Anyone tried Chineseteachers.com
trevorb
December 15, 2010, 12:19 PM posted in General DiscussionHi All,
living in England and having no access to Chinese friends I've found the 10 mins or so speaking practice I've had from the guided program pretty useful. Until then I was focused on just the written language as I'm a geek so I don't talk to people even in my own language ;-) Now I'd hate to go back to just listening and writing. . .
I recently re-encountered Chineseteachers.com, their rates seem good and they claim to work with CPOD. They are also pretty flexible. Has anyone tried them and if so were they any good?
pretzellogic
I probably should have added that TLI is Taipei Language Institute.
aofuran
Nice to hear a little about TLI. I'm planning on studying their in a couple of months. What is your opinion? In what aspects has it helped you improve?
pretzellogic
On the speaking/listening front, TLI is probably a decent place. I didn't do much comparison shopping of Beijing language schools; instead, I relied on the perceptions/research of others. As I mentioned earlier, they have a pretty decent book that breaks down grammar in an approach I really like. I'm not sure what others would think about it.
On the writing characters front, the TLI book is fantastic! TLI took the trouble to teach you 20-25 characters, then has you read a story and sentences with those characters. So you'll read about 30 sentences, and then a 2-4 page story, using the characters you know from the ones they taught. Then you'll learn another 20 characters or so, then read 30 sentences and a story. and so on. I love this approach. I'm not sure what other schools take it, but I know TLI does for about 800 characters or so.
simma
Sorry, What are you guys talking about?
trevorb
Those TLI books sound good, but getting books is not so easy for me in 英国 any chance they have an ISBN on them, I'd love to give them a look.
I think I may well try out the chinese teachers thing. It seems like a good way to get some more practice when you have no chinese friends to lean on. My listening skills are still pretty poor despite listening to CPod everyday, but I think its just my poor old head not coping. Never was a gifted linguist so maybe I picked myself a bigger challenge than I thought :-) Besides I can just buy $10 worth and if it does not work for me then I don't need to do anything more.
pretzellogic
TLI books are worth buying. But I'm not saying that they're the only books that are any good. You're right, as near as I can tell, there are no ways to get the books other than coming to a TLI campus.
nihonfrench
December 19, 2010, 12:15 PMHello Trevorb,
I have been a student on ChineseTeachers.com for over 6 months now and I can tell you that I am very satisfied with the service. As you mentioned, the rates are quite reasonable (12$/hour for associate teachers), the teachers I had lessons with were all very professional.
If you have few opportunities to practice Chinese, ChineseTeachers is probably the best option for you. You can buy 50$ of credits and give it a try, I am sure you will not be disappointed. I started by buying credits but I was so satisfied with the service that I now have an unlimited pass and take over 5 hours of classes a week.
ChineseTeachers keeps track of your progress(how many hours studied), there is even an online certificate that you can use for job interviews etc.
All your ChinesePod material is available on CT and I heard they will add even more study material in the near future.
Highly recommended!
trevorb
Many thanks nihonfrench, sounds like it may we a good way to increase my practice time further. I think I will have to slide it into my new year budget :-)
xiao_liang
Not that I'm suspicious, but that kind of reads like a marketing droid to me...
trevorb
You are suspicious :-) Mind you if it were a droid wouldn't it suggest the more expensive teachers...
I'm minded to give it a try as my only other option to increase my talk time is probably to drive to your place and chat to your missus!
xiao_liang
You'd be very welcome! I can't understand a word she says ;-)
trevorb
Sounds perfect I never understand what my wife says to me either ;-) !
Understanding what someone says seems to be by far the hardest bit of the whole learning doesn't it!
Nikochan
December 26, 2010, 05:24 AMI personally use Chinesehour; I find their rate affordable (especially if you have a VIP membership) and have been working with them for almost a year already. For people studying Chinese abroad (out of China), I think that praticing speaking through an online personal teacher is a "must-have".
tortue
December 29, 2010, 08:23 AMI'm also a heavy ChineseTeachers.com user, I've been using it a for a year now either with some old texbooks I still have or with ChinesePod's materials.
I've lately posted two articles on the blog ChineseHacks.com on how to efficiently use ChineseTeachers.com to learn/practice how to write and Skritter.com for the writing reading side.
pretzellogic
December 16, 2010, 02:47 AMI'm not going to be much help here. But I am taking courses at TLI in Beijing with the teachers there, and I now realize how important it is to have good materials with a teacher for speaking practice. You know what your experience is with Chinese pod, but I would be pleased to see that Chineseteachers.com aligns teachers with the materials they use. I love the TLI books, as they stress grammar in a way that seems to help.No Chineseteachers.com teacher uses TLI books, but i've learned how valuable it is to have regular, daily speaking and listening practice.
Based on what I saw on the chineseteachers.com website, and if I were back in the US instead of in China, I'd try chineseteachers with an associate teacher for a couple ofhours, andif i had a goodconversation with her/him,i'd try a month's worth. I remember that after a year and a half of cpod, and then getting through about 50-80 intermediate level cpod lessons, i still felt I was going nowhere. After 2 weeks of speaking/listening with TLI (2 hours/day, 5 days/week), I felt I could converse at least badly! Cpod was working all along, but I needed plenty of practice and context to get the gears going.