Hongbin

The Good:

-Gu is an amazing linguist, his proficiency with English is incredible, he is very knowledgeable about British customs and culture.
-He is very punctual, he wasn't late once in our 6 lessons.
-He is a good coach. In Western culture we sometimes take the easier route rather than the difficult graft, Gu will make sure that you're working very hard. He doesn't often praise, which I found difficult to deal with at first, but I came to realise that it was because he wanted me to excel and wasn't going to accept second best or errors.
-Gu enjoys tutoring.

The Bad:

-As stated, Gu is an excellent linguist. However, during our lessons I felt that he expected to see the same natural brilliance in his students, occasionally expecting me to recall words that had been translated but not discussed or practiced between us.
-Gu was not a warm tutor. I do not believe he would suit children or beginners.
-I don't sense that Gu had any interest in making learning Chinese fun or engaging and took a robotic approach to introducing vocabulary.
-Gu often made personal jokes at my expense which were both boring and damaging to the atmosphere.
-He made no effort to make me feel comfortable speaking to him in Chinese, occasionally laughing at any attempt.

Overall, I would recommend Hongbin Gu to those who are already adept Mandarin speakers and in need a quick injection of new vocabulary.

Never met Hongbin as he had to go to China, but he told me straight away that he could not make the lesson and told me when he would be back but that would have been too late for my sons exam