Πρέπει να αρχίσω με το ρητό ότι Kirin με εντυπωσίασε πολύ με την που διδάσκει τις δεξιότητες. Εάν υπάρχει μια ποιότητα που ένας δάσκαλος πρέπει να έχει προ πάντων αλλιώς, είναι υπομονή. Και Kirin ήταν πολύ υπομονετικό με με δεδομένου ότι άρχισα να μιλώ τα κινέζικα ακόμα μια φορά μετά από το χάσμα μερικών μηνών. Είμαι βέβαιος ότι μπορείτε να πείτε με το άκουσμα στις ακουστικές συνομιλίες Skype, τις οποίες οι δεξιότητες ομιλίας μου άρχισαν σίγουρα αρκετά άσχημα στο πρώτο μάθημα αλλά βελτιώθηκαν δέκα φορές μέχρι το τέλος του τελευταίου μαθήματος. Περισσότερο από τίποτ' άλλο, αυτό με κατέστησε πολύ ευτυχές και γενικό επίπεδο εμπιστοσύνης μου στην κινεζική γλώσσα ομιλίας που αυξήθηκε πολύ με τους λίγους ανθρώπους που ξέρω εδώ στο Σιάτλ που μιλά τα κινέζικα με με.

Κατ' αρχάς, πιστεύω ότι το κλειδί υπάρχει απλά να υπάρξει κάποιος στην πρακτική με τακτικά και να υπάρξει κάποιο είδος του στόχου. Σχεδιασμός αυτών των 15 μικρών συνομιλίες με Kirin με έκανε προετοιμάζεται για τις με να διαβάσει το κείμενο μεγαλοφώνως σε μου εκ των προτέρων επανειλημμένως έως ότου το πήρα σωστό.

Αφετέρου, ένα τεράστιο πλεονέκτημα αυτά τα μαθήματα είναι ότι έχω ένα κρίσιμο ακροατήριο. When I am speaking Chinese with someone else, if I say something incorrectly (grammar or tone), he will probably not correct me because it might be considered rude. But, when I speak with Kirin, I know that I will be corrected, and that is the way I prefer it, because there’s no other way for me to learn.

Lastly, I think it is simply fun having someone talk to you from a somewhat distant place, where points of view are a little different and things are done differently and where the language you are learning is the lingua franca. I definitely love meeting new people and making new friends and I’m sure most other people do too. “

In regard to my thoughts on the one-on-one live lessons, I did listen to the sessions and found them very helpful. Kirin was extremely pleasant and accommodating to work through my pronunciation issues. As a beginner, I am trying to absorb vocabulary and understand Chinese language speakers in normal speaking pace. I do find myself lacking in pronunciation and other speaking nuances more so after listening to the sessions to the point of embarrassment. While listening to my sessions, I distinctly speak Mandarin with an American dialect, which would be taxing on native Mandarin speakers to understand.

The first lesson went very well and Miwa is a good teacher. I had no problems understanding her and she was very clear with her Chinese and English. Also, Miwa overall is pleasant to work with and uplifting with her praise! A good quality which I recognize as important to a student’s learning, whose confidence in speaking Mandarin may be shaky.

The most valuable part of the lesson for me was creating sentences with words she picked out. For example she asked me what “xi1 wang4″ meant and then asked me to make a sentence using this. I had to think for a minute because then I had to go over all my vocabulary and think! This is the hardest part for me because it requires original thinking and knowledge of sentence structures and vocabulary. Plus, I have learned Mandarin by practicing CLO dialogues, which is good but has a downside to it. That is, I associate vocabulary with the sentences in the dialogues so much that it is ingrained in my head. For example, when I want to say something or someone asks me a question, I think of answering with the dialogue that I learned, ahh!

The first 10 minutes or so consisted of me reading the dialogue, going over the vocabulary words, reading the dialogue together, and then giving English meaning to vocabulary words. For those who are struggling, especially at “Level I” or so, this would be good for them, as first one must master pronunciations and meanings before moving on to anything else.

Miwa gave a good introduction asking my name in Mandarin and reciprocating back. She acknowledged every line or answer I gave which is good.