Hi Tomas
I fully get your frustration. However, it is the same for everyone in the initial stages of learning a new language. You get a few words and phrases under your belt and eager to try them out only to find that in the second breath you hit a brick wall. I still cringe when I think about my first attempts at speaking Portuguese only to end up at a complete loss unable to carry the conversation forward. The trick of course is to keep trying. It does get better.
As with regards to iTalki and online tutors in general, I personally find they are very much a mixed bag. At the end of the day, it comes down to making a connection with someone – no matter how qualified they are (or say they are!!). Finding the right one is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. In my limited experience of trying to use them, I find most just want to teach the way they want and get very uncomfortable if asked to do something ‘out of the box’. That is not say there aren’t brilliant ones out there but as I said, it is difficult to hit on the teacher that is right for you.
I think you are right in that you need to specify at the start exactly what you want to do and what you need in order to move forward. I would suggest as an idea that each week you specify what topic you want to speak about in the next lesson. During the week you prepare a little spiel. Practice saying it out loud and if possible from memory. In the lesson, let the teacher listen to it and ask them to correct your pronunciation and rephrase anything for you that wasn’t quite right. Ask them if there is a better way to say something. Get them to ask you questions around the piece you prepared. Even if they ask for information that you already gave, it doesn’t matter, as you are using vocab and expressions in slightly different ways. All that said, don’t worry too much about learning something new. What you want to be able to gain from the session, is being able to use Portuguese and move to a stage where you begin to respond automatically without having to think hard before you open your mouth. There are no short cuts – it will take time.
Something I found helpful and still do now, is to read as much Portuguese as possible. But lower your expectations. You mentioned the Shorties. Yes of course they are little contrived especially at A1 level but they have some great phrases in them. Note down any phrases that strike you as particularly useful, and say them to yourself (or preferably aloud) over and over again until the phrase trips off your tongue. You need to do this at least 20-30 times. Yes I am serious! Also try to imagine different situations where you might say the phrase and change the intonation accordingly i.e. say it happily, angrily, sadly etc… All this will help to cement vocab as well as grammatical constructions and you will find over time you will start to use automatically.
Anyway I hope there is something useful to you in my little ‘spiel’! I wish you the best for happy studying.
Michael