Many thanks again to everyone who attended
my classes at anytime this past academic year, and in particular to my
students who stuck it out to the very end of classes 2 Mondays ago! I
sincerely appreciated everyone's interest in and passion for learning
Chinese. I hope that you all got something positive out of my classes
and that maybe you were inspired to continue with further ALESN classes
next fall or perhaps with self-directed study on your own. I know that
some students from both classes were talking about setting up a regular
time to meet at the Houston St. Whole Foods. Please let me know if that
happens and I will try to attend here and there this summer as my
schedule permits.
During our final classes 2
Mondays ago, I briefly reviewed the lesson materials and vocabularies
that we had covered the week before and then we spent the rest of each
class discussing various ways to continue your learning -- on your own
or at ALESN. I mentioned various DVDs from among my list of personal
favorites that I have used over the years to improve my own
conversational Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese. We discussed the various
course offerings at ALESN as well as my suggestion to the Mandarin I
class to try to cover the remaining vocabulary and dialogue material in
your textbook between now and September (on your own or in small groups
if you do meet up at Whole Foods, etc.) so that you will be ready for
ALESN's Mandarin II class, which uses the next book in the same series.
This has always been an issue for our program, that we never finish Book
1 and yet Mandarin II starts with Book 2, which assumes that you have
learned all of the materials from Book 1. Yes, it would be ideal if
ALESN were to offer Mandarin 1.5, covering lessons 6-10 in Book 1, but
that never happens.
Maybe if enough
of you directly contact Tony Parisi or Tsz Fong, both of whom are cc'ed
on this email, and you request such a class, it is possible that someone
might want to step up and teach Mandarin 1.5 on Thursday or Saturday
starting in the fall?
As I mentioned to my
classes, I will be taking a break from teaching in the fall in order to
devote my time and attention to my singing. I have deeply appreciated
the opportunity to learn and grow through teaching for ALESN over the
past 6 years or so, and I will definitely miss everything about it. Even
though I am putting aside my own Chinese studies and teaching for the
time being, I will still offer private tutoring at a discounted rate for
any recent or former students who might have enjoyed my teaching style
and would like to continue with their learning one-on-one. Please reach
out to me if you are interested.
I am
also open to possibly teaching a weekly group lesson if a certain # of
students would commit to attending regularly and each student were to
pay something modest per class. We could hold the classes at Whole
Foods or some other convenient space in Manhattan, or even outside in a
park if the weather will be nice on a given evening. I would certainly
be willing to teach a Mandarin 1.5 class in this manner if someone wants
to organize it and get a group together at a mutually convenient day
and time each week. If this interests you guys, let me know. We could go
a bit longer, say 1.5 or 2 hours each time and try to finish Book 1 in
this manner.
Because I will not be teaching on
Mondays in the fall, there is a possibility that our Monday night ALESN
classes are in jeopardy of not happening in September. So -- if any
of you knows anyone qualified to teach Cantonese I or Mandarin I on
Monday nights starting in the fall and who would be willing to make that
commitment from 6 to 7:15 and 7:15 to 8:30 pm every Monday during the
2019-2020 academic year, please contact Tony or Tsz and refer this
person as a potential new teacher. I would hate to see Monday night classes go away once I am no longer teaching next year.
Many
thanks again to everyone for an excellent and productive Cantonese and
Mandarin learning experience. Give yourselvesa round of applause! I hope
that each of you will continue on in your own way -- either through
private study, self-study or via ALESN classes in the fall. Please feel
free to reach out to me with any questions or concerns, or to ask about
books, DVDs, web resources, Youtube videos -- whatever you might want to
know about regarding continuing your Chinese learning odyssey.
Best wishes to Everyone!
