How to give feedback

Effective feedback must be actionable and gentle. You need patience and good intentions, and some acquired skills. This is a collection of Teacher tips.

Mindset

For adults outside of full immersion, mastering a language is a years-long process. Communication in arbitrary topics (intermediate+, B2 level) typically requires 500-700 hours of lesson, typically 2—4 years.

During this seemingly endless duration, your Learner will be very far from perfect. That is part of the process, and until the Team accepts and get pass the swamp, your feet will always be in mud.

Mustering the wherewithal to march on when there is seemingly no progress, is the work and wisdom of both the Learner and the Teacher.

HKers tend to operate from glasses-not-full frame: “your pronunciation is not accurate”, “you missed a tone change”, “your handwriting is like a 5-year-old”, “you should have used X instead of Y”. An important role of the Teacher is to encourage and keep the Learner motivated.

Tips

• Consider providing corrections in the following sequence:

  1. What you heard them saying. Provide an accurate imitation. Example: “I heard you said ping1 gwo6.”
  2. State the correct version. Example: “Apple is ping4 gwo2.”
  3. …and describe the difference. Example: “The first character is higher and have an inflection up, where the second character is lower.”
  4. Repeat 1, then 2: “I heard 1 6 instead of 4 2.”
  5. Invite Learner to try again.

• Accept substituting English, Spanish, or other language within the framework of the Learner expressing themselves in Cantonese. This greatly expands what the Learner can express, and this is common usage in modern Hong Kong anyway (e.g., “Email 咗我”, “我好 exhausted”).

• It can be helpful, occasionally, to record audio or video to provide feedback

• Be open that you do not know everything, even “easy” vocabulary or concept. Spoiler: the vocabulary that are the “easiest” are usually the most treacherously complicated. (Did you know that the simple little word run has 645 distinct meanings?) 點 has four major meanings, and then, consider usage of 睇 and 好 in these two sentences…

  1. 我睇好好睇嗰個
  2. 幫我睇好好睇嗰個

• Use the Forum, Discord, or Threads (if you have moderately thick skin) to ask questions. Others may have them too.

• Keep record

  • The checklists and inventories are a key proposition in the course. They are meant to be printed out and filled.
  • I strongly encourage Learner to write notes by hand, even if there is already digital lesson material.
    • It does not need to be pretty, but see the Supplies section if the Learner is also man4 geoi6 hung3
  • Use a designated A4 binder to keep it all together
  • It is very helpful to have audio/video records in a easy-to-reach place, to see how far the Learner have come along