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How easy/hard is it to practice on Skype? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Links & Internet Resources |  | |
| numerodix Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 6781 days ago 856 posts - 1226 votes  Speaks: EnglishC2*, Norwegian*, Polish*, Italian, Dutch, French Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin | Message 1 of 9 30 January 2013 at 11:26pm | IP Logged | ||
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So in the past two months (I know it's not very long) I have tried quite hard to find
people to practice with on skype. At one point I had someone to talk to almost every night in Italian, but then the holidays happened and after that half the people had disappeared. I've also failed to find a single French person despite contacting easily 20-30 on different sites. (But I've found some paid tutors and had some good conversations with them.) In general, most people on these sites just don't respond when you contact them for an exchange, *even if* that's exactly what they say they signed up for in their profile and *even if* they just registered today and they haven't forgotten all about it yet. Quite a few are probably indecisive and shy, I know I was for a long time. I would love to hear about your experiences. Have you guys discovered any tricks? How are you getting on? Do you find it easy to practice on skype or not? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| MixedUpCody Senior Member United States Joined 5254 days ago 144 posts - 280 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin | Message 2 of 9 31 January 2013 at 1:22am | IP Logged | ||
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I've had good luck with iTalki, and Chinese. Maybe different languages have different turnouts on language exchenge sites?
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| mezzofanti Octoglot Senior Member Australia mezzoguild.com Joined 4746 days ago 51 posts - 112 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written), Ancient Greek, Biblical Hebrew, Arabic (classical), Arabic (Egyptian), Irish, Arabic (Levantine) Studies: Korean, Georgian, French | Message 3 of 9 31 January 2013 at 2:22am | IP Logged | ||
French is arguably one of the easiest languages to find language exchange partners for. I don't understand how people who are learning mainstream, popular languages like this can't find people to practice with. It's not good to expect people to make sacrifices to practice with you if they're getting nothing out of it themselves either. This is why the best thing you can do is pay for a community tutor on italki (I pay a French woman approx. $5-8 for an hour of conversation practice twice a week). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| berabero89 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4640 days ago 101 posts - 137 votes Speaks: English, Amharic* Studies: Spanish, Japanese, French | Message 4 of 9 31 January 2013 at 2:23am | IP Logged | ||
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Sharedtalk is by far the best site I have found for language exchanges. Most people
respond to me in about 1 or 2 days. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5373 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 5 of 9 31 January 2013 at 3:01am | IP Logged | ||
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Go to sharedtalk and list your native language as English and go to the text chat room and someone will usually contact you asking to chat within seconds. That is my experience with Spanish and I cannot imagine French is that much different. Even if nobody responds immediately just ask someone to chat. Text chat with the person for a while and if they seem sincerely interested in learning exchange skype addresses or simply go to the audio chat room on sharedtalk.
2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| fireballtrouble Triglot Senior Member Turkey Joined 4522 days ago 129 posts - 203 votes Speaks: Turkish*, French, English Studies: German | Message 6 of 9 31 January 2013 at 10:42am | IP Logged | ||
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sharedtalk is strictly dominated by Asian users. So, English is by far the most demanded
language. For French, you can find North African users but the French from France are rare there. Also you can often come across with Russian and Spanish native speakers as these languages are widely spoken. IMHO, best "serious" resource to find speaking partners is here =) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5205 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 7 of 9 31 January 2013 at 11:24am | IP Logged | ||
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Finding reliable people to exchange French with is near-impossible; I've been trying for years. I'm coming to the same conclusion as you and Mezzofanti: if you want regular practice with French people, you have to pay for it. For Italian I've found that exchanges are far easier to find and I've had some luck with Italki and Conversation Exchange; people do tend to disappear after a few chats, but there's always a supply of new people. That said, I'm often guilty of the same thing myself: sometimes life gets in the way and for weeks at a time I either don't manage to sign into Skype at all or I only get on at quiet times like weekend afternoons.
2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Emiliana Diglot Groupie Germany Joined 5112 days ago 81 posts - 98 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Arabic (classical) | Message 8 of 9 31 January 2013 at 5:35pm | IP Logged | ||
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did you guys checked out Verbling? I didn't yet but it seems that it might be another good alternative.
1 person has voted this message useful |
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