About

Mischa Wilmers | Founder & Editor

I’ve been learning Chinese for roughly six years while 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 recently posted my first podcast discussion in Chinese which you can check out here:

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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If you would like to get involved in our projects or have any ideas for blogs or podcasts you’d like us to cover please feel free to get in touch via the contacts page.