❈ Questions You Should Never Be Afraid to Ask Your Tutor ❈

First thing is first; asking questions is just natural and essential for any lesson!  Of course, if you don’t have any questions in mind, it’s totally okay. But if you do, as I see it, you should always have the space and opportunity to do so. 

As a tutor, of course, we can assist our students in many ways to help them feel confident to ask questions. First, especially if a student is a beginner, it would be good to introduce and practice basic questions that can be essential for any lesson. Students should also know how they can make a question more direct and casual, or more indirect and polite.

A few questions that I think are essential:

◆  If you don’t know the meaning of a word:

What’s the meaning of (…) ?

What does (…) mean?

Or simply…

What is (…)?

You can add “excuse me” or “sorry” at the beginning if you want to make it more polite. Example:

Excuse me, what is “yawn”? 

Sorry, what’s the meaning of “yawn”? 

 ◆ If you couldn’t understand what the tutor just said…

  —Similar to「すみません、もう一回お願いします」in Japanese

“Can you repeat that, please?” Or “Please, can you repeat that?”

“Could you repeat that, please?” ( “could” is a little more polite than “can”)

And once again, you may also add “Excuse me” or “sorry” at the beginning:

"Excuse me, could you repeat that?"

Instead of “repeat that” you can say “say that again”:

"Could you say that again, please?"

Or you may also say:

"Excuse me, I didn’t understand. Can you repeat that?"

"Sorry, I didn’t understand. Could you say that again, please?"

◆ You might have a small urgent situation to attend to.

 —Similar to「ちょっと待ってください」in Japanese

"Excuse me, can you give me a second, please?"

"I’m sorry, can you give me a second?"

"Can you a wait a bit, please?"

Of course, you can also say it as a statement instead of a question:

“(Excuse me), please give me a second.”

“Sorry, please give me a minute.”

The tutor will probably say: “Yes, of course” or “Sure. Go ahead!”

☝ “Please give me a second (or a minute)” is a natural and common way to say “please wait” in English.

And the last one…

◆ You want to know the translation of a word from your mother tongue.

"How do you say (…) in English?"

"What is (…) in English?"

If it’s an English class, you can also just say:

"How do you say (…)?" (“in English” is inferred)

Examples:

"How do you say 'スイカ'(suika) in English?" (“suika” is from Japanese)

"How do you say 'sandía'?" (“sandía” is from Spanish)

The teacher will probably answer:

"'Sandía' is watermelon in English." 

Or perhaps:

"スイカ(suika)？...It’s 'watermelon'.”

Those were some of the questions I think students should never be afraid to ask, but there are many, many more!...

By the way, you can always make a question more polite by including “please”, “could”, “excuse me”, etc.

I hope these tips were useful.

Good luck with you English learning journey! ✨