🇨🇳 The best tutors for learning Chinese (Mandarin)

Founded in 1956 at National Taiwan Normal University, the MTC is where a large share of foreign diplomats and students have learned Mandarin in Taiwan, and it teaches in traditional characters throughout. Terms are three months, small classes, and there are online options if you are not in Taipei. It is a paid, full-time-ish commitment rather than something to dabble in — listed here because the Taiwanese-Mandarin end of the catalogue is otherwise all self-study.

TLI has taught Mandarin to foreigners since 1956 and now runs one-to-one and small-group classes both in Taipei and over video, in traditional characters. Being a school rather than a product, the pace and syllabus are negotiated with your teacher, which suits people who already know what they need and badly suits people who want a path laid out for them. Paid, priced per hour, with a free trial lesson.

One-on-one video lessons from roughly $5–30/hr depending on the language and the teacher's credentials. It is the single fastest way to get real speaking practice, and the reason most self-study plans stall is that they skip this step. Community tutors are cheap conversation partners; professional teachers are worth it if you want structure, homework and error correction.

100,000+ tutors across 120+ subjects, with a free replacement if your first tutor is a bad fit. The main structural difference from italki is that Preply pushes weekly lesson subscriptions and takes a large commission from tutors, which some learners consider a reason to prefer italki. Worth comparing side by side for your language — prices, availability and tutor quality differ per market rather than per platform.