Chinese Teachers on italki

[Larry Language Lover]

Has anyone ever tried lessons with the online Chinese teachers on italki.com?    There are many with extremely low prices and many are professional teachers.

Others are Community Tutors or conversation partners.

[Flickserve]

Quite a number of times.

 

What would you like to know about it specifically?

[Larry Language Lover]

Did you find some really good quality teachers there,  and any in particular that you would really recommend?

[Flickserve]

What are your learning preferences? Wanting to take exams or just learn as you go? Do you prefer a very structured approach or very flexible?  I found there are differences.

 

The professional ones tend not to recognise (from my point of view) different learning styles. For example, I wanted correction on my tones. They asked me to read some text. Speaking out loud copying a person and reading out loud are two different processes. I don’t do well reading out loud but I like copying how people say things to get a feel of the rhythm and intonation. Some other people fit well with the professional teacher straight away. 

 

There are some professional teachers who were previously community tutors.  I quite like those ones. 

[Larry Language Lover]

Mostly just learn as I go. I'm pretty flexible.   I don't really have enough experience to evaluate.   I've only had 4 free trial lessons (not with italki) with different companies or schools from online advertisements, and just basically followed their instructions. 

[Flickserve]

Sounds like you need to have a run of lessons with one or two professional teachers and see how you go.

 

Community teachers are good for talking and listening practice though I just confess, most of the early conversations were totally above my head.

[mungouk]

I've been learning with the same teacher from italki for the last 2.5 years.  I've always been able to set the agenda and say exactly what I want to work on.

 

Find some teachers with 5-star ratings and proper qualifications (like Master's in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language; Mandarin Proficiency Test certificate) and have a trial 30-minute lesson... I think the system lets you have 3 or 4 trials. 

 

 

[kouch]

I have been doing Chinese classes on italki for a few months now, and I am very happy.