Mwalimu Tina

I just finished my first lesson package with Tina and bought another immediately. Tina's lessons have exceeded my expectations. Rather than going with a $5 tutor like I usually do, I paid more after reading Tina's reviews. Her style is unique and she tailored my lessons according to my goals. She brought a guest speaker to one of my lessons to practice real life conversation with an unfamiliar face. She provides me with relevant resources and takes my feedback into consideration. Ukitaka kujifunza kiswahili, umepata mwalimu wako!

Mwalimu Tina is the best Swahili teacher on italki, and I’ve worked with multiple teachers just to confirm. The major difference is that she has learned Kiswahili as an adult!Most others instructors that learned as children cannot relate to being an adult learner. She uses lots of different learning aids to teach with. Other people are just trying to have a conversation with you, or worse, asking you to lead the sessions… That’s what the teacher is for! They aren’t proactively providing teaching plans customized to your level like she is. Mwalimu Tina gives textbooks, reading assignments, recordings for pronunciation practice and even chats in between sessions to help make sure you have all parts of the language learning toolkit at your disposal. The materials really aid study and enable the student to be self empowered between sessions. That really gives you a sense of control as a student so you can feel like you’re actually making progress and not just randomly chatting.

Everyone is busy and at times it is difficult to spend the time studying. But Mwalimu Tina gets me motivated by making the lesson interesting, funny and useful. I have learnt phrases only a downtown native speaker would use! She has a structured way of teaching but adapts it to my needs as a Chinese chef. I began with zero swahili but have learnt enough to get by when I encounter the odd Kenyan in London and in Kenya when I went there twice. Mwalimu Tina knows what it's like to be an adult learner- not something all native speakers may understand. I thoroughly recommend Tina for all levels of adult learners. Asante sana Mwalimu Tina, wewe ni mwalimu bora!

Wow! I can already see my Swahili skills improving. There is lots of work to do, but it’s been inspiring to see the true depth of knowledge that Mwalimu Tina has to share. Thanks so much for another amazing lesson! :)

Christina is helping me a lot with pronunciation. I have already studied English for many years, but I’m still struggling with pronunciation and grammar structures. Christina is putting in a lot of work and energy to help me succeed in my learning journey. Thanks Christina!

Another great lesson with Mwalimu Tina! Her lesson structure has really aided me in improving my pronunciation and speaking ability. Looking forward to the next lesson.