“My name is Daniel Ducrey. I work for a Swiss Company, based in Mumbai, as CEO.
Having a basic level in English, when I started my assignment, I wanted to improve my knowledge. During 12 months, till October 2013, joined English tutions with Tasneem Merchant.
I learnt basic grammar and Business communication from her. She always made sure that I have understood what she taught.
She is very well organized when it comes to scheduling and absolutely reliable in sticking to her given times. She has very flexible work schedule.
I would thank her for her hardwork, support, encouragement and inspiration to keep my learning continued. I really enjoyed the tution.
I definitely recommend her.”

Daniel DucreyCEO, Swiss Company

“I, Pierre Maisonneuve, would like to recommend Tasneem Merchant, who has been my Hindi teacher, for the past 2.5 years. She has found ways of teaching the language using the Roman script. She puts in added efforts to create links between Hindi and English grammar rules, this makes it easy to understand and grasp the language.
Tasneem helped me to understand the Indian culture further. She has been a part of my experience in India & Mumbai, often helping me to understand the culture and bridging the cultural gaps ! experienced. The interaction that I had during my classes truly helped me in my personal work and the way I approached my job in India and the interaction with my colleagues.
She is always on time and very flexible with her timings, this helps to continue classes despite the busy schedules. During the covid period I could even continue the class from France as she accepted to do the classes through WhatsApp. She found a way to keep the classes very interactive even online.
If you want to discover a new language and learn a lot about this beautiful country and culture of India, Tasneem is the definitely the teacher that you should have.”

Pierre Maisonneuve

“Mrs Tasneem Merchant was my Hindi Teacher from December 2013 until May 2015.
When we shifted to India from abroad, I had no knowledge of the Hindi language. My aim was to be able to interact in Hindi on a day to day basis.
She was very efficient in understanding this and she tailored her classes according to my requirements in Hindi and my level. The communication with her was not a problem at all, since she speaks fluent English (and also teaches English to many).
I learned the conjugation, the grammar and the vocabulary that enabled me to achieve my first aim.
Being much more comfortable with the language thanks to her classes, I then asked her to teach me Hindi reading. We started with the alphabet, and then I learnt step by step how to read until I was able to read Hindi stories.
The classes were entertaining and I realised I learnt a lot, not only speaking and reading, but also about Indian culture. Being an in-house legal counsel by training, I found her teaching methods very clear. Moreover, she is very flexible and is ready to travel around Mumbai to teach her students.
For all these reasons, I can highly recommend Mrs Tasneem Merchant and I am happy to provide more details if needed.”

Fatema Adamjee

“You provided conversational Hindi lessons for us, Philip Earis and Jennie Earis, between January and April 2014. We are a British couple who did not know any Hindi prior to having lessons with you.
We are writing this letter to endorse your skills and recommend you as a teacher for others aiming to learn conversational Hindi in Mumbai. We found your lessons to be well organised, structured and delivered to maximise value to us in terms of learning phrases that we can use in every day life. You were reliable, flexible with the timing of our classes and helped us to progress quickly with our Hindi skills in a short period of time.
Thank you for your support as our teacher, and please share this recommendation with others in the future.”

Philip and Jennie Earis

“Tasneem Merchant has been teaching me Hindi for several months now. During this period, I found her to be a committed and passionate teacher and was able to teach an almost complete beginner (in me) to converse within a short period of time.
Her flexible and accommodating approach means I was able to learn at my own pace. Topio areas are taught in a structured manner and one can choose to learn in both English and Hindi written script depending on their requirements.
Having recommended Tasneem to other friends and expatriates living in Mumbai (who have also
found her to be extremely useful), Tasneem has demonstrated she is able to teach Hindi to a wide audience, irrespective of their initial Hindi proficiency or their individual requirements.
Tasneem is very intelligent and knowledgeable of cultural and linguistic differences, which allows her to appreciate and overcome siudent difficulties. She can create a tailored development program whilst also inviting students to suggest what areas they would like to focus on.
I have no reason to doubt her honesty and integrity and I wish her all the success in her future endeavors
If you require any specific information please do not hesitate to contact me and I would be happy to provide you with additional information.
This reference should be treated as confidential.”

Ajay Patel

“I am writing on behalf of Mrs. Tasneem Merchant, who has served as my Spoken Hindi tutor since December 2012. I am unbelievably grateful for her help learning such a complex language. Mrs. Merchant is a dedicated and resourceful language tutor, and I believe she would serve quite helpful to
anyone in a professional or personal setting. She understands the importance of Expats to focus on spoken Hindi to get by in India. She is very patient, kind, and extremely skilled; I give my full recommendation to Mrs. Merchant as a teacher.
She organizes diverse lesson plans from proper grammar instruction, daily idiom, important pronunciation techniques, as well as common real-life scenarios and context. She helps you transition your thinking into the Hindi sentence structure. Often times, class has turned into a deeper discussion on different facets of Indian society, and she is very accommodating to answer and explain all my questions on life and cultural differences in India. She is very flexible with her classes and format, always will review or teach specific scenarios, phrases, and grammar requested by her students. She understands the difference between English spoken abroad and the English spoken in India, and she is able to relate that to her students. She has a genuine sense of the different perspectives of many foreigners and locals within India, and I believe that is extremely value of any teacher.
I was a consultant for five years in the United States, and have studied Spanish as a previous foreign language. I have moved to India to work for an NGO, and look forward to continuing as Mrs. Merchant's student for the duration of my stay in India.”

Ashwin Advani

“This is a letter to certify that HTP Concept India Pvt Ltd., employed Ms Tasmeen Merchant as a Hindi and English language instructor from November 2011 to January 2012.
Ms Tasmeen Merchant has tutored myself as well as my assistant manager Sabrina in Hindi in a group setting and individually. We are both of German origin and Hindi was a new language for us. In addition, I employed Ms Merchant to tutor two members of our staff towards improving their English language proficiency. This was also done in a group setting.
During her time with HTP Concept India Ms Merchant has been absolutely professional and reliable. Her teaching is efficient, goal oriented and committed to improving her students language abilities independently from where they started when joining her class. She is able to pick them up from wherever they are and improve quite considerably their fluency, accuracy and general grasp of both Hindi and English.
In short, she performed her duties with us to our fullest satisfaction and I wish her all the best for the future. If you need any further information please feel free to contact me.”

Ayobamidele Gnaedig

“My name is Simone Baur, I am a German national living in Mumbai since March 2011. I have been taking Hindi classes with Tasneem Merchant off and on since November 2011. I was a complete beginner in Hindi and started off with group sessions covering the script, basic grammar and conversational Hindi. I then took a break of about 6 months and have now come back to continue weekly classes with her on a one on one basis since November 2012.
I find Tasneem Merchant's classes very well structured and focused, suitable for absolute
well as people with previous knowledge. She has devised a method for herself how best to teach Hindi and is following it through depending on the student's needs. She sets a clear goal for what needs to be achieved. She has understood very well the difficulties that generally arise when non-native speakers learn Hindi and has found an engaging way to explain and to get the language intricacies across. She will focus on grammar as much as is necessary and has broken it down to logical pieces that make it easy for the student to get how Hindi works as a language. The second part of class will always be to listen and to speak. Therefore her classes are lively and interesting and teach you to use the language rather than just understanding it theoretically as well as understanding Indian culture as a whole better.
Last but not least she has an engaging personality that makes her classes something to look forward to. She is also very well organized when it comes to scheduling and absolutely reliable in sticking to her given times.
In sum, I can warmly and strongly recommend her.
I hold an MBA from Harvard Business School, class of 2005 as well as an MSc from the London School of Economics, class of 2000. If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact me.”

Simone Baur

“My name is Manuel Olveira Seller, I am a Spanish national living in Mumbai since
January 2012. I have been taking English classes with Tasneen Merchant since November 2012. I was a complete beginner in English. I am taking basic grammar and conversational English classes. My classes are weekly classes on a one on one bases
I find Tasneen Merchant's classes well structured and focused, suitable for absolute beginner as well as people with previous knowledge. She has devised a method for herself how best to teach English and follows it through depending on the student's needs. She has understood the difficulties that generally arise when Europeans learn English and has found an easy way to explain and to get the nuances of the language across.
The second part of the class will always be to listen and to speak. Therefore her classes are lively and interesting and teach you to use the language rather than just understanding it theoretically as well as understanding Indian culture better.
Last but not the least she has and engaging personality that makes her classes something to look forward to. She is also very well organized when it comes to scheduling and absolutely reliable in sticking to her given times. She is very flexible work schedule.
In short, I can warmly and strongly recommend her.
I hold a Hotel Management degree from the Culinary School of Toledo, Spain, class 2005. I am the Chef-De-Cuisine at Arola Restaurant in JW Marriott Mumbai. I have also worked closely with Sergi Arola at "Sergi Arola Gastro" Madrid, a Michelin star restaurant since 2009.
If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact me.”

Manuel Olveira

“I am Mrs. Padmini Mishra who has been attending your classes since 14th of Jan till the 26th of Feb. I have been attending in the morning regularly for 1hour and 30mins. I would like to say only this much that I am very happy with the way my English had improved and I feel more confident while conversing with other people. I like the way you made me read and while reading you made me record my voice it helped me in knowing where I had made my mistakes and I could work on them. I, therefore thank you for all you have done and I much appreciate it.”

Padmini Mishra

“This is to state that Mrs. Tasneem Merchant is a qualified teacher having good teaching skills. She is persistent, meticulous and pays great attention to details while teaching
She is a thorough professional and even more a good human being.”

Virginie Boucinha

“This is to state that Mrs. Tasneem Merchant is a qualified teacher having good teaching skills. She is persistent, meticulous and pays great attention to details while teaching which in turn assures good results
She is a thorough professional and even more a good human being.”

Etienne Boucinha, Gregoire Boucinha and Stanislas Boucinha

“We have had Hindi lessons with Tasneem for two and a half years, starting as complete beginners. She is patient, friendly and approachable, and we've gained real insights into Indian culture through her lessons.
Tasneem has been flexible both in terms of times for lessons and in terms of our different requests (e.g. when one of us wanted to learn the Hindi alphabet and the other didn't), and in responding to our different progress and development. On the practical side she has been reliable and punctual for lessons, both in person and online through lockdown in 2020.”

William & Hazel Hopkinson

“Ms. Ruth Osisi, Ms. Evelyne Hemstedt and myself would like to recommend Ms. Tasneem Merchant as a private Hindi teacher. Ms. Merchant has been our private tutor from 19 October until 13 April 2021, for one lesson of one hour each week.
During our 20 weeks, Ms. Merchant taught us vocabulary, conjugation, expressions, grammar and pronunciation. Ms. Merchant was a pleasant, easy-going and qualified teacher who gave us an interesting first approach of the Hindi language. She was able to explain the various rules related to grammar and conjugation, as well as the differences between how the language is spoken in Delhi and Mumbai, which was helpful to us. Ms. Merchant works without written material or books. It was destabilizing at first but in the end enabled us to assimilate the vocabulary and grammar as we were writing everything down.
Despite the limited amount of time that was available to us, we managed to learn a fair share of vocabulary and expressions in Hindi, which allows us to express basic ideas and phrases in Hindi and to understand basic conversations. If we have more time available, we would not hesitate to contact Ms. Tasneem Merchant to further our knowledge.”

Julie Van der Linden

“I have been learning Hindi with Tasneem from The Spoken Mantle for 18 months. Tasneem is an excellent, patient teacher. I learnt from the first lesson the structure of sentences and the pronunciation of words. Tasneem focuses on sentences and verb tenses from early on so that vocabulary is built up automatically. Speaking Hindi is more difficult for me than writing but Tasneem encourages me to speak every lesson so that I can improve this part of learning a language. I'm grateful for Tasneem's teaching style and supportive nature on my learning journey.”

Angharad Davies