How to Find the Perfect Online Language Tutor in 3 Easy Steps

Finding the right online language tutor is critical for any student’s success. Students simply learn better and faster when they connect with the person (or people) they are learning with. 

However, finding the perfect online language for your student can be tough. Here are 3 things you can do to make your search easier:

1. FIND TUTORS THROUGH PERSONAL REFERRALS

Many online language communities have access to excellent tutors, so this is a perfect way to discover someone you trust. You can also ask friends, neighbors, and other parents from school for recommendations.

Although this approach requires a bit of networking, you’ll likely get someone who is experienced, professional, and talented.

2. INTERVIEW TUTORS EXTENSIVELY 

Learning a new language requires time, energy, and patience. You’ll want to make sure you’re with the right person.

When you’re conducting interviews, you might want to ask the following questions:

• What is your strategy?
• How do you identify strengths and weaknesses?
• Are you a native speaker?
• Do you teach about the culture, as well?

These questions will allow you to feel for their teaching methods to determine whether you’ll be a good fit. The tutor-student relationship is significant, so you’ll want this to be someone your student can relate to and feel comfortable with.

Additionally, keeping a close eye on how they interact is essential: Are you more likely to succeed with someone firm and harsh or gentle, patient, and kind? This is, admittedly, subjective, but you’ll want to make sure their approach resonates with you. 

Keeping the following questions in mind might be helpful:

• Do they listen to you and exhibit empathy?
• Do they determine your language proficiency before they start teaching?
• Do you like them?

If a tutor starts teaching you without understanding your level of fluency, this is a significant problem. You’ll want to hire someone else who keeps your needs in mind and caters to your skills instead of simply providing you with a generic lesson plan that does not cater to your needs.

The last question is probably the most important one. After all, you’ll be spending a lot of time with this person, especially if your goal is to become fluent sooner.

3. LET YOUR TUTOR KNOW WHAT YOU’RE INTERESTED IN

The best tutors will go to the trouble of providing you with precisely what you’ve asked for so they can help you reach your goals as efficiently as possible:

• Is your goal to become fluent in six months because you want to move to a particular location?
• Would you like to maintain a conversation informally?
• Are you interested in the language primarily because you’d like to expose yourself to the literature?
• Do you want to simply learn a few slang words and informal phrases to develop more excellent rapport with your friends from different cultural backgrounds?
• Are you interested in specific topics more than others, such as cuisine, music, or entertainment?

Letting your tutor know what you’d like to learn about can guide them in the right direction so that they can help you achieve your goals.

Learning a language is no easy feat, but doing so can introduce you to an entirely new ethnoscape of cuisine, music, literature, love, and adventure.

Find the Perfect Match For Your Student

LanguageBird offers personalized 1-to-1 tutoring and test prep for middle school and high school students. All of our instructors are trained native speakers in your language of choice. We encourage students to meet with the same instructor each time to build a meaningful relationship and allow us to provide evaluations over time based on personal progress.

Contact us to learn more or enroll now.