Learning a language with an online tutor

[Dappy777]

Have you ever tried language lessons with an online tutor? I'd like to polish up my French, ideally by working through a book or something. But the lessons seem really expensive. Does anyone know of a good but fairly cheap option?

I used Duolingo initially, and once I felt a bit more up to speed I started going to in-person lessons at our local adult college. . Duolingo is very American, which can get a bit irritating, but it's a good way to learn vocabulary and grammar structures, and to improve your pronunciation- there are a lot of exercises encouraging you to listen to people speaking French and to speak it yourself. The free version unsurprisingly includes a lot of adverts but obviously you can find your own way of ignoring those. They also tend to have quite good offers on the paid version every so often - I moved to that after two or three years on the free one, and I think it's reasonably worth it.

Find a class if you can. It's way more productive if you just want to boost prior knowledge and improve fluency, you need to practice conversation with an interested group of other learners, but have a teacher who can address issues that arise over grammar and usage.

I pay £120 per term (10x2 hour sessions) for quite an advanced class via the local adult education provider.

If you are in a city or larger town there are always more informal groups around.

Memrise is a much better app than Duolingo, imo, but both are really only good for revision and a bit of practice between proper sessions.

I’ve learnt a couple of languages using italki and am learning French at the moment. The teachers all set their own rates so you can find someone who fits your budget. I love learning this way; I think it’s much faster than a class as the teacher can go at your pace.

Thanks for the reply. I was thinking of signing up for Italki. My French is OK – probably intermediate level. What I really want is a face to face tutor who will work through a French novel with me. You know, just an hour or two a week, taking it page by page. Do you think that's possible? And how much should I expect to pay?

I would look on iTalki and read through the ‘About me’ and ‘My lessons and teaching style’ sections on the teachers’ profiles.

There are two kinds of teachers on iTalki: professional teachers with a teaching qualification who will usually structure the lessons with a text book from A1 to C2.

Then there are Community Tutors, which sounds like more what you’re looking for. Some of them are also professionally qualified, but the main difference is that they have a less structured teaching style and will tailor the class to your needs. You can filter the search by type of teacher.

I pay £22 per hour, but the prices do vary. Some teachers have packages of 10 lessons and it’s cheaper to purchase that way. They all set their own prices so it’s difficult to say what the average hourly price would be.

I'm learning Spanish and use a teacher from Preply. Working out really well - you can read the bios of teachers, choose their rate etc. Very effective.