Welcome back to the LKWM blog! As promised last time, I’ll be continuing to talk about different types of Korean classes and their pros and cons, especially online live Korean classes this time.
Online live private lesson is what I have been working on for over 3 years now and Learn Korean with Min is also launching online live group classes this year, so I think it will be the part that I can explain the best!
Online Korean group class is probably the best way to learn Korean, or any other language if you’re looking for an alternative to the on-site class due to the problems such as location, price, schedule or language.
The best advantage of taking a Korean class online is that you can have pretty much the same experience as what you can have in the on-site class without physically relocating yourself. You can save time and money to go to the class. It could be even more beneficial if you are residing in a rural area, or in a foreign country where you speak a different or minor language than the others. For example, imagine you are a native French speaker living in a small town in Germany. Your German is not good enough to take classes and communicate with the teacher or peer students who mainly speak German. But it’s impossible to find a class that is in French. In this case, looking for an online live class that provides classes in French will help you a lot since you don’t have to worry about the language barrier in your specific situation. (Learning a foreign language in another foreign language requires a lot more effort than when you do it in your native language. I will deal with this topic soon!)
It could be also extremely efficient if you have an unusual work shift or routine. Imagine your current work starts late in the afternoon and finishes later in the evening. You want to take classes after your work, as you don’t need to go to bed as early as the others who need to get up early the next morning. However, all the local schools and institutes close earlier in the evening. In this case, if you look for a class that aims for a different time zone may help you to find the schedule that suits you the best.
If you decide to take Korean classes online, there are two different types to consider.
1. Online live group class
Online live group classes tend to be cheaper than on-site classes or private online lessons, which allows you to increase class hours and frequency to maximize the input or simply save some money.
On the other hand, most teachers and institutes can only open the online live class when they have enough students to be put in the same group. You may find it hard to find the exact class plan that you want to follow, but you still have much more options than a couple of on-site schools that you can find in your area.
The only disadvantage of an online live group class is the refund policy and technical issues. Unlike private on-site tutoring or private online lessons, you are not the only student in the group class. So even if you cannot join the class on a specific day, it is highly unlikely to be able to reschedule the lesson. Some online institutes may suggest you a make-up session in another group or in private, but it mostly depends on their refund and exchange policy. Technical issues (internet connection, camera and microphone issue) can also be the problem that makes you unable to join the class under certain circumstances.
Other than that, I do believe that online live group class is one of the best ways to learn Korean while keeping a similar ambience to the traditional on-site classes.
2. Online live private tutoring
As we already talked a lot about the benefits and disadvantages of online classes, let’s talk more about private online tutoring. The best thing about private online classes is that you have much more options to choose from. There are thousands of Korean tutors out there, and if you try to learn a language that has more speakers and bigger communities (think of English!), this number can be much higher.
Also, you can find tutors everywhere in the world, who speak your native language, understands your culture, and even lives in the same time zone!
You don’t need to calculate time differences and wake up 7 hours earlier to take Korean lessons from someone in Korea. (This could be 10-15 hours if you’re in America! Even worse!!) You can simply find a Korean tutor who lives in your time zone or nearby. That is why more than 80% of my students are from Europe and more than half of them were French speakers. They were looking for a specific tutor; someone who can work in the European time zone and speaks their language. This can happen anywhere in the world.
Another good thing about online private tutors is you can have more information about the tutor before actually meeting them. They are used to working online, so it is much easier for you to have access to their pictures, videos, and social media that show who they are and how they teach. The most common way to find tutors is using online platforms such as Preply, italk, or amazingtalker. These platforms provide a decent amount of information on the tutors and their interactions with the other students (class hours, reviews, etc) and make it easier to proceed payment and booking process.
However, tutoring platforms are also one of the biggest cons when you’re looking for online classes. These platforms take a certain amount of your tuition as a commission (most platform takes 20~50%). And it makes it hard for the teachers to provide as much quality as what you paid for.
Despite all the weaknesses we discussed about online live classes, I still believe that it is one of the most efficient and powerful tools to teach and learn something. It is still one of my biggest joys to get to teach students who have no access to learn Korean where they are. And it is my ultimate goal to make them learn what they want to learn, wherever they are, just like the people who have resources and chances to learn.
In the next post, we’ll be talking about Learn Korean with Min’s new teaching program: self-teaching online courses.
If you’re interested, sign in to LKWM website and I will send you some surprising e-mails to let you know what’s new to learn.
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