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Getting Started | Our teachers | Our Lessons | Learning Chinese | Technical Help | Pricing  Do I really need to use headsets for the lessons, rather than my PC speakers?Yes. Using headsets with attached microphone will avoid echoes during your lesson. If you use your PC speakers, your Chinese teacher will hear the echo of their own voice and this will seriously interfere with their ability to conduct a good lesson. This is why all our Chinese teachers are using headsets with microphone. Please avoid USB headsets if you can as they tend to cause issues with certain browsers. What kind of computer and software do I need to start taking lessons?PC or Mac. - For PC, our site works well with Windows XP, ME, Vista, 2003, 2000, 98. - For Mac, our site works well with OS X v 10.1 or later (PowerPC) and OSX v 10.4.x (Intel). Supported browsers (with Flash 10.0.23 or later version installed): - Recommended: Firefox 1.5 or above (both Mac & PC) and Google Chrome (currently only on PC), - Safari and IE 6 or above should work too Important: you need to have Flash 10.0.23 or later supported in your browser (IE browser version & other browsers version). Internet connection: - A broadband internet connection is best, with at least 512 download & 64Kbps upload speed. - Avoid using 3G/mobile connection or low quality Wi-Fi services And of course, you don't need any extra software like Skype, MSN or Gtalk as the lessons are conducted directly from your browser. What should I do if my teacher could not hear some words I say? You probably need to increase the "Record Volume" if your teacher cannot hear you well. But not too much or you will hear your own voice (your echo) during the lessons. You can change this "Record Volume" setting using our Connection Check.  What should I do if I hear my echo? You probably have audio enhancements set as active in your audio settings. You can disable your audio enhancements by following these steps.  What should I do if my teacher says she can hear her own echo strongly? This is very likely because your sound settings for playback volume is not mute. See the below picture to see how to mute your playback volume. The Audio Manager may look a little different on your computer but this is always about muting the playback volume. Do not hesitate to contact us if you need our help, we know this is not easy.  In my last lesson, I could hear a delay, is it normal?Our platform is specifically designed for learning tonal languages like Mandarin Chinese where the quality of the voice is critical. As such, our platform gives a higher priority to the quality of the voice over speed, and delays of one to two seconds can be expected with normal internet communications. However, if you are experiencing longer delays that is impacting your lesson, please try the following simple steps before your next lesson: - Run our connection check and read carefully the "Instructions and Troubleshooting" instructions on that page. This will help identify if your connection is responsive enough, but also if your company's firewall is blocking our live lessons. - Try using a different browser as it could be one of your browser extensions that create issues. - Close all other browsers and web pages that you do not need (some of them keep downloading and uploading data which impacts lessons) and restart the browser you were using for your lesson. Importantly, please make sure you only login to ChineseTeachers.com from one page and not from multiple pages (even from different computers). - Add www.ChineseTeachers.com in the white-list of your anti-virus (see how to do it) or close the anti-virus for the time of the lesson - Close any programs that are connecting to the internet (like mail programs) or requires a lot of resources from your computer (like iTunes or Outlook) - Optionally, you can ask your internet provider to move your connection from a "dynamic IP" to a "fixed IP". The IP address is basically your internet address. Most internet providers (also called ISP) will accept your request to move you to a fixed IP for free. Having a fixed IP address can really help with delays as your IP address will never change, especially during a lesson. - Run our connection check again. I tried your recommendations but this is not solving my problem. What can I do?Please run the following steps and contact us with the information so that we can help you improve your computer setup. Bandwidth information: please go to http://www.speedtest.net/ and run their quick test, which will give you your internect connection download, upload and ping performance. Anti-virus/Firewall software: Sometimes, such software will interfere with our technology and causing delays, which tend to get worse as the lesson continues. Please tell us if you know which one (and its version) you are using. Firewall: A common cause of poor lesson quality is that firewalls block some of the "Ports" that the lessons need to use. Please go to www.flashcomguru.com/apps/port_test/index.cfm and see if all the ports are open (the test is automatic and takes less than one minute). Internet connection type: Please tell us if you are using ADSL or (TV) cable to access internet. Please also tell us if you are using wifi and/or share the connection with multiple users. My lesson stopped because of a disconnection. What should I do? This can happen from time to time as the quality of the worldwide Internet connection fluctuates over time. You can call back your teacher when back online, or try to have class with another teacher. I know I need a headset, but can I use the built-in microphone of my laptop?We have many students (and teachers) using their laptop for their live lessons on our site without any problem. It is ok to use your built-in microphone as long as you use a headset to hear your teachers' voice. But using a headset with a microphone will always bring better audio quality, especially if you move your head during the lesson away from the laptop. Do I really need to install Flash on my computer?Installing Adobe Flash is indeed necessary for your live lessons on our website. The good news is that it is very easy to install Adobe Flash. Simply download it from http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/. The installation is very simple. |
