Jenny Lu Tutoring

I’ve been teaching IELTS for a while and I noticed that Band 7 is the hardest threshold to overcome.

In order to reach Band 7, one must have a strong grasp of lexical and grammatical competence and that is not something you can achieve in a short time period.

I see a lot of people say they can’t improve their language skills because they don’t have enough practice.

But I once met someone who took full control of that problem.

He came to Taiwan for a month and lined up seven different people to spend time with him. He essentially had a local guide and language teacher with him every day for a month.

By the end of the month, he didn’t just improve his Mandarin, he also picked up cultural insights and real-life context you can’t get from textbooks.

If you feel stuck because of limited practice (or budget), this is something you can actually try.

Finally got myself to doodle again just in time to pay a LNY holiday tribute to our welcoming neighbors

🔹 20 years of teaching experience, specializing in:
• test prep: SAT, ACT, TOEFL, IELTS, FCE, CAE, etc.
• Public speaking
• College application essays
• Academic writing
• Customized courses for professionals and advanced learners

🔹 Past students
• Universities: Columbia, NYU, Purdue, NTU
• High Schools: TAS, TES, First Girls’, Jianzhong, Kangchiao, Fuxing
• Others: MOFA officials, Taiwanese public school teachers, and university professors

🔹 Institutional Experience
• National Taiwan University (NTU) Language Testing and Training Center (LTTC)
• The Princeton Review
• National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU)
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA)
• Dongshan High School
• United Education International School

🔹 Professional Editing & Proofreading
• Taiwanese government documents and websites
• Academic research papers and theses
• English-learning publications
• TOEIC question bank (English Cool)
• College application essays

🔹 Class Format & Support
• Classes are conducted in English
• Downloadable class recordings (Zoom Pro)
• Organized notes on Google Sheets

📌 Student Testimonials
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.425151493603933&type=3

Hi everyone! I'm currently looking for students who are interested in private tutoring classes (one on one and small groups) between the end of June and the end of August.

I primarily specialize in teaching older and/or advanced English learners. I:
◦ have more than 20 years of teaching, editing, and translation experience
◦ have taught students from Columbia, NYU, Purdue, TAS, TES, NTU, First Girls’ High, Jianzhong, Kangchiao, Fuxing, etc.
◦ have taught at LTTC, Princeton Review, Primerica, NTU, NTNU, MOFA, IKEA, etc.
◦ have edited/proofread Taiwanese government documents and websites, academic papers (for professors and postgraduate students), various English learning magazines, college application essays, the English Cool TOEIC repository, etc.
◦ classes taught in English (with Chinese support when necessary)

Online classes
◦ conducted on Zoom
◦ downloadable class recordings provided to students after class
◦ class notes provided on Google Sheets

Some topics/formats I have taught in the past:
◦ tests: SAT, ACT, TOEFL, IELTS, CAE, FCE, TOEIC, GEPT, SSAT, ISEE
◦ college application essays
◦ academic writing
◦ fiction/nonfiction
◦ translation/interpretation
◦ YouTube videos, Ted Talks

Taiwanese Mandarin, Japanese, Tagalog, and Filipino Hokkien classes also available upon request.

Have you ever heard of OverDrive? It's basically an app/website that lets you access the electronic collections (ebooks and audiobooks) of libraries around the world. First, you'd need to get a library account. I registered for one at the Taipei Main Public Library recently, and it only took 5 minutes online:
https://book.tpml.edu.tw/register

With that in mind, I would like to introduce some fun and surprising facts about the OverDrive collection of the Taipei Library:
- at least 80% of the items are in English
- about half are for kids and teenagers
- it has 20 items on the Amish
- and only 27 on Shakespeare

I highly recommend getting an OverDrive account (or several if you are able to). This is the link for the Taipei Library OverDrive main page:
https://taipei.overdrive.com/search?query=amish

Please share your experience using OverDrive in the comments!

I have a few more spots open in my online English discussion group. Contact me to sign up for a free trial class!

Number of students: 2 to 6
Class time: Fridays, 8 to 9:30PM
Online platform: Zoom

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1P-pIupvB3TCOgjgLofJyLp9GnmEggqFFdxZw8t7-nHE/edit?usp=sharing

The class can help you improve your overall English fluency, which can help you with your long term language goals.

The current students are all adult professionals from different fields.

The classes will be on Zoom and you will also get a copy of the class recording that you can use for review.

I did a writeup on how I learned Japanese so I wanted to share it here. Let me know what you think!

Quick note: I spent a year in Kagoshima, Japan as an exchange student so a lot of the tips I wrote here refer to that period.

1. Translation
I translated the original text (Japanese) to English then covered the original Japanese and translated from English to Japanese.

2. Class recordings
I recorded all of my classes so I basically listened to each lesson twice.

3. Pimsleur
I listened and repeated along Pimsleur recordings while walking home.

4. Language exchange
The key to our success was that her Chinese and my Japanese were at roughly the same level and we were strict about speaking one language in the first hour and the other language in the next.

I also did language exchange online where I asked native speakers of Japanese questions about their language and culture and have them correct my writing while I earn points by doing the same:
https://hinative.com/

5. Letting the TV play in the background
I did this for about 6 months and it helped me get used to the sounds of the Japanese language and eventually helped me identify individual words more easily.

6. Comic books and publications
I bought comic books from used books stores at about JPY 100 each and read them aloud every night before bed (about 30 minutes to an hour). I also took home a bunch of free magazines (http://kagojen.blogspot.com/2008/10/free-magazines-in-japan.html) and learned a lot about the culture while improving my reading.

7. Local events
I volunteered as a (utterly unqualified) companion interpreter and emcee a number of times:
http://kagojen.blogspot.com/2008/10/3rd-kagoshima-asian-youth-arts-festival_25.html
http://kagojen.blogspot.com/2008/10/3rd-kagoshima-asian-youth-arts-festival.html
http://kagojen.blogspot.com/2009/02/january-highlights-january-24-ice.html

I got paid to emcee/translate at a school event: http://kagojen.blogspot.com/2008/11/november-8-event-canada-project-in.html
http://kagojen.blogspot.com/2008/11/one-day-bus-tour-satsuma-sendai-city.html

I joined a Japanese speech contest just because I wanted to say yes to every opportunity, even though my Japanese wasn't all that good yet:
http://kagojen.blogspot.com/2009/01/japanese-speech-contest.html

I volunteered for a charity event (all in Japanese): http://kagojen.blogspot.com/2009/04/volunteer-weekend-at-hakkenmura.html

I made a bunch of Japanese friends (most of whom don't speak anything but Japanese) from school, events, etc.:
http://kagojen.blogspot.com/2008/12/kinpouzan-trip-part-1-udon-soba-shop.html
http://kagojen.blogspot.com/2009/01/january-highlights-january-20.html
http://kagojen.blogspot.com/2009/02/january-highlights-january-27-shiori.html

I worked at a few jobs that were all in Japanese:
http://kagojen.blogspot.com/2009/03/day-in-life-of.html
http://kagojen.blogspot.com/2009/05/teaching-assistant.html

8. Karaoke
I went to karaoke with Japanese friends and discovered new songs I liked while improving my reading speed and pronunciation

If you're still reading at this point (Thanks!), you may be interested to read the report I wrote about my year in Japan:
http://kagojen.blogspot.com/2009/09/my-student-exchange-report-in-english.html

Thanks for reading and let me know what your own language learning experience has been like!

Join us on August 5th (Friday), 8 to 9:30pm as we discuss all things Mr. Beast.

Send me a message to confirm your spot.

*Your first class is free!*

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1O0nG5nNFkbpeh_CRxEe_TF89YMy3MVgdQG1FKU32EYU/edit?usp=sharing

Some things I remember studying at a high school in the Philippines vs Taiwan (both in sorta problematic classes):

Philippines
- fist fights every week
- a classmate Parkoured his way down from the third floor to skip class
- students interacted and joked with teachers
- We had novel rentals back then so everyone was reading Nancy Drew, Sweet Valley, Hardy Boys, etc.

Taiwan
- I can't say I've actually seen a fist fight here
- So many classes are of teachers talking at the class or reading from a book or slides; often no student feedback even at the graduate level
- My classmates stole a bunch of election banners and decorated our classroom with their loot and held a mock vote
- We wrote down all the answers to an exam on the board and wrote "English test answers" in Chinese so the proctor just left it up and we all got perfect scores
- I haven't met a lot of Taiwanese people who like to read for fun
- Once in a while, four boys would pick a fifth by his limbs and run his privates against a pole or corner; they called it “aluba”

Which countries have you studied in and what are your experiences like?