Nearly a quarter of a million ethnically Chinese people live in New Zealand. This number has jumped by around 100,000 people since the 2006 census.
The reason this is an important statistic is because it means there's a good chance of finding somebody who speaks Chinese and can teach you how to speak it. While not every ethnically Chinese person in New Zealand speaks Chinese, there are still over 50,000 Chinese speakers in the country.
Whether it's to improve your job prospects or just learn something new, learning a language is a great idea.
When you decide to find a Chinese teacher, you'll probably have a few questions such as:
- How long will it take to become fluent in Chinese?
- How expensive is learning Chinese?
- Which is the most cost-effective way to learn Chinese?
Unless money is no object, you'll likely have to look at Chinese lessons in terms of how much they cost, how quickly you'll learn the language, and how to get the most out of the money you spend on your Chinese lessons.
Private tutors in New Zealand tend to charge between $20 and $50 an hour, but there are as many different rates as there are tutors and a lot of factors will influence their costs including their location, the level they teach, and their experience.
But what about Chinese classes on Superprof?
The Cost of Chinese Lessons on Superprof
At the time of writing, there are around 150 Chinese language tutors in New Zealand. There are tutors of all ages, levels of experience, backgrounds, etc.:
- New tutors
- Experienced tutors
- Tutors with language qualifications (university-level or teacher’s certificate)
- Chinese students studying in New Zealand
- Native-speaking Chinese expatriates
- New Zealanders that have lived in a Chinese-speaking country for several years.
The Cost of Learning Chinese in Auckland
What is the average price for the Chinese lessons in the country's biggest city?
There are over 70 tutors offering Chinese in and around Auckland.
- The average cost is $32 for home tutoring but these costs could vary depending on where they're based and any charges there may be for travelling.
- The average cost for online Chinese lessons is $34, but this includes tutors from all over the world.
The cost of tutoring ranges between $20 and $50 an how, with most charging $30 or thereabouts.
The more expensive Chinese tutors tend to have more experience tutoring, professional qualifications, and perhaps a background in teaching or translation.
The cheaper options are usually Chinese-speaking students living in New Zealand.
Average Prices for Chinese lessons across New Zealand:
- Christchurch: $28/hour
- Wellington: $29/hour
- Hamilton: $32/hour
- Tauranga: $32/hour
- Dunedin: $29/hour
Generally, there's not too much variation in the average cost of private Chinese tutoring across New Zealand's largest cities.
Surely, the price must be some indicator of the quality of the lessons, right? Not always. Since every tutor has their own way of teaching, what works for one student mightn't work for another.
You might pay a premium for an experienced tutor and find that their style of teaching isn't very effective for you and that you work much better with a cheaper tutor.
A more experienced and expensive tutor will be more resourceful and more likely to be able to find a teaching approach that works for you, but this can't be guaranteed.
The tutor's background will also affect their prices. Those who are tutoring as their main job will likely charge more than a student looking to earn some extra money during their studies.
With the very best tutors, you'll be able to have more control over what you learn since it's not always part of a course with a syllabus or curriculum.
You can talk to your tutor about what you want to learn and focus on things such as:
- Chinese reading and writing
- Chinese characters
- Pronunciation in Mandarin
- Conversation or writing skills
- Introductory Mandarin lessons that take place mostly in English or advanced immersive classes that take place entirely in Mandarin
- Preparation for Mandarin or Chinese exams
- Revision sessions for the HSK (Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi)
- Bilingual Chinese teachers for all levels
- Tutoring from University professors or Confucius Institute teachers.
Learn Mandarin to Work in China
You can find "Business Chinese" language courses offered by the Confucius Institute in conjunction with business schools and universities.
Work on finding the perfect Chinese teacher.
Photo by U.S. Department of State on Visual hunt
How Expensive Are Chinese Language Courses in New Zealand?
Lessons offered by language institutes and language centres tend to be cheaper than private tutors as they're not tailored to the student.
Language centres and schools either charge by the month, by semester, by class, or even offer special rates for certain classes or new students.
Their rate per hour usually works out cheaper than the cost of a private Chinese tutor, but you won't be getting exactly the same service.
One of the advantages is that you can be more certain that your Mandarin or Cantonese teacher will have experience and qualifications, and maybe even be a native Chinese speaker.
Photo by Nick Kenrick. on VisualHunt.com / CC BY-NC-SA
Mandarin courses in language centres usually cost less than private tutors, but there are some centres that charge similar amounts to the average hourly rates of Chinese tutors across the country.
Are Chinese teachers in language centres more experienced? For the most part, they'll be more experienced than a lot of private tutors, especially those who are currently students.
This isn't to say that all tutors are inexperienced students looking to make some extra cash, but language centres will have interviewed and checked the credentials of their teachers so that's one less thing for you to worry about.
However, there are downsides to language centres.
Firstly, you'll likely be attending a group class and while it can be useful to learn with people of a similar level to you, you won't progress as quickly as your teacher won't be fully focused on you, adapt their lesson to what you want to learn and tailor their lessons to make them appealing to you.
With a private tutor, on the other hand, you'll get to choose what you want to learn whether it's Chinese for conversation, how to read and write in Chinese, learning Chinese for a trip to China, etc. You can also stop the lesson at any point to ask questions and you won't move onto the next topic until your tutor's sure that you've understood the current topic.
Find out about the tools to help you learn Chinese quickly.
How to Get Cheaper Chinese Lessons
Are you on a budget but still hoping to learn Chinese? Are there any ways to reduce the cost of your Chinese lessons or hire a private Chinese tutor for less money?
If you opt for a private tutor for a couple of hours each week, you'll likely be paying $240 (with an average of 8 hours of tuition each month).
Fortunately for you, there are a few ways to reduce the cost of your Chinese lessons:
- Work with a native Chinese-speaking student or somebody without a teaching or Chinese qualification.
- Study Chinese online using apps, websites, and other resources.
- Work with online tutors over Skype or Zoom as they tend to charge less than in-person tutoring.
- Offer a language exchange with Chinese or Taiwanese students who want to learn English from you.
- As students don't have qualifications, they also tend to charge less than teachers and qualified tutors.
- Even inexperienced tutors can teach you how to read and write Chinese characters or teach you the basics of the language and more about their culture at a lower price than experienced and qualified tutors.
Photo by Internet Archive Book Images on Visual hunt / No known copyright restrictions
Don't forget that online tutoring is a great way to broaden your search for tutors to anywhere in the world and you don't necessarily need to find a tutor in New Zealand. As they don't have travel costs, online tutors also charge less than tutors who have to travel to their students' homes.
This is also a useful option for those living in areas with relatively few Chinese language tutors.
Photo by See-ming Lee 李思明 SML on Visualhunt / CC BY-NC
While not cheaper than private tutoring, you could also spend some time in China, immersing yourself in the language, and learning far more quickly than you would with a couple of hours of private tutoring each week.
Admittedly, the initial costs will be much greater, but when you compare how much you spend on living and working in China while also learning the language, you'll see that it's actually much cheaper.
That said, it can help an awful lot to learn the basics to get by before you go and for that, you'll want to either attend a class or work with a private Chinese tutor.
Check out some of the best ways to learn Chinese.
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