How To Really Learn Spanish - by Ricardo González, Founder & Executive Director of Bilingual America  

Table of Contents
Forward - Dr. Jane Madsen Introduction
Chapter 1 - The Importance of Methods
Chapter 2 - Assess Your Abilities
Chapter 3 - The Fruit and the Root
Chapter 4 - The Power of Patterns
Chapter 5 - You're Not A Native...All About Immersion
Chapter 6 - The Four Secrets To Long Term Retention
Chapter 7 - The Cozy Comfortable Classroom
Chapter 8 - Eight Reasons Why Telephone Tutoring is Better Than Face to Face Tutoring
Chapter 9 - What To Expect From a Great Tutor
Chapter 10 - What To Expect From Great Course Materials
Chapter 11 - Mastering Pronunciation, Speech Flow and Comprehension
Chapter 12 - Put Your Products on the Shelf!
Chapter 13 - What to Do When You Already Speak Some Spanish
Chapter 14 - Cultural Training and Language
Closing Thoughts


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Chapter 8 - Eight Reasons Why Telephone Tutoring is Better than Face to Face Tutoring

There is no question about it, you will get a stronger result by taking your tutoring by telephone than if you take tutoring in person.

Many people are surprised when they first hear this but after you read these eight reasons you will be convinced!

#1 - Better Comprehension

When you are tutored by telephone you learn to hear voice. When you are taught face to face, about 30 percent of what you think you hear are the non-verbal gestures. People who are taught in person will finish a course of study, go to talk with someone on the phone, and freeze because they just lost 30 percent of their communications!

People who are taught on the telephone will do well on the telephone. They will also do great in person, because they get an additional 30 percent in the non-verbal gestures that they were not even accustomed to in the normal tutoring process!

#2 - Better Pronunciation

People typically talk about 10 to 15 percent more loudly on the phone than in person. To speak more loudly you need to open your mouth more widely, and we all know that opening your mouth widely is a prerequisite to developing good enunciation and pronunciation.

#3 - Leverage Your Time

Instead of spending your precious time driving to a school or to someone's home to take a Spanish class, you can use that time to learn through the use of interactive course materials. I will talk about that more in Chapter 10.

#4 - Flexibility

If you do any traveling, you can stay consistent in your tutoring by simply picking up a telephone. It does not matter if you are in Iowa, New Jersey, Utah, Mexico, Venezuela or Germany. If you can get to a telephone, you can take your tutoring.

If you have a schedule that is variable, you can schedule tutoring on an "as you go" basis. You do not need to lock into the same times every week. You can schedule as you go.

By the way, at Bilingual America, our teachers teach from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. EST and Saturday mornings so you will always be sure to get a tutoring time that meets your needs.

#5 - More Relaxed

You can go home from work, get relaxed and enjoy your tutoring from your favorite chair. It is a lot more fun taking tutoring in casual clothes than in dress clothes. If you have a cordless telephone, you can even do tutoring from your patio while you are enjoying the sunshine!

#6 - Prepared for Real Business World

Since you learn to deal with voice, you will be better prepared for the real business world where much of what we do is by telephone. Also, if someone happens to be out of your line of vision, you will be able to understand even if you cannot see him or her. As I have already mentioned, if you are trained in person, you will freeze when you get on the telephone. When you are trained by telephone, you do not become dependent on lipreading, gestures, etc.

#7- Consistency of Training

You can have tutoring more consistently for the same amount of money than you could by going to a school. Telephone tutoring sessions last half an hour and sessions at most schools are at least one hour in length because they have to justify having an instructor come in.

A half-hour on the telephone twice a week is more consistent, and better, than having one one-hour session a week. Of course, four half-hour sessions weekly are better than two one-hour sessions.

It is just like exercise. Which is better? Three or four times a week for a half-hour, or once or twice for an hour or two at a time? We all know that consistency is critical to the development of a new skill or habit. You'll feel like you have more attention for the same amount of time — and money!

#8 - Higher Completion Rates

Our studies show conclusively that students who take their tutoring by telephone more consistently complete a full course of study. This is due to the fact that they learn better and that they learn in an environment that meets their needs from a logistical and scheduling standpoint.

The conclusion of the matter is…

If I personally were going to take a language training course, I would want my tutoring to be by telephone. I would not do it face to face with a tutor, much less in a group class.

Through many years of experience, I have found that people who do tutoring by telephone, learn better, understand better, speak better, schedule more easily and complete their programs much more consistently.

This is not marketing hype. In reality, only one percent of our students in the metro Atlanta area, where we are physically located, ever come to our physical premises. We simply do not encourage coming to our Bilingual America premises for all the reasons I have shared with you in this chapter. We actually have students spanning the United States and it works very well.

It seems that our students are more concerned about learning well than seeing our smiling, beautiful faces!