3 Smart Steps to Find a Language Tutor Who Actually Gets You

3 Smart Steps to Find a Language Tutor Who Actually Gets You 3 Smart Steps to Find a Language Tutor Who Actually Gets You So you don’t want to sit in a class, but you’re hitting a wall just studying your target language on your own?The best language tutors can offer the best of both worlds.While classes with multiple students have their own strengths, they can also be frustrating because you cant learn according to your personal interests, schedule, pace and style.  Meanwhile, learning on your own can leave you feeling a bit directionless.With a language tutor, youre able to study at your own pace and focus on the skills that are most important to you, but you also have an expert speaker of the language available to correct you, explain new concepts and keep you on task. Unlike a language exchangeâ€"which costs nothing but the time you spend teaching your partner your native languageâ€"youll have a trained teacher to explain grammar and other more complex topics.Finding a great tutor can be overwhelming, though. There are thousands of teachers, so how do you know who will work best for you? Here are some suggestions for finding the right language tutor to level up your language skills. 3 Smart Steps to Find a Language Tutor Who Actually Gets You1. Find Some Potential TutorsLanguage tutors can be either online or in-person, and there are advantages to both arrangements.  Online tutors are often cheaper and don’t require you to travel anywhere, saving you both time and money. They can also use a wide variety of technological tools to display and create images in real-time, walk you through slideshows, give you a play-by-play of sentence constructions and introduce you to authentic materials.Yet I  would always choose an in-person tutor if possible. I find it helpful to have my tutor be able to draw diagrams or write out phrases and look closely at my mouth to correct my pronunciation by having me rearrange the position of my lips or tongue. In person, theres also no problem with static on the connection or Skype fails.Here are some places to find both, as well as the pluses and minuses for each option:Craigslist (or local equivalent). Craigslist tutors are easy to find, often have availability and are usually the cheapest options. But they have the least amount of vetting. You could be getting a trained language teacherâ€"or it could be someone who dropped out of school after fifth grade and has never taught anyone before (okay, thats not super likely, but certainly possible). If you find a tutor on Craigslist, you should be extra careful about making sure that the tutor knows what he or she is doing. Some local Craigslist equivalents are 58.com in China, leboncoin.fr in France and loquo.com in Spain.Language schools. Language schools are probably the most expensive and least flexible option, but theres assurance that the teacher will be qualified. Language schools include cultural institutions like the Alliance Française, the Confucius Institute, the Goethe Institute and the Cervantes Institute.Universities. Go to campus and look for foreign students who want to earn some extra money, or even visiting scholars. Students usually wont charge as much as a trained teacher, but also wont be as able to explain grammar depending on the level of education and training theyve received so far. If you choose to work with a foreign student who doesnt have experience teaching, focus on working on pronunciation and speaking with them. You could look for offerings in the various departments devoted to language and culture, review the bulletin boards around campus and even post a seeking language tutor flyer on these bulletin boards yourself.italki.  The website italki has both community tutors (untrained) and professional teachers, all of whom teach online only. Its one of the cheapest ways to get a foreign language tutor.Google search for language teachers. There are tons of language tutors that market themselves through blogs and websites only.  In this case youll have to vet the teacher yourself, but theres often a trove of online material that allows you to assess how much the teacher knows and if youll understand his or her explanations.2. Evaluate Your OptionsInevitably you’ll end up with lots of teachers who seem fine. When it comes time to contact some of them, here are things you can  ask to see how well their teaching style will actually help you.What does a typical tutoring session look like?  You want someone who focuses on speaking and pronunciation during the actual session, with things like pronunciation drills, reading aloud and having you do prepared and unprepared monologues. You should be talking at least twice as much as the tutor during the actual session.Do they assign homework and correct it outside of your tutoring time? Youll also need to work on writing and grammar, but most of that should be done outside of your tutoring time. Ideally, your tutor will correct your work beforehand and go over it with you in the first five minutes of each lesson. Ask them if this is something theyll do with yo u.Can he or she explain grammar concepts?  If youre paying a teacher, he or she should understand the grammar concepts well enough to explain them. Dont fall into the common trap of assuming that any native speaker can explain grammarâ€"most of them cant. It takes special training to be able to explain grammar to a language learner. If you just want conversation practice you dont need a grammar ninja, but you should also be paying substantially less if your tutor cant do anything but chat with you.Do they have a set program or tailor their program to you?  Many language tutor have set packs and they insist that you choose a tutoring program. While that does show a certain level of organization, it fails to take advantage of the main reason for choosing a tutor over a classâ€"you get control over what you work on each lesson. You need a language tutor who will listen to your needs and create custom lesson plans. You need someone whos willing to change course when something isnt worki ng or when your priorities change.3. Trial and ErrorIf you’re looking for a long-term tutoring relationship (You are looking for a long-term tutoring relationship, right? Thats one key to making the most of tutoring in general), be prepared to do a trial session with several tutors. This doesnt have to break the bankâ€"many tutors offer discounted trial lessons that you should take advantage of. During the trial lesson, here are the things to look out for.The basics. Did the tutor show up on time, and was he or she prepared with a relevant lesson? Was he or she able to answer your questions to your satisfaction? Was he or she reasonably organized? A surprising number of tutors dont meet these basic requirements.Talk time. An exceptional language tutor will always make sure that youre doing the majority of the talking. He or she shouldnt spent time lecturing you about grammar or anything elseâ€"you should do at least 75% of the talking. For tutors who are also regular language teac hers, this can be a challenge because theyre used to talking at a room full of students, not engaging with one student one-on-one. But tutoring sessions should never feel like youre in a class in which you happen to be the only student. The tutor-student dynamic is fundamentally different, and a great tutors style should reflect that.Sparks.  This is someone youre going to meet with, one-on-one, for (hopefully) months or years. Whether or not you feel a connection to the person and enjoy his or her style and manner of being is important. Going to your language tutoring session should be a joy, not a chore, and having a tutor you like can go a long way. This doesnt mean you just want a nice tutorâ€"a good tutor is enjoyable but not afraid to be firm about homework or to correct you mercilessly.Hiring a language tutor can be one of the fastest ways to learn a language. It allows you to focus on the language skills that are most important to you and to get specific assistance with the skills that you struggle with.But a language tutor can also be a waste of money (and they can be expensive!) if you dont take the time to find a language tutor who knows what he or she is doing. The best tutoring arrangements last for months or years, so you want to take the time to find someone who will support you on your language journey and encourage you to learn  more.Take your time to find an awesome language tutor and youll be rewarded with quick progress towards fluency in your target language! And One More ThingSince youve read this far, youre obviously serious about learning languages, so you may just love FluentU.With FluentU, you learn real languagesâ€"the same way that real people speak them. FluentU has a wide variety of videos, like movie trailers, funny commercials and web series, as you can see here:FluentU App Browse ScreenFluentU has interactive captions that let you tap on any word to see an image, definition, audio and useful examples. Now native language cont ent is within reach with interactive transcripts.Didnt catch something? Go back and listen again. Missed a word? Hover over or tap on the subtitles to instantly view definitions.FluentU Interactive TranscriptsYou can learn all the vocabulary in any video with FluentUs quiz mode. Swipe left or right to see  more examples for the word you’re learning.FluentU Has Quizzes for Every VideoAnd FluentU always keeps track of vocabulary that you’re learning. It uses that vocab to give you a 100% personalized experience by recommending videos and examples.