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8 Ways to Make the Most out of a Japanese Tutor Session — 6 Comments

  1. Thanks for writing at my request. I’m going to Japan in August so really want to focus on improving speaking so I’m going to find an online tutor. Seems like a great alternative to classes as you can control that it’s entirely in J-J and can fit into an irregular schedule.

  2. Do you think that, perhaps, hiring a cheaper tutor is okay early on, and then you can hire a more expensive, more experienced tutor when you progress into the more advanced aspects of the language? Just a thought.

    • It depends on what you want out of a tutor, even as a beginner, and whether a tutor of that commitment can provide what you want/need.

      The danger I see is that a beginner is influenced easily. A bad influence can cause someone to quit Japanese. So it’s kind of weighing saving a few dollars a lesson vs. making sure you actually stick with Japanese for the long run.

  3. Very late reply but I’ve been thinking about this because I use italki to find tutors. IMO you want the cheap tutor when you’re intermediate and the expensive one when you’re beginning because teaching a beginner who speaks no Japanese is a specialised task. Making conversation is less so, however, finding a tutor who can make intelligent conversation while supporting you as a bumbly learner is quite hard, so these days I have my cheap community tutor to talk about the text book with and the expensive professional to discuss news articles with.
    The thing I’ve come to realise, particularly with inexperienced tutors, is you want to give them as much foundation for the lesson as possible; articles, textbooks, practice vocab and grammar, even a lesson plan. The more you give them, the more smoothly the lesson will go and the closer to your expectations it will be.

    • I like this approach very much. Spend more money as a beginner, and less as intermediate+. It makes a lot of sense based on what you need out of a tutor, especially if that just turns out to be a Japanese-only conversation partner in the higher levels.

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