Today I took the first Mandarin lesson on preply. I have been learning for years but my speaking ability is not even up to par. Simply because I have no one whom I am brave enough to speak mandarin to.
My first experience was good. The teacher seems kind and sympathetic to me. She helped a lot with my pronunciation. Something that I don’t really get when I was in the classroom. I did take weekly lessons which was paid by the company. It was just 1 hour a week and during the weekdays. And because it was not enough, I also attended classes which was twice a week at the Confucius center. The class would start at 6pm while work ended at 5:30pm. Then I would have to rush over to the class which I was always the last to arrive. In the class there were about 13 of us so one can imagine how much one would have the chance to really practice speaking.
I am quite happy to find this because the rates are good. And having lessons over the weekend is good for me. Not to mention it is way comfortable to learn online and it is flexible.
I registered myself and searched for a tutor – one can choose by how much they charge, where they are from and their availability. Some of the tutors are newcomers so they usually start at a much lower rate. And once they gained more students they would eventually raise their rates as they also gained more experience teaching online. The tutor I chose mentioned to me that after 20 lessons or so she would increase her price. I am actually ok with the price she suggested because from what I am paying right now, I didn’t even bother to get a free trial lesson. After the first lesson, I immediately bought more hours and scheduled for 8 more lessons. For 2 hours over the weekend.
Look forward to the next class actually. 🙂