I heard italki since I have started learning German (two years ago). I was looking for other resources to practice my speaking and I got to know about this website. I found the whole idea wonderful but still I didn't try it. Last year (thanks to the pandemic) I finally signed up and I selected some teachers to make a few trial lessons but I had financial issues. Back then I had to choose between giving it a try or saving money for my move to another city and the bureaucratic arrangements.
Now I'm in a different situation. My life in Germany is finally going to start in August and I don't have any more to worry about where I am going to live and how I can stay - legally- in Germany. So it's the perfect time to take lessons on italki. I decided to start focusing on developing my spoken fluency in English. My story learning this language is a little chaotic and, I would say, traumatic. I had a rough time at school, but during my university years I did pretty well on my own. My listening and reading skills are very well developed, but I will not be able to become a confident speaker without some kind of professional guidance.
I took a trial lesson with a fantastic and charming teacher from London. She understood my goals and proposed to me a learning path that we can put in action together. If I can give you a tip with this platform is to avoid the teachers that don't communicate wiht you before the trial lesson. It's a good signal when they ask you to fill the contact form of their profile or when they simply ask about your learning objectives.
Tomorrow is the first official lesson with her and I'm really looking forward to it. That's why I wrote this post to start a kind of journal and, of course, to practice my writing that also needs a lot of work!
Hi Amandis, this is actually a very well written piece and I understood very well what you are saying. There are just three main issues that you might want to look at ... 1) there is no spacing needed when you abbreviate things like "I'm" ... 2) there are a few errors with verb tenses ...3) it would be very useful for you to use a spell-checker before submitting your writing. Good luck with your italki lessons!
Thank you, @Peet. About point 1) It´s something with my keyboard and 3) I only used Google translate to checkt the spelling, but not all the mistakes are showed as you see. Do you know about another option to do it?
Hi Amandis! You could install Grammarly as a browser add-in. I use it a lot in order to not make spelling mistakes!
I have already thought about giving those kinds of apps a try, who knows some day :) great post!
I type my posts in Google Docs first and it helps me with accent marks and spelling in Spanish. Phew, otherwise what a mess. LOL
Thank you for the recommendations, @LindaLinguas and @Carilynette
Thank you, @nori. You are very kind