Have some patience

[NATASHA]

Teaching a language to people who are not native to it can be difficult and you have to understand that it is not easy even if you are teaching basic language lessons. The students might not be able to speak at all and to have patience to teach and explain is necessary for them to learn and speak back to you but the reward is once they are able to speak after your teaching skills

[takibari]

Indeed patience is important when teaching a second language to a non-native speaker. I guess it helps also that you yourself has the passion for learning new languages. If you have this passion to learn new languages, you can certainly emphasize what the new learner is going through in learning the new language. You yourself go through the same process when you were just learning a new language. With your experience, you are able to extend some help to the student. Not only that you can come up with ways to improve your teaching methods.

[R34Linguist]

On 2/5/2016, 3:37:46, NATASHA said:

Teaching a language to people who are not native to it can be difficult and you have to understand that it is not easy even if you are teaching basic language lessons. The students might not be able to speak at all and to have patience to teach and explain is necessary for them to learn and speak back to you but the reward is once they are able to speak after your teaching skills

I agree with you for the most part. However, no matter how good of a teacher you are, the student will not be a good speaker unless they are truly interested in the language that they are leaning. For example, I tried to teach my brother our native tongue, but he still cannot speak it after 5 years, because he refused to practice it.

[rz3300]

Well I have certainly experienced the frustration from the pupil perspective, but I am fortunate to be able to know the frustrations from the other perspective as well, the teacher perspective, because my mother was a foreign language teacher for her whole life and she certainly had her days when she had enough and her patience really wore thin.  She knew that it was tough for people though, and I would consider her to be the most compassionate person I have ever known so I think that she really made a good teacher for that quality.

[NATASHA]

you do need to love the language you are teaching and sometimes as a student it is not because they love the language it is because they have to learn it for work or whatever the reason so they can get a job or communicate in a foreign country. Patience is needed from both sides because there is a lot of frustration with learning a language that you have never heard spoken before

[darkchild]

I do admire people who can speak two or more languages; it seems they have been particularly blessed with multiple tongues. It takes me eternity to learn a language and I always feel sorry for my instructors. They do have patience but there is a limit to a teacher's patience.

[Saholy]

This is a very true statement. I don't think I appreciated how patient everyone was being with me until I became fluent in my target language and then had to try and teach others who had came. Sometimes I cringe as I hear the mistakes and its very hard to pick and choose which things to correct because there are so many mistakes you could comment on! But for fear of discouragement you try to choose things that they are ready to put into application at that point in time and that will motivate them to feel their progress so that they will continue. My main language teacher was patient but also had a very high expectation for us that if it was not met left a feeling of utter failure. For me, this helped push me forward but for my husband, I think it hindered him and 7 years later he is still feeling that his language skills are not where they should be. He is giving up on continuing to improve but this is something everyone must have the patience to do: continue learning the language no matter how many years you've been at it. 

[Trellum]

I had a taste of this when I was younger and worked as a teacher.  I wasn't supposed to speak Spanish at all, that was the hardest part, because the youngest students always tried t make me explain things in Spanish.  It's so hard when they know your native language  is also Spanish   They think this is done to annoy them, but we did this for their own good.  The good part was that I planned my classes way ahead, we worked with a really nice book full of visuals and we focused mostly in active learning.  I'd never work as a teacher again. 

[wolfette]

When I was trying to learn French I had someone teaching me that had no patience at all and would mock my accent, tell me I was getting things wrong all the time but not providing me with the correct way to do things. She was even a professional French teacher so I don't know how people were really able to learn from her. She wouldn't let you write things down until you were speaking them properly, but that's the style I need to learn. I need it written. She was very impatient and it made the whole process very difficult to get my head around. Patience is definitely needed for teaching someone new to the language!

[reverserewind]

I don't usually freak out at my students. In fact, I never freak out. I'm getting paid, so there's no reason to go crazy. Of course, I try to do my best while explaining things to them. I look for new ways to so. I treat each one equally but individually. That's the key to me.

[LeesaJohnson]

Yes, it's necessary to have patience if you are teaching to the non-native speaker. 

[gracerph]

I totally agree with what has been said in the OP. Patience is an important tool when it comes to any form of teaching. I remember when I used to teach English as a second language to young Korean students who have never been exposed to the English language. Since it's their first time learning the language, they were mostly having a hard time with their pronunciation. The "l" and "r" are always interchanged when they speak and it took time for them to be able to finally grasp the basics of the English language. It's such a fulfilling feeling though once you see how your students improve through time.

[VinayaSpeaks]

So far I have taught language only to one person. My cousin had very bad English and he asked me if I could tutor him. I am not a language teacher, but I have studied English language in college and even attended communicative language in British Council. I could not make him perfect,however, I was able to help him brush his language skills. In my experience, while teaching language, you need to understand the learning capabilities of your students.

[Baburra]

Yes, I agree. I don't think I've ever taught anyone a complete language before but just knowing how much it takes for me to try and figure out my own learning I can definitely sympathize with anyone who is trying to do the same so if I were to do the teaching I would be a lot more understanding. I've attempted teaching the older folks in my family how to use counters once and I suppose that is just another form of language and I did practice showing patience then so I'm confident if I ever chose to teach a language I can pull it off.