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How to choose an Online Chinese Tutor - The Ultimate Guide

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I want to preface this article by emphasising that looking through an online Chinese tutor’s profile will only give you a glimpse of how good a Chinese language teacher is. Some things can only be learned by experiencing a lesson. This is why most individual people or institutes will offer the first Chinese lesson free. My advice is to first understand the criteria you’re going to judge an online Chinese tutor on (the contents of this article) and then pick your favourite two or three tutors. After that, book a free trial lesson online with each of them. Only then can you confidently decide who is the right Chinese online tutor for you. This will make sure your money is going to the correct person. First things first, let’s look at what a Chinese language teacher gives you that self-study resources cannot.

Instant feedback


Conversation practice


Efficiency


Using these as a starting point, the criteria for a good teacher can be broken down into: Online Chinese Tutor Skills, Tutor Personality, and Language Tutor Knowledge.

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Let’s look at these more deeply.

Online Chinese Tutor Skills

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Conversation Practise

Efficiency

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Tutor Personality

It’s good to be thinking about whether you get on with your online tutor and if you like them as a person. There are some other traits that a good tutor has: - Endless patience with you. - Visible passion for the language and teaching. - The ability to keep you engaged. - Leave you with the feeling that you can’t wait for the next lesson. - Makes you feel connected to the language more deeply.

Language Tutor Knowledge

"Language Tutor Knowledge", I would define as the things which separate a tutor from an ordinary person. What have they studied that makes them a better Chinese language teacher? How do they apply their knowledge of teaching and the language in a way that helps you learn?

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