My name is Qianyun Dangerfield, known as Qian (sounds like Tsien) and I am the founder and teacher of MandaLingo Chinese School. Our mandarin classes are based in Woodford Green, on the border of East London.
I was born and grew up in the city centre of Beijing and speak standard Mandarin (Putonghua). I have been working and living in England for nearly two decades. I hold a Certificate of Teaching Chinese as a Second Language (CTCFL) from SOAS, University of London and an MBA and BA (Hon, 2:1) from the University of Portsmouth.
How did I start MandaLingo
After having my baby girl (now 7), I decided to leave the permanent position in the school as I wanted to spend the first few years with her. The motivations of starting my own mandarin school are: 1) I could use my 10+ years of experience teaching children Mandarin Chinese; and 2) to create a natural and fun learning environment for my kid and families with young children who also want to learn Mandarin in Woodford due to lacking of such services in the local area; and 3) the working hours are comparably flexible as classes are normally at weekends. So here we are, MandaLingo Chinese School was "born". :-)
More...
Due to the lock-down, I had to move all my lessons to online zoom classroom. The new way of online teaching and learning turned out so well and worked for most of the families. Since then, I have students enrolled to my lessons not only from the local area but also from other parts of England such as Kent, Oxford, East midland but also aboard such as İstanbul, Singapore and Denmark etc. I am so pleased that I could help and teach children mandarin all around the world!
Due to increasing demand, we have expanded our team to include dedicated teachers from London and Beijing.
About my teaching experience
I have 10 years teaching experience in a variety of settings including a large state primary school, after-school clubs in primary and secondary schools, gifted and talented groups, private one to one and homeschooling tuition under the business name Mandarin Education that started back in 2011.
I was the Mandarin teacher/tutor and Modern Foreign Language Coordinator at Mission Grove Primary School in Walthamstow and have an extremely good understanding of the school setting, policies, and health and safety procedures and I am first aid trained and enhanced DBS checked.
During my time as a primary school mandarin teacher, I was invited to give talks and share my teaching experience in teaching Mandarin at Institute of Education and Jiangsu Essex, Anglo European School. Our school children were privileged to perform at the opening of the Annual Chinese Teachers Conference at the Institute of Education and at the head office of HSBC, London to celebrate Chinese New Year with the company and its Chairman.
I have tutored children from local private schools (Bancroft and Forest), and have run Mandarin after-school club at Woodford County High School for Girls. In 2024, I started running Mandarin after club at Trinity Catholic High School.
My Mandarin lessons were rated 'Outstanding' during both an Ofsted and Headteacher inspection respectively in 2011 and 2015.