One-to-one tuition, what are your opinions?

6 comments

1. Yeah that’s an average price for a private tutor I’d say. But if you just want speaking practice you prob don’t need one, since any native could help you with that. Tutors probably understand the language at a deeper level because that’s their trade, if that’s what you want, like grammar explanations and stuff. But the average native could correct you and provide advice based on their intuition.

2. I charge $40 US an hour.

   I have been tutoring Japanese for 14 years, hold a Master’s degree in Japanese, was a TA for several Japanese and Japanese studies courses, and I’m a certified teacher through Massachusetts, plus I have JLPT exam experience. I’ve also lived in Japan for a total of 4 years as a student and as an English teacher.

   Additionally, I’ve worked at a university’s campus tutoring center where I designed tutor training modules, including several on study skills, time management and test taking strategies. I’ve also done ESL and writing.

   I’m worth my price. I assume your tutor has done an evaluation of the value they can bring to a session and have priced their rates accordingly.

3. If you feel that the lesson helped/motivated you, for sure worth the price. About italki, I’m talking some lessons paying about $17 per hour. However there is no extra preparation from the teacher side, he show up and we talk about some topic.

   If the teacher needed to prepare something in advance or a lesson, I think it worth price. Moreover, I’ve seen some posts here about how italki teachers are not so engaging, so the price might explain. It is a hit and miss.

4. Hello! I’m an example of a cheap tutor! (~~since I saw someone post an example for a more expensive tutor)~~

   When I first started (back in October), I had my price at $5 an hour. [This was my first time teaching and creating material for my students](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggUjOM6Isx8&list=PLNvL1DnM9hiznf8MJbJH4Pt2uW-6FXxEW&index=1&t=729s) ^((the video is of my 3rd student)). After I got about 4 students I met with weekly and [I felt like my teaching improved enough](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtozNtgUZYs&list=PLNvL1DnM9hiznf8MJbJH4Pt2uW-6FXxEW&index=13), I raised my price for any new students to $10 an hour (or 5 lessons for $40 which is like $8 a lesson). ^(Any students I had from before get to keep their old rate.)

   ~~I have a BA in Japanese and only a JLPT N3 level certificate~~ ~~^((in my defense though, the JLPT N2 test has been canceled in my state since covid hit us.))~~

5. >I have also looked on Itaki before, but am equally confused at how low the prices on there are! Why aren’t they charging more?

   There are professional tutors on iTalki with degrees and lesson plans who charge $40+/hr but you can get conversation practice with natives as low as $8/hr.

   The cheap tutors are often just trying it out and generally have irregular schedules and may stop after a few months but its a great way to get practice if you have enough Japanese to hold a basic conversation. Untrained natives will have a hard time answering grammar questions.

   There are a few retirees on iTalki who only speak Japanese but are basically making a full time second career of tutoring and their prices tend to be low as well.

6. I got lucky on iTalki and found a really good certified teacher who’s charging about £8-10 pound an hour in European timezone. If you look for teachers who are fairly new they’ll usually be cheaper than more established ones. Not kidding when I say she’s excellent too, she creates really great slides for grammar lessons and explains thing’s much better than what I get from books. But she doesn’t really speak English at all.

   I’d also add it depends on what you need and where you are. If you’re level is quite high you don’t need a teacher who’s fluent in English (which will up the price considerably in my experience).