I’m sorry if it’s a repost; I searched but couldn’t find anything current. I much prefer to study one-on-one, because it’s faster and more in-depth that trying to learn in a classroom setting, so I have been studying with an amazing private tutor in Tainan for 350 an hour. However, I’m moving to Taipei now and looking for some personal recommendations for a new teacher. Does anyone have current info on some private Chinese tutors in Taipei? I managed to get in touch with one girl who wants 500 an hour, but that seems a bit high…
EDIT:
My level is intermediate, and I’m perfectly capable of an all-Chinese class. I’m mostly looking to improve my discussion, build vocabulary, and practice writing. Not characters necessarily, but doing short written compositions, just like a couple paragraphs of my opinions on a topic. That’s pretty much what I was doing with my old teacher.
My goals for learning Chinese are to live and work here indefinitely. I just got a job in International Sales, and even though I’ll use English with my clients Chinese will be vital for the workplace as well as making friends with my co-workers.
I do tutoring via Skype, but I’m higher than NT$500, I’m afraid.
You might get better responses if you can tell us a little bit about your level, your experience learning Chinese, and what your specific goals are with the language (short- and long-term).
My first tutor is looking for more students - she used to have a constantly full schedule before losing everyone on a failed attempt at moving to Thailand with her foreigner boyfriend… 
$350/hr.
There is nothing revolutionary about her methods or anything like that, just uses the Shida books like everyone else, but I quite enjoyed having class with her, and her spoken English is exceptional if that’s important to you. If you are beyond PAVC, however, I’d look somewhere else. PM me if you’re interested and I’ll give you her contact info.
[quote=“odysseyandoracle”]My first tutor is looking for more students - she used to have a constantly full schedule before losing everyone on a failed attempt at moving to Thailand with her foreigner boyfriend… $350/hr.
There is nothing revolutionary about her methods or anything like that, just uses the Shi-Da books like everyone else, but I quite enjoyed having class with her, and her spoken English is exceptional if that’s important to you. If you are beyond PAVC, however, I’d look somewhere else. PM me if you’re interested and I’ll give you her contact info.[/quote]
I know her and she’s very good - apart from making daft decisions such as moving to Taiwan to teach Chinese . Seriously, she’s a top girl.
May I ask why? Has she specifically expressed that she’d be uncomfortable with or unprepared for teaching someone at a higher level?
May I ask why? Has she specifically expressed that she’d be uncomfortable with or unprepared for teaching someone at a higher level?[/quote]
This is my own opinion. I’m the only advanced student she’s ever had, as I did another month of lessons with her after she came back from Thailand (although this was about half a year of full-time classes after finishing PAVC). She helped me prepare for the TOCFL, but after that it seemed that she didn’t know what we could do together and I didn’t either. Since I haven’t been working, I can’t afford to pay for just conversation every week. I’m a native English speaker, I can find language exchange partners easily.
This isn’t her fault. At this level, I don’t think there’s really any need a tutor at all - I’m taking full-time classes at NCCU and for a few months I’ve felt like there’s no point to that either, other than just getting a chance to speak every day. I’m not interested in spending time/money improving my writing ability at this point, and I can’t see what else I could be ‘taught.’ Just a matter of learning more vocabulary and getting more exposure, and I’m very self-motivated in both regards. Others might have a different view on how important tutors are to advanced students.
All of her business is word of mouth (she has never advertised anywhere), and all of her students are English teachers or came to Taiwan initially as English teachers. So the bulk of them never even get past book 2. I believe I was the first one she ever taught book 4 to, though I think there’s another one with her doing it right now.
Her first lesson is free, so if you are an advanced student and you want a tutor it’d still be worth it reaching out to her and seeing what she can come up with. And if you can provide the material, I think there’s be no problem at all.