Online language exchanges are much like a real exchange where you exchange a lesson in Korean with a lesson in English. This is a great option because you can connect with like-minded people who may be interested in improving their Korean, even if you can’t find a person who wants to learn Korean-you can still find many people who are willing to practice their English. The best features of language exchanges are that you can practice English as long as you want and online exchanges usually cost very little or nothing at all. Online language exchanges also provide opportunities to learn the informal slang and expressions that native speakers use all the time. This is very important because you can get more insights into the nuances of English that you can’t pick up from most English grammar books!
Here are 3 online language exchanges you may want to consider to improve your speaking skills.
1. www.Mylanguageexchange.com claims to have over million members and is in 131 countries. The site includes lesson plans for chatting and games, and penpal option. The site also provides a text chat option but they recommend downloading skype once you put together some exchange partners. The monthly plan starts at $6.00 per month and allows you to contact anyone listed on the site.
2. www.interpals.net is a big site, with usually 12000 people from 150 countries at any one time. The site offers a chance to chat and connect with people around the world. This was easy to navigate and you can get set very quickly connecting to others to improve your English.
3. http://www.gospeaky.com is another great free language exchange site. The site includes a translation application and they are working on building a meeting scheduler, Multilanguage keyboard and timezone manager and an IOS app. It’s easy to get set up with Language buddies and practice your English.
Online language exchanges are some of the very best ways you can practice your speaking on your computer because of the amount of people you can connect with. With that said please consider the following when you go on the exchange;
You may not be able to find native speakers right away. The reason could be that your time zone does not match the time in the English speaking countries, or there could be more English learners or less English natives wanting to learn Korean. Don’t let that discourage you. If you can’t find English natives then just try your best chatting with other learners who are practicing their English. Ideally you want to practice with a native speaker but practicing with English learners are better than not practicing at all.
Once you find of list of English partners to practice I recommend you check out the following link: Here are some excellent tips for getting best out of your language exchange.
Good luck! and let us know how your language exchange goes.