How To Find A Qualified Language Tutor To Learn A Language

If you are a student in school or perhaps learning a language on your own, then you understand that it is not an easy task. Some find it hard to remember things. Others have difficulty with reading and comprehension. Some with perhaps speaking and understanding grammatical rules. As mentioned before, there are many benefits in learning a language. So although it might be dificult at times, all you need is some additional help outside of the classroom. This is where a language tutor comes into play.

How can you find a qualified language tutor to help you learn a language? Well, there are many avenues that you could take to find one. However, today I will review just a few:

1) See if your school has a tutoring service.
In many cases if they do have one, it is free of charge. You can meet a language tutor who can help you after school hours. This is great because it is convenient and flexible for your schedule.

2) Check Online Classified Sites
Online classified sites such as backpage.com,craigslist.org, etc, can help you. Here you can browse their lessons sections and check ads posted by local language tutors in your area. Pickup the phone and call these tutors if a number is attached and ask them for their rates. If you have a match, then proceed forward with the tutor.

3) Try Tutoring Services like Wyzant
If you google or yahoo this name, their site comes up. This is a great service to find a qualified tutor to help you learn a language. The service qualifies its tutors by having them take tests. These tests will see how well they understand the language in question. If they pass, Wyzant certifies the tutor to teach and this info is placed on their Wyzant profile. Wyzant then pairs language tutors with students like yourself when you search their site. This in my opinion saves you time and money upfront so you can make sure that your language tutor is really knowledgeable and qualified to teach.

Why should you find a language tutor? What are the advantages?

The point of finding a language tutor is one: To ensure that you receive the additional help that you need to fully understand the language.

School teachers are great and are no doubt qualified through their vigorous training and education. However, sometimes it's also good to get a different perspective on things. Sometimes a tutor can explain things in a better way or from a different angle that you have never considered before. And suddenly the light goes off! Sometimes in a classroom (not always) setting information is delivered in a general format. This is good for some, but not for all. Students sometimes require personal attention to fully comprehend the language in the way that they learn things. A language tutor can personalize and then explain the language in a way that you understand better. This is one of the true advantages in hiring a language tutor to learn a language.

What You Should Look For In A Language Learning Software To Learn A Language

If you are reading this then hopefully you have already made the most important decision and that is which language to learn. This is important to do first. However, the next thing to do is to decide how or which method you will use to learn the language.

One of the most popular methods used today to learn a language are language learning softwares. However, if you have been surfing the web or visited your local bookstore, you know by now that there are so many language learning softwares to choose from. It's like taking a kid into a candy shop and asking him to choose from the many options. This is something that you have to answer for yourself and decide which one in fact will benefit me the most and help to become the most proficient with the language.

To aid you in this matter, consider first what methods does the language learning software utilize to teach others? Which ways do I learn things better? Is it by listening to things? By seeing them? Or by writing them so down? Will this program help me to learn? These questions help to determine which program to devote your time and money.

I have mentioned on a previous post about language learning programs like Pimsleur. Today let's talk about Rocket Languages and Rosetta Stone.



These two programs are both highly effecive in teaching and guiding students to fluency. Rosetta Stone although very expensive, uses images to teach languages. This is good because many learn things faster and retain them by seeing them. It flashes images of various objects along with phrases attached with the idea that learners will understand and figure it out. It's effective and really works. Rosetta Stone also has a component that allows learners to test their speaking ability with various lessons. This takes the guesswork out because the software will correct you as you go if the pronunciation is incorrect.

Rocket Languages are also a very effective language learning software. It uses more audio lessons to teach. Again this method is very good because some people prefer to hear things. Some retain material by hearing it versus simply seeing it.  As for cost, it's far cheaper than Rosetta Stone, yet very effective and gets guaranteed results.

So as mentioned before, after selecting which language to learn, determine which method do you learn things better. Is it by hearing, reading, or visually? Learning a language can be difficult if you don't have the right tools in the box to accomplish it.

Whatever program that you decide to use to learn a language, make sure it's a decision that you yourself have made and feel comfortable with. It doesn't matter how expensive or cheap a language learning program is, if you are not serious and determined about learning from the very beginning, they won't help you. You must continue to learn even beyond that point and then apply the things that you have learned in the process. By doing this, with time you will become more proficient and fluent while polishing your speaking, reading, and listening skills in the language that you are learning.

How To Learn A Language By Using Social Media Networking Like Facebook And Twitter

Social media networking sites have literally changed the way people today communicate and conduct business. Everybody likes to chat and keep in touch with friends and family with social media. Social media has made possible the impossible. Although most use it to receive general updates from friends and family, this cool social platform could also be used to learn a language. How?

Facebook and Twitter share many commonalities:

1) Language settings
2) Like and following capability
3) Online chatting functions

Let talk first about the language settings and how these can help you to learn a language. When you first set your pages, you had the option of setting your language preference. This will deliver all updates in that language. Now, you can change this setting to that language that you want to learn. By doing this, you will now receive updates in that language which will expose now to new words and expressions. The more you see them, the more you will remember them and commit them to memory.

The Like and Following Functions: 
With these of course, when you like someone's page (FB) or follow them (Twitter), you will now receive automatically updates or news this person posts online. Now, the thing that you want to do to learn a language is search for people, groups, or programs to like or follow. You can then receive their updates.

The cool thing is that if you like or follow let's say for example "Digitaldialects" this page will send language learning tips that will help you. You can do the same for any other language learning programs that have pages. The idea is to follow and get updates from people that speak and teach the language that you are targeting.

Some of these very programs with pages offer free lessons in those languages that you get to your feeds. This means you learn on the go. Now, the frequency of the updates and how diligent you are in practicing what you learn will determine of course your progress.

The Chatting Functions:
These are great to help you to learn a language. You can chat live with native speakers of your targeted language and teach each other. You can give the person free lessons in English in exchange for free lessons in their language. This way you both benefit. You can practically log on anytime the others are online and teach each other.  You can answers to questions you might instantly with these chatting features.

I personally like Skype because it's free and you can also chat with others and see them as you communicate.  You can use in addition to Twitter and Facebook. Although it isn't the fastest way to learn a language, it is another very effective means to learn. The point is that social media networking platforms have benefits that many have already capitalized on. Why not take advantage of these also and use them to your advantage to help you learn a language?

What Are 4 Benefits of Learning A Language Today?

What are the benefits are learning a language today? Whether you are a beginning learner or seasoned, it definitely helps to see the reason that you want to learn a language. By doing this, it helps to keep you determined to reach your goal that you have set.

This is especially true in the case of older ones. It becomes harder to learn and then retain things as you get older. So by thinking about how you will benefit from this whole ordeal will help you to remain determined despite the many challenges.

Often many want to learn a language with the goal of widening out and to build new bonds with others. Even more so if the person is someone that you are interested romantically. It's likely that you will be more determined to learn their language. Natives can teach you far more things in their language than any textbook can ever accomplish. So it befits you to meet natives and learn from them.

If you want to go on vacation or even travel abroad for period of time, learning a language will definitely benefit you. There is nothing like being abe to order food, shop, bargain, and even interact with natives when traveling abroad. When you know how to speak the local language, you will not have to worry about having a translator or people trying to take advantage of you. I often notice that when you are able as a small greeting or expression in someone's language they get emotion sometimes and smile. This smile is a smile of appreciation, pride and respect that natives have for that strive to learn their language although difficult.

Also when you learn a language, it can help to increase your income or potential. Many companies demand bilinguals and others that speak other languages. Some companies offer a differential pay which typically could be a few dollars more per hour than the average offered salary. So you could increase your yearly income by hundreds or thousands if you learn a language.

Another benefit of learning a language today are for academics. Studies have proven that students that speak another language other than their native language tend to perform better with test results. This has been the case with big exams lie SAT's that have reading, literature or history portions. Many students that speak another language understand many of the root words used(ex Latin) exams quickly are able to decipher their meanings being they are related to a language they speak.

So learning a language is not an easy task to do. If it was that easy, everyone would be doing it at an instant. However, if you invert the time and ponder over the real long term benefits that you will reap, then you will definitely remained determined and accomplish this goal in due time.

How The Pimsleur Approach Helped Me To Learn Spanish

Some months ago I published a video on Youtube that spoke about the benefits of using the Pimsleur Approach method to learn a language. In that video I spoke of how this program helped me to learn the basics of the Spanish language.

Recently one of my Youtube viewers asked me how was my progress and if I am able to hold conversations in Spanish. So the video below is to answer this and to let you hear me speak Spanish. As I have mentioned before, although Pimsleur is not the fastest way to learn a language, it is very effective.