Where can I find a great Canadian French language tutor?

January 6, 2020 5:43 PM

There are approximately 100 zillion sites that offer online language tutoring. Which ones (either sites or specific tutors) are good? I am looking to learn French from a Canadian speaker, not a European one, and primarily seeking conversational practice. I take grammar lessons already, but we don't get a lot of practice actually talking in those classes.
posted by jacquilynne to Writing & Language (8 answers total)

No experience with French, but I find Italki to be a good language tutor choice. The pricing is easy to understand and they seem to have a wide variety of tutors and language partners at different price points. Most tutors Ive worked with have an introductory lesson or chat at a discounted rate.
posted by AlexiaSky at 5:52 PM on January 6, 2020 [2 favorites]

Seconding iItalki! No personal experience with French either, but I've found great tutors for other languages (Spanish and Portuguese) on the site. It's great if you are looking for conversational practice.
posted by Shadow Boxer at 2:20 AM on January 7, 2020

I've had more than 100 sessions of Spanish over the years using Italki, and it helped me a lot when I was a carer and unable to attend a physical classroom. The payment process is simple and on very rare occasions when the teacher wasn't there at the appointed time I was always confident of getting a refund of the credits. Plus, the tutors were generally a very good standard.
posted by AuroraSky at 3:39 AM on January 7, 2020

I presume you're looking for Canada specifically because you're going to be travelling in Canada or speaking to a French Canadian. Is there a Canadian French dialect/region that you're going to be targeting? There are some significant regional differences. For example, New Brunswick French is VERY different from Quebec French.

My partner is a francophone from Northern New Brunswick, his first language is French, and sometimes he has difficulty with Quebec French. No joke. Regional dialects are a thing, yo
posted by PuppetMcSockerson at 5:11 AM on January 7, 2020

Also, where are you located? Around here if you're looking to practice conversational language people just post online looking for someone local who will meet up for coffee weekly and chat in that language for practice.
posted by PuppetMcSockerson at 5:12 AM on January 7, 2020

Response by poster: I am looking to learn Canadian French because I work for the Canadian government.

I am aware that there is a difference between the Hull Quebecois accent and the Franco-Ontarian accent (which are the most common in the NCR work force) but they are close enough - and my French is beginner enough - that it doesn't really matter. Much of the time when someone is speaking French at work, they are actually an anglophone speaking in their second language anyway.

I would really prefer an online tutor over an in- person one. I have in-person training options already, I want something I can do without taking a bus in the cold to do it.
posted by jacquilynne at 5:25 AM on January 7, 2020

With Italki you can sort via country of origin and languages so finding someone who speaks Canadian French fluently shouldn't be difficult.
posted by AlexiaSky at 6:27 AM on January 7, 2020

Response by poster: It sounds like italki is the consensus choice. I have flipped through their list of instructors before, so based on MeFi's assurances that it is above board, I will give it a try.
posted by jacquilynne at 8:05 AM on January 7, 2020