There are a number of websites that offer Chinese lessons by Skype, but I'm not sure who's services to choose. I'm mostly just after practicing speaking Chinese rather than having clear-cut lessons. Does anyone here have any experience in this and is able to recommend such a service?
Chinese Skype lessons, experiences?
- Thread starter Ai Xue
- Start date
Will Buckingham
Member
I used Popup Chinese's 'university' programme for a few months until recently, and it was excellent. Have had to pause due to chaos at work for the next few months, but I'd recommend them. I've also used iTalki, but it is a bit more hit-and-miss (though free!).
A bit late to respond, but... I did Skype lessons on echineselearning.com for a year and a half. The service is located in Xi'an. I went from not being able to count to ten in Mandarin, to being able to discuss my teacher's social life.
PLUSES: 1) Lessons can be as strict grammar-oriented or semi-casual conversation-oriented as you choose; 2) You work with a single tutor, who really gets to know your language-learning issues; 3) It's much, much cheaper than most in-classroom language classes, and you obviously do it in the place you feel most comfortable; 4) The textbook, though unknown outside China, has flashcard sets that can be used in Pleco and AnkiDroid; 5) Specifically about echineselearning: I shopped around first and found numerous "schools" which had the appearance of online dating services, in which you could select pretty female teachers on the "sweetness" of their voice, whereas only a few services, echineselearning among them, claim that all their teachers are university graduates in appropriate fields and certified to teach. Mine certainly was: a degree in teaching Chinese as a foreign language, and some sort of official certification. She was whip-smart and spoke excellent English, which she only used when necessary.
MINUSES: 1) The textbook, while quite good, seems to include outdated terminology and phrases, and is outrageously expensive to buy outside of mainland China; 2) The downside of your dirt-cheap tuition is that your teacher is obscenely underpaid (I found out much later), something you have to be willing to deal with, and is likely to be a fresh graduate with limited experience; 3) Internet can be unpredictable. These teachers don't go to the office; they mostly work from home on their own laptops, and it can be the luck of the draw whether their building has reliable Internet; my teacher's original apartment had often-dodgy connections, but thankfully she moved, then things were fine. 4) These teachers are predominantly young women who are university-educated, and some may consider themselves in the market for a rich blue-eyed knight in shining armor, which in my case, seeing this woman 5 days a week for a year and a half, led to a bit of discomfort.
PLUSES: 1) Lessons can be as strict grammar-oriented or semi-casual conversation-oriented as you choose; 2) You work with a single tutor, who really gets to know your language-learning issues; 3) It's much, much cheaper than most in-classroom language classes, and you obviously do it in the place you feel most comfortable; 4) The textbook, though unknown outside China, has flashcard sets that can be used in Pleco and AnkiDroid; 5) Specifically about echineselearning: I shopped around first and found numerous "schools" which had the appearance of online dating services, in which you could select pretty female teachers on the "sweetness" of their voice, whereas only a few services, echineselearning among them, claim that all their teachers are university graduates in appropriate fields and certified to teach. Mine certainly was: a degree in teaching Chinese as a foreign language, and some sort of official certification. She was whip-smart and spoke excellent English, which she only used when necessary.
MINUSES: 1) The textbook, while quite good, seems to include outdated terminology and phrases, and is outrageously expensive to buy outside of mainland China; 2) The downside of your dirt-cheap tuition is that your teacher is obscenely underpaid (I found out much later), something you have to be willing to deal with, and is likely to be a fresh graduate with limited experience; 3) Internet can be unpredictable. These teachers don't go to the office; they mostly work from home on their own laptops, and it can be the luck of the draw whether their building has reliable Internet; my teacher's original apartment had often-dodgy connections, but thankfully she moved, then things were fine. 4) These teachers are predominantly young women who are university-educated, and some may consider themselves in the market for a rich blue-eyed knight in shining armor, which in my case, seeing this woman 5 days a week for a year and a half, led to a bit of discomfort.
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alanmd
探花
I paid a small amount for some iTalki lessons, and I found that the biggest problem was slowing the tutor down- they wanted to teach me 100s of new words each session, like a firehose, rather than slowing down and increasing my vocabulary slowly, and giving me a chance to use and remember them all. I think you can get a bargain with a service like this if you find the right tutor though.
Any services like this which match you with a teacher for a set commission, but leave you free to pay the teacher directly? I'm not really sure how this would work. I suppose that you pay a fee which includes a certain number of lessons with one or more teachers of your chosing. But in the end, you are free to chose one teacher and pay them directly. Anything like this?
Echineselearning is awesome, I spent 3 years learning on that service. I switched teachers a couple of times as they had some turnover. The convenience of doing it from home is really unquantifiable, I don't have to commute and save loads of time that way. My note taking is also electronic, so I need to be at the computer for my lesson. In the beginning I was doing it hardcore, 5hrs/week, then I switched to 3hrs/week which is more manageable.