Mandarin Chinese with Elihu C.

My teaching style focuses on grasping the overall system rather than memorizing little details. I encourage students to get out and converse rather than stay in and study. This approach is best for people who need to get up and speaking as quickly as possible, for instance when planning to travel to China. As a teacher, what I offer is a cohesive view of how the Chinese language works, how to approach studying it, and how to start thinking in a more "Chinese" way. My goal is to set you up for success, so you can continue effectively learning Chinese for years to come without ever feeling like you've hit a wall. My goal is to help you develop intuitions, so you can see a new phrase and think "Hmm, that sounds wrong" or "That sounds right" even if it may be difficult to figure out exactly why -- so that when you hear yourself say something in an unnatural way, you feel like "argh, that didn't sound quite right", even if you might not have the vocab to correct yourself. The vocab can always be Googled, but the intuitions can only be taught --- that's what I'm here for.