I’m also curious about this as I was tempted to sign up for lessons since my speaking is terrible.
I used it with the same teacher (Noriko Sensei) every week for about 30 minutes each time (sometimes I did an hour) over the course of a month.
It was great, my speaking was already pretty good but I needed/wanted the extra practice for a test.
My approach might be excessive for some, but I prefer to study by interacting with people.
I rotate through around 5 different teachers per week to experience different speaking styles and approaches. I usually do an hour per day 5 days a week, sometimes 2 hours a day on weeks I feel inspired.
I use the multiple teachers approach because in the beginning I noticed I would get used to a teacher’s particular speaking style, vocabulary, and rhythm, but then when I spoke to someone else my brain would struggle to understand their style of speech.
I realize not everyone has that kind of money to spend, but my goal has always to become ペラペラ over any other goal. That kind of frequency also allows you to get to know your teachers on a deeper level and have deeper conversations beyond small talk.
Also, I’ve always made sure to make it clear from the beginning that English was forbidden even if I struggled. They had to explain things in Japanese.
I meet with one tutor every 1-2 weeks depending on my schedule for an hour. We decide on a general topic in advance and she sends over an interesting article, essay, movie, podcast etc. and prepares a document with discussion questions and highlights any interesting phrases she thinks I could add to my vocabulary.
I read or watch whatever she sends in advance and take notes, then review the phrases she picked out for me and the discussion questions. I will also look up and try to learn any vocabulary I need to discuss whatever the topic is ahead of the lesson so I practice using it actively when we speak.
When we have our session, we have a very fun and interesting chat for an hour about whatever the topic is (with the occasional tangent too!). Whenever I struggle to find the write word of phrase something she will gently jump in and offer suggestions or rephrase my errors.
I could probably meet with her or another tutor more frequently to further improve my speaking abilities but Japanese is just a fun hobby for me and it already takes a bit of time to prep for our sessions so I’m happy for the moment.
I am interested in working with a tutor on improving my writing eventually, but have no idea how the sessions would work! If anyone has worked with a tutor to improve writing before I’d be curious to read your experience too!
I do two hours a week, half conversation, half grammar lesson (using Minna no nihongo). I also write a paragraph a week on a random topic that we go through together and correct any mistakes. Same teacher since I started 1.5ish years ago, had my 153rd lesson today.
5 comments
I’m also curious about this as I was tempted to sign up for lessons since my speaking is terrible.
I used it with the same teacher (Noriko Sensei) every week for about 30 minutes each time (sometimes I did an hour) over the course of a month.
It was great, my speaking was already pretty good but I needed/wanted the extra practice for a test.
My approach might be excessive for some, but I prefer to study by interacting with people.
I rotate through around 5 different teachers per week to experience different speaking styles and approaches. I usually do an hour per day 5 days a week, sometimes 2 hours a day on weeks I feel inspired.
I use the multiple teachers approach because in the beginning I noticed I would get used to a teacher’s particular speaking style, vocabulary, and rhythm, but then when I spoke to someone else my brain would struggle to understand their style of speech.
I realize not everyone has that kind of money to spend, but my goal has always to become ペラペラ over any other goal. That kind of frequency also allows you to get to know your teachers on a deeper level and have deeper conversations beyond small talk.
Also, I’ve always made sure to make it clear from the beginning that English was forbidden even if I struggled. They had to explain things in Japanese.
I meet with one tutor every 1-2 weeks depending on my schedule for an hour. We decide on a general topic in advance and she sends over an interesting article, essay, movie, podcast etc. and prepares a document with discussion questions and highlights any interesting phrases she thinks I could add to my vocabulary.
I read or watch whatever she sends in advance and take notes, then review the phrases she picked out for me and the discussion questions. I will also look up and try to learn any vocabulary I need to discuss whatever the topic is ahead of the lesson so I practice using it actively when we speak.
When we have our session, we have a very fun and interesting chat for an hour about whatever the topic is (with the occasional tangent too!). Whenever I struggle to find the write word of phrase something she will gently jump in and offer suggestions or rephrase my errors.
I could probably meet with her or another tutor more frequently to further improve my speaking abilities but Japanese is just a fun hobby for me and it already takes a bit of time to prep for our sessions so I’m happy for the moment.
I am interested in working with a tutor on improving my writing eventually, but have no idea how the sessions would work! If anyone has worked with a tutor to improve writing before I’d be curious to read your experience too!
I do two hours a week, half conversation, half grammar lesson (using Minna no nihongo). I also write a paragraph a week on a random topic that we go through together and correct any mistakes. Same teacher since I started 1.5ish years ago, had my 153rd lesson today.