chineseteachers.com
go_manly
April 27, 2010, 12:42 PM posted in General DiscussionI would like to hear from anyone who has tried chineseteachers.com - do you find it useful?
I have only just discovered the site. It sounds like good value for people outside China who don't get the chance to talk to Chinese people. You can talk for $12 to non-teachers (they're called Associate teachers), $18 per hour to Qualified Teachers, and $24 per hour to Senior Teachers.
And you can book a regular time with a regular teacher, or you can just see which teachers are online and initiate a chat.
I am seriously contemplating their annual unlimited pass for $2000 - for that you get unlimited hours with any grade of teacher. Compare that to CPod's Executive Plan - $1600 for a year for 10 minutes talk per day. Of course CPod's advantage is that they provide weekly study plans. I will need to tell them what I want to practise. But you can upload PDF's, and the different teachers have access to various textbooks.
But I would like to first get some feedback from people who have used the site. Are the teachers any good? And, as they use their own interface in preference to Skype, what is their sound quality like?
matthiask
May 03, 2010, 08:12 PM$2000 bucks for a personal slave teacher doesn't sound bad at all. :P
xiao_liang
May 05, 2010, 10:01 AMDepends how much you'd use it, I guess. I notice Chinesepod is a partner of theirs, so constructing your own lesson plan and working through it with one of their teachers might be a good option if you have the time to spare, are focused enough to access them enough to make it worth it, and if you happen to have $2000 lying around... :)
go_manly
I've been meaning to get a tutor for some time so that I can practice speaking. I'm pretty convinced that it will be impossible to get conversational if I don't do this, or go to China. I have no idea how much tutors charge, but if it is only $25/hr for 1.5 hrs a week (which is the minimum time I think I would want), there is the $2000 a year. I'm pretty sure I have the time to spend 13 minutes a day (1.5 hrs a week) on this site.
My only question is the quality of the teachers, and the quality of the audio. But it seems no-one has tried them out.
xiao_liang
I guess the hourly rate means you can try before you splurge the big pot of cash. Let us know how it goes!
suansuanru
I have checked the teacher part. It seems they are well designed.
I'd also like to know how chinese learners will think of it. :)
And about the quality of the teachers,I advise you to ask the tutor whether he or she has a 普通话水平证书or not before you choose one,I think二级甲等is a must. And it would be better if the tutor majored in Languages.
And teaching skill is also very important,especially for the grammar part such as how to use "了"and"过",which needs the teacher to do a lot of work. The grammar part may seem easy to chinese native speaker,but actually sometimes it is very hard to understand for English people.
Hope you can find a good chinese tutor!
go_manly
May 05, 2010, 10:14 AMI've been meaning to get a tutor for some time so that I can practice speaking. I'm pretty convinced that it will be impossible to get conversational if I don't do this, or go to China. I have no idea how much tutors charge, but if it is only $25/hr for 1.5 hrs a week (which is the minimum time I think I would want), there is the $2000 a year. I'm pretty sure I have the time to spend 13 minutes a day (1.5 hrs a week) on this site.
My only question is the quality of the teachers, and the quality of the audio. But it seems no-one has tried them out.
go_manly
May 03, 2010, 05:14 AMHas anyone tried this site? Just looking for a heads-up before I start using it.