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Everyone has a tip for learning Chinese in China and ours is flashcards.
While everyone learns a new language differently, we know that the use of flashcards have been a rewarding way for students to learn Mandarin in China.
At Keats School, we use flashcards in our classes. Our teachers use the latest and professional teaching methods created and tested by the Keats team. We have seen unprecedented results when using our flashcards during one-on-one classes.
Here’s why.
One of the most important reasons we use flashcards at Keats School is because it allows for repetition.
Since flashcards are loose papers, you can add them into piles based on whether you need to study them again or in more depth. This confidence-based repetition is proven to be one of the best ways to improve memory performance.
Study a flashcard over and over, and then study the next one. When you go back to the first card, chances are you will remember what the card says.
This continues from our first reason we use flashcards for students who learn Chinese in China.
Active recall is the principle of efficient learning. To learn better, you need to actively stimulate memory during the learning process. By repeating flashcards, a switch goes off in your brain, telling you to focus and pay attention to what’s on the flashcard.
This allows you to remember the flashcard and actively use what’s on the flashcard in real life.
This means, when you look at the front of a flashcard with the Mandarin character on it, you’re engaging active recall to figure out what the character is. But simply reading a textbook, you won’t be engaging in the active recall. Therefore it’s easier to forget.
Studies have shown that active recall creates strong neuron connections for memory.
Like we mentioned, everyone learns differently. With flashcards, we’re able to tailor the card to the best way you learn.
Adding images to our cards can make them a lot more memorable, allowing people to remember the word associated with the image.
A study called The Picture Superiority Effect shows that people remember imagery better than they remember words.
But don’t skip the wording altogether. Our brains are interesting because the mixture of pictures and words works better than just words or just pictures.
While you learn Mandarin in China, flashcards will be used in our Keats classroom. We also encourage all students to create their own flashcards for studying outside of classroom hours.
This will improve your Mandarin language skills even more, and you can study with other students too.
When we use flashcards at Keats to study Chinese in China students, we know that using our voices helps with language learning.
By using flashcards with someone else in the room (teacher and student or student and student), you’re using another way to learn Chinese; verbally.
When we have a student speak the answer on the card, the memory is getting engaged again while also working on pronunciation. A win-win!
We’ve seen such great success with our teaching methods at Keats. Our students believe that their success in learning the language has to do with Keats teaching.
If you’re interested in applying to Keats and experiencing learning Mandarin through flashcards and other teaching techniques, apply online. If you have any questions, contact us today.
I can’t tell you how much I liked it. The thing I liked about the teachers and the teaching method is that there is so much flexibility. The other thing I liked about the teaching is the combination of classic textbook learning and going outside. I loved it! I like getting to know other students. Everybody shared the same goal and that’s making their Chinese better. Kunming is a big city, but it is very safe to live here. Another thing I liked about Keats is the idea that people here help you. I can’t recommend it enough. I think it was a valuable experience. Looking forward to coming back!
The best part of the school is the patience the instructors had and the time to focus on the fundamentals like pronunciation. I think it is very easy to skip over those and go to vocabulary. But by learning the pronunciation, I feel like it helped me gain a better understanding of the language.
I found Keats to be very good, teachers are excellent and really take the students seriously. Kunming is the best place to learn Mandarin in China. The environment is awesome, no pollution. The air quality is great, good weather. The people here are very friendly. I come to take classes every day. I feel comfortable studying Chinese at Keats. I learned so many things, although I only studied at Keats for 2 months. I am really satisfied with my teacher. For us foreigners, Keats is the best Chinese school in China. Therefore, I would highly recommend Keats to all of you.
It has been notable because I have met a lot of people who I met first time last year like me to come back to Keats this year. The teaching has been fantastic. The teachers carefully prepare each lesson. I think this one-on-one approach is really a great way to rapidly increase your level of Chinese and increase your confidence and fluency with the language.
Since last semester, we started studying Chinese at Keats. It was the best choice we can ever make. It is a really good school. The classes are a lot of fun, you learn a lot, but very interactive, so you talk a lot which means it is not just books and writing. Kunming is a really pleasant city to live in, especially if you compare it to other cities in the east. If you like to travel, if you like to study Chinese in a fun way, Keats has the best Chinese language program for you.
My name is Sarah Fish. I am 81. I knew very little Chinese when I arrived. How was I going to survive 2 weeks of intensive Chinese course? I have to laugh when I think of that now. What a positive experience this has been! I really wish we could be here a little longer. The teachers are extremely encouraging, evaluating first how much someone knows, and then starting from there.
Kunming’s scenery is very beautiful. It is the best place to study Chinese in China. My favorite learning method at Keats School is one-on-one because it is suitable for everyone. My teacher is very good, very caring, and lovely. My life when learning Chinese in Kunming is very good and the weather is very good. The air is very good. It is good for the elderly’s body.
I come to Kunming because I think the environment in Kunming is better and I heard that Keats School is better. I like the small group Chinese class because my classmates study hard and our teachers are very good. I like the teaching method of Keats because I like the activities at Keats. I think Yunnan is a particularly beautiful Chinese province.