Wow - what an incredible program! From the curriculum and course pacing to the absolutely wonderful instructors, I'm so grateful to have come across this school! The small class sizes and focus on giving us plenty of opportunity to practice our speaking skills proved quite successful for our whole Intro class, and I'm honestly blown away by the progress I've been able to make in just a few short weeks! Our whole class enjoyed the experience so much that we're all moving on to the next session - can't wait to get started back next week! 10/10 recommend to anyone looking to learn Mandarin! read more

Took the intro class. It is fairly short with only a few weeks. The syllabus was only pinyin, greetings, basic sentences, and days/times. Not many verbs yet. The textbook was custom via Google Docs (sort of like a Word document) and not a popular one like Integrated Chinese. The class was Pinyin only in the lecture but I already knew that going in. EM Reader App has some characters in it though. There is no handwriting / typing in the course either. Usually you just have two long speaking exercises with other people in the course with a 5 minute lecture. The wayground quizzes which were considered homework were too easy at least for me and you could retake them infinitely. I was never sure on their grading policy really. There was a final wayground test that you could not take infinitely though and a final oral test. While the intro series is decently priced, the beginner series classes after the intro are much expensive compared to other competitors at 1400 USD for 7 weeks, 3 times a week online class, which would be 66.66 USD per class. I didn't take those because of the high cost currently. After the intro class I talked to some native friends and they said my speaking tones still suck, which should be been addressed during the class. Not sure what that is about. read more

I joined an EM class after seeing some of their free videos on YouTube, which helped me understand tones (an area I'd been struggling with). I was not sure what to expect at first, I'm a very shy person and get self conscious when I speak, but the classes were fun and engaging enough that I didn't really have time to feel embarrassed . I'm sure the small class size helped a lot too. The teachers have a unique way of making sure everyone is included without singling anyone out. There are even office hours where you can get one-on-one help. I feel like I've made a huge amount of progress in just a few weeks! I will admit I was almost scared off by the price, but after seeing how much they do for us and how invested they are in students' progress, I feel like it is worth every penny! Yeah, it's a bit more than the average class, but other classes do not provide this level of experience or engagement. read more

I've now taken both Q1 and Q2 with EM, and I'm very impressed with my progress so far. In Q1, I learned a lot of new vocabulary and key sentence structures. In Q2, I learned more complex grammar and vocabulary that's been very practical for discussing everyday life. I am now able to express my opinions more and talk about food, hobbies, and travel, which is not only useful, but also fun to practice. EM classes are a fairly significant time commitment (class 3x per week + weekly homework), but definitely worth it. Their approach to teaching - focusing on speaking, lots of practice in class, tailored toward what would be most practical for most people - has enabled me to progress faster in learning the language than I would've been able to in other programs. On top of that, my teachers and classmates are funny and enjoyable to spend time with! I can't wait to continue to Q3. read more

Love ExcelMandarin! I just finished Q1 and it was a wonderful experience. They were so accommodating to how hectic my work schedule was. ZERO PRESSURE AT ALL. You get what you put into the class- at the very least you will have a good handle just by attending the classes. If you want to really want to commit to language learning they have plenty of exercises outside of class to help you have even better comprehension of the subject matter. I cannot say enough positive things about the staff. They are very in-tune and aware of each student to know when to push and pull back during sessions. read more

I just finished Q1 of ExcelMandarin and have extremely pleased with my experience. I was getting nowhere after a year of trying to learn on my own, and in just 10 short weeks I made incredible progress. The teachers are amazing - patient, funny, encouraging, and just great people. The focus is really on making the material accessible, and learning in fun, creative ways. My husband would walk by my office in the evenings and hear me laughing because I was having a good time! The class is a great deal - very personalized attention, focused feedback, and plenty of explanation and encouragement. Cheaper than a university class and way more engaged (and engaging). Highly recommended if you're serious about learning and willing to read more

ExcelMandarin 是很棒的学校！ExcelMandarin rocks! Prior to ExcelMandarin I had experience trying to learn languages both through school as well as through private italki tutors. After spending years with each method, I couldn't comprehend or speak at all in any language I studied. That changed with ExcelMandarin! After one quarter, you will be able to hold a basic conversation in Chinese. EM focuses on actually teaching you to speak and understand Chinese without boring textbooks. You'll form a community with your fellow classmates (同学）as well as the rest of the school. Monthly events also provide a great way to learn about Chinese culture （文化）through watching movies (电影）and playing games （游戏）。Definitely recommend to all aspiring Chinese speakers! read more

I have done two quarters of Chinese so far and I am excited to start a third. I have been in and out of Chinese school my whole life, and this is the only one that has worked for me. The teachers are very invested in your learning, and are always available to help. The teaching method focuses a lot on practice, which helps retention. The teachers also provide a TON of great resources for extra help and practice! Highly, highly recommend! read more

Just finished the Q2 course and it was just as great as Q1. Things I loved about this quarter: - Teachers continued to challenge us but in a warm/encouraging manner. - The in-class games/conversation practice were really fun and engaging. - We built on top of the fundamentals from Q1 and were able to start debating and expressing our opinions. I noticed I was able to understand and participate in a lot more conversations with native speakers. read more

I just finished their Q1 class and am excited to start Q2! This class does a great job helping teach students how to speak conversationally. They use a "flipped class" style of teaching where we have to study and do homework before class, so that we can spend as much class time as possible speaking. Practicing speaking while getting corrections from our supportive teachers has really helped improve my Chinese! read more

My experience with Excel Mandarin has been very positive. I entered with no skill in Mandarin and 7 weeks of classes later I have a decent, if simplistic, vocabulary, a working understanding of pinyin, and can communicate in relatively simple sentences. The program focuses on speaking and listening and using natural language patterns which is very practical. I'm not interested in an academic study of the language--I just want to be able to be conversational, to order off the Chinese menu at a restaurant, and travel in China. If you have similar goals, I highly recommend this program. I've already enrolled in the 2nd quarter. Teachers are caring and patient. Homework can be a little taxing, but there's no grades--they'll provide corrections/suggestions only. Note: If you're intimidated by Chinese characters, this is a great program for you b/c they eschew the characters in the first quarter and we're told learning the characters is optional for the remaining quarters. read more

Nothing but incredible things to say about ExcelMandarin. Just completed Q1! I usually don't like classes, BUT I could literally not wait to go to mandarin class, time flew by. Its a great experience and I can't wait to keep taking courses and becoming more proficient at the language. Incredible teachers, materials, very helpful. 11/10 read more

I just finished Q1 at Excel Mandarin, and all I can say is Excel Mandarin is an amazing school. Teachers are so inspiring and caring. They are passionate about teaching and they care about your learning progress. I love how they encourage me to use what I've learned as much as possible. Great pacing and use of class time. They're also available outside of class to answer any questions I may have. Excel Mandarin uses a unique approach to learning Mandarin and made it enjoyable to attend every class section. All the content I've learned was useful. With the conversation-based teaching method, after I finished Q1, my friend was impressed because I was able to hold a conversation with her in Chinese. Overall, I'm glad that I found Excel Mandarin - a community where people are serious about teaching and learning Mandarin. read more

I'd recommend taking this Q1 course for anyone looking to learn conversational Mandarin. I had a working knowledge of Cantonese, so while there was a lot of time spent teaching sentence structure (which felt redundant in my case as it is pretty similar in both dialects), I would have preferred more free form chatting to build vocabulary and casual conversation skills. However, I believe there is more of this type of opportunity in Q2. What I enjoyed most about the course is the group of classmates that made the learning fun - folks with different goals and from different walks of life coming together to learn and practice a language together. You're also put in a supportive environment with native-speaking teachers that are constantly encouraging you to ask questions, put what you learned to use, and just try. The teacher/student ratio is also a bonus - 1:3 - allowing for individualized question and answer time. One of the things I also took advantage of regularly were the office hours offered weekly. This allowed even more individualized time with teachers to get in some Q&A and practice outside of class. read more

I just finished up my first quarter and I'm super impressed. I learned way more than I thought I would in just 7 short weeks. The homework is a little heavy in the beginning but they warn you ahead of time so you can plan accordingly. Taking the classes online has been super easy, and honestly has made it possible for us to join. I wouldn't have been able to make in-person classes work with my schedule. The teachers are warm and kind, knowledgeable, always available for questions, and I've felt truly supported. I'll be continuing on with the next quarter in the spring and can't wait to keep learning. read more

I just finished first 10 weeks with Excel Mandarin; i am now able to communicate daily basic with others people. It is such a huge accomplishment that I thought I would never have been able to achieve. I found Excel Mandarin by accident while I was looking to learn Chinese online on Google. With so many great reviews, I decided to give it a try even though their prices is not the best compared to others places. With Pandemic, I am not comfortable to go to school and learn in person. I was a little bit concerned by learning by zoom, but after the 1st day I absolutely loved it. It was just as good as in person, in fact I think it was better. 4 teachers with 12-14 students. We got to do so many group activities with different teachers each time and that way you could listen to different teachers and practice with different classmates. This really helped to improve our speaking and listening skills. They have a lot of groups actives that required us to use vocabularies, grammars... it was very helpful. At Excel Mandarin, they provide us with different apps like hack Chinese to lean vocabularies anytime, DU Chinese with many different dialogues to help you with listening skills, and more than that the teaches are always available to answer any questions any time. They are super nice, supportive, and very patient. They always want to know your feedback to make it better. I will for sure to come back for next quarter and I am really looking for it. I highly recommend Excel Mandarin to anyone who is looking to learn Chinese. You will not be disappointed:) read more

I learned Japanese in college and graduate school, and knew that in order to learn Mandarin, I would need something as close to a college environment as I could get--multiple classes per week, homework, a focus on basic verbal communication over characters and stroke order, and dedicated teachers. It's more money than I've ever paid for a continuing ed language class, but ended up being excellent value. Just finished their first quarter for beginners, and excited to take another to keep progressing. Highly, highly recommend this school read more

ExcelMandarin is an amazing school to learn Mandarin. What really stood out to me was the structure of the Q1 course and all of the fantastic teachers. Just like anything else, you get out of it what you put in. As long as you can make that commitment, you can quickly pick up the building blocks to get you on your way to holding conversations in Mandarin. The Excel Mandarin way of learning was different from other foreign language courses I've taken before in high school and college, in a good way. You can tell they've put in the effort to building a way to learn Mandarin remotely, that can be worked into your everyday life. However, the teachers are where you get the greatest learning value. They're passionate about YOU. They do everything they can to help you learn, adjust to your needs, be as available as possible, care about you as a student AND care about you as a person. They build a community from day one, not just a transactional class. Did I mention the many Mandarin learning resources you get access to? All accessible from your computer or phone? You can quite literally keep learning and practicing from anywhere you are. I fully intend on continuing my learning with them in their Q2 course. read more