• Credit Cards and Debit Cards: In addition to Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and JCB, there is also Visa Delta/Debit (UK), Visa Electron, Maestro (UK, Spain & Austria), Solo (UK), Diners, Laser (Ireland), and more.
• Online Banking: Giropay (Germany), Direct Debit (Germany), Sofortueberweisung (Germany, Austria, Netherlands, Bulgium, Switzerland), eNETS (Singapore), Nordea Solo (Sweden, Finland), iDEAL (Netherlands), EPS (Austria), POLi (Australia), all Polish Banks, ePay.bg (Bulgaria), and more.
• Moneybookers ewallet: Moneybookers also has its own electronic wallet

You can view this list when you go to purchase italki credits on the My Finance tab. Here’s an update of what the payment options look like…

One of the key things we believe about italki’s marketplace is that it is important to make it as easy as possible for anyone to join the teaching ecosystem. Unfortunately, not all payment systems are available or popular in every country. Not having a convenient payment option is a barrier for people to transact, and therefore a barrier to learning or teaching a language online.

We hope that adding these payment options will make it easier for many users to pay for teachers and language services on italki. Keep following us, and we’ll continue to tell you know about new features and payment options that we hope will make italki even more useful for language students and teachers around the world.

The italki team
http://www.italki.com

SpeakENG Online Courses have been designed to help people learn English anywhere with an internet connection. The content for SpeakENG’s Online Courses are based on Pearson’s English Language Learning and Instruction System (ELLIS). Every SpeakENG Online Course also comes with a 15-minute live tutoring session with an American certified professional teacher.

As before, you can purchase additional time with SpeakENG teachers or purchase a one-year subscription to SpeakENG that includes all Online Course levels. If you’re not sure which level is right for you, or are interested in getting an assessment level test of your English, we recommend looking at the SpeakENG Sampler.

italki is trying to find a price for learning a language that is accessible to everybody around the world. SpeakENG Online Courses use the same content that is being offered at much higher prices from expensive offline English training institutes.

As always, let us know through your feedback how we can improve italki and its partnership products.

The italki team

• English Level Assessment Test
• Access to the first lesson of every level of SpeakENG Online Courses

The English Level Assessment Test

The English Level Assessment Test is an adaptive online test that comprehensively assesses your English level. You’ll get scored on your grammar understanding, listening comprehension, reading comprehension, and more. Since the test is adaptive, everybody who takes the test will see a different set of questions. Your test scores also correlate with an equivalent TOEFL and TOEIC score, which should be helpful if you are planning to take those exams.

Access to the first lesson of every level of SpeakENG Online Courses

The SpeakENG Sampler will get you access to the first lesson of every SpeakENG Online Course. This will give you an idea of the range of exercises and content that you’ll be exposed to in SpeakENG. In general, there are 15-20 lessons per full SpeakENG Online Course. If you’re not sure which level to purchase, the Sampler can ensure you choose the right level.

We think this is great choice for English learners that are new to the world of SpeakENG. You can get an objective assessment of your English level, as well as a direct view into what SpeakENG courses would be the best fit for you.

View the SpeakENG Sampler.
View the list of SpeakENG Online Courses.

The italki team

When you use China UnionPay on italki – you’ll first be taken to China UnionPay’s payment gateway. Afterwards, you’ll be asked to choose which bank issued your card. Each bank will have its own payment process — most will let you transact online with your bankcard.

We hope this allows more users in China to get access to italki teachers and italki marketplace partners. We also want to say keep paying attention to the blog, because we have many more improvements coming soon.

Благодаря WebMoney любой участник italki может самостоятельно составлять расписание занятий с квалифицированными преподавателями прямо в нашем Магазине.  С WebMoney приобретение валюты на italki, а следовательно и доступ к услугам преподавателей  italki стали намного проще для жителей России, Украины, Европы и стран Средней Азии. Сейчас улуги могут быть оплачены посредством кредитных карт, WebMoney, Paypal, cashU, Alipay.

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italki can now accept payments through WebMoney (WMZ purse). WebMoney is a popular form of payment in Russia, CIS countries, and Europe.

Limited payment options act as a barrier for many users to transact with other people. Many countries do not have access to convenient forms of online payment like Paypal, and very few people have the ability to accept credit cards as a form of payment.

We hope that these payment options will make it easier for users to pay for teachers and language services on italki.  We are continuing to add more features and payment options to make italki even more useful for language students and teachers around the world.

1st: Set up packages on your profile.  You can create a new course linked with packages or transfer your 1-on-1 tutoring to a package offering.

2nd: Make sure the package consists of 10 sessions, 1 hour each.  Just for this Spring Packages, we’re trying to keep everything consistent.  Your other packages can be whatever combination you want.

3rd: Set the package price at around 20% discount off your per session price.  It doesn’t have to be exact, but it should be enough of a discount to make the package more appealing than per session booking.

4th: When that’s all set up, send an email to teacherhelp [at] italki.com, requesting to be included in the Spring Packages page.  If we approve your request, you’ll be added to the list of teachers offering packages.

And that’s it.  Please join us in giving students more choices of language learning packages.

All of the offerings from these eight teachers are packages of 10 lessons, 1 hour per lesson, covering a certain course the teacher has agreed to teach.  These 10 lessons can be scheduled at the convenience of the teacher and student, 1 per week or even 1 per day!  Various topics include Japanese Conversation, British Current Affairs, and French Culture.  To book any of the packages with the teacher, first make sure you have enough ITC in your account for the whole package, and then just choose your favorite topic and favorite teacher.  The teachers listed on that page are all eager to help you learn their languages!

Click on the image to view details

When did you start teaching on italki?
I started last May.

Why did you choose to teach online and why italki?
Teaching online doesn’t cost me at a thing: No commuting expense, no telephone charges when using Skype, no special clothing expenses, no cosmetics, and the work time is short . (#^.^#) Moreover, I can teach when I‘m free at home.  The teaching system in italki is very simple and easy for me.

What efforts did you use to find students on italki? Or did the students find you?
Nothing special.

Did you teach offline before you started teaching online?
Yes, but when teaching Japanese offline that was just teaching friends for free.

What tools do you use to teach online?
Besides Skype, depending on the students, we also use various Japanese materials.  If they need me to provide the Japanese sources, I send them the text.  However, if they want to use their own textbooks, they send it to me instead.

Are there any special skills needed to teach online?
For me to teach, I need strong English skills to make myself or the language very clearly understood.  English communication is very important unless the student already has a high level of Japanese.

Overall, what do you think about teaching on italki? Any last words?
italki is a nice system at least for me.  If really pressed, I’d have to say the money withdrawal system is a little difficult for me to use. That’s all.

If you’d like to share your italki story on our blog, please contact us!

[Translated from Japanese, original is below.] I joined italki almost 2 years ago. I started online lessons at the beginning of this year.

In Japan the fee of the language lesson is extremely expensive, and it is easy to forget everything if you have only one lesson a week, so I chose italki where I can learn everyday with local teachers.  I initially did the trial lesson with several teachers. Now I study with only one teacher. [I chose this teacher because] she is very kind when she teaches and she also generously spares her time, even very early in the morning.

[I started learning Chinese because] I wanted to talk more with my Chinese friends.  I feel that I progress day by day. Taking lessons everyday makes it easier to review the contents of the previous lesson and remember things more clearly.

[As for learning online,] recently, Skype has been working well, so there’s no such a big problem if you use it with video. I’m kind of an idle fellow, so it offers better condition to study continuously rather than to study by myself.  I’m hoping italki will continue to make a user friendly system,  and I expect them to succeed!

Original Japanese

italkiへの参加は２年ほど前に登録させていただいたと記憶しております。オンラインレッスンは今年に入ってから始めました。

日本ではとても授業料が高く、一週間に一度のレッスンではすぐに忘れてしまうため、現地の方と毎日勉強ができるこちらを選びました。何人かトライアルしました。
いまは一人の先生に教わっています。とても親切に教えて下さる上に、早朝であっても時間を割いて下さるからです。

中国の知人ともっと会話をしたかったため。日々少しずつ進歩しています。毎日授業を受けることで復習が容易で、記憶にしっかりととどめることができます。

最近のSkypeの状況はとてもいいので、カメラを使用しながらで あればさほど問題はないかと思います。怠け者の私でも、自習をするよりも毎日勉強する環境作りに役立ちます。これからも使いやすいシステム作りをがんばって下さい。期待しております。

If you’d like to share your italki story on our blog, please contact us!

New Scheduling System
We have made a number of changes to the scheduling system with the goal of making it easier for students and teachers to match up.

When requesting a session, students are required to select an available time from the teacher's calendar.

Teachers now set a schedule which shows when they are available. When students try to book a session with the teacher, they must choose from those times. This helps avoid the situation where students schedule a lesson for a time when the teacher is asleep. Therefore, it is critical that teachers update their calendars with all possible available times. If a teacher has no available times, students will not be able to request a lesson with them.

In addition, students must request sessions at least 24 hours in advance. This gives teachers enough time to respond and prepare for a lesson.

Teachers will allow be able to set “vacation times”, or dates when they know they will not be able to teach classes. (We will be sending a message to your inbox with a full list of changes.)

Language Courses
We have also made some initial changes to the way Language Courses are handled. Eventually, we hope Language Courses will give teachers a way of showing off specific classes or skills that they can teach. Likewise, we hope it is a way for students to find a specific teacher or structured teaching plan that fits their goals. Notably, if a student wants help on test preparation, translation, or business vocabulary, this would be the place for students to browse.

We are still making many improvements, and we are definitely interested in hearing your suggestions about how to improve Language Courses, the scheduling system, or anything else about the website. Please feel free to send us ideas through our feedback form or via email at (feedback at italki dot com).