Why bother with private lessons when there are so many free resources available online? You can learn anything you want for free if you look hard enough – so why do people still take private language lessons?
I’ve been giving private lessons for most of the past 14 years now and I’ve had many students who tried to learn from various apps and videos and eventually started private lessons.
Here are the top reasons why private lessons work best:
Reason 1. A teacher does a great deal of work for you and gives you perspective.
Internet is like a bottomless pit. There is no debate that you can get a lot of useful stuff out of it, but at the same time it’s hard to get a sense of what to focus on. Searching, sorting and trying out every recourse that looks appealing, doing in fits and starts, then switching randomly to another one is time consuming and can lead to mistakes and procrastination.
By comparison,
- a teacher can help you plan your language practice time efficiently so that you can get right to work instead of scrolling through apps and videos until you find the right one.
- A teacher knows that learning a language can be stressful – that’s why we do everything we can to guide our students through the learning process in a clear and straightforward way.
- Private lessons provide something to look forward to and practice for every week. Even if you have difficulty sitting down to practice as often as you would prefer, a weekly lesson gives you a clear deadline every week to push your skills a little further.
Reason 2. A teacher will interact with you
When you’re studying on your own, watching YouTube lessons etc., it can be hard to see whether you are acquiring any real language skills, i.e. being able to communicate in real life without blocking. I find that knowledge of a foreign language is a skill – and, just like any skill, it requires… practice!
- In a stage where you may not be confident enough to put your language into practice straight “in the real world”, a personal language tutor, who is a language and communication expert, will give you specific positive feedback that will enable you to move forward with confidence.
Often I work with students who tell me that they took a Russian language in high school or college, but “can’t speak a word”. That is VERY common. The problem was that in classrooms they were not taught to communicate. They learnt ABOUT the language: the grammar and conjugations, and all of the rules, without applying them in communication.
- It’s especially helpful for beginners to have a teacher present who can help adjust your pronunciation, practice various language patterns with you (I am not mentioning the scary word “grammar”!), correct inaccuracies.
Reason 3. Private lessons are encouraging
We all benefit from a little encouragement. As I mentioned earlier, feedback is immensely helpful, but so is encouragement. It’s so much easier to go ahead if someone is regularly telling you that things like “this is a normal pace for what you’re learning” or “that part is difficult but it gets easier after one or two lessons of practice.”
Often language students have some past learning trauma where they feel they ought to get better at a faster pace.
- Sincere encouragement can help you feel comfortable about the journey and less worried about comparing yourself to others.
Learning a foreign language is a long journey that sometimes gets tough and bumpy; it’s easy to lose patience, motivation and give up eventually.
- The role of a teacher is to keep your motivation up and remind you, along the way, that you are doing an awesome job ;=)
Personally, I can’t help but feel admiration for all those determined to become fluent in my native tongue. Maybe Russian is not so difficult as many people think, but it is sure not one of the easiest languages, so Two huge thumbs up for every, even small, step ahead!
Reason 4. Private lessons are personal and custom-made
We all learn in different ways. One size does not fit all.
- A good teacher can help you reach the learning goals you’re interested in and continually adapt to your specific learning styles.
Online lessons are generally focused on topics that appeal to a wide range of people. If you want to learn something specific, you really have to hunt for it. On top of that, a YouTube video doesn’t know how skilled you are. You might be spending a long time watching something that is already easy for you or maybe you’re struggling and struggling to learn something that would be a lot easier after you develop more foundational skills.
- A good teacher can assess where your level is within a few minutes and suggest practice material that fits your interest, helps best to develop your skills; in short, a teacher will cater specifically to your needs.
Ultimately, at this point, teachers can make learning appropriately rigorous – challenging enough, but not so tough that students get frustrated and stop trying, thus contribute to visible growth in their students’ progress.
The interesting thing about coaching[teaching] is that you have to trouble the comfortable, and comfort the troubled. Ric Charlesworth, Hockey
Reason 5. Your teacher is like a like a sports coach: they care about you and your progress
Teachers care about their students like sports coaches care about the athletes they train: they want them to succeed and are committed to helping them achieve their goals.
My coaching philosophy is: I am a firm believer that if you have knowledge pass it on to those who do not. John Wooden
A great teacher does not make it a secret that they care. And why wouldn’t they?
Working one-to-one with a student is immensely gratifying, both for the teacher and the learner.
Such one-to one mode of learning is efficient because it creates mutual accountability.
It is not only the student who has responsibilities for learning, for not finding excuses, etc; but the teacher, in turn, feels directly responsible for delivering excellent service quality. Both student and teacher are “put under a microscope”, in a positive sense, so it provides a stimulating environment for achieving better results.
That said, it happens that a teacher sometimes is even more concerned with your progress than you are yourself! I feel truly rewarded seeing my students improve and prosper and looking to reconnect with me, because a teacher who cares is likely to make the longest lasting impression on their students.
- It is a kind of working where giving each other feedback and support is very rewarding.
