With our next 8-week Chinese courses beginning in May we had a look back at the Mandarin Aspirations stories we have shared so far from evening course students. Read on to find out what motivated them to learn Chinese and understand what influenced their decision to sign up for a course...
Skritter CEO Jake Gill (高健) shows up with passion and dedication in all areas of his life, whether that is at work leading the world’s number one character writing application, or creating graffiti style character art in his spare time. During the pandemic he has returned to a regular routine of Chinese study, taking part in language-learning challenges on Instagram and sharing vibrant digital artwork...
In a guest lecture for the Business Confucius Institute in November 2020, Leeds alumnus Guy Dru Drury gave us an insight into his successful career journey. In this post we explore the lessons Mandarin learners can take from his story. From tour guiding to entrepeneurship, Guy’s career path has...
Earlier this month the Careers Centre at the University of Leeds organised a series of workshops about the top five skills that LinkedIn says employers value. We went along to find out more about these skills and to consider how Mandarin learners can demonstrate creativity, persuasion, collaboration, adaptability and emotional...
Sean McGibney and Oliver Leach from The Chairman’s Bao (TCB) joined us on 17 March to give a guest lecture about the evolution of the company and the lessons they have learned from running a business for Mandarin learners. Both are University of Leeds alumni, graduating in 2015 from Chinese...
After graduating from Chinese and International Development this year Natasha Fowler-Ekar will take her place as Equality and Liberation Officer on the LUU Student Executive team. We talked to Natasha about her personal experiences as a working class, neurodivergent, queer woman of colour doing a Chinese degree. Natasha’ speech is peppered with superlatives, covering both ends of the spectrum. Studying Chinese...
In both his studies and his career, Tobias Ross has been able to combine his two passions – football and China. After completing his BA in Chinese and Business at the University of Applied Sciences Bremen, Germany, Tobias went on to study an MA in Development Studies at Beijing Normal University. He has pursued a...
When Kay McLeod was given a Teach Yourself Chinese Characters kit for Christmas, she became instantly fascinated by Mandarin. Her love of Chinese language and culture has blossomed since then, giving her unforgettable experiences and leading to her current role as Coordinator of the Mandarin Excellence Programme (MEP). The MEP...
Kim McGreal’s fascination with languages and love of words led her down a Mandarin-learning rabbit hole after a Netflix TV series got her hooked on the language and what it revealed about Chinese culture. Internal Communications Manager Kim started learning Mandarin during the pandemic. She is now taking the BCI...
Today is 小年 (Xiao Nian), which marks the start of the build up to Chinese New Year. In this post the Business Confucius Institute team share their Spring Festival wishes and we provide lots of Chinese New Year greetings that you can use with your friends, family, students and classmates. ...
“We're sure that many other Mandarin learners can relate to this Kim! 加油！
- Learn more about Kim's journey so far h… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…”
“"We are fortunate to have a community of international students that can bring new perspectives and insights into h… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…”
“Check out our recent blog post on @criticalowl to see how a “fearless” approach to language learning led him to cre… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…”
