hi im melissa and i've been a tutor on italki since January of 2020 and I've also taken
several classes on the platform I do have an entire playlist of my french learning journey
if you are interested yes 30 seconds in and I'm already plugging my own stuff but today
I'm giving you my updated review of italki i made one a while ago i wasn't expecting
anyone to actually see it but things have changed and im here to give you my honest
opinions on italki from a teacher and student perspective feel free to let me know what
you think of italki in the comments below the first that i want to talk about is italki
as a platform so italki itself before i get into anything else and if you aren't familiar
with italki it's a language learning marketplace that connects teachers with students and students
with teachers there are over ten thousand teachers on the platform teaching so many
different languages pretty much any language you could possibly imagine because there are
so many different teachers for so many different languages its easy to find one that works
for your schedule, your price point, for your learning needs you're gonna be able to find
a teacher that works for you but something to keep in mind is that there is two different
teacher types that you're gonna find on italki there's community tutors and professional
teachers community tutors is what i am and basically it's people who may or may not have
any formal teaching training who are there to still help you usually their prices are
a little less and professional teachers usually it starts at like 4 dollars versus professional
teachers start at like 8 dollars but professional teachers do have a certificate formal teaching
experience schooling education on being a good teacher so it is worth the extra price
but there are some community tutors that have that sort of training as well you just have
to read everyone's profile and figure out what works for you if you are looking for
a teacher that gives more informal lessons conversation practice type lessons and you
yourself have a bit more of a handle on your target language look for community tutors
if that's kind of the vibe you're going for but if you're looking for a really well drawn
out lesson plan structured lessons someone that is going to be able to give you a lot
of knowledge when it comes to grammar rules grammar structures different things like that
then definitely look more towards professional teachers but community tutors also do structured
lessons like for example i do structured lesson types it's not gonna be the same thing you're
gonna get with a professional teacher but it's my version of it so if you're looking
for a teacher on italki watch their video read through their whole profile don't skip
out on that and there are over five million learners on italki so if you are a teacher
or a tutor you know that you will have a steady stream of students coming to your profile
but a big part of making sure that you have a steady amount of students actually booking
with you is making sure that you have a really well set up profile I have an entire video
on how to do that as well as blog posts so i will link all of that in the description
bar so that you can make sure that your profile is set up well because so far it seems to
be working for me so yay another great thing that i love about italki's platform is that
they do offer three trial lessons for people just starting out so usually teachers will
set their trial lesson prices to be a little bit cheaper so you then can try out three
different teachers kind of see who you work best with and i think that that is a fantastic
way to try different people out try different learning styles just kind of get to know the
platform so i definitely recommend taking advantage of that if you're interested in
italki its a great way to kind of get started i love italki's website i love their app they're
both easy to use they're beautiful one of my favorite things is that as a teacher i
can adjust my schedule from within the app so if i ever remember anything in the middle
of the day i don't need to be at my computer to change my teaching schedule so that has
helped me in so many different situations and then as a student it's also really nice
to at any time be able to go into the app and book a lesson because sometimes ill randomly
remember yeah I've been slacking on my language learning journey recently and then if it's
three a.m. when I've remembered that i don't have to get up out of bed go over to my computer
in order to book a lesson i can just do it from my phone and book a lesson for the next
day or whenever i want it for so that is a really nice thing i love that they do have
an app that is like easy to use one of the cool things about italki as well is that they
have their community it is on their app i don't know if they put it on the website yet
so if you aren't able to afford an italki lesson at the moment but you do have questions
about your target language or you need some insight on something or you need corrections
or whatever there is a community that you can take advantage of without having to take
lessons so there is that also a big part of italki is the fact that they have italki classroom
so just kind of like skype or zoom or google hangouts they do have their own built in video
chat software i have never had issues with it many people have had many issues with it
they are actually not ever really able to use it from what I've heard but for me its
been all good with most of my students though i use skype i use italki classroom maybe once
per week and it's fine it works so if you don't have a preference for what you video
call with and you just want to keep it simple it can
all just be done within the app or the website so now onto all of my favorite things about
italki why i like it so much i will get to the juicier stuff in a minute but i think
it's important that i do mention all of this italki has been my favorite source of like
consistent income that i think I've ever had I've made friends through italki some of my
students have even found me on youtube hi i have had some of the most interesting and
inspiring conversations of my entire life because of italki and it's allowed me to do
one of my favorite things ever which is connect with people and and be able to i guess kind
of experience like different cultures through the internet and especially during this time
when we haven't really been able to do that like actually go out and experience different
people and cultures and perspectives so it has been like the most refreshing thing over
this past year its easy to use it allows me to be completely in charge of my own schedule
i made pretty amazing strides in my french journey with the tutors that i had on italki
I'm in charge of what lessons i want to take what teaching style i want to go for with
the teachers that i book with im also able to be in charge of my own teaching style and
my own lesson types and as a student i can find some really kind of cheap lessons with
incredible tutors that i would probably never be able to work with otherwise because they
live on the other side of the world all in all at the end of the day im very thankful
for italki but with that being said i want to talk about where things can go wrong on
the platform and where they've gone wrong for me sounds so juicy so where it can go
wrong is with the people now most of the people that I've met through italki and most of the
student's that I've had are amazing but every once and a while there is a bad egg that kind
of ruins it and that's the case with everything but i said in my previous review of italki
that the biggest issue with the platform is finding the right fit so making sure that
as a student you find the right teacher for your learning style and then also as a teacher
making sure that you're getting in the right students for your teaching style students
that will actually be able to benefit from what you can give them and italki does give
you lots of options on how to like narrow your search as a student so if you're looking
for a community tutor who is at a certain price point who is from the UK because you
want to learn from someone who speaks english in a British accent like you can narrow all
of that down so easily and i think that's amazing and as a tutor i think that they do
really set you up for success because they do kind of promote that you should be asking
your students questions before they even book their lesson with you to make sure that you're
both on the same page so italki does really set you up for success with that on both sides
but the issue is when every once in a while there is someone who very obviously didn't
read your teacher profile didn't watch your video whatever and books a lesson with you
or wants to book a lesson with you I've had people like lie to me for example one time
i was messaging back and forth with someone and they were like yeah I've been learning
english for 15 years like i just want conversation practice to like freshen it up because of
blah blah blah blah blah and then i get on the skype call and it's their child they're
like oh you're gonna be teaching my child and I'm like i did not sign up for this thank
you but those situation as awkward as they are when people kind of just don't like i
said in the last video people ask me for test prep all the time even though i like explicitly
say that i don't do test prep because im not certified but yeah those situations come up
but like all in all it is on the teacher's shoulders to make sure that the student has
clear expectations if the student lies yeah that's awkward it's really awkward but you
can handle it it's never been the end of the world I've never had anyone get like angry
or belligerent with me it's just been a few awkward situations but i think that's bound
to come in anything any job anything where you're interacting with people especially
when there's a language barrier like that is another added thing on top of it like there
have been awkward interactions with people cause they don't know what they are saying
and then you have to explain to them hey here's what you just said here's what it means i
know you didn't mean that and then they get embarrassed and you have to like reassure
them it happens it's so fine but now that I've told you all of the problems that you
can run into im gonna tell you how to fix them im just the best oh my gosh lesson one
of how to avoid problems on italki communicate lesson over no but for real as a tutor as
a teacher it's on you to communicate as a student communicate as best as you can um
and don't lie basically just please be honest be upfront read your teacher profile watch
their intro video if they say that there are certain types of lessons that they don't do
don't don't ask them if they do it no you can you can reach out to people and be like
hey is this something that you do whatever feel free to reach out but don't get angry
when they say that they don't teachers have a solid idea of what is is exactly that you
can and cant do as a teacher I'll bring it up again i know i don't do test prep i do
not to test prep i will not help with test prep because i know my student would get nothing
out of it because i have nothing to give so yeah just have a clear understanding like
even if you're a tutor and you need to kind of write down a list because you aren't 100%
sure just think of- if you're a language learner yourself like what are all of the things you
might need to learn as a language learner and then figure out is this something that
i can teach and go through all of it and be like yes no yes no no maybes you need to decide
yes or no it's fun to challenge yourself sometimes but you want to like make sure that you're
giving people their monies worth so yeah just keep it clear but yeah in general communication
clear communication especially from the teachers end is going to help you avoid like most problems
and then the student being honest woo yay so general pros and cons just to kind of like
sum up a lot of things one of the pros is the cancellation policy it helps protect both
the teacher and the student i find that it's very fair another pro is the people the platform
itself and the amount of teachers and students on the platform it a very busy popular platform
all fantastic things the cons include some of the people but that's every once in a while
I've only had like a few bad experiences out of a lot of students so we're good and i think
that some of that has to do with the fact that i post italki content on youtube yeah
anyway now im gonna get into some frequently asked questions these are the questions i
get on all of my italki related videos so I'm just gonna go through them really quick
just in case its a question you have but if you have any other questions feel free to
leave them below i'd be more than happy to answer them for you the one that i get the
most often is im trying to be a teacher for blank language do you know when they will
open up slots no i do not know when they are going to open up slots i wish i did but you
just have to check back every Monday i don't have any extra knowledge im not like on their
i just make youtube videos about it i know as much as you do when it comes to that how
to create lesson plans / do you need to create lesson plans there are a ton of free resources
online i will link some of my favorite ESL resources in the description bar but there
is a lot of stuff online you just kind of have to search for it a little bit but I'll
leave some resources and yes you do need to create lesson plans italki does not have premade
lesson plans for you you have to make them up on your own and just as a little side note
i like to have fun with it like i like to use youtube videos movie clips ted talks articles
things like that i don't like to just go with worksheets so like feel free to be creative
with it if you have to create lesson plans anyway might as well have fun with it and
make it like really personal to you and your teaching style another question i get a lot
is how fluent do i need to be to be a teacher C2 or above done that's it and then the final
questions i get a lot are um about like money so does italki take a fee for teachers and
then also how do taxes work italki does take fifteen percent i just keep that in mind when
setting my prices and then you do still have to pay taxes but its just according to your
country you are considered self employed so you have to keep track of your own income
you won't get like any sort of tax form or anything from italki it's like all on you
and i do have a video all about like money stuff on italki I'll also link that I'm just
gonna link like everything in the description and the last question is do i recommend italki
and yes i do recommend italki if you found this video helpful in any way please feel
free to like and subscribe and hit the bell all of those things really do help me out
also feel free to comment below if you have any questions what-so-ever about italki and
also let me know your experience if you've already been a student or a teacher on italki
what do you think about it what was your experience like let me know thank you guys for watching
my second ever italki review thank you so much for the love on the first one it's like
my best performing video um which i wasn't expecting but it is kinda cool i don't know
I'm happy about it but yeah cheers to one year on italki as a teacher about six months
on italki as a student and to many more months and many more years on italki and maybe this
will be your first year on italki so cheers to that and i will see you next week alright
bye