The Mandarin Club is a club advised by Kin Chan and run by Senior Yongting Chen, who is also the President of the club. They meet every Wednesday from 2:30-3:30. The Mandarin Club focuses on teaching Mandarin to students who are interested in learning the language.
Yongting Chen got the idea of starting the Mandarin club during her freshman year when she was suggested it because there were no classes at the school where Mandarin was being taught and she was able to speak the language fluently. She decided to help others who are interested in learning Mandarin by first starting to teach them how to pronounce some words “so that they can have a basic conversation”.
Chen has noticed that over the past 2 years being the president of the Mandarin club, she has learned “how to be a better leader as [she] has grown more experience”. When the club first started, she relied on the advisor as she didn’t know what to do. Over time, she realized what she had to do. Chen created an agenda and planned out what should be done during each week. After seeing how far the club members have gotten that week, she can get an idea of what to expect from them in the future.
Chen has noticed that the pace of her club members are different as “some are faster than others, but some are kind of behind”. As some of the club members have never learned any Mandarin, she is trying to separate the club members into two different groups, where people that know some Mandarin would be taught at a faster pace while people who don’t know any of the language would be taught at a slower pace.
Chen has mentioned that people who are interested in joining the Mandarin Club should be ready for a challenge as it can be very hard for people to learn a new language, especially one that is very different from the ones they have learned.
If you are interested, visit the Mandarin Club on Wednesdays from 2:30-3:30 at H405.
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