Dear Visitors,
Thank you for coming to Mercan School’s website. We’re very happy to have you! Let me introduce you to our school. Mercan School is the biggest English language training institute in the whole of Shanxi Province. This year, in 2009, we have over 100 full time Chinese employees and 15 teachers from the United States and Canada. Our 24 administrative personnel are divided between the Teachers’ Affairs Department and the Students’ Affairs Department.
We were founded in 1997, as an after school English training institute under the administration of the Taiyuan City Government Department of Education. The mission of the school is to inspire and retain students’ enthusiasm and interest in learning English using the most up to date teaching methods to teach modern Standard English. We are the first institute in the area to offer English courses taught by native English speakers from U.S. and, and the only school that teaches English to the wide range of students from six years old to adults in Shanxi’s provincial education history. Now, let me introduce our special and successfully run Mercan English program to you.
First of all our most popular program, Mercan English Youth Learner Program, has five campuses in the Downtown area of Taiyuan city that host about 6,000 students in over 200 classes. This program’s students are between the ages of 6 and 17. The class size of most classes is 20 and the maximum size is 25. There are still some smaller six student classes. We have been rated a model school by Cambridge University Press since 2005. As of today now we have trained around thirty thousand students. If you work in Taiyuan, all the cab drivers know where our campuses are located.
Mercan English Adult Program provides special courses for adults at Mercan Club. Mercan Club opened in 2005 and currently has 200 students. The South campus is open especially for adult learners. All the adult English classes are individualized and taught in a more relaxed and comfortable atmosphere. Students are more like members of an English Language Club. We organize different kinds of activities to encourage students to use what they learned in certain themes. Our goal is to overcome the students’ trepidation of English learning by creating a friendly and fun atmosphere where teachers are friends to the students in their teaching. This club style teaching is the first of its kind in all of North China. The program is very welcomed by customers.
We also provide group training programs. Our customers include global companies like BOC Gas as well as famous local business like Shanxi Grand Hotel, etc... To support local business and growth beyond providing English language training, Mercan English sponsored the translation for the China (Taiyuan) International Coal & Energy New Industry Expo (also called the Shanxi Expo http://www.cicenfair.com/) for two years running.
All of these campuses in China are located in downtown Taiyuan. The city has over 2,500 years of history. It is around 300 miles south west of Beijing, 50 minutes by flight and 3 and half hours by high speed train. Taiyuan is the capital of Shanxi Province which is at the heart of China. It is one of the most popular tourism areas in China right now because of the historical over ground architecture. There are Wal-Marts, McDonalds’ and KFCs in Taiyuan. The population was measured at 3.4 million in 2006.The location of this wonderful city provides all foreign teachers with the chance to experience a wide range of Chinese scenery and a variety of historical attractions. Our centuries-old history, enriching culture, friendly citizens and good language environment welcome you. For information about the city,please visit www.taiyuantravel.com/en.
In 2007 we expanded into the U.S. and opened a branch school called Mercan Chinese Language Institute in Milwaukee, WI. This school teaches Chinese to native English speakers with same mission as Meran Schools in China. We offer classes at all levels from beginner to advanced. The classes we offer on our campus are flexible and tailored to suit each individual’s needs. The students range from groups of young children to businesspeople preparing to do business in China to retirees interested in Chinese culture. We not only offer programs on campus, but also run extra-curricular programs at a variety of area schools including Nicolet, the West Allis School District, Brookfield Academy and others. Following Mercan School’s footsteps in Taiyuan, Mercan Chinese Language Institute has become a proud contributing member of the Milwaukee community. In 2007 we sponsored Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle’s trade mission trip to China. In 2008 we began hosting complimentary tea ceremonies for local business people and those interested in Chinese culture to gather and network, and in 2009 we hosted a Chinese New Year Celebration event at our local Barnes and Noble in Mayfair Mall.
We have some wonderful plans for this year. We’re opening the Mercan Education Building which has 7 floors and 41,000 square feet of space for education. The building will open in May of 2009 in Tiayuan and increases our total school space to over 100,000 square feet. This year we’ve also paired up with the University of Wisconsin Colleges to offer a Summer Camp to China for high school students 16 and up to get college credit in Chinese. They come and stay with host families who will help them learn about the Chinese language and culture. During the weekdays they take classes and on weekends they go on excursions to visit sites like Xi’an and the Great Wall. Finally, Mercan School is also adding a new apartment building to improve English teacher’s comfort. We’ll now have an apartment building on both the south and north sides of Taiyuan. We’re very excited to expand and to add the summer camp program to our school.
Thank you for visiting our website. I hope you will learn or work with us!
Sincerely,
Dun Wang
Headmaster and Principal of Mercan Schools
