(Photo provided by Mandarin House)

Many foreign learners are studying mandarin through online courses as a number of training institutions have gone online.

A mandarin learner named Ayra said she prefers online courses because the teacher understands her needs and will tailor a teaching method suitable for her.

Wang Ru, manager of a mandarin teaching school based in Beijing, said her company has introduced online courses to enable foreign students to learn mandarin anytime and anywhere, even when they go back to their own countries.

Li Ying, a teacher from the online mandarin learning platform Italki, said the teaching models are more flexible online than in the classroom as teachers rely less on books and are able to formulate an effective teaching method of their own.

The students of Wang Ru’s school mainly come from the United States and European countries, and 70 percent of them are adults. A survey conducted by the company shows that the students learn mandarin out of mere interest or for business purposes.

“60 percent of our students learning online have studied in the classroom. Satisfied with the outcomes of online teaching, they continued learning mandarin on our online platform after they left China,” Wang said.

Wang is confident that online learning is bound to become more popular among mandarin learners.