Live online learning - any recommendations/experience?

[Meng Lelan]

Subject line pretty much says it all --- I've seen ads for eLearning, ChineseVoice, etc. where you and the teacher can see each other and converse with each other. Has anyone here tried them? What are the rates generally? What levels are offered - beginning, intermediate, advanced, etc? Anyone care to make any recommendations?

[roddy]

For some reason we've never had many users doing online tutoring, or at least not posting about it. Not sure if it's not very popular, or if those using online tutors tend not to post on here, or what. If it's any help, I've put together a small list of all the online tutoring firms I know of that offer free trials/

[Meng Lelan]

Yeah, I noticed that, Roddy, nobody posting about those services. I'm thinking of dropping ChinesePod for something more personalized and interactive but I want advice from this forum before I do anything.

[Scoobyqueen]

I have skype lessons with my Beijing based teacher 3-5 hours a week. My school has several students living in the US or Europe. I find it is just as good as real life and what's better is you dont have to write down what the teacher says since you can keep the "chat". Thje sound is sometimes not as good and sometimes there are problems with the connection but on the whole it the same as having a teacher in the same room is my opinion. There have been a few postings on on-line tutoring. You could search "skype".

The rates are the same as one to one lessons.

[Meng Lelan]

Thanks scoobyqueen, I'll try that. I just bought a webcam and mike and they're gonna set up a free trial lesson later this week so we'll see how it goes. How much is the going rate for those lessons, typically? Here in Texas it's $30-35 an hour to drive somewhere to meet a real live Chinese tutor for one on one tutoring, and I'm not even factoring in gas money, commute time, etc. so I'm looking for something more convenient (and maybe cheaper) than driving out to a tutor in Houston or something like that.

[Churada]

I've signed up for the Chinese course on Live Mocha which is free and so far I'm finding it pretty enjoyable.

You can also make friends there with native Chinese speakers looking to learn English as a kind of language exchange which sounds interesting, I'm not at a conversational level yet though so cant say how well that side of things works.

[Scoobyqueen]

Meng Lan,

Sorry for the tardy response. My lessons costs around 120 yuan an hour. My teachers are pretty good. You can search some of my previous comments on my school which I have posted whenever questions like yours have come up. My Chinese has really improved using Skype lessons. You might also be able to record the lesson.

Havent found out how to do this myself.

[Meng Lelan]

Sorry for the tardy response. My lessons costs around 120 yuan an hour. My teachers are pretty good. You can search some of my previous comments on my school which I have posted whenever questions like yours have come up. My Chinese has really improved using Skype lessons. You might also be able to record the lesson.

Havent found out how to do this myself.

Can you direct me to some of your comments, just curious which one you tried. I just contacted a school and they're very enthusiatic and helpful, though the connection kept getting dropped at one point and sound quality was iffy sometimes.

[jeffmiao]

"You can also make friends there with native Chinese speakers looking to learn English as a kind of language exchange which sounds interesting"

good, i am a native speakers and want to exchange with you.

[linsook]

i've tried several of the online language exchange sites, italki, livemocha, englishbaby, palabea, and several others, italk being the one with the best userbase so far (IMO). it is possible to learn how to speak, read and type pinyin just from daily conversations with normal people. i did it for a year and my spoken, pinyin, listening ability has improved leaps and bounds, it was already apparent 6 months in (i was chatting and voice chatting daily for several hours a day sometimes ten's of hours). i have much to say about online language learning, if you need more info feel free to ask.

[Meng Lelan]

Language exchange is not what I'm looking for. I have tried language exchange in the past and I do not want to ever do language exchange again, ever.

I really have to have very structured, controlled curriculum that sets out very specific goals in listening and speaking in Chinese only. And if I have to pay for it, so then I have to pay for it. So I have been asking about live online learning like the ones Roddy set out at the beginning of the thread under "free trials"

I'm starting on one of those on the list and I like it so far because the other end knows how to teach Chinese and they know I am not there to teach English.

[DrZero]

Anybody got advice as to the best one-on-one online lessons? Also, can you explain exactly how it works and how you would rate it as a learning method?

I think I'd like something where I'm responsible for getting prepared by learning a certain amount of vocabulary before the lesson, and then using it in the lesson.

[Meng Lelan]

What you do is try a free lesson and if you like it then you subscribe to however many times a week you want for three months or six months or a year. You can schedule whenever you want too. Generally they recommend you have a webcam, a mike, and Skype. Yes you would be responsible for preparing vocabulary and grammar for the lesson before the teacher goes over the material with you. Look at the beginning of the thread "Live online learning - any recommendations/experience?" you'll see that Roddy compiled a list of possible services you can try.

[roddy]

Merging.

[muyongshi]

Okay, so this is kind of a multiple purpose post, just trying to get a feel for what everyone here does because well this is a more intelligent community than most others.

In doing some research on about 20 online chinese learning companies I discovered some interesting thing about their site traffic. 18 out of 20 (90%) had the majority of their traffic originating in China rather than the US or other western nations. And of those 90% a large majority had a substantial margin of difference (ie 20-30%). This got me thinking about how many people there might be in China wasting their money through online learning when there are 1.3 billion waiting to help them right out their door. So, I am curious as to if that really is their customer base or if that is just site statistics.

This obviously will not be an "accurate" survey but I am curious who here has used online courses and if they were overseas or in China when they did it (or currently doing so).

Also the second purpose is I was just curious if anyone has successful experience with elearning for Chinese. Just want to hear everyones thoughts! Thanks!

[roddy]

Going to merge with a similar recent topic.

Couple of thoughts - never mind where their traffic is - where does their business, the actual paying customer, come from?

I'd also be wary about assuming anyone in China using online learning is wasting their money - there may well be 1.3 bln people outside the door and willing to teach them, but the number qualified is tiny, the number competent is smaller, and the number available. If people are using online companies, it's because they've decided that's the best value for money for them, taking into account cost, flexibility, the time necessary to find and retain a decent tutor, so on. There are no doubt people in the US learning English online.

[Meng Lelan]

Bumping this up. It seems all the live online learning Chinese lessons are coming from Beijing, a couple in Shanghai. Are there any in Taiwan?

[wrbt]

I've used chineseteachers.com, they are a less structured but a little more convenient in that you can just look for a teacher and hop online for 5 mins or an hour whatever you want.

It seems like they don't have a true "base" in that they have Chinese speakers from all over the world who do this as a part time job needing only an internet connection, the interface shows mostly from Taiwan but also see everywhere from Denver to Paris to Mexico City.

I know there is a way you can arrange for more structure like meet same teacher every other day at 4:00 or whatever but I've never tried that. I have had teachers forward me review material and I believe many of them have some of the common textbooks.

Big negative is sometimes go on and there isn't any teacher available.

[Mandyding]

how many people tends to attend a school to learn Chinese language, not including those who study Chinese professionally. And for those who are willing to take the classes rather than study totally on their own, online Chinese class should be cheaper than mandarin-teaching schools in big cities, the online course is not like chatting around with a Chinese tutor through skype, but real online virtual classroom launched by mandarin schools. Anyone can learn Chinese language systematically with the teacher 1 on 1, with vivid PDF materials. Personally I think it’s an effective teaching model with the advantages of low cost (rent for classrooms could be a big part of the tuition fees), convenience, and 1 on 1 teaching could give more chances for students to practice and teachers to correct the pronunciations.

My question is to what extent this teaching model will be accepted by the market, could it replace the mainstream teaching schools by half if the online classroom system technology is matured. I’d like to hear all your opinions.

[AB_n_Shanghai]

That one definitely sounds interesting as well. I myself have been using lessons from C2Say out of Shanghai and the teachers are all from different places in mainland China. I chose them because their service (at least to me) was the friendliest and didn't try to sell me 1-2 years too aggressively. My C2Say lessons have all been conducted on Skype or, depending on if I was working overtime, the phone. Try googling them or call their service line at

+86 021 5566 3375 ext # 8008. They will set you up with a free trial lesson.