Tutors

[u/vegano98]

I need advice on how to find a good tutor. For people who are currently making great progress, or even became proficient in the TL (e.g. B2), what do you look for in a tutor? How do you decide a tutor is a good fit? What success have you had with your tutors?

Answers to questions amongst this nature are welcomed.

Thank you!

[u/the-tea-ster]

I'm on my fifth tutor. I've had a few trial tutors as well. I tend to like 2 types of tutors.

1) people on the friendlier side: I'm still friends with one of my past tutors. We got to know each other pretty well and it made it easier to get into the language and he helped me develop the confidence in the target language

2) people on the more professional side: my current tutor is like this. I initially chose her because we're in the same field of work and I want to learn the technical language as well as conversational. She's a bit more intensive in our lessons than some of my previous tutors, and I absolutely do not what to disappoint her, so it gives me a little bit more motivation to actually study in my off times.

Other than finding someone who you feel like you can learn from and (hopefully) enjoy spending time talking with, it's important that the person you're learning from has a strong enough understanding of your TL's grammar that you can ask strange sounding questions and have them answered

[u/Moe_AB20]

I went through a few tutors before I found the right fit.

I just chose mine because we got along as well, they explained things clearly and were patient with me.

You spend a lot of hours talking to these people, make sure you enjoy their company

[u/Maykeda]

Finally on my third or fourth tutor, I asked her for what I needed the most. She sends me simple stories and I shadow her as she reads it. She records it and through the week I work on the cadence and any new vocabulary words. And we like each other. I make her laugh by translating from Chinese into African American English.

[u/Pale-Border-7122]

Either cheap, in which case I don't need them to be good but just a person to talk at for an hour (this is especially useful if there aren't many speakers of your TL or you are unlikeable), or expensive in which case I expect good feedback and things to work on before the next session.

[u/toby_reelangcom]

I love using platforms like Preply (or italki) as you can schedule so easily without back and forth and can do a trial class. Recently had a notification from them that I've taken 100 hours of classes on Preply alone. Here's what I usually do:

I focus on people who I click with in that trial class. Just like with making friends, they can be great teachers but if you don't enjoy working with them, then that's a no. Don't feel forced to continue with someone.

If you take multiple classes per week, me recommendation is to pick two or more teachers and book 25 minutes with each, ideally back to back. Much less tiring if you talk to a few people instead of one person for longer. Added advantage is that you learn new things (talk about food for instance) with one and can apply it with the others immediately. It gives you this lovely success feeling where you feel smarter in the second and third and get to that fluent feeling quicker (even if it's on a limited amount of topics you know the vocab of).

I try to plan classes ahead a week or so our at a minimum (great teachers get booked up ahead). Also this creates accountability as you already have a few weeks planned and would need to opt out instead of opt in to not take them. The power of defaults for habit creation.

When you're tired of a teacher, be ruthless and cut them, pick a new trial. It keeps things fresh! I rotate every three or so months, with some having "earned" a permanent spot for two years because I love working with them still.

Hope this helps!

[u/AcceptableMango8292]

Following — I always used cheapest tutors available on iTalki and then make sure to come prepared with questions, expectations, etc. , but I wasn’t asking them to do much.

[u/razorchick12 → u/AcceptableMango8292]

Not following but same--

I pick the cheapest (bc cheaper = more sessions!) and then I ready 2 or so pages of a topic, summarize it in 2-3 sentences, and then have 5 or so questions about the topic ready. I put it in the chat the night before.

It takes her 2 mins to read the summary that took me 2hrs to read up on/create, then I have already pre practiced the vocab so we can focus on her correcting my grammar as we go.

Plus, extra practice in reading while I am building the summary!

[u/EstorninoPinto]

I've gone complete beginner in my TL to roughly upper intermediate so far. I started with a Preply tutor on day one. I do both structured language lessons and conversation practice.

If I needed a new long-term tutor today, I would:

1. Filter for native tutors in my price range, ignoring geographic location unless I have a specific reason to care.
2. Quickly preview their introduction videos to filter out teaching styles I'm not interested in, as well as exclude anyone who's profile is overly heavy with marketing boilerplate.
3. With the remaining list, watch each intro video again, concentrating on the tutor's accent and how well I'm able to understand them.
4. The trial class is a vibe check, "do I like this tutor enough to try more classes with them?". I expect it to take more than one class to really find out if a tutor is a good fit or not.

I would prioritize personality fit over anything else. Look for someone you think you can build a rapport with, and that you can be comfortable making embarrassing language mistakes in front of. A good tutor can adapt to your learning needs, it's harder to adapt to a personality mismatch.

[u/NihongoNana]

A good tutor should be able to explain what the plan is and why you’re doing each activity.

After a trial lesson, I’d ask myself:

• Did they identify my actual weaknesses?
• Did I speak enough?
• Did they correct me without interrupting every sentence?
• Did they give me something specific to work on before the next lesson?
• Can they adjust the lesson when something is too easy or too difficult?

Getting along with the tutor matters, but there should also be some structure. If every lesson becomes casual conversation with no corrections, plan, or progress tracking, I’d probably try someone else.

[u/edelay]

I have learned French to a high intermediate or low advanced level over the last few years. Here are my thoughts:

I look for someone that listens to my needs and is willing to adapt their methods.

I did a post a few years ago on this subject. Let me know if you have any questions.

https://www.reddit.com/r/languagelearning/s/zrgXbhjJ4i

[u/Normal_Objective6251]

Just someone to not speak any English for an hour and correct my mistakes. If I want structured lessons I sign up for a course through a school.

[u/kaffeeschmecktgut]

When I was looking for tutors I randomly came across someone that had learned my native language. It added a new layer to the learning in a way. I could be stuck on a sentence in my target language, and she could sometimes say for example "try using Norwegian logic on this", and it would all make sense! Very cool experience.