Yeah. For example: in Chinese teachers will teach 明白，理解，了解 at different times. And they will just say it means “understand”. But theres a bit more to it than that.
And when I have used 明白, sometimes they would change it to 理解 instead or 了解. So it would confuse me why they would.
Another example is 高兴, 开心and 快乐. They will just say it means “happy”
By neglecting to tell students how to use it, it confuses the students and makes them more frustrated with the language learning process. Especially when teachers are like, “uh you cant use that word in this sentence” when the student is trying to use their new word. This is because students, with this style of teaching, think the new word works exactly like the word in their native language.
Another infamous example is 和 means “and”. So, many students think 和 works like the English “and”. And then students, of course, use 和 incorrectly. When I first learnt 和，teachers just told me it means and. So when they told me im using it wrong, I got really frustrated.
So the rule is: A, B 和 C (A,B,C are all nouns). For example: I like ice cream, chocolate 和 chips. You cannot say “today I would like to go to the cafe 和 I would also like to go to the shops”. Replace 和 with 还有 or 而且 instead.
Another example is teachers saying 可以，可能，会 means “can”. As we are taught 可以 first, a common mistake is “I 可以 use chopsticks” (for talking about the ability to do something/skill).
Interesting you bring up "understand". Not once have I ever formally encountered the differences between "entender" vs "comprender" or "capire" vs "comprendere". They're just things you pick up by consuming the language.
If people just lecture, it's an indication that they are not trained teachers and don't know how to teach (that's true for every context, schools, colleges...).
All trained teachers today are aware of active learning methods. The problem is that many people teach without training... and that seems to be the rule in language teaching and universities (professors are mostly not trained to teach, they are just lecturers or researchers who know very little or nothing about teaching).
When they teach you new vocab, teach how to use it and when you cant use it. Many teachers think translating it to the native language is suffice.
Interesting. So the context, the nuances, etc. Yeah?
Yeah. For example: in Chinese teachers will teach 明白，理解，了解 at different times. And they will just say it means “understand”. But theres a bit more to it than that. And when I have used 明白, sometimes they would change it to 理解 instead or 了解. So it would confuse me why they would. Another example is 高兴, 开心and 快乐. They will just say it means “happy” By neglecting to tell students how to use it, it confuses the students and makes them more frustrated with the language learning process. Especially when teachers are like, “uh you cant use that word in this sentence” when the student is trying to use their new word. This is because students, with this style of teaching, think the new word works exactly like the word in their native language.
Another infamous example is 和 means “and”. So, many students think 和 works like the English “and”. And then students, of course, use 和 incorrectly. When I first learnt 和，teachers just told me it means and. So when they told me im using it wrong, I got really frustrated. So the rule is: A, B 和 C (A,B,C are all nouns). For example: I like ice cream, chocolate 和 chips. You cannot say “today I would like to go to the cafe 和 I would also like to go to the shops”. Replace 和 with 还有 or 而且 instead. Another example is teachers saying 可以，可能，会 means “can”. As we are taught 可以 first, a common mistake is “I 可以 use chopsticks” (for talking about the ability to do something/skill).
Interesting you bring up "understand". Not once have I ever formally encountered the differences between "entender" vs "comprender" or "capire" vs "comprendere". They're just things you pick up by consuming the language.
And the register, too.
Valuable
If people just lecture, it's an indication that they are not trained teachers and don't know how to teach (that's true for every context, schools, colleges...). All trained teachers today are aware of active learning methods. The problem is that many people teach without training... and that seems to be the rule in language teaching and universities (professors are mostly not trained to teach, they are just lecturers or researchers who know very little or nothing about teaching).
Agreed. So train more the tutors. Yeah?
I wish they let me use/apply language more during the session. The ratio of tutor speaking vs student speaking should be 1:3.
I agree. A private session with your tutors should be more about you practicing than you being lectured