Supplementing classes with tutors or language partners

[IndhuRen]

Dear Friends,

I am currently talking online 1-to-1 lessons from TLI Chinese Online. I would like some some advice on what exactly is the best strategy for 1-to-1 lessons and is there any thing in particular I must tell the teacher. I was given a trial lesson and was asked to start with the book New Practical Chinese book 2 which is their inhouse publication. This book looks a bit like something between CME and NPCR......

[Daan]

It really depends what you want from them. Is that online tutor your only teacher? Or is he supposed to supplement other classes? And what do you want to use your Mandarin for?

[IndhuRen]

It really depends what you want from them. Is that online tutor your only teacher? Or is he supposed to supplement other classes? And what do you want to use your Mandarin for?

So far I have taken 4 lessons and it was always the same teacher. I am not sure about the arrangement in future. The TLI online lessons are the only "classes" I attend. I am also learning hanzi on my own.

I want to use my Mandarin mainly for socializing with Chinese people....

[Daan]

Right. If you're a beginner, it's probably a good idea to start by working through a textbook, such as NCPR, to make sure your progress is balanced in the beginning. Later on you can decide to focus on certain areas, but in the beginning, make sure you get all the basics down. And do take advantage of being taught one-on-one by a tutor: if you do not understand something, just ask them to explain it again. Of course, there will also be stuff you can't understand yet as a beginner, so be careful not to insist on them explaning something at length over and over again when exposure is the only way to grasp a feature of the language.

What do you feel the pros and cons of your current teacher are? Do you feel your pronunciation, vocabulary, reading comprehension, spoken production and written Mandarin are improving? And how are you approaching learning the characters?

[zhouhaochen]

From my experience, it doesnt matter at which level, use your Chinese in real life as much as possible. And if it is just a few sentences, with bad grammar and pronounciation, if you get to use your Chinese, you will progress much faster. Try to communicate. If you are missing the words, bring your dictionary and look up whatever you need. And dont worry too much about the grammar while talking (you get that taught properly in class) at the beginning, just go out and speak, speak, speak.

That can be with a language exchange partner, with a taxi driver, your local noodle shop owner or a private tutor.

I have had good experiences with all three of them

[anonymoose]

dont worry too much about the grammar while talking

I'm not sure what you mean by this, whether you are saying don't pay too much attention to the grammar while talking, or don't be too self-conscious about making mistakes.

I agree one should not be too self-conscious. After all, making mistakes is part of the learning process.

However, I disagree that one shouldn't pay too much attention to the grammar when talking (because "you get taught that properly in class"). If you want to become proficient at speaking accurately, you really need to pay attention to grammar (and pronunciation) right from the outset. Yes, it does slow you down initially, but that's also part of learning. Gradually your speaking speed will naturally increase, and provided that you constantly pay attention to grammar, you will eventually be able to speak quickly and relatively effortlessly with good grammar. It is analogous to learning to play the piano. You can start out by playing very quickly, and not worry about all the incorrect notes. But it will be difficult to improve like this. On the other hand, if you start out slowly, making sure each note is played correctly, then you will naturally become faster with practice, and end up with a much nicer sounding and more accurate result at the end.

[zhouhaochen]

hey,

what I mean is of course not being too afraid of making mistakes when speaking, when you do know the correct grammar, by all means try to get it right ;)

But there is a difference with grammar and pronounciation. You have to get promounciation right at the beginning, otherwise it will be hard to get it out later. So, pay attention and speak slower, even if it makes communication a bit more difficult and troublesome at the beginning.

However, if you use some grammatical rules wrongly because you have not learned them yet or forgot, that is less of an issue, as grammar comes automatically with speaking (of course try to get it right as far as possible). So here it is important to get conversations going and if you focus on the tones and the grammar at the same time, it suddenly turnes into a class exercise, whereas speaking should be fun and interesting. To be successful, you should ideally be using as much Chinese as possible, but if you have to worry about grammar and sentence structure whenever speaking - well it will be so tiring, you will automatically start looking for ppl to speak English to after class.

It's all about immersion, if you are in the language environment and use it you get automatically better (notable exception: tones again ). If you try to learn all the rules for "了“ I promise you, you will want to jump out of a window soon. If you just speak to the guy at the noodle shop and use it when he uses it, its a lot easier.

This is very counte intuitive for people who learned European languages before, because there you first learn the rules and then follow them (I learned four European languages like that). It just doesnt work like this in Chinese (took me a long time to find out ;) ).

Well, that is my opinion at least, I am sure there are others out there too.

[renzhe]

You're right, getting all the nuances of the language is something that is best learned through observation and emulation.

On the other hand, learning the main one or two functions of 了 will give you a HUGE jump-start, and make talking easier, not harder.

I think that a good language-learning approach is to get the basics down, then refine them through exposure to real-life materials and practice.

I also believe that making mistakes is not tragic, as long as you notice that you're making a mistake, or get them pointed out to you. Otherwise, you get very bad habits in the long run, which most people never manage to correct. Don't forget that the first few years of learning a language are often the most intensive and full of motivation. Fixing errors later is difficult.