This sounds really promising - a combination of AI voice chat + real tutors
Below is the blurb when you click the Read More link at the top of this list of tutors
But before you start browsing, we strongly recommend you use the availability filter below to instantly narrow down the choice to teachers who are likely to suit your weekly schedule.
When you open the profiles of our online Chinese tutors, you’ll be able to check the time slots they have available, as well as see their lesson prices and which learning needs, levels and ages they cater to.
If you’re new to LanguaTalk, when you create an account, you’ll be given a token for a free, 30-minute trial session. Use this to get to know a Chinese tutor and make sure you’ve made the right choice (you can try someone else if you’re unsure). Please note that not all tutors offer a trial session for free - some charge a discounted price (30% of their full lesson price).
There’s no card required for free trial sessions, though we do ask you to only book if you’re thinking about taking lessons.
We’re confident that whatever your goals, level or needs are, you’ll love learning Chinese via LanguaTalk.
We’re trusted by thousands of students and tutors all over the world because we’re transparent. On the profile of each tutor, you’ll see reviews from students.
99.8% of ratings are 5 stars. Why? Because unlike other platforms, we spend countless hours assessing applications so we can provide you with the very best online Chinese tutors.
There’s a difference between AI and a human when it comes to teaching and learning. You still need a human to practice interacting with humans, which is what language learning is supposed to be for. Tbh, there are tons of quality learning apps that can take one from zero to quite fluent (B2+ on the CEFR scale) that have been around for a lot longer than AI)
I charge…a bit…more than US$30/hr to tutor Chinese and I’m not a native speaker.
It’s taken years of networking and honing my craft, but my students can speak nonstop for 2+ minutes, off the cuff, in Chinese, after ten hours of instruction time with me. They don’t do any homework/memorizing on their own. (Although many start reviewing or asking for homework after they realize how quickly they’re making progress). That’s ten hours of Chinese class >> can tell a two minute story in Chinese from the language floating in their brain, not memorized sentence structures. They know they’re getting many hours worth of traditional style instruction out of every one hour of class with me, news spreads, they tell their friends, more people want to learn from me and are more than happy to pay more than they would with a random teacher, as time is just as valuable as money. Most Chinese classes waste a lot of time on grammar and details about words/characters that students can look up on their own time.
But that’s a methodology difference. I continue to see these platforms “carefully vetting” teachers who will do “repeat after me” and “your turn to create a sentence with this structure” lessons. That’s slow and boring and I have tried to attend many classes like that, only to realize I learn very little after many hours (or even complete textbooks) even after I also do tons of review on my own.
Also, keep in mind these platforms charge as much as 60% (sometimes “only” 30%) of the tutors’ listed rate. So you see US$30/hr but the tutor is only being paid US$12-$21/hr, depending on how much of a cut the platform takes.
