Online culture constantly pressures us to “like” and “give 5 stars”. Anything else is socially unacceptable. Written feedback isn’t much different. This has the end of result of creating “pseudo-feedback” which is a meaningless waste of time. And personally, this culture, which penalizes honesty and thoughtfulness, makes me feel uncomfortable. Further, all teachers, and especially new ones, would benefit from honest negative feedback.

The only statistic that I look at is the number of lessons compared to the number of students — if students are coming back, that’s good. The first lesson or trial lesson does not count at all. If it’s one lesson per student, that’s usually a bad sign. In fact, anything lower than 6 to 1 is below average, so why bother?

I see we’re both learning Mandarin — If you send me a private message about your preferences, I’d be happy to recommend one of my many excellent low-cost community tutors. For now, seeing you’re in Malaysia, I’m going to suggest you contact Stephy Lee 晓莹:

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The rating system is not “broken”, since it is <em>designed </em>not to give low ratings to new teachers who haven’t had many students yet. It is simply useless.

In addition to Chris’s excellent points, remember that other factors influence whether a teacher is right for <em>you </em>or not. Do you get a sense of their style and teaching approach from their video? Do you feel comfortable with their voice and manner?

Think about what kind of teacher you want.

Besides the video, look at the reviews. Not just how many there are, but what they say and how many come from students who have lots of lessons with that teacher, and whether they are consistent over time. Students can and do leave detailed reviews that tell you what the lessons and teacher are like. Those are the best clues, besides the video, in my opinion. Repeat students do not often continue leaving long reviews, of course, and some long-term students leave no reviews at all, but the reviews are dated and marked with how many lessons the student has had with that teacher.

If I was designing the system, I would have a note on the profiles of new teachers saying that they are new, but after 10 total lessons there would be a ratio of positive to negative written reviews. Students would be required to leave at least three words, either positive or negative.

The best stats is when a student comes back or buys a lot of lessons. Most students try a lot of teachers before buying a package. I know that because the teachers that the student tried will show on their profiles , unless they made it private.

Trying out a lot of teachers is a normal behavior of learners for them to check who is suitable for them.

There are many choices here on Italki so when the lesson and student ratio is the same or is close, it only means one thing, the teacher is pretty bad.

A teacher can teach at least 5000 lessons and they have the same number of students, it means that the quality is not good.

@Phil is right . There are teachers with 5 stars rating but when you watch their video or look at the lesson and student ratio, they fail to keep regulars. Attracting students is easier than keeping regulars, especially that there are hundreds or thousands to choose from.

The video will show a glimpse of the teacher's teaching style and personality.

The student comments will show some positive outcomes from learners.

It will also show the teaching style at least.

The students will use good adjectives to describe the teacher. Is the teacher cheerful? Is the teacher disciplined? Is the teacher punctual?

Different learners have different needs. A teacher will usually mention their specialization. A teacher who is great with kids, does not necessarily mean that they are great with adults or exam preparation.