Returned home and have 1 hour class a week. How to make the most of it?

[geogeo]

Hi all

 

I've recently returned home from China having spent just over a year living there studying the language. Now, I've been lucky enough to find a local school with a native Chinese tutor (there are basically no Chinese people in my hometown). I now have a one hour class each week with the tutor.

 

Having had 3-4 hours of Mandarin classes a day for a year, I've not really had to pay major attention to my study methods and the efficiency of my studying. Now i'm home, I don't have anywhere near the time I had in China, thus requiring some planning. 

 

Obviously I want to make the most of my time (and money) and was wondering what you guys would do during my one hour class in my situation. I could probably do 2/3 hours self study each week (preparation, review). (My level is at passed HSK4 and intermediate speaking)

 

Cheers

[Shelley]

Well if you consider the one thing you can't do effectively on your own is speaking I would spend most of my hour going over tones, grammar patterns and usage doing as much speaking as possible

 

Maybe have some homework that makes use of some of your self study time that involves some writing which could be corrected during your hour so as to make the best use of your time.

 

My 2 pence worth.

[Zeppa]

Along the same lines as Shelley really, I think you might write a diary and possibly even hand this in in advance - it could form the basis of conversation.

[Flickserve]

My conclusion, after learning many other things, is you cannot expect to do much with one hour per week. That's more of a maintaining your level from before and trying not to have it deteriorate.

Get yourself a language partner over the internet to keep up the speech and don't have too high an expectation of progress. This would be a marked change from the year before. Ask the teacher to clarify points or even continue following the textbook you were using before.

[Mr John]

Hi there,

 

I have been taking one hour, one-on-one online lessons for over a year now, generally once per week.

 

In my classes it's my responsibility to choose a topic and prepare if necessary. Most class time is spent with me talking, with my teacher providing feedback about vocabulary choice, grammar etc while occasionally making comments.

 

As well as listening to a recording of the lesson once or twice, I also put new words that come up into an excel document to review after each lesson.

 

In this way, in conjunction with sporadic language exchanges both in person and online, I have managed to improve substantially.

 

My online lessons are very active and help me to stretch my abilities, while language exchanges are generally more relaxing due to the narrower range of topics typically discussed.

 

Hope this helps. Best of luck with your studies.

[geogeo]

Thanks all for your response. I'll be going through grammar structures, recapping on the old and learning the new. I'd like to make the structures from my brain come to my mouth more naturally. Alongside this, i'm planning to have a topical conversation whereby I'll incorporate some new words where possible. In my own time I'll continue with flashcards, adding vocabulary and reviewing what we covered in class