Synchronous (LIVE) Online Chinese Learning with Audio&Video

[1on1Mandarin]

Hi Everyone,

I need some direction and advice about what people thing about online Chinese classes that provide synchronous LIVE online Chinese classes with video. I have many friends that have been asking me lately about this type of program because they neither have the time or the money to sacrifice to study in China. They have searched on the internet and can find some programs that offer online courses but the majority are still only asynchronous, or the synchronous ones only include audio through Skype or Yahoo.

1) What programs exist out there?

2) Do you have any experience with these types of programs?

3) Is the technology advanced enough to avoid all of the common inefficiencies like delay, static, etc.?

4) Do you think that students will be able to tolerate this type of artificial training? How do you think it will affect their progress?

5) For companies like HelloMandarin.com, do you think the rates are worth it for people in the US?

6) Obviously, live face-to-face is the best, but if you couldn't do that, what would you choose?

Thanks!

[roddy]

The obvious presumed benefit would be being able to link up the teacher's mouth shape with pronunciation. However, Tthe video to video quality I've seen on the likes of MSN / Yahoo is not yet synchronous enough to make that straightforward. Perhaps there's other (enterprise level?) software that does a better job, I don't know.

There's another advantage to video - that it's more natural, more interactive. That's fair enough, and if you've got the equipment and bandwidth (is sending video likely to detract from audio quality?) go for it.