Let’s talk! I’m happy to offer a free consultation to understand your goals and help you start with confidence.

Learn in person or online from anywhere. After you purchase a class package, I’ll help you choose a time that fits your life.

Every learner is different—listening, speaking, reading, writing, or all four. I’ll tailor your class plan just for you.

Siblings or family members can share one class package and learn together in the same session.

No hidden material fees. Use my recommended resources, or bring your own materials (a small additional fee may apply). Youth learners may receive free basic materials.

With a PhD in Chinese pedagogy and national awards, I provide a patient, encouraging space for all ages and learning styles.

This is an introductory course in modern Chinese (Mandarin). 

Designed for English-speaking learners, the focus of this course is on communicating in Chinese in practical, everyday situations. 

The proficiency goal is Novice-High on the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Chinese Proficiency Guidelines. 

This track helps you learn to speak and understand Chinese as efficiently as possible through pedagogically-designed video, audio, and Hanyu Pinyin (the official Chinese romanization system). 

The lessons introduce the highest-frequency communicative events and their associated grammatical patterns, vocabulary, and the sociolinguistic and cultural information.

A revolutionary new method is designed to have you quickly reading and writing simple, connected Chinese sentences. 

You will be systematically introduced to the highest-frequency characters, words in context in sentences and reading passages as well as in realia such as street signs, notes, and name cards. Basic graded readers and smartphone applications.

By completing this level you will be able to conduct simple, practical conversations with Chinese speakers on a variety of everyday topics. 

The proficiency goal is Intermediate-High on the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Chinese Proficiency Guidelines. 

The last few lessons are on the cusp of the ACTFL Advanced. 

The lessons introduce most of the remaining high-frequency grammatical patterns and vocabulary of spoken Chinese that weren't introduced in the basic level course, and the sociolinguistic and cultural information needed for you to use these linguistic components appropriately.

You will be able to read simple, connected texts printed in simplified or traditional Chinese characters and recognize about 600 high-frequency characters and common words written with them. Continuing graded readers with engaging storylines and Chinese smartphone applications.

You will strengthen your ability to interact naturally with native speakers by building improvisation skills for new situations. Through selected dialogues and readings, you will explore different perspectives on education, business, the environment, and technology in today’s rapidly changing China.

Using Dr. Chai’s published textbook, you will explore real-life communication in China across a variety of everyday professions. Through real-life conversations and cultural insights, you will learn how to interact appropriately and professionally with native speakers in workplace and community settings.

By reading a 33-chapter novel and/or watching its TV adaptation, you will learn to tell stories in Chinese both orally and in writing, in ways native speakers naturally understand and appreciate. You will build a strong foundation in essential cultural stories and practice connecting them to real-world communication.

Chai Laoshi is a fantastic teacher and incorporates a lot of real life situations into her teaching, making learning Chinese engaging and fun. The course is structured well and new material always builds off old material. She includes plenty of reviews in her classes and tailors the class to your needs, and truly wants the best for you. I couldn't recommend this class enough for Chinese learners! 

My daughter had spoken Mandarin when she was little, but had forgotten most of it when she started school. Lessons with Chai Laoshi helped her to gain the confidence to begin speaking Mandarin again!

I have been learning Chinese in Chai’s class for five years starting from nearly zero Chinese knowledge to being able to have fluent conversations, read and write. Donglin Chai is an amazing teacher who makes every concept easy to understand. Her lessons are very well prepared to suit your needs and easy to follow. In my opinion, Chai’s classes are the best way to learn Chinese and I highly recommend it!

Donglin Chai’s class is a great and fun class, you can learn at your own pace and I love that she recaps previous lesson with current ones which helps with remembering what has already been taught. I would recommend this class to others who are planning on learning Chinese.

Chai laoshi gave me step-by-step on how to learn Chinese through clear, concise, and compelling lessons. Chai laoshi has a formula for achieving success in Chinese language thanks to their fresh and innovative teaching techniques. I highly recommend Chai laoshi for all your Chinese learning needs.

Donglin Chai’s class is a great way to learn Chinese. She is very good at realizing what you need and working with your schedule. She makes learning Chinese very enjoyable and explains things so that you can understand. The classes also moves at a good pace. I would definitely recommend her!

The class I took was great. The class was well planned out and the way it was structured really reinforced the vocabulary and sentence structures. Chai Laoshi is also an amazing and dedicated teacher. Her teaching techniques and detailed oriented teaching style really help when learning Chinese.

I couldn’t recommend Chai Laoshi enough as a Mandarin language teacher. She is knowledgeable, attentive, and a pleasure to learn from. I can’t believe how far she has brought me in my language learning experience. I’ve worked with Chai Laoshi for over 3 years now and will continue to do so for many, many more years to come. I’m visiting China next year and feel very confident with the language skills Chai Laoshi has taught me.

Congratulations! Louie is now a UPenn undergraduate!

Congratulations! Eric is now a Yale undergraduate!

Congratulations! Jacky and Colin received the STARTALK federal grant scholarship!

Congratulations! Colin's written work was published on Selection of American K-12 Outstanding Chinese Works and is rated as Intermediate High.

Congratulations! Jacky is now a University of Maryland undergraduate majoring in Computer Science!

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