Questions, answered

Gawa lets you pick a topic you know well, get a 50-minute English lesson written to your level, and bring it to your own online English class to talk about Taiwan in English. You practise what you actually want to say, not textbook lines.

“Gawa” is how “教我” (“teach me”) sounds in Taiwanese Hokkien. The best way to learn a language is to start from what you most want to share and ask your teacher to “teach me” how to say it in English. The name is also a reminder that the learner leads: you pick the topic, the teacher helps you speak.

Gawa gives you the lesson; you choose the teacher. Send the link to any 1-on-1 online platform or tutor. No teacher yet? I've taken classes on the major online English platforms myself and wrote a detailed comparison of price, teacher quality, booking flexibility and which level each suits, so you don't waste money figuring it out.

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Absolutely. Many teachers struggle to find topics their Taiwanese students actually connect with, and that's exactly the gap Gawa fills: pick topics yourself, generate level-matched lessons, and bring them into every class while you and your student annotate the same lesson together. Teacher plans and usage are priced separately, so if you teach groups or use it heavily, reach out through the contact page.

CEFR A2 to C1. The same topic is adjusted to your level in vocabulary, grammar and task depth. Not sure of your level? B1 is a safe place to start.

A good fit: learners who want to use English in real life, enjoy talking about their own culture, already have or are looking for a 1-on-1 online tutor, and find textbooks boring. A2 to C1. Not a fit: pure self-study with no speaking, exam drilling (TOEIC or IELTS test tricks), young learners' English, or absolute beginners (build an A1 base first).

Yes. The materials work fine for self-study — you can read through them, do the exercises and look up vocabulary on your own. That said, having a human teacher for even occasional 1-on-1 sessions will speed up your progress noticeably: a real person can catch pronunciation habits and sentence patterns you won't notice on your own. We're also rolling out self-learner-specific features soon.

Yes. I deliberately picked plenty of everyday topics you run into in any country, so they travel well, and you also get to enjoy learning about Taiwanese culture along the way. The lessons teach you how to talk about your own culture, life and opinions in English, and you can always swap in the place you know best. Want a topic that isn't up yet? Reach me through the contact page and I can generate it for you.

Mostly yes, with one caveat: the topics are not chosen specifically for children, so some subjects may be too complex or too grown-up for them. You can pick an easier level like A2 for the language, but the content leans teen and adult. Skim a topic first to check it suits your child.

Most lesson sites, like Linguahouse, Ellii (ESL Library), iSLCollective, BreakingNewsEnglish, OneStopEnglish and Twinkl, give you generic, textbook-style English for a global audience. Gawa is built by a one-person company: I am a learner myself, and someone who has to get things done in English abroad and with foreigners, so I know exactly where Taiwanese speakers get stuck. With no big-company baggage or layers of review, these lessons are wilder, blunter and more honest, about situations you actually run into rather than the safe textbook version. You finally do not have to sit through textbook-style materials.

Each lesson is a 50-minute interactive class. The mix changes by topic and can include a warm-up, a short reading, vocabulary, a grammar point, easily confused expressions, matching, sentence-building, a quick game, role-play, and a YouTube video as pre- or post-class homework, with each section timed.

A free account can browse every topic, read samples, and get one free unlocked lesson each week. Paid plans let you save lessons, share them with your teacher and add notes: NT$299/month for 15 materials. Prefer not to subscribe? Buy a single lesson for NT$99 and keep that one as a download, no plan required. Want a whole level at once? The level bundle is NT$5,990 and gives you every lesson currently published at that level, merged into one PDF to download and keep.

Yes. A free account lets you browse every topic, read sample lessons, and get one full system-picked lesson unlocked free each week, with no credit card required. Upgrade to a paid plan when you want more, or want to save, share and annotate.

Credit cards and recurring billing are supported. A Taiwan VAT invoice (統一發票, VAT 94061161) is issued for every transaction.

Lessons are built from a Taiwanese learner's point of view to help you express your culture and daily life clearly and naturally in English, and they flag the articles, tenses, false friends and Chinglish that trip Taiwanese learners up. Their job is to get you ready to speak; your teacher is the one who checks your pronunciation and the finer points in class.

Topics are picked by humans — mainly Vsy and readers — based on Taiwan current events, local culture and everyday conversation needs, not by algorithm. The lessons themselves are drafted by AI and may be spot-checked and corrected before publishing, though not every one is reviewed line by line. If you spot a mistake, select the text in the lesson to report it; we act on most reports within 5 business days.

When you save a lesson you get a share link. Send it to your teacher and you both open the same lesson and can add notes on it. You can reset the link anytime.

Each lesson's share link binds to the first device your teacher opens it on, and works on one device at a time. Open it on a second device and you'll see an "in use on another device" notice with the option to switch to the current device. This protects the lesson you paid for from being passed around. As the signed-in owner you're never limited, you can read it anywhere. To hand the link to a different teacher or switch devices, go to My Materials and tap "unbind", or just reset the link.

Select the text that looks wrong with your mouse or finger inside the lesson, and a Report issue button appears. Tap it, note briefly what seems off, and send. Teachers can report from the share link too. We receive these and fix them as soon as we can.

No. The materials are for your own learning and your own lessons with your teacher only, and may not be resold, redistributed or shared publicly. Share links are device-bound to prevent leaks. For group or commercial licensing, reach us through the contact page.

Sorry, no. A lesson counts as delivered once you unlock it, and not liking or not needing the content is not grounds for a refund. Before unlocking, check the samples and the level note for a topic, and use the free weekly lesson to test the water. See the refund policy below for the full rules.

Lessons are digital content. Under Taiwan's rules on exceptions to the distance-sales cooling-off right, a lesson counts as delivered the moment you unlock or download it, the 7-day cooling-off period does not apply, and it is non-refundable after use. The only exception is an unused charge: if you were charged (most commonly a monthly subscription that auto-renewed, e.g. an accidental resubscribe) and did not unlock or use any lesson during that period, email us within 14 days of the charge to refund it (for a subscription, that one month), back to the original payment method in about 7 to 14 business days. You can also cancel a subscription anytime in My Account and keep access until the period ends. See the refund policy for the full rules.