FAQ

Yes — it is perfectly normal. Understanding and speaking are two different skills. Reading and listening give you time to think. When you are speaking, your brain needs to find the right words, put them in order, and say them out loud, all at once, with a person waiting for an answer. If you learned English mostly through textbooks or grammar classes — which is common — you’ve had years of practice reading and writing but probably very little practice at talking to English speakers. You are not bad at English – you’ve just been training the wrong muscle. The fix is speaking practice, in the situations you actually face — ordering food, answering a customer, making a phone call — repeated often enough that you become comfortable in situations you face on a day to day basis. That’s exactly what each SpeakWithDi lesson pack is built around: short video lessons in real situations, plenty of chance to practice speaking and answering questions out loud and then a homework module. I personally listen to the audio homework and give you feedback. Try it for yourself with a free Starter Pack — no payment, no pressure, just a chance to see how it feels to practise speaking rather than studying it.

If you run a shop, a restaurant, or any business where you deal with the public, you already know the tricky moments: greeting someone, taking an order, answering an unexpected question, handling a complaint, or just making small talk while someone waits. It is frustrating because you know the English but when customers talk fast, don’t follow a script, and expect an answer immediately, the words don’t come as easily or as quickly as you want. What actually helps isn’t a list of perfect phrases to memorise — it’s practising the shape of these conversations enough times that you can handle whatever the customer actually says, not just what you rehearsed. This is genuinely where SpeakWithDi started — I built it after watching small business owners in my own town handle everything else about running a business well, except this. Lessons are built around real situations like this one, with a chance to practise out loud and get feedback before you’re doing it live with a real customer. Start with a free Starter Pack to see how a real-situation lesson feels.

Yes — SpeakWithDi is built specifically for Chinese adults living in English-speaking countries: people who already read and understand English reasonably well, but freeze the moment they have to use it live, with a stranger, in the real world. That’s a different problem from not knowing English at all, so a generic beginner ESL class usually isn’t the right fit. Lessons combine three things: short self-study video lessons you work through in your own time, a homework module I personally review and give you feedback on, and The Conversation Circle — regular group chat sessions where you practise speaking with other Chinese-speaking adults at your same level. It’s not a live classroom and it’s not a solo app — it’s both, so you get flexibility and real human support. Every lesson pack is $30 (3 lessons, homework feedback, and one optional 1:1 call with me), and you can try the whole approach for free first with a Starter Pack — no payment, no sign-up pressure — for either Elementary (A2) or Intermediate (B1) level.

“Feedback” can mean very different things depending on where you get it. On an open tutor marketplace, it usually means whatever that day’s tutor happens to correct during your call — it varies from person to person and session to session. With SpeakWithDi, feedback is built into the structure, not left to chance: after each 3-lesson pack, you complete a homework module — a set of speaking tasks based on real situations — and record your answers. I personally listen to every submission and send you specific, personal feedback on what you did well and what to work on next, so you know exactly where you stand before your optional 1:1 call. That optional call (20 minutes, included in every $30 pack) is where you can ask questions, practise a specific conversation, or just talk something through with me directly. If you want fully personalised lessons built entirely around your goals rather than a set pack, VIP 1:1 sessions are also available — I take a maximum of 5 VIP students at a time. If you’re not sure which fits you, the free Starter Pack is the easiest way to see how the feedback works before committing to anything.

Preply and similar marketplaces (iTalki, Cambly) are great. They let you browse profiles and book a tutor by the hour — but your experience depends entirely on which tutor you pick, pricing varies a lot between tutors, and there’s usually no structured path or community built in. You’re responsible for finding a good tutor and you can change tutors easily if you want to try someone different. SpeakWithDi takes a different approach: instead of an open marketplace, you get a structured pack of 3 real-situation lessons, homework feedback from one dedicated coach (me), and The Conversation Circle for group practice with other learners at your level — all built specifically for Chinese-speaking adults living abroad, rather than a general audience. Pricing is fixed and simple: $30 per pack (lessons, feedback, and a 1:1 call included), rather than paying per session at a rate that changes tutor to tutor. See the comparison table below for details. If you’ve been comparing marketplace tutors and want to see what a structured alternative feels like, the free Starter Pack is a no-risk way to try it.