Do you want to learn English online? Are you looking for an English teacher who will tutor you on Skype or some other video chat? In this video, I’ll give you my top tips about taking private or group English lessons online. How do you find the right tutor for you? How many hours a week should you take? What should you talk about? What about IELTS preparation? I answer these questions and more in this video. I taught privately online for many years, so I know what I’m talking about!
Next, watch my video on how to do a Skype interview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cu_mQsWJA_Q
If you want to chat with native speaker English teachers from your phone or browser, try Cambly. If you go through this link, you will get 15 minutes free:
https://www.engvid.com/out/cambly
Take a quiz on this video here: https://www.engvid.com/how-to-find-the-online-english-tutor-for-you/
TRANSCRIPT: Hey, guys. Here are my best tips for finding a really good language teacher who will work with you on Skype in one-to-one appointments, private lessons, so that you can learn a new language.
What is the reason that you want to have lessons? Because the kind of teacher you look for will be different, depending on the reason. So, first of all, if you want a conversational teacher because you’re going on holiday soon to England and you want to get ready, or you want to wake up your tongue and remember all the English you know, then pick a teacher that you’ve got good rapport with, so that when you talk to each other on Skype you don’t feel really awkward and sort of run out of things to say, and go silent and all those kinds of things. You want to be doing your lessons with a teacher you are happy and comfortable to talk to, especially in a conversational class. Another thing that can help those kind of appointments for conversational practice is for you to prepare before the kind of things that you would like to use the time speaking about. So if you’ve got a few ideas before the lesson with the teacher, it should mean that you won’t run out of things to say or it won’t get a bit boring.
Now, if your reason for the Skype appointments is because you are taking an exam, for example, IELTS, then you want to pick a teacher who actually knows about that exam, because not all teachers have experience with it. So be sure to check the reviews. And if you’re using a website, read carefully your teacher’s introduction about themselves so that you know: „Can this teacher actually speak…? Actually teach the exam class I’m looking for?” And don’t waste your money on a teacher who’s like: „Oh yeah, I don’t know about it, but yeah, I’m sure I can do it. I’m sure I can get you ready for your exam.” Just be confident that your teacher that you meet on Skype really knows how to do the best for you and help you prepare for your exam.
So another thing that you should think about is: How often do you want to meet this teacher? Because consider that it’s just going to be the two of you talking over Skype, and sometimes you’ll be using PDFs and other things to look at on the screen, but it’s just going to be the two of you. So, if you do many, many, many, many hours together, it can be quite intense because you’re seeing this teacher so often and spending so much time just together. For a lot of people meeting no more than three times a week, three hours is more than enough to be constantly meeting the same teacher. If you really need to have lots and lots and lots of hours because perhaps now your level’s not very high, have a think about whether you should try group online classes. It’s a completely different style of teaching, but they can be really good for learning vocabulary, covering basics. If you’re quite lazy just to learn something on your own, then doing the group class can be a good way to just get those hours in basically. And then when your level is a lot better, then maybe then you can look into some one-to-one appointments or if you want to work on your accent, you can do so then.
So, thank you so much for watching guys. I hope this is going to help you next time you’re looking for… Next time or the first time you’re looking for a Skype teacher online. Before you go, make sure that you check out our quiz on this lesson. And thanks a lot. See ya later. Bye-bye.
