Learn Chinese Insights

British Chef Amy Rattinger details why she came to Taiwan and the process she used to self teach herself Mandarin Chinese on the way to starting two restaurants in Taipei. Listen to find out: What brought her to Taiwan Why she began learning Mandarin Chinese Her initial approach to learning Chinese How she self taught […]

Watch on youtube American Jenna Cody details how she learned Mandarin Chinese and Taiwanese, while living in Taiwan and why she feels many teachers and language schools fail at teaching Mandarin Chinese. Listen to find out: What brought her to Asia How she initially learned Chinese in China How she resumed learning Chinese in Taiwan […]

Watch on YouTube In this interview, Ron Hanson from New Zealand details the steps he took to learn Mandarin Chinese to allow him to research topics to write on for his magazine: www.whitefungus.com Listen to find out: What brought him to Taiwan How he first started learning Chinese Why he decided to learn Chinese characters […]

Watch on Youtube In this podcast episode, Canadian Anthony Van Dyck details the steps he took to self teach himself Mandarin Chinese, which enabled him to branch out from teaching English and climb the corporate ladder all the way to COO of an energy company in Taiwan. Listen to find out: What brought him to […]

In this episode, I interview Karen Chung, an American who has lived in Taiwan for 40 years. Watch on YouTube Listen to find out: What brought her to Taiwan What Taiwan was like in the 70s Why studying in university is not enough to learn Chinese What mistakes she made in Chinese early on Why […]

Watch on youtube Interview with Adam Bell, an American, on his journey to Mandarin Chinese fluency in Taiwan. Listen to hear: What brought him to Taiwan His experiences studying Mandarin Chinese in Taiwan How he created an immersion culture for himself in Taiwan How he transitioned from studying Chinese to working full-time in a Taiwanese […]

Watch on youtube In this episode, I interview Jamie Rufe, an American now living in Taiwan. Jamie tells us: – What brought him to Taiwan – Why he started learning Mandarin Chinese – What career opportunities being able to speak Chinese got him – The one habit that was instrumental to his Chinese progress – […]

Watch on youtube. In this episode, we interview Lamin, who moved from Gambia to Taiwan. Listen to find out: – What brought him to Taiwan? – What prompted him to stay in Taiwan? – How he began learning Chinese – When his Chinese really started to improve – How he learned Chinese from friends – […]

Watch on youtube Interview with Fraser Stewart on how he developed his Chinese to near native level over his past 11 years in Taiwan. Listen to find out: – What made Fraser choose Taiwan? – When he first learned Chinese – His approach learning Chinese – How learning to read and write helps with speaking […]

Watch this episode on youtube In this episode, I interview Michael Gordon, a Canadian living in Taiwan. Listen to find out: – What made Michael choose Taiwan? – When he first learned Chinese – How he used Chinese in Canada – How he adapted to Chinese in Taiwan – How his Chinese level has changed […]

Watch this episode on youtube In this episode, I interview Ed Gonzalez, a Mexican-Canadian restaurant owner in Taipei, Taiwan. Listen to this episode to find out: – What brought Eddy to Taiwan? – About his initial journey learning Chinese – His experience after briefly goes to Chinese school – How he has benefitted from learning […]

In this episode, I interview Caleb Shetland, an American now working in Taipei as a firmware engineer. Listen to find out: – His experience learning Chinese at a US college – What approach he wishes he had used instead, to learn characters – When he realized that learning Mandarin would be useful for his engineering career – […]

In this episode I interview Alex Trup, a Brit now working in Digital Marketing in Taipei, Taiwan. Listen to find out: – About his experience learning Chinese in the UK – How he went from China to Taiwan – His experience as a foreigner in a Taiwanese working environment – Why he likes Taipei compared to […]

In this episode I interview Xiao Fei, an American blogger now living in Taiwan. Listen to find out: – His experience trying to get a degree at a local Taiwanese university – Why he switched out of the Chinese program to an English one – His experience living in China – Why he finds his current […]

In this episode I interview Keoni Everington, an American now working in the media business in Taiwan. Listen to find out: – What got him interested in learning Chinese 20 years ago – What it was like learning Chinese in Ohio – How he benefited from guanxi early on – What it was like moving from […]

In this episode I interview Scott Faul, an American now living in Taiwan. Listen to find out: – What got him interested in learning Chinese, while in the US – His experience studying Chinese in Taiwan, while working on the side – How he used the Chinese he had learned, while working in the US […]

In this episode I interview Aaron Simmons, an American Professional Development Coach. He is the founder of Diversify International and Multi-Lingual Story Corner. Listen to find out: – What got him interested in Chinese culture and language in the first place, while studying in the US – Why he chose a more challenging route to learning […]

In this episode, I interview Alex Barker, an American consultant about his experience learning Chinese Listen to this episode to find out: – How Alex got interested in learning Chinese in America – His experience in an American college class learning Chinese – Why he didn’t make as much progress in Chinese as he wanted […]

In this episode I interview Adriana Estrada from Guatemala, who has lived in Taiwan for the past 7 years, completing her undergraduate and master’s degree during that time. Listen to find out: – What brought Adriana to Taiwan in the first place – What advantages she brings to the work place over local Taiwanese – […]

In this episode, I interview Nick Howard, an American who has been living in Taiwan for the past 9 years. Listen to find out: – What brought him to Taiwan in the first place – How he moved up from teaching at a cram school to teach at a university – The process he went […]

In this episode I interview Derek McCracken, an American who has been living in Taiwan for 7 years. Listen to find out: – What brought Derek to Asia and specifically Taiwan – How he started teaching English, while looking for other opportunities – How he started his first business in Taiwan – How he compares […]

In this episode, I actually interview… myself! Well not, really. I invited CLO user Joe Cooperman to interview me on my motivation for coming to Taiwan and starting this course teaching fellow expats how to speak Mandarin. Listen to find out: – Why Joe uses CLO – What brought me to Taiwan – What problem […]

In Part 2 of this episode, we continue our interview with American businessman Steve Iglehart. Listen to find out: – How he moved on to the skin care market – What his biggest challenge was in this market – The intense process of training salespeople to use his product – How he learned to read […]

Steve Iglehart is an American businessman from San Francisco who has been living in Taiwan for almost 30 years. Listen to this episode to find out: – What made Steve want to learn Chinese – Why he chose to come to Taiwan – His first moments in Taiwan, looking for a Chinese school – Why […]

Keiran is a Canadian living in Taiwan, now working in the bicycle industry. Listen to this episode to find out: – What brought Keiran to Taiwan in the first place – How he began learning Chinese initially – What he didn’t like about his first school – How he found people to practice his Chinese […]

In this episode, I interview Ross Darrell Feingold, an American now working as a senior advisor at the DC International Advisory, a law firm in Taipei, Taiwan. Listen to this episode to find out: – What made Ross focus on learning Mandarin Chinese 20 years ago – What a one year intensive Mandarin learning program in Singapore […]

In this interview, I interview Jon Renzella, an American artist now living in Taichung, Taiwan. Listen to this episode to find out: – What brought Jon to Taiwan in the first place – Why he wanted to live in a place that didn’t speak English – How he began learning Chinese without any formal classes – His […]

In this episode I interview Alex Wagner, who now runs a pizza shop at a local Taiwanese night market. Listen to find out: – What brought Alex to Taiwan in the first place – How he transitioned from teaching to selling pizza – His process starting the business – How the night market business works […]

In this episode, I interview “Bear” – originally from Scandinavia, now working in China. Listen to find out: – What brought him to China in the first place – His initial hardships in China – Why he felt he wasn’t capable of learning Chinese in the beginning – Why he didn’t make progress learning initially, and […]

In this episode, I continue the interview I did with Shaun Bettinson, where he discusses his “I love Taiwan” project. Listen to find out: – How this project got started. – How he launched his initial promotional video – The Project Website – How he was able to promote it – How he won a Guinness […]