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Anybody learn from a private tutor? | ||
Tags: Tutor | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| Dania Newbie United States Joined 4756 days ago 13 posts - 13 votes Speaks: English* | Message 1 of 14 25 December 2011 at 1:20am | IP Logged | ||
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Just curious - Anybody here ever learn a language, start to finish - with a private tutor? Obviously the skill of the tutor would make a big difference, but it seems like it would be a fast(er) way to reach your goal of fluency and get past plateaus - like the regular person who works out at the gym by herself vs. the A- list celebrity who meets with a personal trainer 3 times a week. We all know who would have the better body. Would it work that way with a language? Say money was no barrier. Anyone have personal experience with this? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tommus Senior Member CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5800 days ago 979 posts - 1688 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Dutch, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish | Message 2 of 14 25 December 2011 at 2:35am | IP Logged | ||
I have no personal experience. However, here in Canada, we see many senior politicians, including party leaders and prime ministers who are far from fluently bilingual even after many years. I assume that money would not be much of a barrier. Probably for them, time is the barrier. Most of them are at least functional or better. The hardest part for them seems to be pronunciation. This includes both anglophones and francophones. However, there are also many who probably grew up in a bilingual environment who appear to be native in both English and French. I doubt if any of these achieved their native fluency with private tutors and unlimited money. I am willing to give it a try if anyone can supply the unlimited money. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| allen Newbie United States Joined 5018 days ago 23 posts - 73 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Korean, Thai | Message 3 of 14 25 December 2011 at 3:05am | IP Logged | ||
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I've had tutors before but never start to finish. But I've lived with native speakers of
my target languages and that's kind of close. I think they were both very helpful even if they weren't always the best teachers. I think it can help a lot if you know what questions to ask. But I think a very good teacher will help you no matter if you spend an hour with them, a day, weeks, months, or years. That's because they have information that you don't, and if they're really good they'll know how to get it into your head. Of course it really depends on how good they are. It also may be the case that no matter how good the teacher is, the fastest way would still be to do some of the learning on your own anyway. Edited by allen on 25 December 2011 at 3:07am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| napoleon Tetraglot Senior Member India Joined 4950 days ago 543 posts - 874 votes Speaks: Bengali*, English, Hindi, Urdu Studies: French, Arabic (Written) | Message 4 of 14 25 December 2011 at 6:31am | IP Logged | ||
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Just a few observations...
I think that the thing that separates the great teachers from good teachers is: Good teachers teach, great ones inspire. All those of us who have tried our hand at learning on our own know that staying motivated to complete the course is challenging enough. Good teachers teach grammar and vocabulary but great teachers teach much more. They teach something that one can't really put one's finger on. Their passion for their subject is catching. They motivate us to challenge ourselves and set higher targets. Speaking from personal experience, I tend to learn very fast when I'm studying with a teacher I like. When I learn from a teacher with whom I am not very compatible, I get a lot worse results than when I study on my own. So having a tutor will certainly help. If he/she's any good, you will consciously need to study on your own. If he/she's great, you study anyway; you'll just not notice. Merry Christmas. Napoleon EDIT: Fixed a typo. Edited by napoleon on 25 December 2011 at 6:43am 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6531 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 5 of 14 25 December 2011 at 8:08am | IP Logged | ||
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I only know examples of those who did NOT learn a language to fluency in many years with a private tutor.
2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 5945 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 6 of 14 25 December 2011 at 12:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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Most language teaching methodologies have holes in them, so most tutors won't be able to give you the complete package.
A different teacher may have different "holes", so switching teachers may not be a bad thing. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6484 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog | Message 7 of 14 25 December 2011 at 1:55pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have used tutors extensively, mostly for learning/practicing conversation, but never from start to finish. But here are some strategies for that:
Leave me Alone - Can't you see I'm learning you Language? Language Learning in the Real World for non-beginners These articles are very long, but very good. 9 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Dania Newbie United States Joined 4756 days ago 13 posts - 13 votes Speaks: English* | Message 8 of 14 25 December 2011 at 5:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks leosmith, I'll check those out right now. I like long articles - excellent for avoiding the family. Merry Christmas everyone! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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