Dave
English
Apr 7, 2024
Unfortunately I have to use this feedback forum to warn other Italki teachers of Sophia's rudeness, and advise them to accept lessons from her with caution, if at all. I have taught 2,015 lessons on Italki and my lesson with Sophia was the first time that I have had to abandon a lesson before of the behaviour of a student. During a conversation about the differences between China and Ireland she informed me of the Chinese governments approach to their economy, as them having a ten year policy to prioritize the building of this economy over any considerations for the human rights of its citizens. I responded by stating my compassion for this, and Sophia responded by accusing me of being "not genuine" with my compassion. I responded by explaining to her that this was an insult, and enquired whether she understood what the meaning of these words meant, and she replied by insisting that she did. At this point I felt that this lesson could not continue, and so left. Soon after this I discovered that Sophia had left an enormously long negative review on my teacher profile (the only negative review out of 164 there) accusing ME, among other things, of being judgemental of her. The only 'judgemental' attitude that occured in our lesson was her own judging of me, accusing me of not having genuine compassion for human beings who do not have the same human rights, as the same people in the country she is currently located in, her mentioning this fact herself at some other moment in our class. I advise Italki teachers to hesitate before agreeing to a class with her, the absence of negative reviews on her profile may be less to do with her objectional and rude behaviour towards teachers in lessons, and more to do with concerns by those teachers that if they leave an honest review on her pages complaining of her behavior, leading her to leave a negative, false review on their own page. Do not risk accepting a lesson with this student, you may have reason to regret it afterwards
