We are really pleased to announce a few improvements, some of which were in your wish list!

1) Messaging function for both students and teachers during the lesson: Unlike ‘chatting’, this is a supporting learning tool and you can decide which messages to keep during the lesson. This feature is designed to help student learn the right Hanzi (Chinese characters) and pinyin when needed.

2) New format for the customized documents from our teachers: The new format avoids the documents from being sometimes blocked for our students (and teachers) based in China. We also added a zoom function that was requested by students who wanted to see Chinese characters in bigger size.

3) New tool to add your own learning materials: You can now quickly create a document by copying and pasting texts from other sources, like documents or web pages.

4) Messages to teachers: Student can now send messages to any teacher, to make any lesson related request. You can even ask your teacher to prepare a learning material for your next lesson with specific topics/vocabularies. Please note: To protect our teachers, and our students, all messages are screened by our staff to make sure the contents are related to learning Chinese.

5) Reserve next lesson time: From next week, students will be able to propose time and length for their next lesson with our teachers. Don’t worry, you can still just login and take lessons with any teachers who are online without booking in advance! In both cases, we hope to help students in their regular practice, whether planned or not.

6) Students can choose to start from any amount (even $1) but we have added a special $500 package that attracts a $100 bonus, that makes the hourly rate as low as $10 per hour (and of course the pricing is still per minute with the first two minutes always free).

We are also pleased to report that we now have students from 88 different countries, which is a very lucky number in China

Finally, we would like to thank our teachers who have kept impressing our students, and us! After all, ChineseTeachers.com is about helping students finding the best Chinese teachers for their respective learning needs and goals.

It’s really refreshing to hear such an honest opinion from the student’s perspective. I have taught on ChineseTeachers.com for a while now, and I have often wondered how come there are so many students who are ‘not-in-lessons’. (I guess this is a feature which you probably haven’t experienced, but as a teacher, I can see how many students are online and if they are ‘in lessons’ or ‘not in lessons’), your post really helped shading some lights to this!

For me, when a student is taking their very first lesson, my approach is to always use it as the opportunity for us to discuss and agree on what to study and how much to study each time. This way, I get to understand a little more about what will make the student ‘tick’ and I can work on a study plan according to their capabilities and needs. I’d like to think that when they call me, they feel as welcomed as you have experienced with the other teachers

I guess because I joined the service very early on, I have seen the site evolved over time. I am probably one of the few teachers who thought it would be better NOT to have the text function during the lesson, as I was convinced that both my students and I can be more focused without the distraction. However, as you have correctly said, the lesson now allows text exchanges between teachers and students in both directions, and I do use it from time to time, but whenever possible, I still prefer to explain the words to my students in Chinese – after all, the lesson is about listening and speaking, so I try to give my students the maximum opportunity to hear me and to talk with me, rather than reading my text. But for beginners, I do see the benefits of having a way to send the pinyin over, so they know how to pronounce the words more quickly.

I think the only downside I have experienced with ChineseTeachers.com is that sometimes the internet quality is not consistent. I hate to disappoint my students when they have set time aside to have lessons with me, and I know it’s frustrating for my students, too. But at least I feel comfortable asking my student to try other teachers if the connection is not working out with me, because I know there are many other really good teachers on the website, who are just as passionate to promote Chinese learning as me, so my advice to using this site would be, enjoy the most of what it offers, which is a large number of great teachers! If we have a chance to have a lesson, I am sure we will have a very interesting discussion!

I’ve been learning more than 3 new languages for work/life for the past 5 years and the last thing I need is

: a classroom of lackluster beginners
: in a language school
: less than 5 times-a-week
: plus rushing after/before work.
: & only to realize you’ve been missing most of the classes ‘coz of your working hours.

Chineseteachers.com was the best solution for my in-between-flights’ lifestyle.

All I need is the internet, 1-2 short sessions of 20 mins for myself and the teacher to find the ‘fit’!

It’s kinda like the fully-web-based Skype.com for Chinese language classes, with the function on the side for the teacher to jot down the characters for you, too!

No commuting. No cancelling. No lazy teachers but less costs for better quality and customized classes.

Time is money.

And in Chineseteachers.com, all the time is yours.

Plain and simple.

I had the chance to try Chineseteachers.com (Disclosure, I have the chance to know some people of the team) from day one, and I’m happy to see that I’m not the only one to think that this service is quite amazing (even more when it’s combined with Skritter btw).

There is a funny however to see that I wasn’t the only one to get (really) nervous when one is about to call a new teacher! Hopefully once you get going it is fine (but I have still some apprehension to call a new teacher :-/ ).

I’m glad you like the experience learning Chinese on Chineseteachers.com.

I will be pleased to send some of learning files to you, but I’m not sure which one suits you best. I found on your profile that you can not read Chinese. I have some topics FYR. You can make the choice, and tell the Chineseteachers.com. When I get the message, I will send you the files you like.
1. Basic Expressions
2. Biz Chinese
3. Travelling Chinese
4.living Chinese (Greetings&conversations)
5. Chinese custom/culture
6. Cooking.
…
If we can get into touch on Chineseteachers.com, we can talk about it. It’s better to make a learning plan. Feel free to call me whenever you are ready.

Have a nice day!

wenwen

Still in Guangzhou?

It’s great to read your words here. We only tried once and unfortunately we encountered a disconnection before we talked more. Sorry that teachers cannot call the students, but you can feel free to call me whenever you want to try again.

I hope that you enjoy your Chinese study and the Autumn.

P.S. To Carole (if you can read this): Hi Carole! I guess Beijing is much cooler now. I asked Chineseteachers.com to forward some study files to you. Those are just F.Y.R. If you don’t like them and you want to try some other topics with me, just let me know.

Wish you great progress and pleasure with Chinese study!

Overall good website. The minus generally for online tutoring is the sound you get is not as clear as offline. It is already very difficult face to face to get the difference between qing/jing/ting. But having chatting function between student-teacher could help.

It’s definitely not something I had considered, but if you just have a few quick questions, you can now get an instant answer for cheap. That’s pretty cool.

Your experience (and specifically the lack of awkwardness in the communications) makes me interested in giving it a try now. If only I’d tried it a while ago when I could have done it free!