As an online tutor I am successful with western students but I often fail with Chinese students

As an online tutor I am usually quite successful with western students but I often fail with Chinese and Asian students in general, most of them stop after the first lesson. What could the problem be?

Over the years I have lectured at Japanese universities and tutored Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese students online and I clearly understand when western tutors experience difficulties when they start tutoring Asian students; your frustration when several students in a row turn you down after the first lesson is understandable. From my experience the problem is often with the very different style European and more generally western teachers often have compared to local, for example Chinese, teachers and tutors. Over the years I have learned that Chinese and Japanese students in general have a rather passive way of learning, they are expected to absorb information and learn from the teacher without being much challenged or put to the test. They will in fact be tested at the right time (for them) which is the exam time. This is only part of the problem.

Many or rather most of my western students like to actively participate in the lesson, they like to be challenged, if they do not know an answer they are happy to give it a try or quickly admit they do not know the answer so that I can help them. With Chinese and Japanese students it is different; not knowing how to answer is quickly perceived as not being up to the situation or rather as being a failure as a student and that could be humiliating to them. There are some exceptions to it, those are usually students who have been previously exposed to western culture and to the western learning system; those students typically have a better command of the English language and are more likely to enjoy the western tutoring style. Another difference concerns the use of teaching material; Asian student usually put more emphasis on the use of a textbook during the lesson and a lesson when the tutor simply goes through the textbook may work just fine. With Western students some tutors, included myself, often give more creative lessons, by just using a virtual board without the need to follow the textbook and those lessons are usually well received.

Note that my experience is based on tutoring technical subjects, if you are tutoring foreign languages the situation may be somewhat different.

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Online tutoring challenges, problems with online tutoring, how to tutor Chinese students, Differences between Western and Asian students' learning system