Online Language Courses

Learning a foreign language with an online tutor is one of the best ways to acquire a new language, and has been available only due to the development of online technologies.

Technology has made online language courses easy, fast, and fun. Not only it allows you to listen to audio files, download software's, and view videos, but the interactive technologies like web cam and microphones enables you to see and speak with the teacher in real time.

You can go directly to our list of online tutoring suggestions

I will start with a personal story - Before we relocated to Venezuela we knew no Spanish. We were lucky enough to receive private tutoring in our house by a native speaking Spanish teacher. However it was always hard to find a convenient date and time for the lesson. And even when we managed to find some time there were always interruptions during the lesson.

So, we did not really learn any Spanish.

Well, I said to myself –"No problem we know enough English that will help us through the first couple of months until we learn Spanish."

I was so… wrong!

The people we met in Venezuela during our first couple of months – Salespersons. Taxi drivers, teachers, landlords, etc' didn't speak English.

It took us 4-6 months till we knew enough Spanish to deal with the day to day life in Venezuela.

Just imagine how much time we wasted and how many mistakes we made because we did not speak Spanish.

Too bad the online technologies were not available at that time. It could have solved us so many difficulties.

The best way to learn a foreign language is to live and work in the foreign country. In this aspect expats are lucky, as they get to do this.

But, the first few months of adjusting to the new country are difficult even if you speak the language. So, imagine trying to do this without speaking your host country language.

Quite scary!!!

Now, suppose you learn a new language in advance, and imagine you achieved a sufficient level of conversational skills and comprehension in the foreign language. Wouldn't the first months of settling in your new country become much simple?

This can be easily reached if you choose online language courses that also offer online tutoring:

• You can learn form the comfort of your home, at the time and date which is convenient for you. No need to waste time and money traveling to a physical location.
• You get to practice online technology - video, text, audio, animation, synchronous chats, bulletin boards and e-mail. So it feels exactly like attending a real class room.
• You can choose to learn a foreign language in small groups while interacting with people from other countries. Or you can choose to have a one on one lesson. It is up to you and your preference
• You have a real-time interaction with a native professional teacher who can teach you in the most effective way how to speak your target language. You can learn how to pronounce the words correctly and you get to practice your conversational skills with a native speaker.

There are a few guidelines to follow:

Compare prices between a few online language courses. Make sure the price is not too high or too low. A low price might indicate that the teachers are not really native professional teachers.

Ask the company behind the online language course to give you the profiles of their teachers - Do they employ only professional native language speakers? What are the teacher's qualifications? How many years of teaching experience do they have?

It is better that the company behind the online course is located in the country of your target language. This way you can be quite confident that the online language teacher is a native speaker. However, even if the company is not located in the country of your target language, it can still employ native language speakers that live in your target country (via internet technology). If this is the case then I would suggest investigating thoroughly the profile of the company's teachers.

Find out the hours the teachers can work with you. Most online language courses can offer
a wide variety of times to suit your busy schedule. Do not underestimate this point as learning foreign language requires time and practice.

eTeacher Group

If you are searching for online language courses in Chinese, Hebrew or English this is the perfect program.

By combining excellent content, professional teachers and advanced technology eTeacher group provide a great online language learning experience.

eTeacher Group offers virtual classes programs in which students take part using video conferencing technology via the Internet. Communications are transmitted by voice, video and "shared blackboard" technology. Video enables the student to see the teacher, and the teacher can see every student who has a web cam.

Teacher and students speak using microphones attached to the computer, and course content is transmitted via multimedia applications on the computer screen. In addition to conversations, the video and "shared blackboard" enable students to watch movies, listen to audio files and surf the Internet together.

eTeacher has 100 employees in the head office and 300 teachers; the company is internationally active in the private as well as in the municipal, government and academic sectors, serving tens of thousands of students each year.

eTeacher is the exclusive holder of Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs franchise to teach and learn Hebrew online, and is the exclusive Israel Ministry of Education franchise for online Hebrew tutoring.

Want to learn some more?

Go to eTeachergroup where you can watch online language video lessons; learn about the different online language programs and about the teacher's professional background.

Speak Shop

At Speak Shop you can learn Spanish with experienced Spanish tutors via webcam.

This is a program I am really passionate about - You learn Spanish online form professional native Spanish speakers and at the same time you get to give back to society.

How?

Speak Shop offers face-to-face Spanish lessons via web cam with university-educated, native-speaking instructors based in developing countries such as Guatemala and Nicaragua.

It features a unique marketplace business model that enables tutors to become micro-entrepreneurs, selling and delivering language lessons directly to students all over the world through video and voice conferencing.

Tutors set their own lesson fees, and you pay them when you reserve your lesson. Speak Shop does not charge any fees to tutors. On average, tutors will charge between $8-15 per hour, depending on the tutor, time of day, number of lessons, country of residence, season, etc.

Other than that the student pays a monthly membership fee to Speak Shop. This fee covers the costs associated with scheduling, teacher listing and training, teaching tools, website maintenance and customer service.

Speak Shop believes that the students will prefer to pay a transparent membership fee rather than for them to take a percentage away from the tutors’ lesson fees.

This way you get to give back to society and to assist people who are living in poverty in developing countries.

You can learn more about this project at Speak Shop website.