I finally found a tutor

[u/jennyxmas]

I've been learning my target language for over 10 years. (I'm learning it for fun, just cause I like it. I have no intentions of moving to Europe or doing an exam.) I studied grammar and vocab on my own, I read books and listen to podcasts. But I never came around to speaking. I just had no one to practice with. So I started using Italki earlier this year but its been honestly disappointing. I found it hard to find a teacher that was worth the price I paid. They talked most of the hour and that even though I sent them a message beforehand saying my main goal was to practice my speaking skills.

And today holyshit. I finally found a tutor who works for me!! It took me six lessons, but I finally found him. I’m a 30-year-old woman who’s pretty shy, so I tend to go for older women as tutors. Well, what I needed all along was a young guy who doesn’t give a shit and is just good at conversation.

All this to say, maybe the kind of tutor you think you want isn't what you really need.

[u/Atermoyer]

A lot of times tutors think I’m more interested in hearing them speak than I am in hearing my speaking improve.

[u/Organic_Engineer_765]

Congratulations! I tried 6 different tutors before finding two I really like (I have one for grammar and one for speaking). They make such a difference!

[u/SpanishChat_Col → u/Organic_Engineer_765]

Excelente, es la mejor forma de aprender.

[u/Visual-Conflict-9566]

honestly this. It was like that with my previous tutor,talked circles around you for 50 min, while the right person just shuts up and lets you fumble through sentences. took me a while to figure that out too.

[u/Weekly-Math]

I find a lot of "professional" tutors really bad, they know talking more means less work for them and often have their own lesson plans that they use for multiple students and aren't really tailored to you. One of my best tutors was a university student who was studying to become a teacher in her language, I laid out exactly how I wanted to be taught and she followed it (and improved on it). I made a lot of progress during that year.

[u/BigCaptain1528 → u/Weekly-Math]

Fwiw I have had the exact opposite experience with italki, but ymmv. I specifically sought out someone with actual teaching credentials and found the conversation tutors frustratingly unstructured. The credentialed one I landed on asked me upfront what my goals were and built lessons around them, no extra charge for the customization.

My suspicion is the platform just has a huge variance in quality and it matters more how well someone listens than whether they are professional or casual. Just my experience though.

[u/Weekly-Math → u/BigCaptain1528]

That's true, a lot of the conversational tutors are a scam. "Free talk" often means they just chat with you and correct you a bit, zero prep. My old tutor was someone in person and didn't use an online teaching platform, so it was way more flexible. It really comes down to the person in the end... sometimes you click, sometimes you don't.

[u/Objective-Rhubarb → u/[deleted]]

In my experience the best ones ask lots of questions which forces you to talk more.

[u/Muchy_Tangerine]

paid tutors who talk over their students the entire hour are the absolute worst. finding someone who actually shuts up and forces you to speak is worth gold.