Teaching Mandarin as a dead language, or, Tutor advice

[fulgentius]

I'm dissatisfied with my classes.

All we do is learn characters and grammar. Three or four times a semester they make us memorize a dialogue and that's our oral practice, apart from reading to each other in pairs once in a while.

Our listening practice is as frequent, based on ancient tapes made by people who appear to slur a lot -- I sometimes wonder if they were intoxicated.

One of the teachers has now taken to conducting the class almost entirely in Chinese, which is fine for the half of the class who already speaks Cantonese fluently (they say they're mutually unintelligible, but apparently it helps a lot anyway). But those of us who don't are usually lost.

Basically, the pedagogical level is vintage 19th century.

Hm. I guess I really need a tutor, huh?

For those of you with experience with tutors, what should I look/ask for? I've had some bad experiences with people who just want you to read out of a book and correct your tones. That's the last thing I need. I need conversation, but at a restricted (~600 word) level. Anyone know good techniques for tutoring someone at that level?

Thanks for reading my rant.

[self-taught-mba]

You didn't say where you are. China, US or still in CA? Makes a difference in finding a tutor.

[fulgentius]

Oh sorry. Yes, I'm still in California, and will remain here for some time.

[leosmith]

For those of you with experience with tutors, what should I look/ask for? I've had some bad experiences with people who just want you to read out of a book and correct your tones. That's the last thing I need. I need conversation, but at a restricted (~600 word) level. Anyone know good techniques for tutoring someone at that level?

Everybody learns differently of course, but here's what I do. I study reading/writing, etc, and everything but conversation on my own. I hire a tutor for conversation only. The first thing I like to do is get my "legs" in the language. In the beginning, I ask the tutor not to correct me unless she can't understand me. During sessions I write down vocabulary, which I study before the next lesson. It's amazing how quickly you can accumulate useful vocabulary this way. The tutor should be open minded and forgiving. Cheerful is a plus. She should be a native speaker with good grammar and pronunciation. Teaching experience is not necessary, which may save you money. Also, teaching experience could be a negative in this case, because there is a strong desire to correct everything. Good Luck!