How much would be a reasonable price for a private Spanish tutor?

[bnbacademy]

I may have an opportunity to hire a private Spanish tutor to teach my dc Spanish from a native speaker. She is our ED Spanish translator and offered to teach Spanish to my 6th and 3rd grader in our home. This lady just happened to be an elementary English teacher in Mexico before coming to the US, yeah!!

 

I had been asking around for a native teacher. I emailed local colleges for students willing to practice teaching, but received no replies.

 

Rosetta Stone is too expensive and, frankly, it would probably crash my computer with the software bundle involved. My goals are early fluency with the correct accent and I may have found the first step toward this.

 

Now, how much should I offer to pay? Where do I even start? Do I compare this to the piano lessons, which I think are too expensive, but, well, that is for another day... Am I ridiculous to even be able to do this less than the RS price?

[regentrude]

Our language tutor (small rural town) gets $20 per lesson for individual lessons, $30 for two students. I consider this a good price; he comes to our home.

Compare to other services that are paid hourly, and compare to the qualifications the people need to have.

It will also make a difference whether the teacher does this completely for a living, or whether the teacher has another job as well.

 

I am not quite sure how you want to compare this to Rosetta Stone. You can't replace the program completely with lessons, you need to find something for the days of the week the teacher is not there. With languages, you are looking at a long term commitment of many years.

[gingersmom]

The price is going to vary greatly depending on where you live. In my neck of the woods it would be at least $50 for maybe 30-45 minutes. And that would probably be cheap.

[bnbacademy]

I am not quite sure how you want to compare this to Rosetta Stone. You can't replace the program completely with lessons, you need to find something for the days of the week the teacher is not there. With languages, you are looking at a long term commitment of many years.

 

Actually, I was hoping to replace RS with the face to face lessons.

For background, here's why... my dsis and family had been missionaries in Italy for the past 10 years. They hired native Italians to tutor them in the language. Granted, it was a true immersion program. I thought maybe I can do this in reverse for the dc. So, I am hoping to get a way with not buying a huge program, and just use a real person and/or assigned homework.

[Mabelen]

Actually, I was hoping to replace RS with the face to face lessons.

For background, here's why... my dsis and family had been missionaries in Italy for the past 10 years. They hired native Italians to tutor them in the language. Granted, it was a true immersion program. I thought maybe I can do this in reverse for the dc. So, I am hoping to get a way with not buying a huge program, and just use a real person and/or assigned homework.

 

I agree with Regentrude. Foreign language learning to proficiency level is not going to happen unless you are committed to it being long term. Much like a musical instrument, you need to be aware that foreign languages are time intensive. You would not progress very much if you had weekly piano lessons and then did not practice almost every day as it was expected by the teacher. You would not expect to become a proficient player in a couple of years, would you? Same with a foreign language, it's just not realistic. So my answer is that as long as you are committed to doing a good amount of homework and suplement regularly in other ways on top of the weekly lesson with the teacher, you can do it.

[In The Great White North]

The price is going to vary greatly depending on where you live. In my neck of the woods it would be at least $50 for maybe 30-45 minutes. And that would probably be cheap.

 

:iagree: I think we paid more than that a few years ago.

[TheReader]

Here in Brazil I paid R$20/lesson for 1 hour in my home; the tutor came 2x/week, worked 1 hr each time with each of my older boys. She went up to R$25/lesson at the end.

 

In the US I think we paid $50/lesson for the same thing but over Skype.

 

And, not sure how this will be cheaper than RS. One month of lessons cost me R$400/mo. here; $800/month in the US when we did it there. In a month, then, we'd matched the price of RS or passed it up.

 

Even at that -- we used RS daily, had private lessons w/a native speaker 2x/wk for an hour a time, had homework between lessons and did all of that for 4 to 6 months before moving to Brazil. We got here and could barely manage the grocery store. Another 4 to 6 months of lessons here, 3x/wk for an hour per lesson, and we could finally manage our day-to-day stuff as long as it did not deviate at all. Still couldn't understand conversations going on around us in the grocery store, didn't know when someone was talking to me if it was unexpected, etc.

 

After a year I could understand some of the conversation going on around me and could carry on a decent conversation. But that was a year of daily, real life usage.

 

My boys took lessons here for close to two years and only my oldest is what I'd call proficient/able to truly converse. My 10 yr old did not really retain a lot and is not proficient at all.

 

It is a long term, and not cheap, committment if you want to gain anything close to fluency. Heck, I've lived here over three years and wouldn't call myself fluent, though I am very proficient.

 

I do think a native speaking tutor is way better than RS, which gives some vocab but not at all fluency, IMO.

[bnbacademy]

I do think a native speaking tutor is way better than RS, which gives some vocab but not at all fluency, IMO.

 

:iagree:and this is why I want to pursue a native speaker. Sounds like the general consensus is that a great commitment and investment is needed if I am going to achieve fluency. I need to then decide on which to pursue, fluency or a foundational knowledge of a foreign language.

I had 4 years of Spanish in HS, and by the 4th year, spoke only Spanish in classes. I have a rudimentary knowledge of Spanish. I do think I could help with the daily practice at the elementary level. Spanish speakers have commented that I have a decent accent, even tho it is obvously a "learned" Spanish. I can understand basic conversation if people would . just. slooow. doown wheen theey. taaalk.:001_smile:

[bettyandbob]

I would expect to pay $50-75 for an hour in home lesson around here. I would probably supplement with something like Rosetta Stone, but I'd have the tutor tell me what to get not just buy it myself. Private lessons are very expensive, but if you have the right teacher they can be great.

[Harriet Vane]

In my neck of the woods, we pay $35 for a half hour lesson. Group lessons are only slightly less.

 

However, we pay only $15 PER HOUR to 121Spanish for a Skype tutor. It's a wonderful service, and we are very, very happy with them. You might check into it.

[bnbacademy]

However, we pay only $15 PER HOUR to 121Spanish for a Skype tutor. It's a wonderful service, and we are very, very happy with them. You might check into it.

 

Never heard of this, thank you, I'll look into it... of course, I don't even know much about skype.

[shinyhappypeople]

It totally depends on where you live.

 

I pay $65/mo for ballet (group), same for gymnastics (group). That's $16.25/hr. So if it were ME I'd pay similar for *group* Spanish lessons and maybe $25/hr for private lessons.

 

I actually think that in the case of a foreign language small group learning might have advantages to one-on-one tutoring. Not only would it be cheaper, but they'd have the opportunity to converse with the other students. If you find other families who want to get involved perhaps you could plan some extra days to just get together and practice.

[Trilliums]

I paid $15 per hour last year for a Mandarin tutor. They met once or twice a week at Barnes snd Noble or the library. She always had lesson plans prepared and work for DS to do during the week. She ended each session by recording phrases and vocab on our iPad.

 

Other local tutors wanted $20 per hour. Online tutors we found wanted 40 per hour.

 

I found her by calling the university dept of international studies.

 

Good luck!

[catz]

I agree with Regentrude. Foreign language learning to proficiency level is not going to happen unless you are committed to it being long term. Much like a musical instrument, you need to be aware that foreign languages are time intensive. You would not progress very much if you had weekly piano lessons and then did not practice almost every day as it was expected by the teacher. You would not expect to become a proficient player in a couple of years, would you? Same with a foreign language, it's just not realistic. So my answer is that as long as you are committed to doing a good amount of homework and suplement regularly in other ways on top of the weekly lesson with the teacher, you can do it.

 

:iagree: My kids are starting their 3rd year of a Spanish class taught by a native speaker. Last year I also added in Rosetta Stone for my oldest. He is getting quite a bit better retention and getting more out of the class. My daughter, who wasn't really to launch Rosetta on her own last fall at 7, is moving slower.

 

We pay $10 per class/child for a class of 6-12 kids, which is actually a great price for us locally. Paying $40-75+ for an hour of private tutoring with a native speaker here would probably be typical. Pretty close to piano lesson rates.

 

The Rosetta and class in conjunction have been great. And your kids are a great age to start Rosetta. Early elementary can be hard because it requires typing skills and it's a little dry. I don't think a tutor is going to save you money over Rosetta in the long term. I bought levels 1-5 through Homeschool Buyer's Co-op and it's taken my oldest 9 months to get through level 1 at a fairly solid 1 lesson 4-5X per week pace (he did work on it through summer).

[Vida Winter]

One of my daughters just started lessons with Homeschool Spanish Academy. She is doing two 50-minute lessons (via Skype) with a teacher from Guatemala. I think it works out to around $12 per lesson.

[Riverland]

Last year I paid $30/hour for a private Spanish tutor. My dd also takes Mandarin, and I pay about $10/hour for a class with 3 kids.

[cathmom]

Wow - I don't know where you all live to be paying $50 an hour for a tutor! I pay $20 an hour for our private Swedish tutor. He is a grad student. I would pay up to $30 if I felt the tutor deserved that much, depending on qualifications.

[Miss Tick]

Zooombie! 🧟‍♂️

Shucks! I had a lot to say in this topic! 😂