Tips for Reducing Unwanted Noise During Lessons
Successful lessons depend on a variety of factors, and some of them have nothing to do with either you or your student.
In order to have the best experience possible, it’s necessary to create an environment that allows for easy communication. Naturally, this includes you and your student being able to clearly hear one another — after all, you don’t need sound barriers in addition to language ones!
So this time, we’ll share some tips on how to reduce and remove any unwanted noise in order to keep lessons free of distractions.
Reducing noise
Let’s start with the absolute basics. It will be easier to deal with unwanted sounds when there are fewer of them to begin with.
Hopefully you’ve already set aside a particular area of your home that is dedicated to work and has the least amount of distracting noise. Once you've found your spot, closing doors and shutting windows that let in sounds from the outside are some of the simplest things you can do to prepare for peaceful lessons.
After that, take a look at your schedule and see if you can avoid times that are especially noisy. If you are able to, consider not opening lesson slots when your upstairs neighbor does their regular exercise or when the kids down the street get out of school and walk past your home.
Like most of the tips we'll share in this article, this may not be possible for every tutor, but you may be able to avoid some problems entirely with some thoughtful choices and careful scheduling.
Absorbing noise
Now that we have the basics out of the way, we can move to phase two. The next step is to find ways to dampen or absorb unwanted sounds that weren't taken care of by the previous tips.
One way of doing this is through the careful placement of particular items in your workspace. Carpets are great for sound insulation because they absorb sound waves instead of allowing them to bounce around your room, creating more noise.
If your room has hard floors, consider getting a rug as a carpet replacement. You won’t need anything fancy, but the thicker, fuzzier and bigger the better. Wool rugs tend to work best for this. If you've already got a rug, try placing a rug pad underneath it to boost its sound-dampening strength.
Similarly, hanging soft fabrics or things like corkboards on your walls can soak up some of the sounds from that annoying dog across the street or someone's lawn mower. The same is true for the curtains or blinds on your windows. Closing them may not be ideal if you’d prefer to work with some natural light, but it's something to keep in mind if noise is really having a negative effect on your lessons.
Canceling noise
The next step involves plugins that you can use with Bellbird to lower and even eliminate pesky background noises and other troublesome sounds.
Software such as Krisp and Noise Blocker work by isolating unwanted sounds and using AI to remove them from your lesson audio. In addition to bigger sounds, they can also help with lower and less obvious noises you may not have thought of. This includes things like the humming of an air conditioner or a fan, the sound of you typing on your keyboard, or even buzzing coming from the microphone itself. You may be surprised at just how much clearer your audio can sound when those elements are removed.
Both Noise Blocker and Krisp are free to use for up to 60 minutes a day. Beyond that, you’ll need to pay either a monthly or one-time fee. So if you’d prefer to keep your wallet closed, it would be wise to save your minutes for when they are the most needed.
Wrap-up
It can be frustrating to have lessons that are great otherwise be disrupted because of something you have no control over. But while you can't magically silence your neighborhood or your neighbors while working, there are steps you can take to minimize their effect.
Try out some of the tips we've presented here to reduce sound-related issues, distractions and time wasted on anything that doesn’t relate to your lesson. Quieter and more focused lessons can lead to happier students, higher ratings and hopefully more bookings in the future.
