Daomon D.

The trouble with Chinese when you're learning it in the classroom is that you don't always get personal attention. My classmates and I were doing a lot of listening but not enough speaking. Often, the teacher would break us into groups and have us practice speaking with each other, but the tones meant that we were absorbing the speaking mistakes of our classmates.
To get more speaking practice, I worked with a "study buddy" from China enrolled in my uni, but they weren't professional teachers and couldn't quite guide me as well as I wanted.
I heard about online lessons so I signed up for a kind of free test with eChineseLearning. The teacher helped me find my strengths and weaknesses and make a study plan. I signed up for 1-on-1 lessons and my speaking has improved greatly since then. Getting personalized feedback each step of the way has been a real game changer!