How we teach
Spoken first, culture always
The method is the reason the school exists: Ma Laoshi founded it because the academic way of teaching Chinese produces students who understand the language but cannot speak it. We teach it the other way around.
The principle
Speak first, then perfect
Traditional language teaching is built on understanding: grammar tables, translation, recognition. It produces learners who can parse a sentence and freeze in a taxi. Our classes are built on applying: from the first lesson you are producing Chinese out loud, and grammar arrives when you already need it.
The working numbers we set for beginners: after around 60 hours of class you can survive in Beijing — order, buy, ask, navigate; after around 120 hours you can pass HSK 2 (roughly A2) and move on toward HSK 3. Fast, honest milestones, checked against real exams rather than gut feeling.
The difference
Language with the culture left in
Fast and efficient learning is the pillar of every good private school — that alone doesn't make a method special. What we add is the culture: philosophy, history, society, and etiquette woven through the language work, because Chinese carries its culture in its very characters.
This is also why the school sits in Gaobeidian rather than a downtown tower. Calligraphy class happens at a calligrapher's studio; tea vocabulary meets actual tea; the village is the second classroom. Understanding what you say makes what you say stick.
The people
Teachers picked for attitude, trained past their certificates
Every full-time teacher holds a degree and a teaching certificate, and brings at least 2,000 hours of classroom experience — but that's the entry ticket, not the job. What we hire for is attitude: the particular passion for explaining things that makes someone worth learning from.
New teachers then train under Ma Laoshi herself, in coaching courses that run through the year. Her favourite part of the job, in her own words, is watching a teacher discover their dormant potential — and watching their students discover how fast Chinese can be learned as a result.
The practice
Small groups, real materials, a plan
Classes run in small groups of four to eight, grouped by age and level, or one-to-one. You start with a placement test, and your plan is built backwards from your goal — a survival trip, an exam date, a university seat.
The materials are our own: the school wrote its HSK 1–4 writing and character workbooks in-house, and its culture courses were developed lesson by lesson in these classrooms. From five-year-olds to seventy-seven-year-olds, the method has had every kind of student — and it has never yet met one who couldn't learn to speak.
Try the method on your own Chinese
A placement chat costs nothing and tells you your realistic milestones.