Nationality: German
Occupation: Doctor

Dr. James's Experience

If you want to learn Mandarin and do not know which school to join, then choose this one. It is managed by an American who knows the problems that western foreigners have. He has mastered the language himself and has instructed his local staff accordingly. He is honest and so is the school which fully exploits modern technology and psychology. The staff are very friendly, extremely helpful and willing. For instance, initially there was no way that I could set up my cellular phone, do any shopping, buy train tickets etc. by myself. The patient school secretary quickly taught me and continued to help whenever I was in trouble - even on Sundays! 

The course is almost comparable to a Marathon race because it is very compact but guides the participants to the goal after some repetitive crunching of syllables. Despite this it was good fun all the way. It was not tedious because the teacher constantly varied her approach. However, any divergence from the subject by us pupils was stopped immediately, but I did not feel curtailed like at any conventional school. In fact, I have never ever laughed as much during any lesson. There was ample opportunity in between lessons, at meal times and during week-end excursions to practice what had been taught. I have been to numerous courses all over the world during my lifetime. This course was as good as the best. Even better in some respects. 

I soon learned to move about freely with the subway, but within one month I was also using the city buses. After two months I had been taught enough to travel around the country at large, buying my own tickets (train, boat, plane) not to mention ordering hotel rooms etc. (in Mandarin). Eventually I was able to chat to people. For example:  After a cormorant fishing tour that was organized for foreign tourists by a local office in Guilin, I chatted to the fisherman  who could not speak a single English word . He invited me to his home on a little island in the middle of the Li river. A couple of days later he picked me up with one of his bamboo rafts at a predetermined time opposite the island  he lived on.  He showed me his other bamboo rafts - each with its cormorants - and his big fishing boat which was moored just below his house. His house was surrounded by giant bamboo plants and a big vegetable garden. Some hens, that were busy looking for something to eat, ignored us. These hens, I was told later on, were prospective hatchers of cormorant eggs. He was a fourth generation fisherman who had been taught the tricks of the trade by his father and things presumably had not changed much. We sat down inside his simple but clean living room to drink tea and chat for several  hours. Chatting in Mandarin Chinese is not easy and understanding what is being said even less so. But with the help of “One Month Chinese” tricks and its Pleco programme it was possible. I was able to ask many questions about cormorant breeding and training. After eating some delicious fish prepared by the fisherman’s wife I could not resist taking a closer look at the cormorants with their master. I was impressed by how tame they were, but soon realized how varied their characters are. The bossy male pecked me soon as I was close enough, but the others were quite content to let me pick them up and examine them.  This and many other adventures  were well worth the effort. 

It was all a fantastic experience made possible by what I learned at the “One month Chinese” school. It was also a great relief - one that should not be underestimated - to always have somebody available both day and night, seven days a week whenever "stuck". Every foreigner in China will invariably be familiar with "ting bu dong" (i.e. I hear your words but they do not makes any sense) and sometimes the only way out is to have somebody (e.g. the school secretary) explain using a mobile phone.

Congratulations to Mr. M. Worley and his team. I hope that his “experiment” will prosper for many years to come and that many candidates can enjoy China the way I did. (Hence, if you are serious about learning Mandarin and are in doubt as to where to go, then try this school.)

Dr. James Koch (ex-Yorkist, ex-Nairobi/Kenya, now Bavaria/Germany)  July 2008