I took Chinese classes from Jiang Laoshi at Stony Brook, Long Island in 2008. We were a group of adult students and the classes were held on a Wednesday night. After a day’s work, everyone was tired. But Jiang Laoshi made the class so enjoyable. Honestly, before I stepped into her classroom, I totally didn’t expect that learning Chinese could be so much fun! Jiang Laoshi was fun, energetic and very effective and clear in her teaching. She was very patient with everyone, she gave each student individual attention, corrected our pronunciation with great precision, helped us learn to read and write and gave us feedbacks about our improvement all the time. We hated seeing Jiang Laoshi go because she relocated to Manhattan. I highly recommend her to all my friends who want to learn Chinese.

Chinese Characters beyond four strokes scared me. Many Teachers in the past tried to help with my phobia of characters but I was steadfast in my disdain of characters. I met Jiang Laoshi (as my class referred to her) and my life changed. Jiang Laoshi’s demeanor, and blend of her vast knowledge of the Chinese language and culture made learning characters and the language interesting. I am happy to say I now have mastered hundreds of characters and enjoy all aspects of learning the language. I owe her a debt of gratitude.

Jiang Laoshi was my Chinese teacher for an 8 week intensive program at the China Institute. I was so pleased with her teaching that myself and a friend arranged to have private sessions with her. Not only is her Mandarin quite beautiful but her English is almost perfect. This is very useful in terms of translation and comprehension. She is also the only teacher I’ve had who can explain some of the more puzzling grammar points in Chinese and subtleties in words with similar meanings. I found her entertaining and strict at the same time. She insists on proper tone pronunciation as well as encouraging her students to speak. She always found interesting texts and poems to study so that we never became bored with the source material. Each class was challenging as well as stimulating.