What does "Tianmei's World" Academy represent?

01 | It’s the first “network of classrooms” concept in the world (as far as we are aware). It combines online and offline learning with a focus on building local communities. Its’ aim is to bring high quality education opportunities closer to each person across geographical barriers by turning any available space into an alternative learning environment, while maintaining the highest standard for education.

02 | It’s an organization that uses environmental psychology knowledge to create bilingual learning environments to accommodate for individual needs while promoting diversity and mutual understanding across cultural and language barriers. 

03 | It’s an organization that studies the influence of different environments on human behavior with the aim to create living, learning and working environments to better serve individual needs compared to the one-size-fits-all approach used by many other organizations. 

04 | A platform that aims to innovate the education sector, focusing on individual needs rather than one-size-fits-all approach.

“Tianmei’s World” Academy Mission

Since the environments we live, learn and work in shape the way we think and influence the way we behave, our learning outcomes and work productivity, “Tianmei’s World” Academy has made it its mission to share related knowledge and create better living, learning, working environments to facilitate personal growth, increase levels of wellbeing, as well as change behaviors for the better. 

Core values

• Inclusiveness
• Diversity
• Mutual understanding and respect
• Design every project with people in mind
• Provide equal opportunities to education

What are the solutions that “Tianmei’s World” Academy offers?

• We create environments facilitating native-like language learning without having the need to leave the country
• We enable each member to explore what learning environments and methods are most suitable for the self instead of a one-size-fits-all often found in traditional education.
• By combining online and offline learning, we make continuous learning accessible even for the busiest people, so that they don’t have to feel left behind or frustrated that they don’t have enough time to learn
• We make learning part of everyday life, so that it can become the default choice in a fun and entertaining way, instead of an activity that makes people feel stressed and under pressure.

For more information on the research that led to these conclusions, please click here.

What are the educational principles that “Tianmei’s World” Academy promotes?

01 | Learning happens everywhere; wherever you are, that’s where the learning environment is

02 | Learning takes multiple forms; it is only when the learner has a clear learning goal that they can find the most suitable learning method to achieve that goal

03 | It is only through personal experience that one can understand what learning environments and methods are most suitable for the self, become confident enough to think independently. The confidence to live one’s own life is always a more meaningful choice than living in the shadow of “others”.

04 | Every person is a genius, but each of us has different talents. It is only within a suitable environment and under proper guidance that we are able to discover our true potential. We have no way to choose our original family or the education we receive growing up, but these will affect us for the rest of our lives. However, we can choose to understand how different environments affect our behavior and use this knowledge to create environments that can allow us to become the person that we want to be.

05 | Language itself represents a communication tool, a way of thinking, a representation of culture, and it is one of the elements of our environment. Language is not a purpose. Only by adding language in our living, learning, working environments can we acquire a language the same way we did for our native language.

06 | The content we use in our learning is very important for achieving success. As such, it is important to use foreign language to learn valuable and meaningful knowledge for personal development and improving language skills as a consequence, rather than using knowledge to learn the foreign language first and learn personal development later. In the information age, what people lack most is not information or learning materials, but the awareness and tools of judging which information is most suitable for their own situation and personal growth.

How do we put all these principles in practice?

Through organizing different types of events we are able to design different types of learning environments and methods that allow attendees to experience first-hand the educational principles we put forward. Through personal experience, participants can find out what kind of environments and methods are most suitable for them and apply those in their daily lives, while developing self-confidence and improving their language skills.

The events we organize all have the same framework and aim to promote dialog, mutual understanding, but use different means to do that in order to prove that there is not only one “right” way. Whether we learn from books (Book Club), movies (TMWA Screenings), other people’s talks (Creative Mornings, 20x20 talks) or online, learning opportunities are all around us, if we just open our eyes and allow ourselves to see them.

The events aim to bring different people together in the same room, spark conversations and learn from each other. The opinions we have are directly linked with the experiences we had and are subjective, thus dialog is mandatory in order to promote diversity and mutual understanding. 

Brand Meaning

“Tianmei's World” represents a set of values that the founder wants to promote, an environment that she wants to create for all those who believe they will benefit from it.

“Tianmei” is a person who just happened to come across some ideas and concepts that she felt more people should know about and be able to use in their lives. 

As such, the “Tianmei” in “Tianmei's World” is not about the person, but about the values promoted. Any person who believes in the values that “Tianmei's World”aims to promote is “Tianmei”.

The “world” represents the environment that we are trying to create through the the work that we do and values that we promote. 

We believe that if we want to see a change in the world, we have to start by changing our own behaviors and mindsets and lead by example in order to make change effective. 

As such, every project we design in “Tianmei's World” represents our commitment to bringing about this change in ourselves and others.

Let's meet a few "Tianmei"s.

Types of learning experiences

01 | Not Your Typical Book Club

The "Not Your Typical Book Club" is meant to equip attendees with critical thinking tools to guess the meaning of words they don’t understand and improve their English vocabulary through reading books without having to rely on the dictionary. This allows participants to slowly recreate the native language acquisition process and build vocabulary on top of the existing knowledge they have. During the events the attendees are able to discuss about the content of the books, share ideas with like-minded individuals and expand their horizons as a consequence.

02 | TMWA Screening & Discussions 

When going to the cinema, we rarely have the opportunity to discuss with other people about how they feel about the movie that they have just watched and share ideas. Given different backgrounds, different people tend to have different opinions about similar concepts. In order to make more people realize that these differences exist beyond one’s language level and that we should accept them and learn from each other, using movies as learning material is great. That’s because their choice of expression goes beyond cultural and language barriers and they can spark meaningful conversations, as they are directly related to people’s lives.

At the same time, movies also allow attendees to experience for a short while the lives of others. This allows attendees to reflect on and understand themselves better as consequence. 

03 | Creative Mornings

“Creative Mornings” represents a different way to spend a weekend morning. Attendees can get inspired while having coffee and breakfast in an informal and relaxed environment. Guest speakers coming from different professional backgrounds will share their thoughts on a given topic. The aim is to understand how different people view the same concept across different industries and promote more diversity and mutual understanding. Throughout the event attendees also get to share ideas while enjoying a delicious brunch.

04 | 20x20Talks

The event format was created in 2003 inTokyo, Japan by German architects Klein and Dytham as a tool to help designers be more concise in their presentations. Ever since, this event format has been organized in over 920 cities in the world. 20x20 Talks is a perfect platform for people to present and share their ideas in a very concise manner. In this event speakers have to use 20 pictures x 20 seconds each, a total of 6 minutes and 40 seconds to make their point, as such it becomes a platform for people to communicate their ideas in a brief and concise manner. The timing is pre-set by the organizer. This format allows attendees to get exposed to a broader range of ideas in a shorter time than a regular event, with amazing networking opportunities.

05 | Sustainability Pyramid Workshop

As soon as many people hear about Environmental Psychology (EP), they automatically think about pollution and protecting the environment, however this is just a small part of what EP actually does. 

What EP focuses on is the interactions that take place between people and spaces. To be more specific, everything people do is space related, as such spaces will influence our behavior, learning outcomes etc, and in return, our actions will influence the space (e.g. environmental degradation). 

What many people don't realize though, is the extent of the impact that different environments have on individual behavior and vice-versa. The Sustainability Compass is a great tool to practice systems thinking and start visualizing the connections between different elements that influence individual behavior and how such behaviors influence the environment in return. It does so through building the Sustainability Pyramid. 

In order to further align the workshop with "Tianmei's World" Academy educational principles -language is an element of the environment we find ourselves in-, the workshop is delivered in English, so the participants will also have the opportunity to improve their English language skills as well. 

What if people can’t always attend the offline events either because they are too busy or too far?

Those who are too busy or too far to attend every event, or just need more dedicated attention, are welcome to consider our online learning opportunities. As a matter of fact, for the less confident among the attendees we strongly recommend registering for online learning programs first to build up confidence and then join the offline events. 

By building up your confidence before joining the offline events, you can gain a lot more from your learning experience and make more friends. 

01 | Online Reading Course

In our research, content and purpose of learning have been found to be important elements in order to keep students motivated. The online reading course uses meaningful content that is able to help students learn how to apply positive psychology principles in their everyday life while improving language skills and self-confidence. With content material directly related to their everyday life, learning becomes an integral part of the students’ lives. 

02 | 1 on 1 Tailored Program

The 1 on 1 tailored program benefits of an English personal growth coach who can guide students to sort out their personal life (such as time management, getting rid of procrastination, maximizing individual potential, getting rid of confusion and other life puzzles) while guiding them to improve their English listening, speaking, reading comprehension and writing skills. Throughout the process, the coach will guide students to create a more suitable learning environment in their own life and become independent thinkers and long-life learners.

FAQ

01 | Who are the learning programs suitable for?

Some of the general characteristics of those joining our programs are:

•  less confident in their own skills and abilities
• they generally believe they have no talent in language learning
• are generally interested in their continuous growth
• mostly young people aged 20 - 35 looking to expand their horizons and make more friends
• language learners who want to go beyond memorizing English words and understand how native speakers think
• parents who want to learn how to create a better learning environment for their children
• people interested in cross-cultural dialog and experience sharing

02 | Why are the events bilingual?

Language is just a communication tool. The most important thing is what we use the language for. In “Tianmei’s World” Academy we use it to understand how others people think, promote inclusiveness, diversity and mutual understanding. Language is just the tool that we use to do that. Improving language skills is just an additional benefit that attendees get as a consequence of taking part in the events. 

03 | Is there an order in which “Tianmei’s World” Academy learning programs should be experienced?

We strongly recommend registering for the online programs first in order to allow individuals to build more confidence so that they are able to make the most of their learning experience during offline events. 

04 | What is the academic ground for all the projects that the academy does?

All the projects are grounded in Environmental Psychology principles. More about our work here.

Environmental Psychology (EP) is the discipline that studies the influence that different environments (both physical and social) have on human behavior and mindset formation.

Key questions that EP research answers:

01 | How do different environments (family, school, office, hospital, public space, etc.) affect people's psychological state, perception, attitude, behavior, learning outcome, work productivity?

02 | How can individuals and groups change their environments to reduce stress, maximize their potential, increase work productivity and enhance learning outcome?

03 | What is the connection between our personality and the environment we were brought up in? 

04 | How can we use environmental design to influence pro-environmental behavior? 

Existing academic journals

Even if this field has been researched from the 70s, many people have still not heard of it. The main reasons for that are:

• academic research uses language very difficult to understand by those without academic background - this is why “Tianmei’s World” Academy uses academic knowledge to design projects that are easier for people to understand and directly experience.
• psychology is less specific than fields like math, so it is more difficult to adopt at a mass level, as not everything can be generalized - this is why “Tianmei’s World” Academy is only offering tailored services depending on specific problems that clients are facing
• access to such journals is very expensive and not many people can afford it - this is why “Tianmei’s World” Academy is publishing articles on WeChat Account, so that people can have easier access to the information and read at their convenience