I don't know if you've read my log, but I'm doing the same thing as you, but in French. I've found that it is helpful to have more than one community tutor to switch between. I decided to have one French person, one Swiss, one Belgium, and I've booked a person from Morocco also. The idea is to get more accent exposure, although at the moment I can't really tell a difference.
I don't know what your level is, but if you're B1 or better you should be able to hold a conversation. I suspect that you feel like you are being interrogated because it is the only way for the native speaker to continue the conversation. In his book,
Boris Shekhtman explains:
Short, simple answers hinder conversation because they very quickly transform communication into interrogation, making both the foreigner and the native speaker feel awkward.
Some tips for you which I feel are relevant:
- Never give a short answer! Always be as verbose as you possibly can.
- Try to end with a question when you speak, this allows you to take control of the conversation and not just be battered with questions.
- Memorise some "islands" you can swim to. Some long bit of speaking which you have down pat and can rattle off for ages. Things like: Oh! It is funny that you asked where I'm from, because recently I went back to visit my parents and I encountered my best friend from high-school and you'll never believe it, he now owns a company ... Then you launch into a story about your best friend who started Google, or whatever. blah, blah blah.
- Practice making your stock answers more verbose, so instead of "My name is X and I live in Y", change to "My name is X, but my mother calls me beanbag, because when I was young I swallowed a beanbag and had to go to the hospital to get it removed. I live near Y, but I'm really hoping to move out into the country because I feel that Y has too many traffic problems. What about traffic where you live?
- Don't forget to learn filler words and phrases, things like: "Well it is clear to me that", "Without a doubt", "In my humble opinion", "What a great question, let me think about that for a second"
Also, I figure I'm paying so I always ask them:
- Give corrections at the end unless I ask for it.
- Don't speak to me in English unless I ask them to (and never ask them to)
- Spend the last 5 minutes of the lesson giving me feedback on how I can improve (this could be in English if you need it)
- Please wait for me to try and remember the word, if I can't remember I'll ask.
He who pays the piper, names the tune.
All the community tutors I've had on iTalki have been OK with this. Plus I'm only looking for conversation practice, so Mr. Textbook would go right in the rubbish bin for me. At the moment, I'm happy with one lesson a week and some "internal dialogue" practice during the rest of the week, although I'm now thinking about bumping up to 2 lessons per week for a little while.
As far as topics go, if you're struggling with vocabulary during your lessons, tell them to restrict the conversation about one subject, for example cooking. Then bone up on vocabulary related to cooking, and work up a "cooking island" which is your story about cooking you're going to steer into the conversation.
Bex wrote:Maybe I should change the question from "How often to use a tutor?" to "best way to use time with my tutor?"
Hopefully, some of that was useful to you. Although actually most of the above was the answer to this question: "How can I prepare myself better for the time I spend with a tutor."
Good Luck.