I’ve been using italki for the last two years to help learn Norwegian, and I’ve taken more than 80 italki lessons with various online language tutors. But before that, I was lost as to how make the most out of italki.
How do I pick the right online language tutor? Should I do something before my first italki lesson? What should I focus on as a beginner, and later, as an intermediate learner?
I’ll go over the five italki tips I wish I knew when first starting out on italki, to help you go into your language learning lessons with confidence.
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First, here are some basic italki tips to start:
- If you’re learning a language that has a lot of teachers, you may benefit from using the filters when searching. You can choose whether you’d like to speak to native speakers only, professional teachers or community tutors (more on that below), availability, price, category, etc.
- Watch their about me videos! Most videos include the teacher speaking in English and the language their teaching. They talk about their teaching methods, a bit about them, etc. This is especially helpful if your target language has different dialects; you can hear if they speak a dialect you’d like to learn. It also ensures you can understand them when they speak in general. Do they seem personable and engaging? These videos allow you to get a feel for them.
- Send them a message before your first lesson to give them a heads up on your background, what you’re looking for, etc. This allows them to better prepare for your lesson.
- Use the trials! Italki allows three trial lessons that are half an hour for $10. These are a great way to see one on one if your teacher will be a good fit. If you use these all up and still don’t have a fit, don’t worry you can often still schedule half hour lessons for a relatively cheap price.
Now let’s get into what you came here for: the secrets to amazing italki lessons!
There’s a big difference between community tutors and professional teachers, so pick responsibly.
While they are all some form of an online language tutor, there’s a big difference between community tutors and professional teachers.
Community tutors are fluent speakers who don’t typically have formal training in teaching. They are great for informal conversational practice, especially when you don’t need a lot of corrections or someone to explain grammar. They tend to be cheaper than professional teachers too because they don’t offer as much formal teaching.
Professional teachers are, like their name suggest, professional teachers. They’re experienced with language learners, so you won’t have to worry about guiding the lesson so much because they’ll typically have a lesson plan.
All teachers are not the same—pick accordingly!
Once you’ve decided whether you want to work with a professional teacher or a community tutor, decide what style you’d prefer your online language tutor to teach in.
Do you need a strict or laidback teacher? Do you like more structured lessons working from powerpoints or a more freestyle style? How do you do with constant corrections? Do they make you shy away from speaking your target language or do you thrive with the steady corrections?
These things all differ between tutors and teachers, and rather than trying to mold your teacher to your preferred style, it’s best to find one that fits that your learning style already.
For example, I’ve found that I like an informal environment where I feel comfortable enough to speak freely. I also don’t want to have to remind my teacher to correct me.
RECOMMENDED: italki Review: The Resource I Can’t Live Without
With italki lessons, you get what you pay for (sometimes)
This one may be controversial, but I’ve found that the more you pay the better quality the lesson. There, I said it!
I’ve tried very inexpensive italki lessons and walked away with very little learned or worse, an experience that really hurt my language learning confidence because the teacher wasn’t well versed in working with beginner students.
While some people may hike up their prices unnecessarily, teachers with ample experience will likely charge more.
So if you need a well-structured lesson with an experienced teacher, be prepared to pay a bit more. If you’re just after conversation practice and don’t need a lot of correction, cheaper lessons with community tutors may do the trick.
If you’d like more info on the quality of italki lessons, check out my full italki review.
You really do get out of it what you put in.
Try to guide the lessons in a way that benefits you. Depending on what kind of teacher you chose, they may create the lesson plan, but you can tell them what you’re after ultimately.
This is especially important when you’re planning on working with a tutor long-term.
Of course, the end goal is to be fluent. But leading up to that, do you want to focus more on structured vocab and building that up?
Or would you rather learn through doing and find what vocab you need to focus on through conversation?
Maybe you want to incorporate music into your lessons, and try to transcribe one song per lesson, where you come to the lesson with the transcription and then work through that.
There are many ways to reach fluency. Let your teacher know which way would be the most fun for you and then see if they can make that happen.
Scheduling matters—pick a time for your italki lessons when you’re most alert.
This might seem obvious, but it wasn’t for me when I first started! Are you a morning person, or a night owl?
I find that when I have a morning lesson, my brain is slow to speak my target lesson. That’s why afternoon lessons are better for me.
So aside from just finding a time that fits your schedule, make sure it’s a time you’re alert and ready to learn and produce in your target language.
Another note with this is this: Will you need to wind-down afterwards?
Afternoon lessons work well for me because I’m alert but I also have ample time to relax before bed.
A language lesson is like an event for me, so if I have it at night, I’ll be too hyped up to sleep!
All in All…
When you’re prepared for your italki lessons, you can get a lot out of them. italki is the main way I practice speaking, and I don’t know what I’d do without the platform! If you’d like to find a teacher on italki, go sign up for your first italki lesson and get started!
