InspirLang

I’ve taken two courses now with Inspirlang and I plan on taking more! The instruction I’ve received from Edmond has been so wonderful. The pace of the classes, his patience, and his friendliness has made the daunting task of learning a language so much more approachable and feasible. If you’re on the fence, I would highly recommend you sign up ASAP. You will not regret it!!

I have been interested in taking Cantonese lessons for many years. I found out about Inspirlang last year and decided to give it a try. I have been very happy with my experience! It is nice to learn in a semi-structured setting with an instructor and fellow students who want to improve their Cantonese. So far I have taken two courses, Level 2 and Level 3. Nicole was the instructor for both and she was very skilled, knowledgeable, and friendly. I plan on registering for Level 4 and beyond. If you want to learn/improve your Chinese language skills, you found the right place!

The advanced conversational Cantonese courses I have taken at Inspirlang with Jade have been excellent! I first came across Inspirlang when I found one of their podcasts on Spotify "Cantonese Diaspora" - it was my go to podcast while dishwashing at the start of the pandemic, and gave me a new framework to view the global Cantonese community. The conversations were conducted in such a way that felt so accessible and honestly refreshing! I reached out shortly to learn about classes and remember the 15 min virtual coffee chat I had with Jade to evaluate what level class I should take. I felt so seen in that short time span, and taken seriously as someone who wanted to really work on my Cantonese. The classes have exceeded my expectations! The amount of new vocabulary I've acquired and also all the opportunities to have continuous conversation and practice in a non-judgmental space with peers has been invaluable especially during the pandemic where virtual connection feels fatigued. Jade is a truly caring individual, community building, and very skilled educator & linguist. I love seeing all the pieces of Inspirlang she has built out across the Chinese dialects, books + podcasts, social media resources, and language classes. If you've been thinking about whether or not to take a class, I recommend just do it, you won't regret it!

My name is Jose and took Jade's Mandarin class during the second half of 2018. I just wanted to share how amazing a teacher Jade is and how great the course was! I had such a great experience and met some great people. I would put Jade right up there with my top teachers, professors, in all my life. Very patient, courteous, informative, I could go on... If you are looking to study either Cantonese or Mandarin, her classes are offered at all levels and are a must!!

I've taken two online classes with Jade (Taishanese 1 and 2), and can confidently say that she is a fantastic teacher! I was initially worried about taking language classes online because engagement is so important when learning a language, but Jade does a great job of keeping you engaged in speaking practice throughout each class. Classes are small, so there are enough people to talk to, but not so many that you don't get 1:1 support/attention. Her classes come with weekly materials that are a combination of listening, speaking, and writing practice, with the bulk of the time spent on speaking and listening, and using new language in conversation. I really cannot recommend Jade and Inspiring more highly, especially if you are Taishanese because the language is so rarely taught. Thank you, Jade, for helping me connect with my cultural roots and making learning Taishanese so much fun!

I just finished my first Cantonese class with Inspirlang and I loved it so much! It was a fun experience to be in Zoom classes with Canto students from other parts of the world. The instructors are super knowledgeable and fun to learn from! Plus the class workbook is a useful resource that I can now refer back to at any time. I look forward to taking Mandarin & Taishanese classes as well through Inspirlang! 🙂

I first learned about Inspirlang and its founder Jade Wu through her teaching of Cantonese, Mandarin -- and most meaningfully for me -- Taishanese via her energetic social media presence. After a convivial 15-minute coffee chat with Jade, I learned that I was an advanced enough speaker of my mother tongue to take LEVEL 6: Intermediate Taishanese. Over 8 Thursday evenings in early 2024, four classmates and I met with Jade over Zoom for 90-minute sessions. I loved every moment of our time together. First of all, I'm so grateful that Jade, a native of Taishan herself, but twenty-five to thirty years younger than I, would combine her language savvy with entrepreneurial energy to create Inspirlang, a space in which students of Taishanese could gather together to improve our language skills and our cultural understandings. Though I wished that I had mastered Taishanese Romanization and more Chinese writing and reading beforehand, it didn't matter. Jade was able to accommodate the varying skill levels of all her students. It seemed that everyone felt at home; I certainly did. I'll be forever grateful to Jade for being willing to take up topics that we brought up, such as how to talk about the sometimes alien topic of forgiveness and love among Taishanese people who love each other tenderly but long to convey those feelings in words. I'm also grateful for my fellow students. There are relatively few opportunities to learn Taishanese (unlike Mandarin, for example), so it felt particularly precious to be in the presence of others outside my family and close-knit circles with whom to speak Taishanese. I loved my classmates and look forward to keeping in touch with them beyond the class.