So the question is,  in this age of apps and everything being available for free on youtube,  why would anyone actually pay for a teacher to help them learn a language?

There are lots of little reasons,  it’s more fun, you make new friends, you get community support etc.  etc.   and there are also two big reasons:

1.  The first reason is …… 

As soon as you pay for a course, or pay for a teacher, you’re instantly accountable.   If you’re anything like me, you don’t want to waste a penny and you want to get the maximum from what you have paid for.   So your subconcious brain clicks into practice and starts thinking “let’s get every penny of value out of this!” and you end up doing a lot more work.

And interestingly enough the more students pay,  the more work they put in.   Imagine if you were paying $10,000 for an English course vs.  if you had paid $2 for an English course.  Which one would you value more and put more work into! 🙂    ( And also, interestingly enough, what people say they would do is very often very different from what they actually do 🙂 )

Plus of course if you have a teacher you like,  you don’t want to let them down.   They have put a lot of time and effort into making an amazing course for you,  so you want to make sure you sign up and get the most out of it!

This is the reason why although you can learn anything on YouTube for free,  very few people actually do.  Because it’s free, because it’s always there, we as humans tend to procrastinate.  So if you want to learn,  or you want to earn as a teacher,  then set a deadline and set a definite start and end point for your course and most definitely pay for it!   The more you pay, the more you usually learn!

2.  Feedback – you don’t know what you don’t know

Right now this is the other big reason to get a language teacher,  we as human learners tend to think we know the answers and can pronounce everything perfectly.   We think we can tell the difference between sous and sur in French or how to pronounce clothes or Prime Minister in English.     In reality though there are so many things that we as learners think we are doing correctly but sound horrible to people who really know 🙂   (I really do see it all the time with learners and also especially with English speakers who have stopped learning!)   And, as we can’t see it ourselves,  that’s why we need a teacher.  Not to correct and tell us the answer,  but to gently nudge us where we’re not quite there yet so we can go back, re-reflect and get the “aha!” moment ourselves!

Usually in English this is pronunciation or grammar or phrasing (e.g. using cliches instead of idioms).

Or with Genki English it is very often with mindset.  Very often students think they have a positive mindset,  but it’s when we come to the real learning that they realize there are still lots more, oftentimes simple, things they can change that make huge leaps in learning possible!

Of course, eventually computers will replace this part of the learning too but for now this is the real value of a great teacher!

So do keep these things in mind for your own teaching, or indeed for recruiting for lessons where people mention youtube or pricing,  and of course if you want to experience learning like this as a student,  do join my advanced English online class.   We start November 10th and you will find it to be a most amazing experience! 

be genki,

Richard