Reasons to Change Your Teacher

Teachers, truly sympathetic teachers, know how different their students’ personalities can be. Humans are infinitely different, yet we tend to overestimate their similarities and underestimate their differences. As a result, it’s almost impossible to be unbiased, and we are bound to overgeneralize our own perception of the world. When it comes to learning and teaching English, we keep making the same inevitable mistake. Allow me to illustrate this through a personal experience.

In one of my classes a while ago, I had a student who told me he enjoyed memorizing new vocabulary items out of context. However, as you probably know, one of the best ways to learn vocabulary is learning it in context; you see a new word in a sentence in an appropriate situation, and then you learn its meaning. This method is by far the most efficient way to learn new vocabulary. Unfortunately, my student didn’t like this method and, therefore, could not learn new words this way. I tried to persuade him that his method was wrong but to no avail. My perception of learning a new language was simple yet totally different from his. Maybe we had different learning styles or maybe different learning goals. It’s quite fair to say when people don’t enjoy a method of teaching, they can hardly learn anything from it. So we can’t and should not force every single student to learn and memorize vocabulary in one way. A doctor cannot prescribe the same pill to all patients.

Teachers, at least professional teachers, are usually well-aware of all these idiosyncrasies, and they are equipped with enough tools to bridge this gap. But their tools might be different. The way they offer those tools is different. The way they sympathize with you is different. The way they talk to you is different. The way they understand you and your problems is different. As I mentioned earlier, people are immensely different, and that’s the reason we all have to always meet new people and learn something from them. Learning a new language is no exception. Be adventurous and meet different people, teachers, trainers, and instructors.

I highly advise you to fully trust your teacher and do whatever they recommend. Don’t expect an immediate remarkable result. Learning a new language is more difficult than acquiring any other skill. Wait at least 2 or 3 months before changing your teacher. Be patient and trust your teacher. If you don’t make any progress, maybe it’s time you moved on and found a new teacher who could understand you better and help you better.