Hongkong City University
To validate Speedy Mandarin’s Chinese learning methods a mandarin Chinese workshop was organized by Speedy Mandarin Ltd. and CityU Student Residence Hall 9 & 11.
There were 5 international students with no Mandarin proficiency and 3 Chinese students participating the workshop.
The workshop started with a 15-minute brief introduction of Speedy Mandarin and its mandarin learning methods. Then, utilizing the SM App, Mr. Minne Lu, the key founder of SM, gave a one-hour session helping the students to learn 16 basic Chinese characters: “男、女、人、们，你、我、他、她，这、是、谁、的，那、个、回、家”, including the pronunciation, script memorizing, meaning, and words formed by these 16 characters. Students provided their feedbacks in the last 15 minutes.
The participants’ responses to the surveys before and after the workshop showed the efficacy of SM learning methods and system, and also imply the market potential of Speedy Mandarin.
Before the workshop, although most participants believed that Mandarin is important for them to learn , the international students with basic or none Mandarin Chinese proficiency perceived that mandarin Chinese very hard to pick up . Students believed that in order to reach the Chinese proficiency to carry daily life in China, they would need to spend at least over 250 learning hours, while it shall take over 500 hours to reach the proficiency that enable them to study or work in China.
After the 1 hour session, on average, foreign students can recall 10.2 fresh Chinese characters, the perceived learning hours required for daily life and study or work in China reduced by 70% to 75 and 64% to 180 respectively. In addition students are greatly interested in the SM learning system and very much willing to introduce it to their foreign friends.
