tutor or no tutor?

[Shumiston]

Well, even though the podcast make learning the spoken language easy and fun, the writing is a pain even with my premium learning center features. I've been a member since april 23 2007 and still have not gotten past hiragana and katakana, which is what I have been told to start with. I live in Wisconsin and nearby is a School called Lakeland College. They have busloads of Japanese students so my mother an I (yes, I am 14) were thinking of getting a tutor (a student to help) from there. Would that basically get rid of Japanesepod101 (which is what I will not do) and make everything confusing, or can I use the tutor and Japanesepod101 together and etc. leave your thoughts please!

[Airth]

Working with a tutor and making use of JPod is surely the best way to go. The more varied your study methods the faster you will learn.

There is nothing better than interacting with someone who is right in front of you, At the end of the day, isn't that the whole point of learning a language in the first place?

I think you'll find the two methods will complement and inform each other with the benefits outweighing any kind of confusion you might experience.

[Belton]

Definitely a tutor is a good idea. Someone with prior experience of teaching Japanese to English speakers would be ideal.

Especially with writing as they can correct the shapes of your characters in a way that just can't happen using a book or the internet.

I can't see any problem with using both the podcast and a tutor. In fact your tutor could base their teaching around the podcasts and expand on the topics. Especially if you are coping well with the spoken language topics.

(I go to class, listen to jPod101, have language partners, write on mixi, read books, it all helps. The best methods are when I have real contact with Japanese people.)

The biggest benefit is having a person to try out your speaking on. Also if you have a weekly appointment, with homework!, you are less likely to slack off. It's very easy to start skipping podcasts or only half listen to them, but it's less of a temptation to goof off when you have face to face contact with a teacher. It's also invaluable to have your mistakes corrected.

I agree with Airth-san. The more variety the better. Good Luck! 頑張って〜♪

[Shumiston]

Thanks so much! I will remember what both of you said. Now I just have to wait until the school year starts.

[WalterWills]

Hey,

Obviously a tutor would be a great help for general Japanese learning, but IMO you don't need one to learn hiragana and katakana.

Just keep copying them and eventually you'll remember the characters. It might take some time but what doesn't?

[Belton]

I thought Shumiston-san had mastered kana, I must have misread.

Maybe for kana alone a tutor would be overkill. Actually I think a lot of the work of learning to read and write can be done alone. (I recommend this book to anyone learning kana) But if you're having trouble a good tutor may make it easier. Introducing new methods or games or simple reading material. Again just having contact with another person and a sense of doing work for them as well as yourself is useful. And you'll get to learn other things.

And if you want to write as well as read, someone to stop you forming bad writing habits is useful. My teacher still corrects my kana shapes. (especially い and こ）

[Zolarius]

I only recently acquired a tutor after two years of Japanese study on my own. I utilize my tutor for listening comprehension and work with kanji (stroke order, etc.) I think that getting a tutor for kana mastery is overkill.

As was previously suggested, sheer memorization would probably be your best bet. Check out the NHK Japanese website, read Japanese newspapers, buy yourself a few manga in the original Japanese; the titles targeted towards teenage and younger audiences usually have furigana (D.Gray-Man, Bleach, Katekyo Hitman Reborn!, Ouran Koukou Hosuto Kurabu).

As for getting a tutor; I think that the more often you use Japanese, the better your retension will be. If you listen to JapanesePod and have a tutor, there's greater potential for retension, than with JapanesePod alone. Plus, your questions can be more spontaneous with a tutor; cover something, have questions, questions answered, learning continues!

頑張って。

[Shumiston]

well, yeah i figured having a tutor for kana would be an overkill, i can do that by myself. But once I get up to like kanji and other stuff, then a tutor would be good.