10. When private lessons might be the answer - and how to choose your teacher. [tips og tanker]

Struggling with motivation in your language learning journey? You're not alone. The traditional classroom setting works wonderfully for some learners but leaves others feeling either perpetually behind or consistently unchallenged. Drawing from both sides of the experience—as a language teacher and as a Mandarin student—I share why private tutoring can be transformative for language acquisition.

Whether you choose weekly lessons or a less frequent schedule, consider private tutoring if you've been struggling to maintain momentum. Languages were made for communication, and having someone to regularly converse with fulfills this fundamental purpose while keeping your learning journey alive and meaningful. 

Chapters

• 0:13 Introduction to private teaching
• 0:33 Why group classes don't work for everyone
• 1:07 Benefits of private language lessons
• 1:36 Personal experience with a tutor
• 3:10 Staying motivated through connection
• 5:27 Final encouragement and goodbye

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:13

Hi på dig. In this episode I would like to talk to you about private teaching. Should you have a private teacher? Why should you or why shouldn't you, and how do you find the best one for you?

Speaker 1: 0:33

In my experience, people come to me because they have been to group classes before and that didn't work for them. It works for a lot of people, especially in the beginning, but in a class you have to share your teacher with maybe 30 other people or maybe, hopefully, less people, which means that you're going to follow a very specific plan and it will be the rhythm of the average student of the class, which means that either it's going to be perfect for you or it might be too complicated, too fast, or it might be too easy and too slow for you. And so if you are one of those extremes, you learn super quickly. You have what we call "språkøre" - " språköra language ear. You're going to be bored, and if you are a slow learner, if language is not really your thing, then maybe you'll get super frustrated and you'll lose your motivation and just lag behind and every lesson you'll feel worse and worse. For those two types of people, private lessons might be a good idea, and even the people in the middle, because when you have a private teacher, you get so much more practice and you get all the questions you have answered when you have them and you get them answered in a way that you would understand.

Speaker 1: 2:07

I know how hard it can be to start taking classes, whether it's private lessons or a real class. I have been procrastinating for a long time, since I'm learning Mandarin now and it's super hard to learn on my own and I haven't gotten the practice. So eventually now I have started taking classes and I'm so, so happy I did that. Having a private tutor makes me much, much, much more motivated. Being able to speak to someone and check how well it's going and getting my answers, getting my questions answered, is just a big motivation. Now I'm spending so much more time on studying and I actually love it now.

Speaker 1: 3:01

So what has been important for me when choosing my private teacher is that I want someone. I wanted someone who listens, who asks me what I want and what I need, what my goals are, and follow my tempo, someone who wants to adapt to my needs and who listens when I come with feedback so that if there's anything you know I like, I will tell the person and if there's something that I prefer not doing, then I would also tell this person, and my teacher will accept that, and that's really really great. Another thing that I found important is to find someone that I have a really good connection with, because, let's face it, we're going to spend a lot of time together and if we don't have a good connection, then it's going to be awkward and it's going to be less motivating. You want to have a teacher that you like spending time with, that you enjoy talking to and that makes you feel good, someone who motivates you, who tells you that you're doing good, even though, like we're adults, but still we need someone to tell us that we're doing a good job, especially with something like this like learning a new language. It's such a vulnerable thing to do.

Speaker 1: 4:26

Speaking in a different language is so intimidating. I find it super intimidating to try to speak Mandarin, even though I'm a language teacher, and that I, even though I know I am good at learning languages not as good as I was before, because with age it becomes more complicated, but still I know. I know I can do it but I need someone to to cheer me on, um, and I feel that I have found that. So it's uh, I'm super happy about that and I want to share it with you, and I hope that if you feel, if you feel a lack of motivation, consider it, even even though it doesn't have to be once a week, it can be less than that.

Speaker 1: 5:09

The most important thing is that you have somebody to keep you accountable and that you know will show up for you and answer your questions and test you in a nice way and talk to you so you can use the language, because when you just learn the language and you're not using it, you're not well, you're not using it for the purpose it's made for. It's made for communicating, and if you don't do that, then it's difficult to stay motivated. So, yeah, if it's a private teacher, motivated. So yeah, if it's a private teacher, whether it's a private teacher or a class you go to or just someone you can talk to in that language I hope you'll find someone, because it will really, really make it a fun. I hope it will really make it a much more fun and motivating experience, trust me. So, that being said, I just want to say lykke till, good luck. Vi hörs you.