But this reminded me of when I was browsing the luxury department of a Grand Magasin in Paris and where all the super-friendly salepeople were Chinese. Yes, our departement stores in Europe seem to welcome their Chinese visitors with open arms.

The buzz around China intrigued me and I decided to start learning Mandarin three years ago, a bit as a hobby and to stimulate my brain. At first I invested in Rosetta Stone's pricy but excellent software, but after a few months decided to look for a tutor on internet. I tried a few and this led me to create a agency for Chinese Tutors in the UK, but more on that later.

Written Chinese look so beautiful, I was really keen to start learning the characters. This didn't happen properly until my stay in Beijing in the language school Mandarin House, where I finally learned to recognise and write about a hundred characters. One of my favourite texbook is What's in a Chinese character by Tan Huay Peng. It tells the story behind hundreds of characters, and this is done in a very witty way that help the reader remember.

I wish I could speak better. I wish I could say that I'm advanced... but maybe intermediary is more accurate. I have called this blog The Chinese Whisperer although this is not how I would describe myself. This blog will talk about the buzz around China, the amazing Chinese traditions that I discovering every day and learning Chinese and my wonderful experiences with the excellent tutors I am working with.

Nihao, world!