Peilin Lee - Our Team

Shu Chen is an expert in several Chinese dialects. A native Mandarin speaker, she is also proficient in Shanghainese and Cantonese as well as English. Her skills and passion in language learning led her to a career in education where she can share the beauty of Chinese culture with non-Chinese as well as Chinese students.

After her Bachelor of Science degree in business at Benedictine College, Shu obtained her Post Graduate Diploma in Education and Master of Education from the Hong Kong Baptist University. She taught Mandarin for 8 years in local Hong Kong secondary and international schools, as well as Liberal Studies for secondary students. Well-trained in the IB teaching system, Shu was also a grade-level teacher who incorporated interdisciplinary learning across various subjects. She was most recently Year Level Head at the Singapore International School Hong Kong overseeing curriculum planning, designing assessments, and developing immersion programs in cultural studies.

Over her decade-long teaching career, Shu observed how a student’s l environment can impact their mental development. She believes that successful positive learning is best achieved by teaching students to be self-motivated to pursue knowledge and become inquisitive learners through asking questions. Shu’s students practice learning-by-doing to reinforce active recall of their knowledge and language in real-life situations and to acquire critical thinking skills to analyze different situations they might encounter.

Shu is currently working towards her Doctoral Degree in Education with research on the development of Chinese curriculum. She is excited to join Bloom to share her love for Chinese language, history, and rich cultural heritage.

May Chen was born and raised in Ningbo, Zhejiang, with its lush sceneries and rich cultural heritage framing her interest in Chinese language and literature. She was first awarded a Bachelor of Arts in English followed by a Master of Arts degree in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language with Credit from Hong Kong Polytechnic University. She then obtained a Professional Diploma in Teaching Putonghua with Merit from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She is qualified professionally with a Certificate of Grade ONE Level B Putonghua Proficiency Test from the State Language Commission, a Diploma in Early Childhood Education and a Postgraduate Diploma in Primary Education from the Open University of Hong Kong. May was also recently selected as one of the judges for the 2nd Chinese Language Festival.

May has over 15 years’ experience teaching Mandarin Chinese to foreign and local students in bilingual kindergartens to international primary schools. She was most recently at Discovery Mind Primary School, where she was the Mandarin Chinese Teacher and Coordinator for Grades 1 to 6. She combines imaginative specialist methodologies with project-based learning in the classroom to enhance interactive teaching and engagement. To May, learning is not about comparing oneself to others, but to be a better version of yourself; even the smallest improvement each day makes a difference, each 1% change adding up to a long-term positive development that will allow students to grow and surpass themselves.

May’s son is starting his university education, while her daughter is entering her final years of secondary school. Besides enjoying quality parent-child time, May enjoys reading, cooking, swimming and traveling.

Connie’s passion in language and literature leads her to various areas, from advertising to translation studies, and eventually to bilingual education. She has taught in private bilingual schools, ESF schools and other international schools in Hong Kong, with curriculum experiences over Chinese immersion, IB PYP Chinese and Chinese as a foreign language. Connie holds a MA in Translation from Hong Kong Baptist University and a MED from The University of Hong Kong. She also finishes her PGDE from Education University of Hong Kong, where she is trained in special needs education with a focus on supporting students with challenges in Chinese reading and writing. She is experienced in one-on-one and small group learning support, as well as classroom lead teaching for all Primary grade levels.

With a firm belief that students’ well-being is the foundation of education, Connie is dedicated to research and design engaging Chinese lessons with appropriate differentiation strategies. She has also applied her training from art and music therapy to help channeling students’ emotions, and actively integrated multi-sensory and multimedia tools in her classes to motivate learning. In her spare time, Connie enjoys books and movies, hiking and cycling. She is looking forward to taking her students to the bigger classroom outside — parks and trails, art venues and local communities — to experience and explore the beauty and creativity shaped by languages and culture.