So we all on italki are enthusiasts of learning online with teachers from all over the world. :-D It's been years now since technology made this experience available to us. ^_^ Going through the comments under teachers profiles most of the time I see only descriptions of positive experiences. *_* It's hard to believe that there was no bad online learning experiences. I understand that it much harder to tell the teacher directly that something was wrong or upset us. :-( It's much easier to sit through a bad lesson and try to book another teacher next time. I want this discussion to be a safe place where we all can share our negative experiences so we all - teachers and students - learn from it and find creative solutions to the struggles of an online language learner. :-D Please don't call any bad teachers out here :-P The point of the discussion is to understand what's wrong and learn from it so we all can improve the experience for both learners and teachers. Please share your thoughts about it or just describe your bad online lesson experience. :-)
I have not had any negative experiences on italki, but some with online students in South Korea. Usually it is about motivation. Some students, mostly between 10 and 16, are forced to learn a language by their parents and are not really attentive and easily bored. Most learners on italki are at least in their twenties and only book a lesson when they are really interested and motivated.
Teaching children is usually easier offline, as you have more chances to play with them.
1) Poor connections.
2) Poor equipment.
I totally agree with you as I experienced the same situation several times. I also would like to make one additional point which I think is very important. Learning online requires more commitment and effort on the part of the learner because, unlike the classic way of attending a lesson in a classroom, the online learner should over come some obstacles like lack of motive that occurs because there is no strong motivation like the one in the classic way (i.e. the exams, attendance scores and the classmates who push the learner). Therefore, if the online learner don't have a strong inner compulsion, he/she will probably give up quickly.
@J. Ríos
Thank you for your comment! Could you explain how the fact that the lesson happens online hampers learning comprehension and demands a student to be more motivated? :) I'm not sure if I get your point.
