I’m looking for a Mandarin tutor to help me improve my Mandarin which is already at an advanced level (HSK 6). I want someone who doesn’t insist on following a textbook and could potentially use modern teaching methods such as Comprehensible Input. Bonus points if the teacher is male because I’ve been getting feedback that my 語氣 when I speak Mandarin is a bit feminine, and I blame that on the fact that 90% of the Mandarin tutors around are female. What I hear is what I’ll internalize and replicate.
And yes, I know, someone here will point out that it is possible for me to self-learn since I’m already at an advanced level. And that is absolutely true. But I’m a bit lazy, and I want to form a habit by paying money for weekly lessons.
Would appreciate if fellow students can share their recommendations here or PM me. Thanks!
Best I can suggest is you get a college student that doesn’t have a lot of experience teaching and then teach them how to teach you the way you want to learn.
If you’re at HSK 6, you should have a clear idea of what does and does not work for you and your learning.
If you work with a college student, they will have less years of experience teaching in ways that don’t work and “no, I’m not paying you to have me guess what I think the meaning of this character could be” will go a lot farther with them than someone who holds a masters in Chinese teaching and therefore is quite confident they know more about your language needs and skills than you do.
As for sounding too feminine, what kind of native content are you listening to? Do you have male Chinese-speaking friends? I went through a phase where I started every sentence with “幹” because that’s what the native speakers around me (more men than women I guess) did. But I try to get a good balance of many types of people and topics when I find listening material (and everyone has a podcast these days)
