Hi all,

I haven’t been writing on the blog for long, with the bad excuse that my colleagues were doing a great job here and I was busy with many other things.

But there is one experience I want to share with you, not as Myngle’s founder, but as student myself. I think it is important, as it reflects a similar experience of my friends, other Mynglers, and many students.

Not so long ago, I decided to restart the old idea of learning Mandarin. I knew there were enough good teachers on Myngle, that I could choose the one right for me. I needed to have somewhat the program adapted to my needs: an obsolete few months of ineffective study much too long ago; which translates in an almost completely forgotten memory of words I had learned with DVDs.

I must admit that the first step was not easy. Even if Myngle was born from my own dream, the idea of choosing a teacher and having to expose my incredibly poor Mandarin level made me nervous. I did not feel as a Myngle’s manager, but as an insecure new student: “Will I be able to say something, anything at all in Chinese? Will I be able to understand what the teacher says, and remember it?”

The first lesson was a discovery. I must say that it felt completely new to me, even if I know Myngle very well. The experience was really exciting. I was finally going to learn Mandarin.

I liked the idea that my teacher -Mr. Yin- was located so many kilometers far away in China, while we were communicating directly as we were neighbors. At the end of the lesson I was completely euphoric. I was the proud owner of my first corrected Chinese sentences and a teacher all for me, 100% dedicated to listening and talking and helping me learning.

I decided to put all my commitment and find the time in my crazy working agenda to learn my new language twice per week. But I must say that the reality of being entrepreneur kicks in every single week: too much to do, always more work then hours in a day, sometimes it is difficult to find even one hour to put my head on something completely different. Before each lesson, I feel this insecure sense of the lesson coming up. I look at the clock, and the thousand things to do, then at my Myngle’s message who gently invites me to my class. Mr. Yin is always there, patiently waiting for me, even when for some meetings I am running a bit late.

But the magic is that at the end of each lesson I am so enthusiastic and full of energy that I start going around the office smiling, incredibly proud of the new sentences I have just learned. One hour of private lesson is so intense that the progresses are visible and very encouraging. At the end of each lesson I know I want to continue. I know that I have really made progresses, and I am proud of it.

This I wanted to share with you. Because it is not only you who, before starting a lesson, feel insecure or too busy or just do not feel to make the effort. Well… I have it also. But believe me, after each lesson I get so much energy and enthusiasm that the rest is all forgotten.

I know I am going to learn.

Marina

Share This

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 at 12:24 pm and is filed under Language Learning. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. Your comments will appear immediately, but I reserve the right to delete innapropriate comments.