Founder and General Manager
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Matt Worley,
MBA, M. of Accountancy
Our founder started this Chinese Learning Institution because after
having experienced other Mandarin schools and the traditional
methods of learning Chinese in China and in America he was
dissatisfied with both the quality and the methodology.
Matt
Worley began to learn spoken Chinese
on his own while attending his MBA program. In so doing he needed to
find the fastest way to learn the Chinese language. After just
a couple of months of study he was able to join a second-year
Chinese class, with students that had been learning Chinese for one
hour every day for over a year! Attending the Chinese class, he
understood why their progress was so slow: most of the materials
used to learn Chinese were outdated, and were only focused on those
wanting to be Chinese linguistic majors with a heavy Chinese
character writing component.
Leaving this Chinese course after a
brief time, he continued his self-study of Chinese for another year
before attending a Chinese school in Beijing. Here he was able
to join classmates who had been studying from three to five years,
and was lauded constantly for his relatively high level of
communication. The experience at the Mandarin School in
Beijing, China mirrored that of the experience in the Chinese class
in America: Antiquated methodologies, a focus on writing as opposed
to speaking, a compensation system that neither evaluated nor
rewarded teachers on effectiveness, and a system that employed none
of the technologies he used in his personal study of Chinese.
As classmates came to him for help
but also to complain about the Chinese learning methods, he began to
say to himself, "I can do better". And so the idea for this
Mandarin Chinese school was born. He started this Mandarin
Chinese school, unlike other Mandarin Chinese schools, as a true
learner of the language, but also believing that principals earned
in his MBA and Masters of Accounting, such as process improvement,
statistical analyses, and systems of quality control could be
applied to the Chinese learning process. Believing that anyone
could attain similar results in an even shorter time given the
proper Chinese learning environment and methodologies, he set out to
create a Mandarin Chinese school in Beijing that would manifest
itself as he envisioned as the ideal Chinese learning environment.
Acting as an operations manager
previously taught him that "But we've always done it this way" line
of thinking is not always correct. Old methods should be
retained only if they are fruitful. Today, there is an
abundance of technologies that can dramatically speed up the
progress of the new Chinese learner: We can do statistical
analysis to teach the most useful things first, we can walk around
with Palm Pilots with embedded dictionaries, we can record
conversations and bring them back for transcription and tutoring,
and we can teach students how to function in the modern-day,
computer-age China.
In concert with Chinese linguistic
advisors, he set out to form a Mandarin School In Beijing, China
utilizing the best of the modern technologies he used in his own
learning, and in an environment subject to evaluation and
improvement where everything we do is subject to the underlying
question: "Is this effective?"
Mr. Worley remains very hands-on,
choosing to remain living in China, unlike other Chinese Mandarin
school owners. In doing so, he personally evaluates and hires
only teachers that are of the highest caliber, focused on
effectiveness, and adaptable towards teaching native-level English
speakers, and oversees the integration of technologies into the
Mandarin school based on his own experiences and modern
psychological language learning principles.
Chief
Chinese Learning Advisor
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David Moser, PHD Chinese
Studies and Linguistics
Dr. Moser comes to
our Mandarin
School in Beijing with several years of experience, as a teacher,
trainer,
and translator. He has been living and working in China for
over 10 years. He is the author of many academic papers about
linguistics and learning Chinese. He has written extensively
about the challenges posed to Westerners that study and learn
Chinese. In China, he has acted as Trainer in Cross-cultural
Communication and Business Communication for a Fortune 100 company. Of
course he is intimately familiar with the challenges when a
Westerner wants to learn Chinese as he essentially learned Chinese
on his own. After learning Chinese on his own he went on to
earn a Masters in Chinese Studies and then a Doctorate in Chinese
Studies and Linguistics from the University of Michigan. He
therefore can relate well to those that wish to learn and study
Chinese in China who come from a Western background. He
has taught Chinese both in America and served as Visiting professor,
Beijing Foreign Studies University (a University in Beijing, China).
David has
starred in his own Chinese TV series and is the current host/translator at CCTV 10,
a TV station in Beijing. He is a life-long learner of Chinese
and a part-time jazz
pianist.
Chief
Chinese Learning Instructor
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"Kathy" Zhao,
Masters Candidate Educational Pedagogy
Kat comes to our
Mandarin School In Beijing, China with several years of experience, both as a teacher
and translator. She graduated from the prestigious Beijing
Language and Culture University in Beijing (BLCU). She has also
taught English classes. This gives her a great perspective in
helping students learn to speak Chinese. As head instructor she looks
forward to interacting with you on your Chinese learning journey.
Kat says:
"Welcome to our
Mandarin Chinese School. I love being here and I love helping
students learn Chinese in Beijing. This Mandarin School is definitely
different from others in its approach and I am excited to be a part
of it. I hope you will consider joining us, and I will see you
here in Beijing!"
Study in
China Office Assistant and Customer Service Coordinator
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Sharolyn Ochavillo
Originally from the
Philippines, Sharolyn comes to our Chinese school in China with several
years learning the Chinese language in schools here in Beijing herself.
Being a foreign student herself, she has great understanding of the
complications foreigners undergo in learning Mandarin Chinese, and
therefore, is ready to help you out in any way possible. She
attended elementary and middle school in Canada and speaks English at
the native level. She joins us having just graduated from Tsinghua
University, the number one university in China. She studied
Chinese through programs and schools in China and speaks Chinese at the
advanced level.
Sharolyn says: "I hope to
welcome you soon; no matter if you are a study abroad student, someone
improving your business Chinese, or simply someone interested in
learning to speak Mandarin. I believe that our intensive
Chinese language learning programs designed for beginners, are very
unique and well thought of when it comes to practicality in finding
the most efficient way to learn the spoken language. I enjoy
chatting with my fellow alien friends, and eating lotsa chocolate.:-)"
