Do you want to start learning German, improve your language skills or switch from a classroom to online platforms for learning the German language? Working with an online tutor is great for boosting your communication skills, as hearing the native speaker talk will train your brain. You will also unconsciously hear the correct pronunciation, so those little mistakes won’t even have the chance to settle in your brain.
However, there are many other benefits for hiring a private German speaker – as well as important things you need to be aware of when looking for the right person. Let us tell you more about that in the article below – and help you make the right language learning decision.
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Why Hire a German Tutor?
A Personalized Teaching Method
In one-to-one lessons, you have to commit and focus as there are no distractions – 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.
A professional German tutor should be able to create a personalized approach and work in the way that’s best for you.
Your Approach
If all kids were able to have their own tutor instead of a classroom with many students while growing up, they might have learned much faster. However, that still won’t work for everyone as you need to be willing to study to learn new languages (and, actually, learn anything).
As you grow up, your approach to language learning changes. When you were young, you went to school and listened to your German teacher simply because you had to; but now you actually chose and decided to pay for learning the German language.
Kids feel like they have to study rather than want to, and that’s a big difference. “Want” opens your brain to new knowledge, “must” rather blocks it.
Do What You Want
With online tutoring, you can decide what you want to learn as you’re paying for it. German tutors can make decisions, of course, but you’re the person in charge. The teacher should develop lesson plans based on your needs, so as to help you achieve your learning goals as fast as you personally can.
Apart from that, you can choose to have the lessons in the time that suits your schedule and learning abilities (as some people learn better during certain parts of the day) and move the lesson if you’re feeling under the weather or if something happened.
Online is Cheaper
You can surely hire a personal tutor in person and learn the German language face to face. But the main benefit of online tutoring is that it’s cheaper. No rent, no materials, no petrol money you’d have to pay for, too. The teacher is simply at home with their private computer – and they even can live on the other side of the globe, as this won’t matter.
Hiring a face-to-face native speaker living in Germany is also probably way more expensive than contacting a native German speaker who might live in, let’s say, Thailand – where the average payment per hour is one Euro, and from the lessons with you, they might get €10 or more. That’s not much in Germany, but it’s a fortune in Thailand – so they’d be rich, and you’d be happy.
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. This way, your journey with learning the German language might get much longer, and in the end, it can become much less pleasant.
Don’t be late
You are paying for your time, and your German tutor gets paid for it. You want to get the most out of it and demand a proper work ethic from them, right? Then make sure from the beginning that either of you aren’t late on a regular basis.
Exams and tests
Ask your German tutor to arrange exams or tests for you from time to time. Checking in to see where you are and where you need to progress is vital, and it is not like school in this regard. You don’t get grades, and you won’t want to learn just to acquire good ones. During private lessons, you simply check your language skills without getting criticized or being afraid.
Set realistic goals, but don’t hold back
Wouldn’t it be fantastic to progress from beginner to advanced in a month, especially if you pay by the hour? Yes, but that’s not very realistic, and it’s a definite way to fail. Nevertheless, you can still set high goals which can actually be reached – talk to your German teacher when starting learning to establish your main objectives.
Look for the right person
Sometimes, it’s easy to know within the first seconds if you can connect with someone or not. We are convinced that sorting out tutors in this manner will be beneficial to you. Being on the same wavelength makes knowledge transfer from one person to another much easier. Don’t waste time on German tutors who are undoubtedly excellent and do an excellent job but are not suited to your specific needs or even personality. A good tutor should be like a good friend – understanding you on every level.
Do homework, especially writing tasks
Just like learning an instrument requires practice at home as often as one can, writing anything in the new language does the same. Reading is also beneficial, but writing allows us to recall and pay attention to the words much more easily.
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. Consider learning the German language with different teaching and different methods so that your brain can learn better.
5 Perfect Places For Finding A German Teacher Online
1. Verbling
Qualified teachers offer their tutoring services – sometimes on a free trial, but often with a set hourly rate – on Verbling. You can write and read reviews of the tutors that’s been worked with. The average cost for a lesson per hour is about $15-25, depending on their experience in teaching German. Price can also vary for native speakers and non-native German teachers.
2. Tutor.com
On 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 have a language learning question, 24/7.
This is a great service if you prefer self-studying and need to hire someone who can just answer one quick question or clarify one specific problem, doubt, or misunderstanding. It will also work great or if you are taking group courses and want some more support.
3. Easy German
This platform offers the services of native German tutors at €17.50 —about $20 —per one hour. Classes can be scheduled on a 24/7 basis, teachers work with Skype and are based in Germany. You will take an entry test to identify your current level of knowing the German language.
Easy German also offers free trial lessons, so you can check them up and see for yourself whether you want to learn German this way.
4. italki
There are many certified language teachers on this platform, and you can check their resumes and select your tutor, as well as quickly schedule Skype sessions. Italki is 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 share your German writing with the italki community for free and get helpful 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 people learning German and create your own profile – describe your background and learning goals, so that both tutors and students can contact you. Tutors can therefore also see if they think they might just be the perfect match for you, which makes the process of learning for the perfect German teacher much easier.
Even The Best Tutor Won’t Help If You Don’t Practice
Like we said before, learning a language is like learning an instrument, and you need to practice a lot. It can seem hard to do so but don’t worry – there are different learning methods that can be both engaging and effective. For example, there’s a very easy solution with which you won’t even realize that you’re practicing at all, as it’s so interesting. Of course, we are talking about Readle – learn German.
In the Readle app, you can practice reading, listening, understanding, grammar with short but interesting stories from all over the world, as well as learn new vocabulary and get entertained by a quiz after each story. If you want to improve your learning experience or even if you can’t simply afford to hire a private language coach now, Readle will be there to help you. Give it a try.