Jessica Lai

Jessica has a unique style of teaching where she will ask unexpected questions or show some pictures to develop your conversational skills. I find her lessons to be engaging and challenging. I am learning complex vocabulary and expressions that I may not have learned in a more conventional lesson but her lesson materials are relevant to everyday conversations. As an intermediate level student, I highly recommend her as she will help you attain the next level of proficiency. I appreciate her quizzes, recordings, and transcripts as they help to reinforce my study habits.

Jessica is methodical and meticulous in her work, and she also makes it interesting. She has profound thoughts and a wide range of perspectives, which often serve as a starting point for me to come up with some creative ideas, making the classroom content very rich and substantial.

I truly feel that Jessica is constantly challenging me to grow as a student. She keeps me excited for every lesson by gradually increasing the level of difficulty, which pushes me to improve without ever feeling overwhelmed. One teaching method I especially appreciate is her use of illustrations. She asks me to describe what is happening in the image, and through that process, I end up learning vocabulary I didn’t even realize I needed. She also introduces more technical and sophisticated language that I might encounter in daily written media, which has significantly expanded my comprehension. With her strong English background and educational experience in Taiwan, I believe she communicates particularly well with students from Western cultures. She understands both perspectives and bridges them seamlessly. I cannot recommend her highly enough. She is truly a dedicated teacher who genuinely cares about her students’ growth and development.

Jessica really pushes my language practice to its limits! At the moment we are learning basic sentences and vocabulary and she encourages me to put it to use and try to make new sentences, not just rote repetition. Just when I feel like I’m overloaded, she pulls back and allows me to marinate in what we’ve learned before diving back in and working on conversation again. If you want to move quickly and learn a lot, I highly recommend Jessica!

I feel incredibly fortunate to have Jessica as my teacher. Her professionalism and dedication are truly outstanding, but what impresses me most is how deeply she cares about her students’ progress. She consistently goes above and beyond — often giving extra time beyond what’s scheduled and thoughtfully preparing personalized materials to support learning and review. Her patience, encouragement, and genuine commitment make every lesson both effective and enjoyable. Without hesitation, I can say she is one of the very best Mandarin/Cantonese teachers you will ever find.

Jessica is such an awesome teacher!!! Her classes so far are definitely the highlight of my day/week