Looking for good chinese course or private teacher

Language Learning Chinese
1

Hi,

Im planning on staying in Taiwan (Taipei) for several months later this year to learn chinese (or at least to start learning it).

Can anyone recommend any good courses, or good private teachers (instead of or maybe as well as a course).

I’m more or less a beginner, except I know a few words and phrases from my Taiwanese friend, and can recognise some characters.

For a private teacher, I would be looking for proper structured lessons, rather than just “language exchange”.

As I will be in Taiwan to learn the language (not to work), I’d be wanting to do a fairly intensive course during the daytime. My main priority is learning to speak and listen to the language, though some reading/writing would be good too.

A couple of university courses have been mentioned to me: the Chinese Cultural University and the National Normal University. Does anyone know anything about these?

I am in Taiwan for a few weeks now, to check out courses and possible teachers, so any recommendations would be very much appreciated!

Many thanks for any help.

Regards,
Ben

2

Is any recommend acceptable?
ME !!! ME !!!
I’ve been teaching Mandarin for 4 to 5 years already, am just about to finish my vocation in Canada.
If you still not find anyone yet, maybe we could try a trial private lesson first.
P.S. My name is “Pei Yun”

3

All the schools are roughly equivalent. Same books, same tired methodology, same lack of attention to student goals. Pick the cheapest and/or most geographically convenient.

Private teacher – if you have no visa problems, it might be OK. But most have no training outside of the above-mentioned schools. No way to correct your pronunciation outside of repeating the sound for you (i.e., do not know articulatory phonetics to cut to the chase and say “your tongue is too far back” or similar), no use of common Western learning/teaching techniques for the most part. You may be lucky enough to find an exception, in which case I’m sure everyone would encourage you to post. Consider cost as well.

Sorry to sound jaded but that’s really how I see it. Pick the cheapest alternative.