Durian Mandarin

Durian Mandarin

Brand Story

Hi! I am Yang, the founder of Durian Mandarin. In the past decade, I have devoted myself to teaching Mandarin across various settings. I enjoy every second working with my students, helping them enjoy the moments of learning Mandarin. I also brought my expertise in language teaching and linguistics to work as a Chinese language expert for a technology company to bring technical innovation to facilitate language learning. Fast forward to 2023, and I proudly earned my PhD in linguistics. Trained as a linguist and educator, I have always wanted to bridge the researcher-practitioner divide, so upon my graduation, I founded Durian.My vision at Durian is to provide high quality of Mandarin learning and cross-language services. Your language learning journey will be supported by original teaching materials, innovative design of courses, effective learning methods, and most importantly, our wonderful teachers! We aim to bring more options and experiences for students to learn, to practice, and to understand Chinese language that is embedded in its socio-cultural context. Durian is a place to work with mind-like researchers, educators, language lovers and events organisers. Together, we will create and develop something meaningful in this unprecedented and shift-changing world, language connects us after all.

Learning Chinese for your loved ones - a beginner course

This name may sound a little bit cheesy, I admit. In the past years, most of my students came to me because they wanted to learn Mandarin for their loved ones, for their parents, or partners, or kids. I created conversations that you can use in a more private/domestic reister, (yes, rather than to learn how to ask for directions or visit a bank like some textbooks often do for the first 2-3 lessons). You will be guaranteed to practise Mandarin in the class a lot to have a good level of conversational skills that you could immediately use with your loved ones.

Chinese Grammar Bootcamp

I often work with some students who come to me, 'Laoshi, I want to learn Chinese very quickly. I do not have time to play those silly classroom activities, I need the golden liquid from a good teacher to quickly master Mandarin as a language'. I just love working with students who like challenges! Hence, I created an intensive course for this group of students. Here, you will master Chinese grammar at a slightly faster pace, supported with an array of intensive training (Yes, I will be like your personal gym coach in this sense!). I also find that this course is very useful for students who have learnt Mandarin years before but want to quickly pick up their Mandarin! With a systematic review of all the syntax knowledge you need to know for comprehending Mandarin, this course will efficiently help you to re-drive your car in Chinese!

Advanced Mandarin Seminar

Advanced Learners read A LOT. However, they often find that most textbooks are difficult (or simply boring) to read and digest. In the meantime, reading complementary materials (such as content from websites or apps) alone may lack a dimension of interaction. In this course, I have written interesting articles myself (I used to be a journalist back in China, so I enjoy writing news stories), covering topics such as current affairs, interesting people and stories happening in China, intercultural communication and global business. I run this course in a similar format of seminars in higher education where students read for thinking. Students will discuss and exchange opinions on subjects of our reading, and present their thinking in Chinese confidently with logics, fluency and critiques. Language is not learnt to be manipulated, rather, mastering one additional language enables you to think more independently.

1:1 Lesson

In our 1:1 lesson, I will prepare customised materials and activities to suit all of your learning needs. I enjoy every second of my students when we have a 1:1 lesson. I often feel I am not a teacher, I am a coach, a cultural consultant, and a friend. I have constantly learnt a lot from my students. The boundaries of who is teaching whom is often blurring, and I wish you find our 1:1 enjoyable, effective and efficient.

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