We’ve had a wonderful experience with this Chinese class. The teacher creates such a warm, encouraging environment, and the lessons are engaging and interactive, which has been especially helpful for keeping my 9-year-old interested and excited about learning Chinese. The pacing feels very appropriate for younger kids, and the class does a great job balancing vocabulary, speaking, and fun activities. He gets game based homework assignments every week to help him learn the vocabulary. My child has become more comfortable hearing and using Chinese in some everyday situations. The teacher is patient, positive, and very skilled at keeping the students engaged. I also have a 13 year-old and the teacher uses more of a textbook/workbook method with her, and that works very well for her to help her learn vocabulary and recognize characters.

I’ve been learning with Lydia for almost two years now, and my Chinese has improved so much. We use HSK books for structure, but she balances that with plenty of conversation practice, so it never feels boring or repetitive. She’s great at explaining things in a way that just clicks, and she always knows how to make the lessons fit what I need—whether it’s improving my speaking or focusing on reading and writing. What makes her stand out is how her lessons make learning Chinese fun and interesting. She mixes things up in a way that keeps me motivated to stick with it (and I'm learning just as a hobby). What could feel like a chore always ends up being something I look forward to every week. She’s super organized but also flexible—if I want to talk more or switch gears, she goes with it. It’s been amazing to see how much I’ve learned and I can’t imagine finding a better teacher!

I've been taking classes with Lydia for over 2 years now, and she is one of the best Chinese tutors I've ever had. She makes every class engaging by starting off with a discussion of what I've done over the last week and topics of interest, and then we move into either a reading or discussion activity that challenges me to use new vocabulary and grammar structures. She is also incredibly organized and sends me detailed and easy-to-follow notes after each class with stories and vocabulary for me to practice. She's also just fun to talk and easy to and class usually flies by! I highly recommend her if you want to challenge your speaking, reading, or vocabulary skills.

I'm a heritage Chinese speaker, and I started taking lessons to pass on the language to my son. I left China at 4, and my ability to express myself felt largely frozen at child level. And my reading was awful! After over 2 years of regular classes with Lydia, I'm now able to speak to my 3 year old exclusively in Chinese, and read Chinese kids books to him. My adult level vocabulary has massively improved also. I'm able to express myself better and I can listen to some native language podcasts. Lydia has been key to my progress. She's patient, encouraging, and adapts classes to my interests. Despite being a busy working parent, I've managed to stay consistent with lessons for over 2 years because Lydia makes them interesting - and long-term consistency is key to improving your language skills. Lydia is a great teacher and can help you reach your Chinese goals. I wholeheartedly recommend booking a lesson with her!

Trial lesson! She started off with asking me questions about myself to see my speaking level. Then she tried out various methods of practising speaking, I was impressed with how adaptable she was with switching methods when it seemed like another one could be more suitable for me! e.g. I tried translating a comic panel. Once she knew I could understand Chinese better than speaking it, she switched methods to me hearing an audio and answering questions about what the audio said, then she would relate the topic of the audio back to my own life to let me practise more speaking! We agreed on a few different methods including listening to audio and answering questions, a gamified method, and a bit of the HSK material for some structure. I love the diversity of materials and the balance of casual conversation and structured learning! Also she can speak English so it's really helpful for when I don't know how to say something in Chinese. I'm interested in taking more lessons with Lydia!!

This was my 22nd lesson with Lydia, and I can say I have made huge progress thanks to her teaching method. She explains evrything very well, and you feel very at ease during the lesson. You can also try new sentences and words, and she will always be supportive. She is honestly a great teacher, and if you are serious about learning mandarin, you should definitely book a lesson !