Many years ago, people did not have this opportunity to use technologies... The only way they were able to practice their conversational skills, was to live and/or work/study there. That is how they used to have the perfect exposure to the language 24/7 (by going shopping, at work, by getting to know other people in order to socialize, .... ). Once everything was over, they would forget their target language because they would use only the native language and they would stop using the target one.
Thank Goodness, we have internet in nowadays. This thing definitely changed our life for better. How's that even possible?
1. Even though it is better if you can travel and practice your language skills...now it is not A MUST. In order to practice your language skills you can use some apps such as:
1. italki, tandem, hellotalk, speaky, etc
2. you can find a lot of interesting and useful materials that could help you with any language aspect: listening, reading, writing, conversation
3. you can practice your language skills by watching interesting and/or useful videos, listening to some podcasts, etc
and so on.
On italki, being active is essential. It means you'll need to:
a) to do an exercise (to type about whatever you want and/or record your voice)
b) to ask a question (for example...it can be about a specific idiom you heard, the meaning of some word, about grammar, etc)
c) to put a post (it's like a replacement for articles...where you can share about your culture or your special method for language learning)
d) this is optional --- you can book lesson(s) with your italki teacher and then a teacher can help you reach your goals. In order to do it, here you are a link:
https://www.italki.com/en/teachers/english
BOOK now and get some extra italki credits.
That's how you are going to attract people's attention and they'll be more than willing to help you with your language skills.
The applıcatıons for language exchange wıll have sense if your level is about A2 or more because you'll be able to speak to this person at least about some basic things such as (your personal data, your hobbies, your daily routine, ... ).
On ITALKi you can do so many things:
a. take an online lesson with your teacher (choose the teacher wisely. If you are a polyglot like me and you mostly learn by yourself, then go ahead and work with a community tutor with a good command of English. This person is going to be able to make the most of your lessons and to personalize it towards your needs and goals much easier.
On the other hand, if you prefer the structured lesson (because you are shy, because you don't know how to learn a language by yourself etc) then, it's better to hire a professional teacher to help you.
I know they are a bit expensive, but if you take in consideration that: they know how to teach (because they have experience) + they are certified for teaching (because they finished the faculty of philology and/or they have TEFL/ELE, ... certificate), etc So, it only shows their credibility so you could be 1000000% sure they'll be able to help you reach your language goals.
b. You can use ITALKI community in order to attract people's attention. You need to go to "community" option, and you'll need to
1. ask a language/cultural question (when you do it, do your best to be as specific as you can - tell what is it about, how did you come up with that, when did you hear it and from whom etc
The more information you provide us, the better we are going to be able to help you
2. do an exercise (you can write and or talk (by recording your voice - 1 min) about your own personal diary in your target language, about your travel diary etc whatever comes to your mind, just use the target language
3. create a post - You can write small articles about any topic you want - travel, language learning, language teaching, etc
4. Correct exercises of other users and/or answer the questions they made regarding your mother tongue
Only if people see you active there, other users will come to you and trust me, they'll be glad to give you a hand with your target language when they see how much effort you put in learning it but also in helping others. They will contact you in a private message and then you'll be able to exchange a chat tool (Skype, zoom, ... and that's how you'll be able to have a meaningful and regular language practice FOR FREE)
On tandem there is a beautiful thing called "language party" and usually they find a topic to talk about and then people discuss about it. If you think you're not good enough to talk, no worries....just listen...the bigger exposure you get, the more you'll learn. Plus, on tandem, you can record the parties/use whiteboard/, ... and share it with other participants so that all of you can listen later. Of course, you can always find the person you want to speak with by using some features such as:
a. country
b. level of prophiency
c. sex (man or woman)
d. age
etc
That is how you can have audio or video private call.
If you are going to ask me: Can I use this app for dating? My answer is NO. This app is ONLY for language learning and language practice + making new friendships.
If you can't help but only want to date....well, change your app. You can use other app which is made for it such as: badoo, tinder, etc
Hellotalk is a similar app to tandem. You can also attend some language parties called "Voice parties" but you can attend only to one party at one moment. If you want to change party room, you have to switch the app completely, to open it again and then to change other app.
However, there are other differences as well, such as:
a. a free user can learn only one language but a VIP user can learn 3 languages.
b. you can create your own posts and practice your writing and/or pronunciation - for free
etc
In order to read more about the language exchange apps, feel free to visit this app: https://learnlanguagesfromhome.com/language-exchange-apps-websites/
My advice is to start to talk at least to greet someone and to say some things with as simple vocabulary as possible. When you don't know some advanced word, such as "gorgeous" you can use simple words to describe it such as: very beautiful and attractive woman.
Also, whenever you decide to talk to somebody - if you are a beginner:
a. ask your language partner to work on pronunciation together
b. ask your language partner to help you learn some essential vocabulary and phrases
c. ask your language partner to work with some specific book together. If you study English, I strongly recommend ENGLISH UNLIMITED book
d. ask your language partner to repeat everything slowly and to write it down for you so you can learn it better
e. ask your language partner to use the new word in some phrases, so you can understand when and how to learn it.
f. If your level is intermediate/advance, feel free to ask your language partner not to correct every single mistake you made ONLY if you are able to proof this person you know all of this (by explaining the grammar rules, the meaning of the word, etc to the speaker.) but only if your mistakes are big ones and serious ones.
f. If your level is intermediate/advanced, feel free to ask your language partner to watch some AD / cartoon/, ... to read a story together and then to discuss it together.
g. DO NOT put "swearing" as your priority. I know, swearing is also an important part of a language...and I do know you'd like to know if anyone thinks badly about you and/or about your country. However, there are so many more beautiful and useful words and phrases to learn (i.e. school, travel, law, IT, ... )
You can learn swearing ONLY when you feel confident enough to speak in that language without any problem.
e. If someone asks you what does X mean in your language, DO NOT trick this person and DO NOT give a swearing word or something inappropriate as an answer. This is so mean and not so nice, for sure.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.
Have a nice day.
Нема коментара:
Постави коментар