Wall of love

Alex started Chinese with WuKong in 2021. Five years on, his Chinese has grown steadily — we can see him thinking in Chinese, not just speaking it. His Chinese teacher suggested he try a math competition class. We figured, why not? Competition math isn't like school math; it tests how you think, how you break down problems. Alex took to it immediately — no pushing needed. He followed the prep schedule, kept practicing, and something clicked: his approach smoothed out, and his accuracy shot up. He got a perfect score in his very first Math Kangaroo. And he wants to keep going. So we're behind him. — from Alex's parents

After the pandemic, our family settled in Seoul, and Zhenzhen suddenly had no Chinese environment. On every video call with her grandparents, I had to translate for her. It really hurt to see the sad looks on their faces. At first, I taught her myself with picture books and pinyin, but it just didn't work. Then we tried a WuKong trial class. To my surprise, Zhenzhen sat through the whole class and had so much fun interacting with the teacher. It's been almost a year now, two classes a week, and she never says no to class. Her progress has been amazing — she couldn't read simple characters before, but now she reads short sentences all by herself, and her pronunciation is getting better too. This Chinese New Year, her grandparents came to Korea, and she could finally chat with them in Chinese, no translator needed! Next, we're planning to have her take the HSK to keep building a strong foundation. — from Zhenzhen's mom

We live in New Zealand, and I've always prioritized Xiaoyu keeping up her Chinese. At home, whenever she slips into English, I pretend not to understand, so she gets used to speaking Chinese with me. We tried three different Chinese programs in 2021 before choosing WuKong. Xiaoyu loved the 1-on-1 classes and really clicked with her teacher, so I signed up for 5 years upfront. This is her 5th year with WuKong: she reads Chinese on her own and even writes me Mother's Day cards in Chinese. What touched me most was when she said out of the blue: “I'm proud to be Chinese. Thank you for always letting me learn it. When I have kids, I'll make sure they speak it too.” So many Chinese kids around us grow up resisting Chinese, and hearing that made all these years worth it. — from Xiaoyu's mom

Both of my daughters are learning math with WuKong. When my older daughter Elsa was in Grade 3, I signed her up for WuKong's math class — what won me over right away was the curriculum: systematic, professional, and it aligned perfectly with the Singapore Math she was already practicing. I never expected her to keep at it all the way from Grade 3 to Grade 6, holding on to her math edge the whole time. My younger daughter Ena tried a class after finishing Grade 3 and loved it right away. But I worried it was just a passing phase, so I only signed her up for 10 classes. Turns out her hand shoots up in every single class. What's even better: Elsa, who used to drift off in class now and then, got pulled along by her little sister. She participates so much more now, and stays in the top three. — from Elsa's mom

Dundun was born and raised in Australia, and has been learning Chinese with WuKong for two years. Last week I went to his school for a 1-on-1 parent-teacher conference, and his Chinese teacher couldn't stop praising him. He even asked me specifically: “Did he learn Chinese in China? Did he grow up there?” He said of all the 5th graders he've taught, Dundun has the strongest Chinese skills, and showed me his classwork — he can already write long passages in Chinese. I've seen every step of his progress firsthand: when he first started learning to build sentences, he had to practice a single sentence 10 times with my help just to finish one recording. Now he completes all three recording tasks for his WuKong Chinese homework almost entirely on his own. He also takes WuKong Math and Math Kangaroo classes. When his school held tryouts for the math olympiad class recently, he walked out of both tests saying they were easy. — from Dundun's mom