1 on 1 class experiences?

Flexi Classes
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Who of you has already booked a 1 on 1 tailor made lesson? What did you ask for?

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Hi Sonja - I have used tailor made 1:1s. I’ve requested the following:

  • taken two review classes and asked to repeat the grammar elements of those only
  • asked for revision on one or two specific grammar topics
  • asked to review how to tell the time
  • asked to review giving and receiving directions
    I hope that this helps!
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@Sonja-Mandarin-HSK_3 thats a great question.
@Vicki-Mandarin-HSK_2 some very good suggestions.

Sonja: You can ask for anything you want in a Tailor Made lesson. What I find important is to give relatively clear instructions in the “Notes”. Some students just write “I want to practice Chinese“ and that’s a bit confusing for a teacher because they dont know what exactly they are supposed to teach.
Good Notes I found would be
“I want to practice tones. Lets go though the Topic ”That is too expensive” very slowly and 100% focus on me getting all tones right.”
“I want to practice speaking freely. Lets do role play for ordering food in a restaurant, buying things in a shop, buying a train ticket etc.”
“I have an interview for a job next week at XXX company. I want to learn how to speak about this company. Lets go through website www.XXX company website .com in Mandarin together and practice vocabulary related to XXX company.”
“I am taking the HSK 3 next week. I struggle with listening comprehension. Please read some HSK 3 level texts in Chinese to me and ask me questions about it afterwards.”

Or, the easiest thing is to pick a topic for the 1on1 class and then study this. During the class, because it is 1on1, you can ask your teacher to focus on whatever area you need practice with (pronunciation, tones, character etc.) and there is no need to always stick to the pdf as there is for group classes.

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I’m fairly certain teachers based in China won’t be able to access or discuss that particular website.

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So far I’ve used custom classes for a selected topic from HSK4+ (Free Speaking) and for HSK5 related tutoring.

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I did one a while back to brush up on my Radicals. I never really studied them properly before and they’re incredibly useful to know when guessing a characters meaning.

I’d recommend this if anyone has the same feeling. I typed something like:

“I’d like to study Chinese radicals in more detail, their meanings, their origins and some examples with words and sentences.”

In that lesson I think we covered 5 radicals in great depth alongside some common words and sentences. I’d gladly do this again to cover more in the future.

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Thank you @Vicki-Mandarin-HSK_2 , @Andreas_Admin_Flexi , @Ben-Mandarin-HSK_5 , @Max for your very good suggestions.

I will do some 1:1 lessons in November.
This is what I wrote for my first one:

I want to take the HSK2 in December. I am struggling with listening comprehension.

  • Please read sentences to me with this test vocabulary and ask me questions to see whether I understood.
  • I am too slow in understanding numbers in time and dates.
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I feel like that’s a great idea even for a regular class! cc @Andreas_Admin_Flexi

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That sounds like an awesome class idea Max!

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Would wholeheartedly recommend it @Chloe-Mandarin_HSK6 - picked up some really useful nuggets about certain ones.

You could also be more specific I guess and give the teacher 5/10 radicals you want to know more about so it isn’t a lucky dip so to speak. Would be a waste if you had to study radicals you already knew about.

It was actually in that lesson I learned about the Simplified and Traditional versions of the character 够 and 夠 (enough/sufficient/adequate).

Made me chuckle that the traditional version was the mirror image of the simplified one, just flipped around!

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Thanks for your comment.
Yes I noticed that I don’t listen enough without reading at the same time, or without having read the text already.
What I do now is review long ago LTL lessons’ audios and repeat difficult sentences until I recognize everything and only check the text if I don’t get it right after 5 or 6 times listening. I also listen to audios first for new lessons and try to get everything except unknown words. The same with other audios where I have the text. I scroll down youtube or flashcards so that I can’t see the text when I listen to it.
Btw also your pronunciation trainer can be used in that way :slight_smile:

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Hi Sonja, I’ve also asked LTL teachers to read me example sentences from the HSK exam before. After reading the sentence as per the exam, we’ve broken the sentence down so that the teacher says a few words and I’ve tried to translate it until I got to the point of understanding the sentence. I’ve found that there is a big difference - at least in my head - between seeing or hearing one word and being able to understand it, and hearing or seeing a sentence and understanding it. This has been a nice bridge for me. Although when I hear the sentence at examination speed, I’m still at the stage of trying to spot the key word so that I can answer the question that follows rather than actually being able to understand the full sentence.

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Thanks for your comment: Yes, I will simply ask my teacher to repeat sentences very often, maybe slower, or in parts, or maybe I try to say the sentence myself so that my teacher understands easily what I think I have understood.
Hopefully we will laugh a lot. :wink:

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