Listening is of equal importance to speaking. Ann Cook talked about this issue in her book "American Accent Training": Every sound of every language is within every child. So, what happens with adults? People learn their native language and stop listening for the sounds that they never hear; then they lose the ability to hear those sounds. Later, when you study a foreign language, you learn a lot of spelling rules that take you still further away from the real sound of that language - in this case, English. It was a shame that I did not have enough exposure to English from native speakers when I, as a child, started to learn English many years ago. Nearly no one had told me the mouth positions define the sounds. I just listened and imitated the tape recording. But fortunately, here on italki, Christine helped me recognize the authentic sound of American English through her effective methodologies.

I feel like I’ve made huge progress with Christine. Christine is one of few teachers on italki who have knowledge in phonemes and intonation 😌 If you want a lesson with a teacher who really wants to help you grow, don’t hesitate to work with her! 谢谢你的帮助！十分推荐老师的课。

She is the best teacher！

You, Christine, help me every lesson to be more confident with this language and its grammar. You are a great teacher, always patient and understanding. You help me a lot to not be afraid and to always believe in myself and in my abilities. I love our conversations, always very spontaneous. I am very comfortable speaking with you and I really appreciate your patience and your advice.

She is the best!

Thank you Christine for the lesson. It was inspiring and dynamic as usual! Have a lovely day! Cheers!