gina lee

Review of Chinese Language Academy of Lo...

I signed up for the CLA 16 crash course to spearhe...

I signed up for the CLA 16 crash course to spearhead my Chinese language studies for both professional and personal reasons. I am ethnically half Chinese but never learned Mandarin as a child, so this was my opportunity to embrace it. As an English and Spanish speaker, I was initially concerned about the difficulty of learning the tones and the characters but was pleasantly surprised at the relative grammatical simplicity and beauty of the language.

The instruction provided by Ysabella at CLA was top notch and I would recommend CLA to anyone who wants to learn Chinese. While it is an accelerated program, I felt that in four weeks I was able to absorb a full college semester's worth of introductory Mandarin, and can understand and construct basic sentences. The lectures are well planned and the classes are small enough such that students receive a lot of individual instruction. The homework load was also appropriate for everyone with busy careers, and I am especially thankful for the weeknight option in lieu of weekend classes.

Overall, the course kept me excited to learn Chinese and I have just signed up for the Elementary A level class to continue my path to fluency. Big thanks to CLA!