TimTime34

Hey man, if you aren't getting any bites from here, maybe go check out Omegle. Get on the video chat section of the chat (disclaimer: beware), and put "China" in your interests. There are a fair number of Chinese colleges students on there looking to interact with native English speakers.

I've used Google Translate for Chinese and the result is laughable. It's barely intelligible for a native speaker. It's almost a certainty that Google has had more funding to fine tune the translation of primary global languages to English, and from English to Latin or European languages. Eventually they'll get there with Asiatic languages, because while highly nuanced the grammar is not as complicated as English (nowhere near as complicated it seems to me), but as of yet the demand is not there.

When I was in a Chinese class in college it was mentioned that, just by being a native English speaker, you can get hired pretty much on the spot to just be present in Chinese classrooms, teaching English. This is even if you have zero prior teaching experience. A classmate of mine said he had done just this, for about, if you can believe this, $20 an hour. Personally, I've made an agreement with a native Chinese speaker, living in China, to teach one another our native language via IM and Skype. While we kept this up for about a year, China is 14 hours ahead of the US, and keeping a schedule between us was very difficult. So there must be a more organized way to make such a mutually beneficial connection via the internet. And if it doesn't exist now, then it will probably exist soon. Will keep my eyes peeled, and on this thread, for links to such an organization. I would be interested in signing up.

Wow thanks mate! This is awesome! I've found that learning Chinese is like English in that it's extremely difficult to pick up on all the little nuances without immersion or frequent exposure to native speakers. But while English is more difficult in this regard, hollywood movies make exposure to fluent speakers easily accessible to everyone in the world. But there is no Chinese hollywood, so it's more difficult to fuse one's entertainment with Chinese, and add that extra dimension of immersion to your learning process. I've met Chinese college students via Omegle, and have done some practicing with them, but that is an extremely time intensive method, and even the Chinese students who want to learn English usually aren't in a position where they are skilled or familiar with teaching.

When I was taking a Chinese course in college, both the professor and the more advanced students highly recommended subscribing to the website Skritter. It has a unique software application that helps you practice the stroke order of your Chinese or Japanese characters. The muscle memory of writing characters is key to remembering the kanji / characters, and I found Skritter to be immensely helpful to passing the class. A subscription is only like $10 a month, and it's database has hundreds and hundreds (if not thousands) of langauge textbooks registered in it's memory: meaning that you can automatically sync YOUR textbook to Skritter's program, and it will alot the characters you need to learn, lesson by lesson. It was very convenient, and I was surprised to find that the exact textbook I was using for the class was already fully uploaded in it's database. While skritter is best used with a touchpad, it can also be used with a mouse, although too much of this is hard on the wrists if you don't have an ergonomic setup at your computer station. Check it out my friends