Language Coaching in Japanese

[Tmlk]

Hi everyone!
I'm turning to you guys today to know your honest opinions about the following issue.

In the language learning arena, language coaching seems to be the new trend nowadays. It seems that combining traditional coaching principles (such as goal setting) with language learning teachinques and methods produces faster and more effective results.

So my questions to all of you learners of Japanese is:

1. If you were to choose between taking a traditional course and/or a one-on-one tutoring course with a traditional teacher AND a totally tailor-made language coaching program, which one would you choose and why?

2. What would be the monthly budget (in euros or dollars) you would be ready to pay for both types of service and why?

Hope to get a few responses which could help me decide. I would go for language coaching, but prices are usually a bit too high for me...

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[WonkoTheSane]

1. If I had my druthers, I'd pick neither and get a teacher well trained in CI and TPRS, but I've yet to find one for Japanese.

2. About 2500¥ per individual lesson is typical from what I see here. I wouldn't pay more because someone called themselves a 'coach' instead of a teacher.

 

[nekojita]

↑agreed. I'd want to know that the teacher has the qualifications and experience relevant to what I'm trying to achieve. Who have they taught, in what settings, do they have good references, can you get a trial lesson if you're not sure if their style will work for you, etc.

Also the choices given are far too broad. "Traditional classes" covers a quite broad range of things from relatively intensive courses to one-evening-a-week stuff. one-to-one tutoring, similar, depends hugely on the teacher/tutor. what is a "traditional teacher" here, anyway? Is this just setting up some false dichotomy? "goal setting" is something only "coaches" do now? Smells like a bunch of marketing bollocks to me.

Personally, I've had very good experiences previously with small tutoring groups (one teacher, four to six of us of a similar level of language skills and enthusiasm).

If Wonko's quote is for a one-hour lesson, then I guess that's supply-demand, but I'd expect at least double that in the UK for a individual lesson (face to face not over Skype) from a properly qualified and experienced teacher, and would personally be willing to pay £30 or so an hour.

 

[WonkoTheSane]

Yep, one hour lessons... It's somewhat deflated, I imagine, since there's a community center nearby which offers lessons virtually for free: Once a week for three months for, I think, 1200¥ for the whole semester or some such insanely low amount. Couple that with the fact that nobody attends and you essentially get 1 to 1 lessons once a week for about 100¥ per lesson. For the person who can benefit from weekly one hour lessons, it's a steal!

I'm paying a lot more basically so I can do four lessons per week and at a far better time (right after work instead of 2.5 hours after work).

I'd happily pay more if I could get the teaching paradigm I've found works best for me. My opinion is that often cheaper lessons are a false economy.

 

[Mike Cash]

There is nothing like enthusiastic volunteers to keep the prices down. However, like everything else in life, you're very likely to get what you pay for.

I will never forget signing up for an "Advanced Reading" course offered by my local city hall and going to the first class....where they gave us xerox copies of some pages from an elementary school first grade textbook. The second class had us looking at a simple recipe or something like that. I have no idea what the third class had, because I didn't continue the course.

But I did learn firsthand the meaning of the phrase "the soft bigotry of low expectations", so it wasn't a total loss.