Learning Chinese Online with KellynKai
by Amy Luong
July 19, 2022
![Notebook and wooden blocks with Chinese text](https://kellynkai-blog-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/notebook-and-chinese-character-blocks.png)
It has always been an ambition of mine to learn Chinese, especially Mandarin. Growing up in a Chinese household, I speak Cantonese as my first language. Some of you may have noticed that Cantonese is not the same as Mandarin. It's a dialect from the Guangzhou area. It is commonly spoken in Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore, and Vietnam. Although Cantonese is widely spoken in the Chinese community abroad, Mandarin is still preferable as the official Chinese language. Billions of people speak Mandarin and only Mandarin. More importantly, Mandarin is used in all writing and books. Therefore, I’ve seen for myself that learning Mandarin is an absolute necessity.
In my experience, I have tried to learn Mandarin in various ways. Aside from taking Chinese classes after school hours, attending Chinese tutoring, using a mobile app, and signing up for college classes. Unfortunately, there are many limitations and inconveniences involved. This explains why my Chinese education has been interrupted many times. As I grow older, it is harder for me to learn Chinese because of the workload and time constraints. Chinese classes are not flexible enough for me and they always have a strict schedule to follow. As an extracurricular, I can't attend a Chinese class in addition to my regular courses. This can be discouraging for me. As a result, I tried to use mobile apps to learn Chinese on my own, such as Duolingo. It was convenient and fun to use at first, however, I realized I don’t learn much from it.
I must admit that learning Mandarin can be difficult. Personally, I struggle to recognize Chinese characters, so I want to improve my reading and writing skills. On the other hand, since I can speak Cantonese, speaking and listening come more naturally to me. I’m looking for a more practical way to study Chinese. Fortunately, I recently came across Kellynkai. Kellynkai is an online platform where you can take Chinese lessons with professional tutors. Note that since it is an online platform, you can take lessons wherever you are, isn’t that amazing! Kellynkai has become my favorite place to learn Chinese because it meets all my needs for quality and flexibility in learning Chinese online. I have complete control over the scheduling and customization of my lessons. I can select my tutors based on preference or availability. Not only that, but I like that KellynKai has a standardized curriculum and has done lesson planning, just like a regular Chinese class. It works for me because I can still have fun whenever I want to learn Chinese while still feeling a little under pressure like I would in a regular class. I absolutely enjoy that Kellynkai offers one-on-one tutoring, which ensures the quality of learning Chinese. As opposed to speaking to a bot via an app, I love that I can actually talk to a real person, and they can help me get better at Chinese every time I talk to them. Furthermore, they have an app called the Kellynkai Flashcard App, which lets me study on my phone anywhere, anytime. I like that I can use it to self-test myself and that I can practice Chinese characters on my own.
I truly believe that learning Chinese online will be my long-term strategy to improve my Chinese, and Kellynkai is a perfect solution for me to go with.