Language Exchange Websites - New Thread (Links & Internet Resources) Language Learning Forum

Language Exchange Websites - New Thread
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Language Learning Forum : Links & Internet Resources

45 messages over 6 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6

Deji
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5441 days ago
116 posts - 182 votes

Speaks: English*, French
Studies: Hindi, Bengali

Message 41 of 45

21 August 2010 at 5:24am | IP Logged

Belle700 wrote:

I am thinking of changing my language exchange sites that I belong to after using and
evaluating some for a while. Some I have had great success and others, not so much. I am curious to know what
everyone else thinks of italki.com?

I belong to SharedTalk - and I also think that the email system really needs to be changed on that site.
Otherwise, a great site (backed by Rosetta Stone) and it's for free. Very easy to use. Definitely for serious
language learners.

MyLanguageExchange is another I use, good site. You can also see when users last logged on so you are not
messaging people who don't use the site anymore.

Babbel is excellent - and they also have a great online language learning system. Seems to be a very active site.

I also use lingozone, that one is okay. I don't like the email messaging system they use, and if you are stuyding
multiple languages at the same time, you can only use the site for finding language exchange partners for one
language at a time. If you want to find language exchange partners for another language you are studying, you
have to change your profile. It's just a bit awkward to use. It's ok.

Some sites are great for some languages and not for others. I am studying Hindi, and it's difficult to find a site
where you can write in Devanagari and not Romanized Hindi. The only site I can do that on is
MyLanguageExchange.com and lingozone. Some sites seem to me to be more active than others: there are plenty
of language exchange partners for the language(s) you are studying and you get good success with responses.

I was thinking of maybe trying italki.com instead of lingozone. On lingozone, I get some responses, but I also
get these automated messages from people asking for money, and of course the email system bugs me. So, what
do you think of italki?

You can write in Devanagiri on LiveMocha. When I do sound recordings, I have to label my bengali recordings
"hindi " Then I start out the recording "Aap maaf kijiye, ye hamare recording Bangali men hai, hindi nahi hai. etc."
Then I send it to my Bengali friends. If I don't do that I get cranky feedback from hindi-speakers. "Madam, your
recording is not in hindi" etc.
1 person has voted this message useful

Belle700
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5697 days ago
128 posts - 143 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish, French

Message 42 of 45

21 August 2010 at 4:15pm | IP Logged

Hi Deji,

I have not been on the forum in a while, but since then I have been using LiveMocha.com with great success. It's very easy to write in Devanagari on that site and it is also an extremely active language site.

I have been using LiveMocha, Sharedtalk and Babbel, but Sharedtalk not so much. The reasons are that LiveMocha and Babbel have all those great language lessons and they are much more active (I find) than SharedTalk, but I still use the latter. I have not used iTalki since I signed up: once in a while I get an email but it does not seem very active to me. I just like the others so much more. Babbel's language lessons are fantastic, I just wish they offered more languages, but for Romance languages, it doesn't get any better.

I stopped using MyLanguageExchange and Lingozone. They did not seem very active to me and I did not like them very much. I like the setup of Babbel and LiveMocha much better. I'm not sure if I should give iTalki another try, although I have heard others say it's a good site. I think the top three are LiveMocha.com, Babbel.com and SharedTalk.com. I will have to check and see if there are any other good sites that I have not come across, but those three are really great.
1 person has voted this message useful

Deji
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5441 days ago
116 posts - 182 votes

Speaks: English*, French
Studies: Hindi, Bengali

Message 43 of 45

23 August 2010 at 2:07am | IP Logged

Hi Belle,

Thanks for the feedback about Babbel. You can try italki--I met one very interesting person there, but they also
have a high number of very deshi guys--if you know what that means. At least in Bengali, I think they go on the
site to collect pictures of WESTERN GIRLS. As a sixtyish married woman, I was very displeased to be asked TEN
times in a twenty-minute phone chat for my photo, when--hey--you want to see my photo? it's on my page!. No,
Im not sending another one. Their English is too poor to register that I am getting truly irritated. The people--male
and female-- on livemocha are a lot more with it.

Now this may be peculiar to Bangladeshis on italki. Maybe the hindibolnewalas aren't like this. But these days I keep
a wary eye out for too high of a poesy-hearts- and- flowers-true-friendship- quotient.

1 person has voted this message useful

peppelanguage
Triglot
Groupie
ItalyRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5865 days ago
90 posts - 94 votes

Speaks: Italian*, Spanish, English
Studies: French, Swedish

Message 44 of 45

27 December 2010 at 2:40am | IP Logged

Alkeides wrote:

Oh, I only messaged people living around my area so I think both parties implicitly know or assume that the exchange is to be in person.

Don't give it for granted...When you're more in confidence with any of them, ask them if they would like to meet in person too...but Never give that for granted...99% of the people on that kind of websites uses chat, calls and videocalls ... :)

(I'm one of them...probably also because I live in a zone with few foreigners who could help me, but for what I know...most of the people are like that)

P.S. Could anybody who used them, edit the websites without a description here:

http://learnanylanguage.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Communities

and/or add more...if they're not there??

That's the HTLAL wikia...the category about this kind of communities...Everybody may find useful to update those data, don't you think? :)

Edited by peppelanguage on 27 December 2010 at 2:49am
1 person has voted this message useful

Belle700
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5697 days ago
128 posts - 143 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish, French

Message 45 of 45

27 February 2011 at 3:34pm | IP Logged

Hi Deji,

I agree with you. I think that anyone who is looking for anything other than to learn a language on a language site is not a serious learner. Sharedtalk is actually very clear about that - they state that the site is strictly for language learning and anything else will be removed. So people know that right off the bat.

I have been thinking of going back to Babbel. A short while back I canceled my Babbel account because I had signed up for multiple language course which were billed to my account automatically. I think my "language eyes" got bigger than my tummy and I overloaded on language courses. So, I decided to take a break and pare down my language learning sites. Babbel has since improved their language learning platform and what's nice is that is calculates where you need help and constructs your learning for where you need the most help. I think that is terrific and I am seriously considering going back. SharedTalk is a great site, but I really dislike the email system. It's not good at all.

I think I might get rid of iTalki. I rarely visit the site and it does not seem very active to me. I like the set up of SharedTalk and Babbel better. The way the Babbel site runs is really very nice. I'll have to see if their are any new good language learning sites out there. I haven't searched reviews in a while so maybe I will do that.

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