Actually, I think she was quite correct. She is proposing to teach Chinese in exchange for English lessons. The is not 'free' as it is essentially a trade but she is not charging a monetary fee. So 'free of charge' is correct.

@Alien: Are you in charge now?

Perhaps the best way to solve this is to ask Kalsang as he replied. Was he indeed expecting completely free Chinese lessons without so much as having to pay for outrageously over-priced coffee at Starbucks? And now that the conditions have been made clear, is he still willing to go through with this transaction?

That might be the best solution, but the best response is to sit in a corner and think about what's wrong with you.

I understand that this is "your spot" and all, but it seems there's a group of people here that refuse to allow the forums to serve any actual purpose to the community.

Even the simplest requests turn into flame wars.

so every argument on the internet is a 'flame war'? who invented this stupid terminology anyway?

this thread seems like a perfectly rational debate .... 'is it ethical to claim language lessons are free when a language exchange is implied'?

and ... who's stopping you from answering the OP's question?

My latest contribution to this discussion, on GoKM saying & doing)

It is not an ethical issue. It is a just misunderstanding. In chinese, if we say "free of charge", it simply means without paying money. But I never noticed that we can't use the corresponding word to express the same meaning.
I don't want to deceive you, so I replied the arguments, to correct the misunderstanding.

I am not a linguist, English is not my mother language.
I tried several times to make it clearer, better.
But don't use the word"deceive", It's just sooooo offensive.

Annia, Your offer was nice and proper. An exchange with out any cash was clearly what I expected when I read it. Sent you a PM too.

@pluto: Call it what you want, but when people are all over some random stranger for very specific wording like that, it sounds like a flame war to me.

I didn't answer OP's question because I did my Chinese studies about 14 years ago at Yunda, and people are starting to complain about class size and quality. I have no idea what the other offerings are, so I decided to keep my mouth shut.

I notice you haven't answered either...

Sorry,

I reread all what I've written several times, I have to confess that it wasn't that clear at the begining. But I didn't mean to do that. It's really a huge misunderstanding because my limited level of English.

I don't want to continue to involve more people in this debate.

I just want put an end point to it.

I apologize, ok?
I will be more careful to express my thoughts next time.

Thx for some of you who understand me, I appreciate that.

But hope it's the end of debate, no matter whether you are in the pros or cons.

I apologize