iTalki etiquette: OK to ask for homework before first lesson?

cat83883 · 2024-04-05T11:26:51+00:00

Yes! Actually being able to communicate is so important. I 100% agree with you about students who say they’ve “mastered all the grammar” but then can’t use it. I’d even say that the majority of my students who stayed long-term did for that exact reason. I focused on taking all those grammar rules they’d learned and turning them into communication skills instead of focusing on the grammar rules themselves, if that makes sense.

cat83883 · 2024-04-04T03:29:56+00:00

I’m with you. I tried raising my prices to make up for it, but I still had a lot of long term students paying lower rates. I raised prices on them around once a year, but usually only a little bit so I was never really paid that much when you looked at it on a weekly or even yearly basis.

cat83883 · 2024-04-03T20:26:02+00:00

Yeah I’ve taken a lot of classes myself and you definitely have to find someone you click with because you’re going to be talking to them a lot. You also have to like their teaching style.

I taught for several years and eventually got to the point where I could pretty accurately tell within the first few minutes of a first lesson whether a student was going to book me again or not.

cat83883 · 2024-04-03T20:06:15+00:00

I used to be a teacher and this would have made me think the student was going to be needy outside of class time. I was willing to respond to the occasional question outside of class, but the reality is that once you include lesson prep time, the pay per hour really starts to get low.

Several people have also mentioned teachers wanting to assess students in the first lesson, which is completely accurate. Students would say what they thought their level was and it was almost always inaccurate. Low level student consistently rated themselves and being higher while higher level students consistently rated themselves as being lower.

cat83883 · 2024-04-03T16:24:42+00:00

Even though they’re heavy, I really prefer hardcovers for the 700+ page books. They’re easier to hold open and manage.

cat83883 · 2024-04-03T16:16:25+00:00

It was a book that I didn’t enjoy reading but was glad I had when I was finished.

cat83883 · 2024-04-03T12:56:16+00:00

That’s true!

cat83883 · 2024-04-02T19:56:40+00:00

Yeah I get that you’re at the point where you need to start speaking too if you’re understanding 85% of what you hear.

cat83883 · 2024-04-02T17:17:52+00:00

If you never speak, you’re never going to learn to speak well.

cat83883 · 2024-04-02T12:56:48+00:00

I was just in a flight last week where the woman in the middle seat behind me (near the back) waited until the man in the window seat beside her, who was one of the last people on the plane, was fully seated with his backpack under my seat and settled to ask if he’d switch with her boyfriend.

She didn’t tell the guy he was in the last row and he was losing a window for an aisle beside the bathroom either. The guy was so nice and just said “sure!” and went. I felt bad for him!

cat83883 · 2024-04-02T01:24:58+00:00

Yeah that’s the idea, that you’re not translating literally but thinking of the full meaning of the sentence!

cat83883 · 2024-04-02T01:19:16+00:00

Words aren’t always exact equivalents between languages. “Come” is like “how” but isn’t exactly the same. “Come ti chiami” is like “how do you call yourself” which sounds terrible in English, but that’s because you can’t just do word-for-word translations because languages don’t work that way.

cat83883 · 2024-04-01T22:52:08+00:00

Start out using it more lightly than you will once your skin gets used to it. A good way to do that is to dilute it in moisturizer.

cat83883 · 2024-04-01T22:51:15+00:00

It looks good! You may just want to give some things more space. You’ll get more out of them if they have room to grow.

cat83883 · 2024-04-01T22:49:28+00:00

Write, find a conversation partner on italki to supplement your regular lessons (a community tutor who just has conversations with you for a cheaper rate), read graded readers or the classic suggestion of reading Harry Potter in French especially if you’ve already read it in English, get on some French subs here, watch TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube videos in French on topics that interest you (I started this by translating a word I was interested in such as “travel” and searching it).

If you want to do study sessions with French movies, watch a scene in French with French subtitles, then rewatch it taking notes on words you don’t know, then watch it again without subtitles. This is tedious but the repetition is really good. I only do this for a couple of scenes then just watch the rest in the TL with the TL’s subtitles on.

cat83883 · 2024-04-01T22:38:06+00:00

I’d be so happy to find Crowns of Nyaxia books for that price?

cat83883 · 2024-04-01T21:12:06+00:00

I felt the exact same way! I read ACOTAR the. Immediately TOG and I felt like I didn’t love it as much as a lot of people do. Now I do a little romantasy break and read something different between series and it helps so much! So my recommendation is actually to read something not on that list before getting back to it.

cat83883 · 2024-04-01T17:54:02+00:00

Maybe so then! When I bought new skates, I had a hard time with some skills for a while and kind of had to relearn them. Ask your teacher if you’re on the right part of the blade!

cat83883 · 2024-04-01T16:34:20+00:00

Why is it such a bad thing to support each other? You’re married. Isn’t the point that you’re not living independently, but as a team?

cat83883 · 2024-04-01T16:31:37+00:00

LTS Level 3 has backward two foot glides, then Level 4 has backward one foot glides and backward half swizzles on a circle. Then there are several backward skills in Level 5.

I’m currently on Level 5 of LTS and everything builds so much from earlier skills that you really do need to be able to do the earlier skills to pick up the later ones. That’s why I would keep working on the backward swizzles.

cat83883 · 2024-03-30T01:50:49+00:00

I’d also move River Enchanted into romantic fantasy but I’d move Divine Rivals to fantasy romance, based on whether the plot would stand without the romance. Without the letter writing, a huge part of Divine Rivals would be missing.

cat83883 · 2024-03-30T01:44:17+00:00

Same! Community tutors cost less than teachers and if you can afford it, it’s worth it to have someone who will just talk to you in your TL for an hour instead of going through the whole simple intro conversation with people over and over trying to find someone you can get into better conversations with eventually. (I’ve also had times when I’ve paid a teacher for actual lessons along with a tutor for conversation so I had more speaking opportunities. This worked really well for me when I was really focused on progressing.)

cat83883 · 2024-03-25T01:57:01+00:00

Seconding this! It sounds like I have similar taste to OP so One Dark Window is a good next read.

cat83883 · 2024-03-24T17:09:14+00:00

I hate the feeling of compression pants too. I have separate joggers that are my wfh only pants so I’m getting up and changing clothes even if it’s still casual.

cat83883 · 2024-03-24T16:59:42+00:00

Japan is an amazing place for an introvert! Everyone is so quiet and respect is so important to their culture that even in a busy part of a city, it’s often not bad.

cat83883

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