My name is Harold Johanson*. My wife, Leslie, and I are parents of a 5-year-old daughter we adopted from China. Her name – Jinyu Cai - was chosen before we knew any Mandarin. She has been with us over two years now and is a delightful member of our family. Her school picture is below; she started Kindergarten this fall.
I work at a school that offers Mandarin as one of the language choices and I have sat in on 中文课 for a few years although I’ve not been
able to devote as much time as I would like to it. My long-term goal is to teach Jinyu as much Mandarin as possible as well as other aspects of her birth culture.
I am looking for someone who would be willing and interested in working with me and Jinyu as a tutor/coach. I’d love to offer her more systematic language instruction. It also seems like introducing both of us to vocabulary that grows out of items around the house and everyday activities would make it much easier to practice and far more relevant to her. So I would envision our sessions taking place in our home. I would think that a couple get-togethers a month would be the minimum and once-a-week might be better. But I’m flexible.
I would certainly work out compensation for whoever becomes our 中文老师 .
We live in the Wallingford neighborhood of Seattle around North 43rd & Aurora (we’re on the east side of Aurora).
