when to start with tutors -- is it suitable for pure beginners?

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when to start with tutors -- is it suitable for pure beginners?

Postby ancient forest » Fri May 05, 2017 9:25 pm

When I have tried to use tutors in the past, many of them like to speak the foreign language without explaining things in English or least they like to keep the amount of English to a minimal level. Do you think it is worth studying with a tutor without previous study in the language? I feel like it might be better to get basic communication skills first to better participate in the lessons, but perhaps it could still be beneficial for a tutor to help with the basics.
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Re: when to start with tutors -- is it suitable for pure beginners?

Postby garyb » Sat May 06, 2017 3:26 pm

Personally I feel it's a waste of time and money: I can learn the basics just as quickly on my own at a much lower cost and without all the awkwardness of stumbling around in a language I barely know with another person. For me the point of a tutor is to help me do things that I can't do on my own (there's a big thread about tutors for advanced learners going on now if you're feeling brave). Most here will probably agree since it's a forum aimed at self-learners, but many other people seem to learn better when a real person is explaining it than from audio and books. So I think it's partly an individual question.
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Re: when to start with tutors -- is it suitable for pure beginners?

Postby the1whoknocks » Sat May 06, 2017 5:51 pm

If I were to attempt learning another foreign language, absent some very special circumstances, I wouldn’t start out with a tutor. Depending on the language, and how aggressively I were studying on my own, I would plan on anywhere between 4-12 months before seriously considering one.

I’d spend at least a few months on my own with:

-1. A lot of interesting things to listen to - graded, things designed for beginners, things children might listen to, native things that interested me.
-2. A few proven beginners courses - by people who have actually learned said foreign language.
-3. Some interesting native material - some authentic, but mostly graded. and
-4. Something to help with pronunciation.
-5. More interesting things to listen to.

A few years ago when searching for a Spanish tutor, I took their profile, online reviews (mostly unhelpful) and number of repeat students into account, but still spent a lot of time, and a fair amount of money looking for one I that felt comfortable paying for. If I were to learn a third foreign language, I would start with tutor recommendations from those who have had positive experiences with the language that I hope to learn.

Sorry about the lengthy response, but I think you might like a bit of context behind my response. I started with a tutor a couple days after I decided to start learning Spanish. It was my first attempt at learning a foreign language and I thought it was the efficient thing to do. In a way, it was. Since I was an inexperienced monolingual it was helpful to have and experienced and patient native speaker there to help guide me. However, I could have had a very different experience since I later realized that I just got lucky with finding a very capable tutor early on. Even then, in the very beginning, we weren’t covering anything I couldn’t have done very well on my own. The biggest benefit was just their guidance. Just yesterday, I met someone who took some convincing to believe that I had only been learning Spanish for just over 2.5 years - I joked that they really meant I spoke well for an American because I don’t think I speak that well.

To be fair, I know an exchange partner who started learning English about year before I started learning Spanish; not that long ago. He didn’t start with a tutor, and said he didn’t even try to speak until we met about a year into his studies. Although he still makes errors, it’s nothing that would impede understanding. If I could speak Spanish like he does English, I’d be happy. He speaks highly idiomatically, and with a decent accent; better than most I’ve heard. We have similar study methods, but he has watched a lot of American series.

My point? I started with a tutor and think that was a good decision for me. However, one shouldn’t feel compelled to do so since there are many successful learners out there who did not go my route. I’ve gotten a chance to hear the language skill of some who didn’t and they’ve made a believer out of me. Working with a tutor in the beginning, although potentially helpful, is not necessary and may not be the efficient thing to do. Even I wouldn’t opt to use one, in the beginning, if I were to start learning a third language tomorrow.

^ I second finding a patient native speaker that you're invested in speaking with you, and you with them. More power to you if you can do that, it helped me. Although, the value of doing that as a beginner, VS seeking out someone who has experience communicating with beginners, even if not a professional tutor, could be another question.

ancient forest wrote:When I have tried to use tutors in the past, many of them like to speak the foreign language without explaining things in English or least they like to keep the amount of English to a minimal level.


This was my experience. In the beginning, my tutor would use English to explain things, but he quickly moved to communicating primarily in Spanish after a while. He wasn't against using English here and there, but he tried not to. During our Skype session, he shared his screen with me and, when I wasn't understanding something he was saying, he'd used an on screen drawing board to illustrate his point as he dumbed down his language. Worked for me. ;)

Eventually, we moved past using English at all but that drawing board stayed with us for a while. I should say that I was doing a lot of self-study too.
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Re: when to start with tutors -- is it suitable for pure beginners?

Postby Jean-Luc » Sat Jun 22, 2019 8:23 am

Being often business oriented, I use teachers/tutors for cultural knowledge too! Even with a low level I have to understand better a foreign customer. Business contact RPG with tutors is helpful. Learning the language is not all.
Another good way of tutoring is staying abroad on holidays in a family. Living a day to day life helps it a lot!
Last edited by Jean-Luc on Sun Jun 23, 2019 4:15 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: when to start with tutors -- is it suitable for pure beginners?

Postby Cavesa » Sat Jun 22, 2019 10:00 am

I totally agree with Garyb. At the beginnings, you can learn the same things cheaper (and often better) on your own. Sure, an exceptionally good tutor will be better than most coursebooks with audio, but those are not the standard. I'd recommend self-teaching to most people.

The primary problem is not whether they are monolingual or bilingual. The primary problems are the methods, your needs, and so on.

The few exceptions, in which I'd recommend a tutor to a beginner:
-lack of resources, especially audio ones. If you can't find much of audio recordings for beginners, or a good coursebook with enough info on pronunciation, then a good tutor is a valid choice (a bad one is always a problem. Unfortunately, a beginner logically struggles to tell the good and bad ones apart)
-you are that kind of person, who wants to be lead instead of autonomy. Starting with a tutor and making them decide everything for you is an option. It will work, if you have enough money. And if you find a very good tutor, that is the key. You will get many disadvantages of the normal classes, but some people don't like "too much" freedom in their learning anyways. The problem is, that most tutors are either those just for practice without much of structure (and it is a matter of opinion, how useful is practice before you actually know enough to practice), or the teachers with their plan they want to mold you into (and even if they claim to tailor your classes to you, don't believe that blindly). Very few are somewhere in between.

I remember the times before the widely spread and rich internet and with much poorer language learning shelves in the bookstores. Classes or tutors were the only options. And that was a huge problem. The dependence on someone else's quality was extremely frustrating for me even at a young age, especially when I could clearly see there was a problem. But there are people, who prefer to trust a leader. And as a beginner, it is partially understandable, and partially hard to arrange anything else then pure leadership with the tutor. If that leader is very good, so will be your results. But if they are failing in any aspect and you trust them (for example their curriculum, their pace, their recommendations,...), you'll fail.
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