I speak Mandarin as my native tongue and speak English to near native level. I have a PhD in Theology from the University of Cambridge and have 20+ years of tutoring experience. I mostly tutor English as a second language but I also teach Mandarin as a second language.

My English speaking courses are paired up with my English writing courses. You can choose the article you want to work on. It can be a news article about current affairs, an article from National Geographic or Harvard Business Review, or a fun article about dogs. We will work on one article for each set of writing and speaking courses. For the writing course, you will write a 1000-word summary and critique of the article and send it to me. I will revise your essay, give you feedback on what you can improve, and explain why your sentences are incorrect or unidiomatic. The writing course is conducted via email. We will then have a speaking course on Zoom or Skype. My English speaking courses are all about YOU speaking and me correcting your mistakes. English speaking skills can’t be improved through chit-chat. It is about correcting your mistakes repeatedly until you have internalised the correct usage. I am an extremely patient teacher. Language skills can only be acquired through repetition and having someone correct the same mistake multiple times. In the speaking course, you will present your selected article. I want you to take notes for your presentation before the class. You will summarise the article, and I will correct your grammar, pronunciation, and word usage mistakes. You will do your presentation a few times until there are few mistakes and you sound fluent. We will then move on to a discussion of the article. I also offer test prep courses for the TOEFL and IELTS. I specialise in teaching the writing and speaking sections.

I have a PhD in Theology from Cambridge. I studied English Literature as an undergraduate. I have 20+ years of experience teaching English and 10+ years of experience coaching students how to write an engaging personal statement and editing dissertations, papers, and research proposals. I can work with you on how to write an academic essay in a humanities or social sciences subject. Do note that while my background is in Theology and English, I can guide you on how to write an academic paper in other subjects since research papers follow the same format. However, I will not be able to advise you on subject-specific details.

I am an admissions consultant specialising in guiding students to apply to universities or graduate schools in the US and the UK. Most of my clients are third or fourth-year undergraduates or professionals with a few years of work experience applying to graduate schools. My teaching philosophy is to be a mentor, friend, and sometimes emotional support counsellor for my clients. The admissions process can be daunting, especially for students with little or no experience writing personal statements and academic essays. I guide my students on a journey of self-discovery as they explore what they want to study and why. When I am working with a student on crafting their personal statement, I will first ask my student to brainstorm ideas. We will discuss what to keep and what to delete when we are structuring the essay. I will then guide them on using the STAR method to give examples and details to demonstrate their skill or experience. The final stage is polishing the essay so it reads well and still retains the student's voice. I also coach secondary school and undergraduate students how to write academic essays. They need to first become familiar with the materials by reading extensively and writing summaries and critiques. I will then guide them on how to come up with an argument and how to structure the essay. Finally, we will add supporting details and examples to demonstrate the main points.