Some important things we’ve discovered about online Chinese learning vs. in-person Chinese learning
During the pandemic, people’s lifestyles changed- for example, where we work, where we shop, where we study. We weren’t sure about doing so many things online in the beginning, but now have you seen the efficiency and safety of doing so, or at least partially? We understand that some parents may have had bad experiences with online learning due to improper planning and execution by teachers and administrators, however, this need not be the case. Regarding kids learning Chinese, a real teacher interacting with the kid in-person is good for sure, however as a Chinese school in NYC which offers both online mandarin classes and in-person mandarin classes, we say, take a look at what we’ve found in our online classes:
1. Students’ attention. Many parents think kids are focused the entire time during in-person classes. Is this true? If you are a teacher who has seen enough students, you will know even though you design exciting classes all the time, there is always some student at some time who is drifting off, and you have to keep calling his or her name. As a parent, do you know this? Probably not, because if it’s an in-person class you are usually not there. However, in an online class, you can watch your kid, and if you want, you can help him or her in real-time. This makes it clear to you how well your kid is doing.
2. Study with your kid together. As young students usually need their parents' help during class, we don’t mind parents listening to classes and learning some Chinese language too so they can practice with their children after the class. Awesome opportunity!
3. Efficiency and convenience. A roundtrip commute for an in-person class often takes an hour or even longer. Don’t forget that your own hourly rate is expensive!
4. The fun factor. Beautiful Mandarin is a Chinese language school which devotes all its energy and passion to designing a high-quality class. We keep testing the games we’ve designed, like which one fits an online Chinese class and which one fits an in- person Chinese class, because the way we interact with the students is so different, also how the game is played affects the result…We keep improving them so that our students can learn the most from the games. Which also helps us keep the students’ attention well.
In summary, it’s definitely worth it to at least try some online Chinese classes for your children, and develop their capabilities in online learning. This is a crucial skill for people of their generation to have. Based on our experience with both teaching methods, we can definitively say that in-person Chinese classes are not necessarily always more efficient and effective than online Chinese learning. Often, online Chinese learning isn’t approached in the correct way and not enough effort is put into making online Chinese learning as engaging as possible, but with the proper planning and execution, online Chinese learning can exceed expectations.
By the way, a hybrid Chinese class (online and in-person) may be a good solution that you can consider too. Your children can get the benefits of both learning methods, and you don’t have to always be driving them back and forth to and from school.
What do you think about online vs. in-person education? Leave your thoughts below in the comments.
