Why should you pay to learn a Language with a personal tutor online, when you can find loads of websites, blogs, Facebook pages, and youtube videos that offer you FREE learning material? Have you tried it, yet? Maybe you have, and that's why you ended up on MY blog!?
To be honest and realistic, although I think it is very noble to offer something for FREE, you have to be skeptical about what you find on the internet, especially when you are a beginner of a language, as a lot of the "FREE material" is full of mistakes! Some of it has been put together by non-native speakers who don't even have a proficient command of the language they try to teach! Although some of the free material has indeed been created by people who are native speakers, it has mistakes in it, too! The reason for that is that some of them are not teachers and they lack a professional approach of the Subject matter. They probably don't even know the grammar rules and the correct terminology and don't know how to give meaningful lessons. The sole fact that somebody is a native speaker does not qualify him/her to teach that language! Many of my students had tried to learn German or English with the help of FREE material on the internet or bought some expensive self-learn software, only to find out after a short time that it didn't get them very far. They only ended up confused and sometimes with wrong facts they had "learned" about the language. There are, though, a few good sites on the internet that can help the tutor and the student to supplement the lessons but, you will need a competent tutor to guide you through your language learning process and who tells you when and how to incorporate which additional online material.
Just like life itself, learning a new language or anything else, takes a lot of constant effort in order to make it work. That doesn't mean that it cannot be fun at the same time, it all depends on your motivation, point of view, and commitment. I am sure you had subjects at school that you liked and others that you didn't. I am sure you did more than just the necessary minimum for your favorite subjects, whereas on the other hand, you probably were not willing to do more than the required minimum for the subjects you didn't like. It didn't matter what "method" your teacher used, if you wanted to learn, then you did learn, and if you were not interested in the subject matter, then you simply did not learn, or at least not very well.
Maybe you have to learn German or English for school or work or you want to be able to speak it when you are on vacation or with friends. Your learning progress will strongly depend on your motivation, interest, patience/endeavor and discipline. Many people have the interest part but, when it comes to patience and discipline, then they rather try sites that promise them to learn a language in 2 weeks or without having to learn any grammar (which I prefer to call "structure", anyway) or just by repeating sentences. First of all, learning a language in 2 weeks? I don't think anybody should be so naive as to believe that! Secondly, learning a language without learning anything about its grammar? Well, you can forget about that, you would never be able to build your own correct sentences! Thirdly, learning by just repeating sentences? You will be limited to those sentences and you will not be able to have a conversation!
But, if you have enough motivation and you are patient enough and able to manage/organize your learning process, then you will be rewarded with the experience of having a whole new world opening up before you! And, most of all, you can be proud of yourself for mastering a new languages without giving up!
You can also compare learning a foreign language with trying to learn how to paint, which happens to be one of my hobbies! If you watch one of those demonstrations on TV, youtube or on CDs that demonstrate how to paint for example a certain tree, then you can probably quickly copy that nice-looking tree. But, will you be able to paint a different kind of tree on your own? Probably not! The same goes for learning a language. You can use software that will teach you how to repeat some sentences. But, will you be able to have a conversation with native speakers? No, you won't, because you have only learned how to reproduce something but not how to be creative! I will provide you with all the necessary "tools" that are needed for a creative usage of the language, so you will be able to "paint" ALL the "trees" you want, and not simply copying one!
I APPRECIATE EVERYBODY WHO IS WILLING TO LEARN A NEW LANGUAGE!
I have learned several languages myself and I know how difficult it is, but trust me, it is getting easier with every step. Don't give up, and little by little you will get more confident!
To be honest and realistic, although I think it is very noble to offer something for FREE, you have to be skeptical about what you find on the internet, especially when you are a beginner of a language, as a lot of the "FREE material" is full of mistakes! Some of it has been put together by non-native speakers who don't even have a proficient command of the language they try to teach! Although some of the free material has indeed been created by people who are native speakers, it has mistakes in it, too! The reason for that is that some of them are not teachers and they lack a professional approach of the Subject matter. They probably don't even know the grammar rules and the correct terminology and don't know how to give meaningful lessons. The sole fact that somebody is a native speaker does not qualify him/her to teach that language! Many of my students had tried to learn German or English with the help of FREE material on the internet or bought some expensive self-learn software, only to find out after a short time that it didn't get them very far. They only ended up confused and sometimes with wrong facts they had "learned" about the language. There are, though, a few good sites on the internet that can help the tutor and the student to supplement the lessons but, you will need a competent tutor to guide you through your language learning process and who tells you when and how to incorporate which additional online material.
Just like life itself, learning a new language or anything else, takes a lot of constant effort in order to make it work. That doesn't mean that it cannot be fun at the same time, it all depends on your motivation, point of view, and commitment. I am sure you had subjects at school that you liked and others that you didn't. I am sure you did more than just the necessary minimum for your favorite subjects, whereas on the other hand, you probably were not willing to do more than the required minimum for the subjects you didn't like. It didn't matter what "method" your teacher used, if you wanted to learn, then you did learn, and if you were not interested in the subject matter, then you simply did not learn, or at least not very well.
Maybe you have to learn German or English for school or work or you want to be able to speak it when you are on vacation or with friends. Your learning progress will strongly depend on your motivation, interest, patience/endeavor and discipline. Many people have the interest part but, when it comes to patience and discipline, then they rather try sites that promise them to learn a language in 2 weeks or without having to learn any grammar (which I prefer to call "structure", anyway) or just by repeating sentences. First of all, learning a language in 2 weeks? I don't think anybody should be so naive as to believe that! Secondly, learning a language without learning anything about its grammar? Well, you can forget about that, you would never be able to build your own correct sentences! Thirdly, learning by just repeating sentences? You will be limited to those sentences and you will not be able to have a conversation!
But, if you have enough motivation and you are patient enough and able to manage/organize your learning process, then you will be rewarded with the experience of having a whole new world opening up before you! And, most of all, you can be proud of yourself for mastering a new languages without giving up!
You can also compare learning a foreign language with trying to learn how to paint, which happens to be one of my hobbies! If you watch one of those demonstrations on TV, youtube or on CDs that demonstrate how to paint for example a certain tree, then you can probably quickly copy that nice-looking tree. But, will you be able to paint a different kind of tree on your own? Probably not! The same goes for learning a language. You can use software that will teach you how to repeat some sentences. But, will you be able to have a conversation with native speakers? No, you won't, because you have only learned how to reproduce something but not how to be creative! I will provide you with all the necessary "tools" that are needed for a creative usage of the language, so you will be able to "paint" ALL the "trees" you want, and not simply copying one!
I APPRECIATE EVERYBODY WHO IS WILLING TO LEARN A NEW LANGUAGE!
I have learned several languages myself and I know how difficult it is, but trust me, it is getting easier with every step. Don't give up, and little by little you will get more confident!
This post first appeared on Private German And English Language Lessons Online, please read the originial post: here
