Online learning of Chinese

[Pengyou]

I may have missed this while searching....I am looking for a school that has a program to teach Chinese via Skype, or some such media, and that has experience doing this.  Has anyone tried any?  I tried a school in Tianjin about 6 years ago and was not impressed at all.  Ideally this kind of class should be more than just a teacher using normal teaching methods standing or sitting in front of a camera.  I know that I would do best in a face to face situation, but it is at least a 2 hour trip to where most schools are, and I am doing some lucrative side work on Saturdays.  Any experience or suggestions are greatly appreciated, even if you need to go a wee bit off topic.

[DavyJonesLocker]

I think in this case, I  would just use a language teacher and cut out the middleman, that way you can pay by hour and don't need to enter any contract. Often a teacher is not good or bad, they are just not suitable for your style of learning. 

[abcdefg]

Keats offers that. Works best if you have done some face-to-face work with the teacher in a classroom, and then you continue lessons after leaving Kunming. 

[EnergyReaper]

try to find a native web language exchange partner. you can teach each other

[Flickserve]

7 hours ago, Pengyou said:

Ideally this kind of class should be more than just a teacher using normal teaching methods standing or sitting in front of a camera. 

 

Ideally, you should be able to define what exactly your preferred methodology of online learning is.

 

Do you have something in mind? I just ask this because I have gone through a number of online lessons. Personally, the one that seems to work best for me is TPRS. 

 

otherwise, all schools will be guessing at your unknown expectations and then you would just go through a repeated cycle of dissatisfaction.

[imron]

italki is apparently a good place to find language teachers, and you pay by the hour meaning there's no upfront commitment with a school and you can change around teachers as often as you like until you find one that meets your needs.

[Pengyou]

The best style for me is to interact with 4 or 5 people while learning...but that is not available to me right now, so I am trying to learn what is second best for me.  There are 3 schools in Beijing that offer a course designed to help people get an acceptable score on the HSK level 5 - partly by improving my Chinese ability but also by improving my ability to take the test. They told me upfront that my Chinese would not improve that much, just so that I had appropriate expectations. Leave it to the Chinese to elevate HSK exam prep to an art! I have thought about asking one of the Chinese teachers in the HS where I teach to teach me, but they have no info on the HSK.  My mid term goal - a few years later - is to return to the US and to teach Chinese in the public schools there.  I have my teaching license for the US.  There is an exam called the Praxis, which if I get an acceptable score on it, I can teach Chinese in the public schools in the US.  I have heard that level 5 on the HSK is similar to the Praxis.  Long term goal - I want to be able to read Chinese well enough to enjoy reading, as I do in English.  I will probably never be as fluid a reader of Chinese as I am of English but still will likely enjoy reading.

 

Most of the dissatisfaction I have had with online learning is the fact that the teachers did not realize that while working online, some of the subtle body language and mannerisms are lost, that turning your head to the side while speaking (something we all do naturally) does not work while on video because the quality of sound changes, etc.  It is not so much a function of the teaching style as it is of the medium being used.

 

I am going to do some research on HSK prep.  It is a new arena for me....I may be back with more questions after I do a bit of research.