Hi SexyMandarin we would like to introduce one of our students to give you an idea of the kind of people enjoy SexyMandarin and why.
Mike Carroll is one of the students at SexyMandarin and was generous enough to let us write an article about him and his experience with learning Mandarin Chinese.
Mike is originally from the United States and from the state of Missouri. For people not from the US, Missouri is right in the middle of the country. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Spanish and History and is currently an E.S.L. (English as a Second Language) teacher in Changchun, China. Before Mike moved to China he was a programmer and created apps for IOS/Android/Blackberry which are mobile device platforms. He enjoys studying foreign languages which include: Chinese, Korean, and Japanese.
Mike originally became interested in learning Chinese in high school but really began to buckle down with his studies when he noticed that most of the people purchasing his mobile apps were in fact Chinese. To cultivate a better working relationship with his customers he decided that now was the time to kick it into high gear with his Mandarin education.
After running his own business Mike wanted to switch things up a bit and began contemplating what was next for him. After careful consideration he decided that moving to China would be a great change of pace and would give him an opportunity to grow personally and re-evaluate some of his business goals.
Mike moved to China on September 20th and has been living there for roughly a week. When asked, what were the three biggest differences he noticed in his first week in China? He responded with, “traffic is a lot crazier than he is used to in the US, prices for goods were quite a bit cheaper than in the US, and that he had to be more mindful of what topics he discussed in front of the locals.
We asked Mike what he thought would be the most important thing for people to focus on when they were starting to learn Mandarin, here are his thoughts: “I would tell someone else about starting on Mandarin is to start learning the tones and characters. Use Chinese Manga to help you reinforce the characters you have learned and it gives you a context for what you are reading. Additionally, focus more on compound characters rather than single characters as compounds are a lot more common in Mandarin. Single characters are great for beginners but it gets hard to try to read in China since meanings change when there are more than one characters involved with Chinese writing.”
Mike hopes to improve his Mandarin Chinese while in China so that he will be able to communicate better with his Chinese customers once he returns to the US. Also, he hopes his new skill set will allow him to branch out into other business opportunities he might not have been able to pursue otherwise.
When asked about why he chose SexyMandarin to help with his Mandarin studies this is what Mike had to say, “SexyMandarin seemed a lot more reasonably priced compared to the alternatives and there is a lot more focus on the one on one sessions where true development can take place in learning the language. Plus the tutors can tailor your private lessons to whatever topic you want and that makes it a lot nicer when it comes to learning the language.”
Thanks to Mike for letting us share his story with the rest of our wonderful fans and students alike. If you would like to share your story about learning Mandarin or SexyMandarin please send an email to Russell@sexymandarin.com and we’ll feature your story ^_^