Meridian has successfully taught Chinese to students of all levels, all age groups and academic backgrounds in the UK for many years.

It is this extensive experience that has enabled us to develop our own range of proven methods, tools and materials - already being used by many teachers across the UK and beyond - to help you learn better Chinese faster.

What is David Su’s TDR?

TDR (Zoom In Methodology) is the principle of David Su Liqun’s own revolutionary grammar used to explain the structure of the Mandarin Chinese language. The advantage of the TDR method over others is its use of aspects of traditional Chinese culture to explain the Chinese language. This makes it much easier for students to grasp the simplicity of Chinese grammar whilst simultaneously helping them understand the culture that lies behind the language.

• T stands for “Tian” meaning Time or Heaven, “When”
• D stands for “Di” meaning Location or Earth, “Where”
• R stands for “Ren” meaning Human’s activities or Natural Events, “What”

The Natural Order

This is the fundamental concept that underlies the Chinese view of the world - a natural order or sequence, emphasising large over small, universal over specific, mankind over the individual. This philosophy reflects the way Chinese people think, speak and write; understanding it is the key to learning Chinese quickly and successfully.

A standard Chinese sentence always follows the TDR sequence. In other words, the sentence begins with WHEN, WHERE, then WHAT.

David Su’s TDR grammar includes in its system a number of simple but powerful tools and techniques to help the learner to grasp more quickly how the Chinese language works. For example the ‘Five Fingers’ tool helps learners to use their own hand to memorise and decode the five main Chinese sentence types.