1st lesson free
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Yue ying
- Rate £45
- Response 1h
£45/hr
Contact
1st lesson free
- Mandarin
- Chinese speaking
- Chinese listening
- Chinese reading
- Chinese writing
Qualified Mandarin Teacher & International Art Curator bringing Chinese to life through language, art, literature and culture — inspiring lessons for children and adults
- Mandarin
- Chinese speaking
- Chinese listening
- Chinese reading
- Chinese writing
Lesson location
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At Yue ying's house: Brighton and Hove
- Online
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at your home or in a public place : will travel up to 20 km from Brighton and Hove
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About Yue ying
About You — Final Refined Version
I have spent much of my professional life between art and education, and between different countries, languages and cultures.
I am a native Mandarin speaker, a qualified Chinese language teacher and an international curator. Over the years, my work has taken me through museums, exhibitions, educational programmes and international cultural projects across Europe, Asia and the Middle East. I have worked with artists from many countries, helping their work travel beyond familiar cultural boundaries and encounter new audiences.
But perhaps what these years have taught me most is something quite simple: people do not all see the world in the same way.
We notice different things. We ask different questions. We learn differently.
That thought has stayed with me, both as a curator and as an educator.
I have taught Chinese in a school in Thailand, working with children from kindergarten through to secondary-school age, and education has remained an important part of my professional life ever since. I have worked with children, artists, museums and audiences from very different backgrounds, and I have gradually come to believe that good education begins not with how much we can teach, but with what can make another person curious enough to want to discover something for themselves.
Perhaps this is also why I love teaching Chinese.
I particularly enjoy beginning with the earliest visual life of Chinese characters. Some characters, in their ancient pictographic forms and oracle-bone inscriptions, once looked almost like tiny drawings. When a child sees this for the first time, the character is no longer simply an unfamiliar symbol to memorise. They begin to look, to guess, to ask questions: Why did people draw it this way? What did they see? How did that image eventually become the character we use today?
For me, learning has already begun at the moment curiosity appears.
This way of thinking comes naturally from my life in art and curating. A painting, an object in a museum, a poem, a story or even an ordinary expression can all become ways into a language. They can lead us towards history, imagination, everyday life and the ideas that have shaped a culture.
Of course, I teach the foundations of Mandarin carefully — pronunciation, speaking, listening, reading, writing, vocabulary and grammar all matter. But I do not believe that learning a language has to end there.
Sometimes a child begins with a picture and discovers a Chinese character. Sometimes an adult begins with a journey, a work of art, a poem, a family connection or simply a question about China. I like to begin with that small point of curiosity and see where the language can take us.
My years of international curatorial work have allowed me to work across different cultural contexts, including projects and collaborations connected with the UK, China, Italy, Japan, Dubai and Qatar, as well as the wider world of international exhibitions and biennales. Yet what interests me most is not the list of places I have worked, but what happens when people from different cultures genuinely begin to understand one another.
In some ways, I think curating an exhibition and teaching a child a Chinese character have something in common.
You do not always need to give someone the answer first. Sometimes you simply open a door, and help them begin to see.
That is the kind of teaching I believe in.
Whether I am working with a child meeting Mandarin for the first time, a teenager finding their own voice, or an adult whose interest in China comes through travel, work, family, literature, art, history or simple curiosity, I want the learning to belong to that particular person.
After many years of working between art and education, artists and audiences, China and the wider world, I still find one thing endlessly rewarding: the moment when something unfamiliar begins to make sense.
Perhaps that is what learning another language can give us.
Not only another way to speak,
but another way to see.
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About the lesson
- All Levels
- English
- Mandarin
All languages in which the lesson is available :
English
Mandarin
Final Version — About My Lessons
Learning a language can be the beginning of understanding another way of seeing the world.
I teach Mandarin as both a language and a gateway to a deeper understanding of China — its people, ideas, stories, art and culture.
I am a qualified Chinese language teacher and native Mandarin speaker, with professional experience spanning education, international art, curating, museums and cultural projects. I have also taught Chinese in a school in Thailand, working with pupils from kindergarten through to secondary-school level. That experience gave me a lasting understanding of how differently we learn at different stages of life — and why curiosity, confidence and imagination matter just as much as vocabulary and grammar.
My lessons therefore begin with the individual, rather than with a fixed formula.
For younger learners, Mandarin can unfold naturally through stories, images, objects, conversation, art and creative discovery. As students grow, lessons can become progressively more structured, developing speaking, listening, reading and writing while introducing the cultural context that gives the language meaning.
My background in art and curating also shapes the way I teach Chinese. Where appropriate, I introduce learners to the visual origins of Chinese characters — from early pictographic forms and oracle-bone inscriptions to the characters used today. Rather than approaching a character simply as something to memorise, we can explore how an image became a symbol, how a symbol acquired meaning, and how that meaning continues to live within the language.
A Chinese character can become an image, a story and a piece of cultural history at the same time.
For visually curious learners — particularly children and those interested in art and culture — this can transform the experience of learning Chinese characters. Paintings, objects, poetry, literature, stories and museum collections can similarly become starting points for language learning, allowing Mandarin to be discovered not only through textbooks, but through art, imagination and cultural experience.
For adults, the possibilities are deliberately broader. Some students simply want to speak Mandarin with greater confidence; others are drawn to China through travel, business, family, art, literature, history, theatre, museums or contemporary culture. Lessons can be shaped around those interests while continuing to develop genuine language ability.
This approach can be equally meaningful for someone encountering China for the first time and for someone who has travelled, studied or worked there and now wishes to understand it at a deeper level.
Language remains at the heart of every lesson, but language is never separated from the culture that gives it meaning.
Depending on the learner, we may move naturally between conversation and characters, literature and everyday life, traditional culture and contemporary China. A character may reveal a story; an expression may open a window onto history; a painting, poem or object may lead us towards an idea that has shaped Chinese culture.
I do not believe that every student should receive the same lesson. A young child discovering Mandarin through an image or story, a teenager developing confident communication, a professional learning for work or travel, and an adult exploring Chinese literature or art all require different approaches.
Each learning journey should reflect the person taking it.
Whether your interest begins with Mandarin itself or with something beyond it — travel, family, professional life, art, literature, history, or simply curiosity about China — my aim is to offer more than the ability to use the language. It is to help you understand the culture, context, imagination and ways of thinking that give the words their meaning.
Learn the language. Discover the culture. See China through a wider lens.
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Rates
Rate
- £45
Pack prices
- 5h: £225
- 10h: £450
free lessons
The first free lesson with Yue ying will allow you to get to know each other and clearly specify your needs for your next lessons.
- 1hr
online
- £45/h
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