Founded in 2006 by American and Chinese entrepreneurs, italki is today the most popular online tutoring platform.
False beginner (because the courses are based on conversation and therefore require a basic knowledge of the chosen language)
Intermediate level
Advanced level (in this case, choose a native teacher who can teach you more elaborate expressions and vocabulary)
The site is ergonomic and attempts to simplify your choice of a teacher from the multitude offered (more than 15,000). For this, you are immediately offered many selection criteria: country of origin, languages spoken (if you are a beginner, you can find a teacher who also speaks French to facilitate your understanding), native or not in the language taught , price range, type of lesson (grammar, business, test preparation…), and availability ranges.
In addition, all their profiles are identified as professional teacher or community tutor. This is an important search criterion that allows you to choose between a qualified teacher (native or bilingual) who often has more structured lessons, and a speaker (native or advanced) with whom to work on your oral expression.
Then refine your search by analyzing the file of each teacher. We particularly appreciate their presentation videos, a significant plus, especially for languages like English, with multiple accents and subtleties!
You also see the number of lessons already taught and the 5-star rating given by students to each teacher, as well as their comments. And the advantage of italki over other platforms of this type is that you can take a 30 min trial lesson, usually around 5 € or a little more .
Get free credits for taking an online course with a language teacher
Beyond paid individual courses, italki brings together a community that can interact on the app or the web platform , which has helped to make it famous. Students can connect and teachers share resources. You can find podcasts from teachers or content suggested by them, as well as exercises.
Frankly, it is difficult to find the negative points of the platform, if not the time-consuming nature of the search for the right teacher despite the filters, due to the large number of teachers.
Similarly, the counterpart of the free resources and exchanges offered by the vast international community of italki is that it is difficult to really benefit from them if you are not involved in them several hours a week . Do not choose italki for its community if you are not ready to invest yourself on a regular basis (follow the hashtags that interest you, participate in challenges, etc.). If you don’t have time to grope around to find what interests you, it’s better to have a personalized program with a teacher , who will adapt its content and follow your progress.
Languages available
italki has developed its app and made itself known in many countries, offering everyone the possibility of giving language lessons. This allows him to bring together teachers from all over the world to learn more than 150 languages !
If the accent is one of the important elements for you, it’s up to you to choose a native teacher, and you will take care to listen to his presentation video to evaluate his accent.
App or language course budget
The prices being fixed by the teachers, they are very variable. Hence the interest of completing the price range criterion proposed for your search. Overall the rates are more between 15 and 25 € per hour, we will count on average 20 €/h for a classic course but of course it will be more expensive for specific courses on an area.
italki being part of the sites that we find really interesting, we have selected them among our partners and we can thus offer you a credit of 10 $ for your first purchase of 20 $ of italki credits .