Practice a language through Skype
As we all know learning vocabulary here is a fun thing. However when it comes to talking to someone in a foreign language things become a tidbit more complicated :0) Not even talking about speech capability, the 1st obstacle is...how do I find someone to talk to in the language I am learning?
Someone mentioned a web site in another post (I give her full credit for the info) and I think it's worth sharing the information in a new post.
The site is www.Conversationexchange.com. Is it reliable? I'll simply give you my personal experience with it: I signed up free, created a profile saying that I need help with Spanish and in return I could help with English and French. On the Search page I had 3 options to find people to meet face to face, penpal and communicators (including messengers & Skype). I selected Skype, put in the languages requested wrongfully, the 1st one should be the target language (for me Spanish). Then I clicked on the Search button. I got literally hundreds of profiles popping up. I contacted 4 with hope that at least 1 would respond. After a couple hours all 4 of them responded and I added them to my Skype. Since then I received 5 more requests and had to turn some away and disable my account already.
In short this web site is a treasure trove if you are looking for someone to chat with in the language you are learning. I spoke for 4 hours last night with one of my new friends and I already feel I have made a giant step in Spanish.
I hope you will take advantage of this fantastic tool.
My main problem would be that I'm living in Germany and my TL is Japanese - a language spoken some 9000 km away from me, leading to a time difference of 8 hours (will be 7 hours next week, due to daylight saving time).
I stay up through the night to Skype with my girl friend, who's living in Japan... but I wouldn't be able to do the same for anyone else.
I'm aware there do exist Japanese people in Europe... I may try to find some... but between work, night school and my language studies, there's not much time for practicing my oral production :/
Posted by ikenaiAndi 3/23/12 (1 year ago)To sfrenchie...glad you took my advice and checked out the site. I too am at the point of turning people down, such has been the level of response. There is huge demand for native English speakers on that site and I would encourage as many people as possible to join up. The only problem you will have is too many new friends and not enough time!! It's a fantastic way to practice new vocab and make contacts/friends all over the world.
Posted by joannecm 3/23/12 (1 year ago)italki.com is similar found alot of chinese people there.
Posted by patko 3/23/12 (1 year ago)Yeah, thanks Joann, it really is a very efficient site. I posted a request for stickies in forum to keep track of useful sites. Thread: Tell us what new features you want!
Posted by sfrenchie 3/24/12 (1 year ago)