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.

Not only was Jiang Laoshi’s 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.