Hilary
Tips for your first italki session?

Hi guys,

I'm going to start my first session with my first teacher on italki soon. I'm a little nervous, but excited. Any advice/tips? (I'm learning Japanese by the way)


***Edit: It doesn't seem to let me reply so I'll just put it on here. Thanks so much guys for your helpful advice! I will definitely incorporate that into my sessions with my tutor! I especially liked the advice of letting myself be nervous and to use that as a way to help me improve better in my target language. I also liked the advice of planning ahead of time and letting my tutor know how I want to be corrected. Thank you so much! :)  

12 окт. 2016 г., 17:09
Комментариев · 2
1

Hi Hilary

A good Community Tutor (or Pro Teacher) will lead you in terms of the conversation so you don't have to worry at all about thinking of topics to talk about.  As for nerves, a good teacher will be aware that you may be a little nervous and is sure to treat you in a very warm and respectful manner which will put you at ease.

One thing that you might wish to consider:  If your teacher does not ask you to specify, then you may wish to specify as to how you would like to be corrected during your lesson.  Some students like to be corrected immediately.  Some prefer to wait until suitable pauses in the conversation to review any errors.  You may also wish to specify the level of correction that you require.  Some students may only wish to be corrected on occasions where they have said something that would not be understood by a native speaker.  Others may wish to be corrected when they say something that would be understood but sounds a little clumsy/is not a very "native," way of saying something.  Some students want to have every mistake - no matter how small, corrected during the course of their lesson.

You might also wish to think - prior to your lesson - about whether (or not) you would like to do some homework as your teacher may ask you whether you would like some.  My suggestion would be that you consider asking for a small amount of homework, in between each lesson.

12 октября 2016 г.
1
I'm nervous every time I tutor one on one. Only time I wasn't nervous was when I was taking Mishnaic Hebrew in college because the prof and I got to know each other so well over the course of several years. Had him for both Latin, and the whole range of Hebrew, from ABH to Contemporary. 

My advice? Let yourself be nervous. The advantage to having someone one on one is that the extra pressure makes you make more mistakes, and more mistakes means more progress (as counter intuitive as that might seem, it's really true!) 

Just keep working hard and you'll be rattling off in Japanese in no time! 
12 октября 2016 г.