Mischa Wilmers | Founder & Editor
I’ve been learning Chinese for roughly six years, mostly while living and working in the UK. I was first exposed to Mandarin after attending a beginner evening class in 2017 on a whim. For the first couple of years I blindly explored different self-study techniques without any direction, motivation or commitment.
During the pandemic learning Mandarin became my primary vocation and I began blogging about my experiences. Later I started a podcast interviewing other learners. By documenting my experience I hope to create a valuable resource, particularly for other learners seeking to become fluent from outside Mandarin speaking countries.
I post regular blogs about my experiences, share learning strategies and create visual guides for other learners. In the podcast I discuss Mandarin learning with seasoned experts. I also help organise Mandarin immersion retreats and run a popular language exchange group.
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Essie Birts | Illustrator
Hi, I’m Essie! I’m a UX Designer originally from the Netherlands but now I live in Bath, in the south of England. I began studying Chinese in 2020 as a hobby and have continued ever since.
When I’m not learning Mandarin I enjoy drawing. I create illustrations for the blogs and collaborate on visual guides for learning Mandarin such as this one on sentence mining. I also discuss my learning experiences on the podcast and keep a regular sketch diary of my progress which I share on my social media channels.
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Lingo Geek | Blogger
I’m an avid language learner, teacher and blogger based in the UK. Before taking on Mandarin I had learned to speak French, Spanish and German as well as dabbling in half a dozen other other languages.
I started learning Chinese in 2020 and shortly afterwards began writing about my struggles with tones, reading characters and other issues on road to fluency!
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*Sign up to our Chinese Masterclasses teaching you the key techniques needed to master Chinese tones and sentence mining
*Join our Facebook community to connect with other learners and get access to our weekly group language exchange call
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