What will happen during the first class?

It’s always a little difficult to call strangers, even if they are qualified Chinese teachers. So, to help make the first lesson go as smoothly as possible, we’ve put together a standard list of questions that all our teachers will ask you the first time they talk to you to get to know a little more about you, your Chinese level, and your learning goals.

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The questions are designed so that you can give as much or as little detail as you want depending on your Chinese level and how comfortable you feel.You can also feel free to ask the teacher some questions of your own.

 Are your lessons conducted over the phone or Skype?

No. All the live lessons are conducted directly from your browser after you click the 'call' button of the teacher you want to have a lesson with. You do not have to worry about downloading and installing yet another software.

It just works from your browser, like Gmail or Facebook, with the ability for you to upload your own documents that you can share during the lesson with your teacher.

 After sign-up, do I have immediate access to all the teachers?

Yes. You will have immediate access to all our teachers and resources. You will always be able to start your lesson with just one click after you login, provided you have at least $1 USD in your account. If you buy our Annual Pass, you can call the teachers covered by the Annual Pass just after buying it.

 What methods of payment can I use?



You can pay with the following credits cards: Visa, MasterCard & American Express.

We selected Paypal to handle the payments for your safety (we have no access to your credit cards details) and its wide international coverage. We therefore can accept Paypal payments too if you have a Paypal account.

You can check our step-by-step explanation on how you can buy credits (and easily decide how much you want to pay, each time).

 What is your Refund policy?

For extra peace of mind, we can refund any balance in full (bonuses excluded) for payments made within 45 days for a small $5 administration fee.

For our Annual Pass, you can cancel it within one month & we will simply calculate the costs of the lessons that were taken using our pay-as-you-go model and refund you the difference.

 Is ChineseTeachers.com a socially responsible company?

Definitely, and we welcome any feedback on how we could do better.

Fairness. You will not see our teachers' pictures/videos, so that they are only judged on their teaching qualities. All our teachers are scored by students at the end of every lesson, providing a fair, open and transparent benchmark.

People friendly. Our platform allows physically challenged students to learn, and offers physically challenged Chinese teachers with equal financial rewards as the other teachers.

Environment friendly. We want to help people anywhere in the world to learn (or teach) Mandarin Chinese without causing additional pollution by driving to a language school.

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Don't worry if you are unsure about your level. Most students don't fit nicely into any single category anyway. Our teachers are all well-trained to help learners of any level.
 
Because our focus is on spoken Chinese, it really doesn’t matter how many Chinese characters you know.
 
Here are some guidelines our teachers use when thinking about levels:
  
First Timer
First lesson ever! You have no prior knowledge of the Chinese language.
Beginner 
You know some basic vocabulary but still find expressing yourself in everyday situations a challenge. Because of your limited vocabulary, listening is very difficult. You can recite memorized phrases but don’t have a clear understanding of the grammar at work in them.
Intermediate
You know enough words to express yourself in everyday situations. You are familiar with the sounds of Chinese and can differentiate the tones if spoken clearly. You can understand most of what you hear in a few situations you are familiar with. You have a basic working knowledge of Chinese grammar. 
Advanced
You can converse in Chinese easily in most everyday situations and you even know some specialized vocabulary in your professional field. Listening is easy for you in a variety of different situations. You have a solid foundation in Chinese grammar.

 Are all your teachers based in China?

Although they are all native Chinese teachers, they are not all based in China. Simply because our ultimate goal is to always have teachers online, 24 hours a day, every day of the year, which is only possible if we have teachers in different time zones. This is why we are always interested to hear from qualified Chinese teachers outside Greater China, especially those with less common foreign languages fluency.
 
 Which teacher category should I go for?

Actually, the best is to mix and match teachers from different categories to get a more complete learning experience. If you prefer to be assessed to find out which category is most 'suitable' for you, feel free to call our consultants for free when they are online. They will be happy to help you determine the best study plan for you.
 
 What are the benefits of learning with many different teachers?

- Learn with different teaching styles, an opportunity to find out which style is the best fit for you.
- Learn with real people: Get used to different ways of talking in Chinese, different usages of vocabularies in different regions, slightly different accents between regions and even between genders.
- Learn with Professionals from different Background: different specialty and industry knowledge add different flavor to the lessons. Also, you can learn within the context you are familiar with. 

 What can I expect from teachers in the 'Professionals' category?

Teachers in this category are also all native Mandarin Chinese speakers. They are specialized in different job functions, industries and cultural experiences inside and outside the Greater China region. Most teachers in this category are business professionals with over 10 years of working experiences. This is a very unique group of teachers, as their expertise will bridge the Chinese language skills you acquired with the most up-to-date business communication skills that are relevant for doing business in China!

 How can I tell if a teacher is good?

A teacher can only be good if they can meet their students’ needs. There is no one standard ‘good teacher’ as all students are different, which is why we offer an extensive ‘advanced search’ function to ensure your needs can be best matched with what our teachers offer. In addition, every student is asked to score/grade their teacher after each lesson. Each teacher’s average score is always displayed publicly and updated with each lesson he/she undertakes. So, search according to your own needs, but watch out for those teachers with great feedback and high scores from fellow students, after all, you can’t get more direct first-hand feedback than this! 

 Why do you not disclose the teachers' real name?

Protecting our teachers' privacy is very important to us and this means that we do not disclose their personal information (including their pictures and contact information). Of course, some teachers may decide to use their real names as their nickname, but this is entirely their decision. But, we DO make sure the teachers are really who they say they are – with multiple checks and assessments carried out for each teacher application to verify their identity, qualification and motivation before taking them on board.


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 How long is each lesson?

You decide! It can be 5 minutes, 20 minutes, or 2 hours!

 Do I need to book in advance?

No. Any time you can, just login and your very own private lesson will be one click away! But if you prefer to stick to a regular schedule, you can also arrange it with any of our Chinese teachers with our simple booking function.

 Do I need any Chinese books?

No. Our teachers are here to help you with any materials you have or no materials at all. You can also use the premium content developed by nciku and ChinesePod. 

 Can I keep learning with my books or my ChinesePod transcripts?

Yes. After you login, you can search for teachers that have the same book(s) as you using our advanced search function. You can also upload your own learning materials (PDF, DOC and other formats) that both you and your teacher will be able to see during the live lesson.

 Can I book a lesson with a particular teacher I like?

You never have to book in advance, but if you would like to schedule some time with a teacher, simply click their message icon to arrange your next lesson. Please note that we cannot guarantee the teacher's availability, just like we won't hold you responsible and impose charges if you cannot be on time for your lesson.


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 How can I track my progress?

You can easily track your progress with our unique tracking system. Simply login and check any of the lessons you had, with which teachers, and all the notes you and your teachers made, including any vocabularies or sentences the teacher gave you during the lessons.

 Can I improve my Chinese grammar?

Yes. Our "Teachers" and "Senior Teachers" are all professional Chinese teachers who are qualified and experienced in teaching Chinese to foreign students. They will be able to help you learn all aspects of the Mandarin language including grammar.

 Can I make real progress in a few months?

We have seen our students achieving significant progress in speaking Chinese within only 3 months when they practice speaking Chinese for 15 minutes everyday with a Chinese teacher, and study with 3 to 5 different Chinese teachers 

 How difficult is it to learn Chinese?

Chinese is known to be difficult, and as a tonal language, it is particularly difficult for students to communicate in Chinese, however, experience shows that the earlier a student pay attention to the tones, and practice them, the faster their Chinese communication will improve. It is important to practice on a regular basis, ideally every day for at least 10 to 20 minutes, or one to two hours every week. Our eLearning platform has been designed to give you the convenience of learning that fits your lifestyle and allows such regular practice.

 Can I learn how to write Chinese Characters with your eLearning platform?

Our focus is to help you improve your listening and speaking capabilities in Chinese, allowing you to learn at anytime you want and for however long you want. We do believe that it is helpful if you also learn how to write Chinese characters to acquire a different appreciation for the Chinese language. Our friends at Skritter have developed a fantastic site to help students learn how to write Chinese characters. We also highly recommend the great online Chinese dictionary Nciku - they just keep improving their services.

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 What kind of computer and software do I need to start taking lessons?

Both PC and Mac. 

For PC, it works well with Windows XP, ME, Vista, 2003, 2000, 98.
For Mac, it works well with OS X v 10.1 or later (PowerPC) and OSX v 10.4.x (Intel).

We support the following browser: IE 5.5 or above, Firefox 1.5 or above, Google Chrome, as long as they have Flash 9.0 or later plugin installed.

Broadband (cable modem, DSL, or LAN) – (512/64K bps) internet connection is suitable.

And of course, you do not need any extra software like Skype, MSN or Gtalk as the lessons are conducted directly from your browser.

 I can't login with my email and password?

You can do the following with Firefox or Internet Explorer (other browsers would have similar setup): go to "tools" > "options", then in "privacy" you need to "enable cookies". Check how long you want to enable cookies for and click "OK". You should be able to login.

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