5 Best Online German Tutor Platforms

Do you want to start learning German, improve your skills or want to switch from a classroom to online German tutor platforms? Working with an online tutor is better for communication, as hearing the native speaker talk will train your brain in understanding and get immediate corrections so that those little mistakes won’t even have the chance to settle in your brain, without the embarrassment in front of a classroom.

In one-to-one lessons you have to commit, focus and there’s no distraction, it’s all about you. One hour of individual tutoring often equals many hours in a classroom full of others, as each of them has a different way of learning. If all kids were able to have their own tutor while growing up instead of a classroom with many students, they could all learn much faster! Yet, a big difference is that you actually chose and pay for learning German, kids feel like they have to learn rather than want to, that’s a big difference. “Want” opens your brain to new knowledge, “must” rather blocks it.

With online tutoring, you can decide what you want to learn, you’re paying for it. The tutors can make decisions, but you’re in charge. They can develop lesson plans based on your needs, to help you achieve your learning goals as fast as you personally can.

You can surely hire a personal tutor in person, face to face, the benefits of online tutoring are, that it’s cheaper. No rent, no materials, no petrol money you’d have to pay for, too. They are just at home with their private computer, often live in poorer countries where they don’t need as much income. So, a face-to-face tutor in Germany is probably way more expensive than a native German online tutor who might live in let’s say Thailand, where the average payment per hour is one Euro, and they might get €10 or more. That’s not much in Germany, but it’s a fortune in Thailand, they’d be rich.

What Should You Check Before Hiring A German Tutor Online?

There are a few things you can do to make the best of your learning experience and get the most of what you’re paying for.

• Meet on a regular basis: The worst thing you can do to yourself and your wallet is not keeping up with learning. Our brains forget things if we don’t practice and repeat the things we’ve learned.

• Don’t be late: You are paying for your time, they get paid for it. You want to get the most out of it and demand a proper work ethic from them, right? So make sure from the beginning that you won’t accept being late on a regular basis.

• Exams and Tests: Assessment only for you, to check-in where you’re at and where you still have to improve is important, and in this context, it’s not like at school. You don’t get grades and won’t only want to learn in order to get good ones. You just check yourself without judging and without fear.

• Realistic goals, but don’t hold back: Wouldn’t it be nice, to go from beginner to advance in a month, especially when you are paying by the hour? Yeah, but that’s not very realistic, just a sure way of failing. But you can still set high goals which can actually be reached.

• A personalized tutor: Imagine I don’t know about you, but I know within the first seconds if I connect with someone, or not. So, sorting out tutors that way will help you, I’m sure. Being on the same wavelength makes knowledge travel much easier from one person to another. So better don’t waste time on a tutor, who’s surely a great one and does a good job, but isn’t suited for your personal needs or even personality.

• Homework: Just like learning an instrument requires practicing at home as often as one can, writing anything in the new language does the same. Reading is great, too, but when it comes to writing, we can remember and pay attention to the words much easier.
• Adjust to new people: We can often get used to the ways and behaviors of one specific tutor and might not understand the same thing with another one. It can be like dancing or driving a car. You might only know how to dance with your one partner or drive that one car. But until you can dance with all partners and drive all cars, you’re not really there yet.

5 Perfect Places For Finding Online German Tutors

1. Verbling

Qualified teachers offer their tutoring services, sometimes on a free trial, and on an hourly rate on Verbling. You can write and read reviews of the tutors that’s been worked with. The average cost per hour is about $15-25.

2. Tutor.com

You can opt to pay $40 for a total of one hour over the course of a month or select a 2 or 3-hour package for $80 or $115 respectively. You can then ask a tutor anything whenever you need one, 24/7.

This would be a great service if you self-study and want someone who can just answer one quick question or clarify one specific problem, doubt, or misunderstanding, or if you are taking lessons in a classroom and want some more support.

3. Easy German

This company offers native German tutors at €17.50 —about $20 —per one hour. Classes can be scheduled on a 24/7 basis, they work with skype and are based in Germany. To know your language level you will take an entry test. Easy German also offers free trial lessons.

4. italki

There are many certified language trainers, and you can check their resumes and select your tutor, and schedule Skype sessions. They are using their own virtual currency, called ITC ($1 = 10 ITC) and the prices vary, but tutors usually charge $15-20 per hour. You can also freely share your German language writing with the italki community for feedback.

5. Tutors-Live

This platform offers very competitive rates, some even under $10 per hour. One thing that’s different here is that you can connect with other German learners and create your own profile, to describe your background and learning goals, so that both tutors and students can contact you, and tutors can therefore also see if they think they might just be the perfect match for you.

Even The Best Tutor Won’t Prevent Practicing

Like I said before, learning a language is like learning an instrument, and you need to practice. It can seem hard to do so but don’t worry, there’s a very easy solution with which you won’t even realize that you’re practicing at all, since it’s so interesting. Of course, I’m talking about Readle – learn German. You can practice reading, listening, understanding, learning new vocabulary and expressions, grammar, and get entertained by an engaging quiz. What are you waiting for?!