Last month, I started watching videos on Youtube about how Italki works and the experiences other people have had learning and teaching languages there, and I decided to use it too.
Two weeks ago, I made an account on Italki, and I watched the introduction videos of some tutors, and I read the reviews their students left on their profiles. I did this until I found a tutor who would suit my needs. I ended up booking a lesson with a French woman who is currently living in Canada. I chose her because she seemed very nice and patient and as I just started learning French, someone patient is exactly what I need.
In my first lesson, I wanted to focus on pronunciation starting with the nasal vowels, I let the tutor know in advance that I wanted to practice my pronunciation so she prepared some exercises for the lesson. After the lesson, I immediately booked a second one with her, now I want to practice the pronunciation of "U" and "E" and I would like to read for her the stuff I have posted in French here on Journarly so she can correct my pronunciation.
I will probably book one lesson per week, so, I can practice with my tutor what I'm learning at Alliance française.
Now, I would like to know if someone here has used Italki, and what do you think about it? Do you think it's worth it? How do you choose a topic to practice with your tutor? and finally, do you think you are improving thanks to Italki?
That sounds great! I want to use italki but I'm not sure what topic I want help with. This was really helpful for me, thank you!
During most of my time using Spanish community tutors on italki, I was only looking for a chance to practice my Spanish with native speakers. I found one gentleman in Spain - a community tutor - on italki who I spoke with for years, and who eventually became a good friend. However when I was studying for the C1 exam I found a professional teacher on italki who helped me prepare, and I ended up passing the exam. I think it's good to go into italki knowing more or less what you want from it, whether it's just conversation with a native speaker or something more specific, like exam prep.
Being able to speak Spanish with native speakers via italki helped improve my Spanish a lot. Having friends who speak the language you're learning is wonderful but in my experience it can be tricky finding regular, weekly days/times that work for both and your friends to have conversations. That's where sometimes finding a community tutor on italki can be helpful, because you can schedule italki sessions well in advance and the tutor has a monetary incentive to not cancel them. Also, with italki tutors you aren't obliged or expected to spend at least half the session speaking your native language with them, which you would do with a language exchange partner.
@Lusy R. That's good to hear! I hope you give it a try.
@palabritas I am glad to know that it helped you to improve your speaking skills and to pass your exam. Now I feel more confident that it will be worth it for me too.
@Denisse: Have fun!
@palabritas thank you! great ideas, I'm going to give it a go
@LucyR, good luck, I hope you find a tutor you like :)
@Denisse I just noticed this YouTube video about iTalki and remembered reading your post. I did not watch the video but you can check it out if you think it would be useful to you (if you haven´t already seen it). The title of the video is -- Cómo encontrar buenos profesores en italki. Claves para reducir el tiempo de búsqueda. The YouTube channel is Aulo CocoLoco. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSaycU1-YAE
@A_C: I actually know Victor (the guy talking in the video)! He's a great teacher and we briefly had a language exchange :) Small world!
Hola @A_C! Thank you for sharing, I'll watch the video :)
@palabritas What are the odds? Lol.