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World Traveler
Joined: 29 May 2009
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 Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2014 3:56 am Post subject: Tips for getting a cheap Korean tutor |
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I'm spending more on private tutoring then anyone I know (or have ever met). It's getting out of control now to the point where I am becoming worried about how much money I am letting go of, especially because my progress is coming so slowly. I am spending 50,000 to 65,000 won nearly every single day. That's adding up in a big way, and I am beginning to have doubts as to whether it is worth it. It is a shocking feeling to hand over that much money at the end of a lesson without seeing any noticeable improvement (a drop in the bucket as far as getting better is concerned). (Now I know how Koreans feel.) I've been thinking lately about just quitting the language study altogether. The opportunity cost and the money I spend is just too high it seems.
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Last night I was searching through old threads and I came across this:
| nate1983 wrote: |
| I went through lots of old tests and even paid a Korean grad student $10/hr to help explain stuff to me. |
| noraebang wrote: |
| I live in Canada right now and I am studying Korean. Do you know how far away the nearest class is from me? Heck I don't even know, but it would be in the nearest major city a boat ride away. I did want some instruction from a tutor so I hired a bilingual Korean to do some private lessons with me for 2 hours per week, $12.50 per hour. |
It was good news. It means maybe I can find someone for less than the 20,000 per hour I am currently paying. How should i go about doing that? (I'm thinking about maybe even hiring someone who can't speak English in order to get a better deal.) I thought Koreans were poor, which is why I'm surprised they are not jumping at the chance to earn what is well above minimum wage. I study in long stretches of time, too: two and a half hours to three hours and fifteen minutes. At minimum wage, it would take a Korean ten to thirteen hours to make what I am paying. It is getting depressing to fork over more than a million (closer to a million and a half) won per month for private tutoring lessons. Any advice for how I can bring the cost down? What should I do to advertise and find people? |
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kpjf
Joined: 07 Oct 2012
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| Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2014 7:58 am Post subject: |
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The first question that enters my head is "Why?" Why, if you know you are paying more than you should be, are you doing it? I guess your answer is that you can't find people willing to teach you for reasonable prices?
I'd imagine there are a good few forums/classified sites in which people say they want to exchange Korean for English, let's meet for a coffee type of thing or am I mistaken (I don't live in SK)? Why not do that?
Furthermore, I think a 3hr session is way too long. Do you not notice your attention span dropping after so long?
I have never paid for a private tutor and have always (apart from actual language classes) used language tandems: I help you; you help me (and any grammar and so-on is done by myself at home), surely that's possible where you are, right? And then if I have any grammar questions I'll ask them and of course tell them they can ask me grammar questions. And, who knows you may meet someone who wants to be a teacher, who knows their language quite well which would be an added bonus.
If you don't mind the online route, I've just gone on to lang-8.com and searched for Korean natives looking to practice English: no less than 53,726 results! There are many more sites like this. |
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FriendlyDaegu
Joined: 26 Aug 2012
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edwardcatflap
Joined: 22 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2014 3:41 pm Post subject: |
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That's less than the Korean minimum wage. He's got to have an ulterior motive. Lonely? Christian? Sexual Predator? All three? |
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salutbonjour
Joined: 22 Jan 2013
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| Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2014 4:06 pm Post subject: |
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What do you pay so much for? Grammar explanation is about the only thing you should need paid help with that shouldn't last months.
If you are paying a tutor to help you practice, then you need to move over to language exchanges. Save some money and have more fun. |
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Squire
Joined: 26 Sep 2010
Location: Jeollanam-do
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| Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2014 10:21 pm Post subject: |
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Why not just meet your tutor less frequently? Twice a week would mean you can spend that free time studying by yourself or hanging about with Koreans socially. I've found infrequent practice with a person is best for me, so I can practice, go away and learn some new stuff, then practice again using what I've learnt since last time. Whenever I speak Korean beyond a couple of sentences (i.e. have an actual conversation) I find myself with a list of words and expressions I want to memorise, read up on or review and I need my own study time to be able to do that
That said, I think more than most I prefer to study alone. What works for me may not work for you |
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crescent
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Location: yes.
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| Posted: Thu Jan 09, 2014 3:46 am Post subject: |
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LOL! I mean ㅋㅋㅋ !
Sounds like a very perplexing problem! When you figure it out, maybe ask the mods to make this a sticky. |
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Speck7
Joined: 05 Sep 2012
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| Posted: Thu Jan 09, 2014 4:02 am Post subject: |
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| LOL at you spending 50-65k per lesson. What are you an idiot? |
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byrddogs
Joined: 19 Jun 2009
Location: Shanghai
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| Posted: Thu Jan 09, 2014 4:03 am Post subject: |
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| crescent wrote: |
LOL! I mean ㅋㅋㅋ !
Sounds like a very perplexing problem! When you figure it out, maybe ask the mods to make this a sticky. |
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PatrickGHBusan
Joined: 24 Jun 2008
Location: Busan (1997-2008) Canada 2008 -
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| Posted: Thu Jan 09, 2014 9:44 am Post subject: |
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| Good lord WT with the time and money you are spending your progress should not be "slow". Seriously, you may want to revise your learning methods! |
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Jimskins
Joined: 07 Nov 2007
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| Posted: Thu Jan 09, 2014 11:54 am Post subject: |
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At my uni I put up an poster for students to come to my office and have a chat in Korean (I'm low-intermediate) for 30 minutes on the days I was in. I stressed that they didn't have to prepare anything and that I was not interested in English-related majors as it would be strictly no English. I asked my (Korean) wife how much I should pay them and she said 5,000W, as that was how much most of them would get per hour at a 7-11 etc.
I thought 5,000 was a bit cheap, but followed her advice. Within 3 days about 15 students had applied and I took the poster down. I chose 4, 1 for each day I was in, and it was probably the most useful Korean study I've ever done. From my experiences an hour of 'free-talking' is too long for my level, language exchanges often end up 80 English 20 Korean, and having a different person to speak to every day is more motivating and also good for repetition.
I know everyone doesn't work at a uni but I'm sure if you put up a similar ad at a local community centre/ in the street etc, you could come up with a similar arrangement. |
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World Traveler
Joined: 29 May 2009
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| Posted: Thu Jan 09, 2014 7:43 pm Post subject: |
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| PatrickGHBusan wrote: |
| Good lord WT with the time and money you are spending your progress should not be "slow". |
I don't think that's a fair comment to make.
One Dave's poster wrote:
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| I don't speak Korean very well. I am just not able to pick up new languages very well. It is not due to a lack of effort. |
Maybe I am like that person. Maybe I don't have a good language learning aptitude. It's painful to admit, but maybe I should just accept that. Maybe you have a better ability to get good at Korean than I do (and maybe you have a language aptitude well above the average for waygooks here due to growing up French-English bilingual at a very young age). It pisses me off to think about that, but I think it's true.
Here's something to think about: most Westerners in Korea cannot speak or understand the Korean language. Most as in almost all. That includes lifers as well.
| T-J wrote: |
| The vast majority (99%) of foreigners in Korea will never acquire nothing more than survival Korean. |
My problem is a complex one. The solution is not as simple as you might imagine.
| Captain Corea wrote: |
| It's a massive investment of time and energy, and IMO, it just doesn't pay off for most people. |
| Drew345 wrote: |
| I wish I had known that the Korean language was so freakin hard. |
| Drew345 wrote: |
| after many years studying it and getting nowhere, sometimes I wish I had just gone to Taiwan and could be studying Chinese instead. |
| Drew345 wrote: |
| If a newbe is thinking about studying Korean a while and learning to speak, they might want to know the language is really hard. |
| edwardcatflap wrote: |
| Unless you're planning to stay here forever and get a job outside TEFL I'd say forget it. The 'rewards' are just not worth the amount of time you have to spend on it. And that's speaking from experience |
| nautilus wrote: |
| kabrams wrote: |
| . . . a lot of co-workers don't want us to learn Korean . . |
I sympathise with anyone who can`t be bothered to learn this language. The effort required is big, and its hard to reach out to and invest in a culture.. and then get very little back. |
I put so much into trying to learn the Korean language that it's hard for me to quit now. I keep pushing forward but I wonder if I should just cut my losses and move on. Warren Buffet said it's important to operate from a perspective of logic rather than emotion.
| Speck7 wrote: |
| LOL at you spending 50-65k per lesson. What are you an idiot? |
I wonder about that. Maybe I am. I have no idea. I'm not sure if I am or not.
| PatrickGHBusan wrote: |
| Seriously, you may want to revise your learning methods! |
I've tried many different things. If you have advice for what to do, I will listen to it and consider it with an open mind. |
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Fox
Joined: 04 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Thu Jan 09, 2014 9:03 pm Post subject: |
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| Jimskins wrote: |
I know everyone doesn't work at a uni but I'm sure if you put up a similar ad at a local community centre/ in the street etc, you could come up with a similar arrangement. |
Everyone might not work at a university, but most people are likely to have Korean co-workers, plenty of whom would likely chat with them for free. And it's not as if you have to go around pinning people down for a half hour or some such, since like you said, speaking with different people allows for beneficial repetition, which means having a few short conversations with different people can really help. |
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World Traveler
Joined: 29 May 2009
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| Posted: Thu Jan 09, 2014 9:08 pm Post subject: |
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| Alright, I'll take that advice. ^_^ Since three people recommended it, I'll make an effort to do more free talking. |
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World Traveler
Joined: 29 May 2009
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| Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 3:28 pm Post subject: |
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What do you think about this? True?
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During childhood, language acquisition is a natural consequence of prolonged exposure to a language. A spoken language need not be formally taught to a child in order to be learned. (By contrast, written language must always be taught.) Any small child will acquire native fluency in any language if exposed to it on a consistent basis in a social setting. A child will naturally acquire native fluency in more than one language under these circumstances.
In the overwhelming majority of individuals, however, this natural ability to acquire spoken language without deliberate effort begins to diminish sharply at about the age of puberty. |
| Quote: |
| Language acquisition by adults is language learning--a deliberate, painstaking, intellectual process that rarely, if ever, results in the total native fluency acquired so naturally by any small child, regardless of intellectual ability or personal motivation. The deficiency is particularly evident at the phonetic level |
| Quote: |
| Although every child, regardless of intellectual level, is equally gifted at acquiring language, it does not seem to be the case with adults. |
| Quote: |
| Do some adults possess a special aptitude for learning languages after the critical age? Probably yes |
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not all will do so with equal results (unlike the case with child language acquisition). Adult language learning ability seems to involve a type of talent, or set of talents. What are these talents that can partly mimic childlike facility with language?
Differences in adult ability to master the grammar of a second language seem only in part connected to individual differences in general intelligence; the ability to learn languages in adulthood seems to be a talent apart from what we usually label as general intelligence. In fact, some adults who are seriously learning impaired have almost childlike abilities to master languages (General Eisenhower's translator was a man of very meager mental abilities who was fluent in 44 languages and acquired new ones very quickly.) Adult language learning aptitude seems to be a separate ability, like musical or artistic talent.
Differences in adult abilities to learn languages are even more apparent at the phonetic level: some adults have a natural talent for imitating the voices of other people; other adults do not have this talent at all. This talent for phonetic mimicry in adults definitely does not depend on general intelligence. People of very limited intellectual abilities sometimes have amazing abilities to imitate people's voices (cf. the Truman Capote story Johnny Bear, about an idiot savant with amazing mimicry ability.) |
| Quote: |
| the degree of eventual fluency achieved will differ considerably from individual to individual, unlike the situation with child language acquisition (where every child achieves perfect fluency given enough exposure). |
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