Learn Mandarin, Cantonese and Chinese characters via online chat?

January 26, 2011 7:01 PM

Can anyone recommend a tried and true site offering live chat lessons teaching Mandarin or Cantonese and Chinese writing?

There are many sites offering to teach Chinese via Skype. I cannot find any personal reviews. The tutor should be able to teach in English as well, of course.

posted by ayc200 to Education (4 answers total)

I don't know how helpful my comments are here but I'm using LingQ for French and they offer Chinese as well. Link provided here is to the Chinese page. I can't vouch for their Chinese but I have been pleased with the French. Also, I'm not a beginner. Not sure if that matters.
posted by shoesietart at 8:02 PM on January 26, 2011

Italki.com, has dozens of active tutors with ratings. Prices range from $1-20/hr. Some of the very cheap instructors or not very good, but I was able to find a few good instructors in the $5-12/hr range, very convenient. No contracts, no membership fees, just set up classes one by one, if it doesn't work out, try someone else the next time. Most of the tutors speak passable English, some speak very well.
posted by bluejayk at 12:08 AM on January 27, 2011

I know that Rosetta Stone has it. I would start there. My friend tried it and enjoyed it.
posted by Felex at 9:33 AM on January 27, 2011

I don't know about the live chat part, though I've heard that Skritter is good for learning the characters.
posted by fix at 10:59 AM on January 27, 2011