How to get the best from a tutor?

[ticktock2000]

Hi all,

I have been lurking on these forums for a while and have really appreciated the great wealth of knowledge to be found here. Top marks to all the regulars and mods.

So heres my first post. I need some advice...

I studied Mandarin whilst at uni for a year having a 2hour lesson once a week. I learnt the real basics and didn't take it as seriously as I should. To be fair I did have a degree to finish in my final year.

After my degree finished I stopped Mandarin for a while and only months later returned to get a Taiwanese tutor in London once a week.

At this stage looking back I was still at too early of a level to really utilise a tutor. We spent a lot of time practicing things I could have been doing on my own i.e non speech.

Recently I moved near Foshan, Guangdong. (I realise the difficulties of learning Mandarin in a predominantly Cantonese region but I had an offer I couldn't refuse and the area I am in has so many migrants from all over China that Mandarin is definately what I want to be learning. )

I know a few set sentences and phrases and can get by on my survival Mandarin but want to start to become more conversational. To do this from the information on this site and from what i have heard it would be best for me to get a tutor?

Where is best to look for a tutor? There is a University not far away from me and was considering writing an advertisment? What is the best approach for getting the best from a tutor? How often? What excercises? etc. I don't want it to just be here is the word for this, here is the word for that. I really want to be forced to use conversational language.

Any advice on tutors, study plan or other immersion techniques would be greatly appreciated/

My study plan is as follows;

Pimmsleur x1 a day. I repeat the lesson as many times that day until I get at least 80% if not more. (I know this won't last much longer and was thinking changing to chinese pod after??)

Chinese character flashcards.(remember it) Everyday. As advertised on the homepage of this site. I tried the trial and really got along learning using this hassle free system. It was also good to be able to log in just using the internet on different computers and have it all stored for you.

I have a vocab book I carry with me all the time for phrases and vocab.

I have Chinese for today 1 textbook from the course I started at Uni but find it slightly tedious and since being in China have moved textbook to the New Practical chinese reader 1 which suits me much better.

Since moving to the NPRC book I have started writing characters which i had never attempted before. I am really enjoying it and spend 1 hour a day writing and remembering the very few characters I have learnt from the textbook. I am trialling the Skritter iphone app with a view to potentially investing in this now that I have a better idea that i will enjoy it.

Anki Everyday. For flashcards of characters, words and sentences from textbooks and vocab book.

I listen to Popup chinese podcasts daily.

Everynow and then I like to use FSI excercises but struggle to progress through them at the same rate as the other materials mentioned previously.

N

[eion_padraig]

In part, what you chose to do is probably going to depend on your goals and what purpose you see for the language. I studied Chinese when I lived in China to make life easier and because I found it a enjoyable intellectual challenge. I've taken up studying again after several years mostly for the intellectual challenge. I don't ever see myself having to use the language in a real professional capacity.

When I lived in Shanghai years ago, I worked at a university and found a graduate student who was actually teaching foreign students Chinese. It was relatively inexpensive at the time because she had a primary job, but she was fairly used to dealing with foreigners and their thinking about Chinese. She also spoke a little bit of English which was helpful at the time. At some point, having a teacher who can't speak English would proabably be better.

We found ourselves directing her to topics we were interested in learning about centered around themes. For instance, language used in ordering food/menus, language for taxis, bar language/socializing. Our aim was to learn practical/oral language rather than formal writing. Admitedly there were times she was mildly scandalized by the language we wanted to learn, but she was around our age (early-mid 20's) so it wasn't too awkward. The more you have a teacher create lessons, the more work it is for them so they'll probably want to be paid more.

I met with my tutor twice a week which was both affordable and I kept busy with my other resources. It sounds like you're taking a thorough approach too. But how often will depend a lot on how much time you have and how much money.

I used to keep a notepad (mind you it was before tablets, iPads or smartphones) with things I didn't understand and I would often ask my tutor about it when I met with her.

One last thing, I had a number of Chinese friends who I would text with back and forth in Chinese. It's actually a fairly good medium for informal language, but it doesn't get as nearly informal as English ("cu l8r" type stuff). One there is a certain immediacy to the form of the communication, but you can look up a word or two if you need to in order to understand. Second, the context of conversations tends to be set. Three if you really don't understand a text, later you can show it to someone and they can explain it.

Anyway, good luck.

[Frapunchino]

i have more or less the same question : i have a tutor , and she bills me quite expensive [ per hour] so i would like to know " how to make the most of my type spent with her"

what I already do [ im an Intermediate level]

1) I write down homonyms like tudi [ if i recall well, depending on the tones it means either learner or territory ] so i would read out loud one of the two to her, then she would tell me which one she is hearing, so this works like an exercise for me to work correct pronounciation

2) she says words i would have to write down with the correct tones

3) i read passages aloud

4) i compose essays and sentences and she corrects

so any more suggestions/alterations to what i already to do, to optimize my time with her ?

thanks in advance to you all for your answers,

Merry Christmas

[icebear]

To both: it's hard to advise on exactly what you should be doing with your tutor, given that it need to tailored to your specific needs (why else pay for personalized teaching?).

One very important piece of advice, I think, is it make sure you have the proper balance between your time with the tutor and your time studying/reviewing independently. If you aren't preparing/reviewing at least as much time as you are in class it's likely you aren't getting the best value out of the tutor. Preview chapters before the class on them, read passage outloud over and over until you feel like you are comfortable with both how it rolls off your tongue and the meaning (check against recordings which most books include for accuracy), do homework, review word lists/grammar patterns, etc etc etc. This stuff is all pretty boring, but if you aren't dedicating enough time to it your tutor money is possibly being misspent.

For me a typical week is 1.5 hours with a tutor after work on Tuesday and Thursday; Sunday, Monday and Wednesday at the same time in the evening I will spend as much time looking over old and new material. Other days (and times) I may do additional review, or unrelated Chinese consumption (reading, MP3s from other sources) but I try to do at least this.