Having worked in this field for 6 years we are now experts in how children learn Mandarin Chinese as a second language. Areas that need to be considered include:

- making the most of how different a language Chinese is
- setting standards when progress in oral, aural and written work may be different from other languages
- assessing your Chinese teachers when you do not speak the langauge yourself
- working out how, to on the one hand you need to be Western in your approach and yet on the other hand integrate the needed technical side of Chinese
- deciding whether to develop a word for word curricula or guidelines
-how to source the best Chinese teaching and learning textbooks and resources and ensure they will work in your classroom and school
- understand how different challenges arise when teaching and learning Chinese and how to ensure they are easily surmounted rather than allowed to stymie progress