Hi! I’ve been studying Japanese for around the past month (after quitting when COVID hit). Im still obviously very new and I’m using JFZ currently, and I’ve learned hiragana. Im thinking about adding a tutor to help/keep me on track/bounce pronunciation off of etc.
In my local area I only have 2 in-person tutors around me (one is very expensive with not many available hours and the other is an hour away). I was looking at italki, but haven’t decided as I feel that online tutoring would not be as helpful.
Has anyone used an online tutor and would you recommend? Not asking for someone specific, just in general.
9 comments
In my experience tutoring for learning a language is more about what you make of it rather than in person or online or what have you. If you put in the work and come to your tutor with specific questions and listen to guidance whether you do it in person or online won’t matter. If you pick a tutor and sort of expect that to make you fluent (not saying you will, but I’ve seen it) then you’ll be disappointed.
I was going to a small in person class before covid, and I am still doing the class online. It is pretty much the same to me. Minor differences, since I turn in my homework online, I use Japanese Google IME to type my homework. I feel like I was getting pretty fast at hand writing before going online, but now I just don’t do it anymore really.
I studied in person at school and now have an online tutor. I really enjoy the online classes and I don’t feel it detracts from the learning.
The only drawback is that if you are not already comfortable with writing by hand it is harder to practice that online. My prof uses an app called camscanner which takes a photo of a page and converts it to a pdf so you can submit it online. It works quite well! If you are not satisfied with your in-person options then I think you should go for online tutoring.
I’m a tutor.
No, I don’t think there’s much of a difference with quality.
Online tutoring’s one benefit is that it can be done from anywhere you have an internet connection. There’s also no traffic to worry about or needing to find a quiet space most of the time.
I suggest getting onto GoogleDocs which you and the tutor can both edit so your notes are organized.
I think in person you get better visual clues from the mouth, face and body. Plus the audio quality will be better so that can facilitate listening and speaking. All else equal, this is best. The pandemic & high gas prices make this more difficult for many people.
One-on-one video can be intense and packed with content. And I had some great language exchange sessions online (dependent on my prep and the effort of the partner). Make sure you are well prepared and have a good quality mic and headphones.
I use an online tutor. It’s very informal, and mostly conversation practice with a whiteboard and corrections — but he’s great, and it’s really helpful to me, to get some confidence in speaking.
A few years into picking study back up, I am ooooookay at reading, writing, and listening… Just forming and verbalizing thoughts is where I am a bit behind.
Before covid I was doing in-person tutoring sessions at my company. Then, with covid, we were mandated to work from home and my tutor also moved to online lessons. She wasn’t used to technology and kinda struggled dealing with Skype and PCs and stuff like that but after the first couple of sessions it worked out fairly well and now 2+ years later we’re still doing online lessons and honestly it’s pretty much the exact same thing as in-person. Obviously it depends on the teacher and teaching style, but in my experience there’s virtually (heh) no difference.
I have worked with the same tutor for the last 4 years, one-on-one, and we had two years of online classes due to lockdowns etc. Being online fundamentally made no difference to my actual learning. I successfully completed the second half of Minna No Nihongo 1, all of 2 and half of the first intermediate book online with no detriment to my studies at all. I did actually go back to in-person classes as soon as I could, despite the extra travel costs, because I felt like I could focus better in person. However I would say that was more of a personal preference/mental health thing (Japanese language is my escapism from work etc) than actually the content of the lessons. The main thing is finding a tutor that you like and a routine that you can stick to.
In person is more engaging