About Mandarin, Martial arts and Mastering life
With her beautiful name Bao (pronounced as 'bow') Li Fei and ditto appearance, the receptionist and administrative assistant at the Language Institute TaalTaal really has the 'Bao' factor. She was born and raised in The Hague, but she is very proud of her Chinese roots. Bao: "My first language is Mandarin, as it’s all I spoke and heard until I was 4 years old. However, I never learned to read or write it properly. In the future, I want to learn to read and write Mandarin. It’s part of my heritage, and every time I visit China, I feel a stronger urge to reconnect with that part of my identity.Additionally, improving my Mandarin will benefit me professionally and academically."
Improving her Mandarin skills will be just fine, because Bao works at the most special language institute in the Netherlands, Language Institute TaalTaal in Scheveningen. At TaalTaal you can learn almost every language and luckily Bao loves learning. She says: "My main resolution for 2025 is to continue learning something new every day. When I was young, I dreamed of becoming a teacher because I loved school so much. School was my escape from strict martial arts training after class, and I admired my teachers. While TaalTaal is a different kind of school, where students of all ages come to learn a language, I still see the same excitement and dedication in them. It’s inspiring to watch people of all ages invest in themselves and their learning journey. This environment motivates me and allows me to relive some of that childhood love for school. What makes working here even better is the friendly team—from teachers to the front and back office colleagues—it feels like a small, close-knit family-run business."
Can't get enough of Bao? Don't worry, she has two brothers and a sister who...really...all three are also called Bao! Confusing? Perhaps! Interesting? Definitely! Bao: "My siblings have Xian, Yao, and Jie after Bao. Together, our names form: Xian Yao Jie Li, which is part of an old Chinese saying. It is like my parents planned this, but that was not the case, the one-child policy in China at the time would not have made this a reality."
Would you also like to learn Mandarin together with Bao? Or perhaps another language?
The new season will be starting again for all languages in the week of January 20th: www.taaltaal.nl/en and there are Open Days on January 8th and January 11th and intakes are available free of charge all year round: www.taaltaal.nl/en/intake