Language social networks for communication in English. Chats in English

You and I know well that progress in mastering a new language comes when there is practice: you read, speak, listen, write in it.

Here are some convenient programs on your mobile phone through which you can communicate with foreigners every day by conversation, writing and voice messages, receiving feedback!

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Before you decide which app to use, I suggest you read the descriptions below and know their features.
Download one service that is most suitable for you to your phone, register and understand the basic functions.
To evaluate the effectiveness of the application, test it every day for a week.
In principle, the applications overlap in function and are similar in many ways. But we are all different, so everyone will choose what suits them.

By the way, my blog already has several reviews of applications and websites. Watch them to quickly get comfortable with your chosen program.

1 italki

My favorite service, which I never tire of recommending, because I myself use it without interruption and quite successfully. Although the main tool through which you can communicate with native speakers is Skype, on italki you will find the right teacher and interlocutor for this. Believe me, nothing could be easier than calling for half an hour and chatting. And your speaking skills will become stronger.

Here you can find a teacher for full lessons with homework and regular online meetings.
There is an option for conversational classes with a native speaker and a teacher to practice speaking and listening.
Convenient schedule and reminders about lessons by email and through an application on your phone.
There is an option for your own diary with comments, the ability to ask questions and get corrections from native speakers of the language you are learning, as well as help other people with this.

2 HelloTalk

You can use the application even without knowledge of languages, just to communicate with different people around the world. The service offers special transliteration and translation functions for this purpose.

You can record voice messages in Russian, and the application system will translate the phrase into the native language of the interlocutor. The same in reverse order.
There is a text chat with the possibility of mutual correction.
The function of checking and translating a message before sending it to the interlocutor.
You can automatically translate all messages sent by a native speaker into Russian.
Individual phrases from the chat can be saved and replayed.
For additional practice, open discussion threads to chat with native speakers in the comments.

3 Tandem

Available on GooglePlay and AppStore.

An application that I discovered quite recently. I'm planning a review in the future. Using the service, you can learn a language through language exchange: you learn a foreign language, and in return you help someone who is learning your native language.

Available on GooglePlay and AppStore.

Through the application, you can communicate through text and audio chats, as well as calls.

There are built-in translators and phrasebooks of phrases by topic, which makes communication easier.
You can select ready-made phrases for chatting and replace individual words in them.
There is voiceover of phrases: you can listen to them again and repeat them correctly.
Phrase games make it easier to remember new expressions.

5 Speaky

Available on GooglePlay and AppStore.

Another opportunity to make multilingual friends around the world. The service offers more than 100(!) languages, and there is room to expand. I'm just starting to test. First impression: a simple interface and few functions (which I personally like, it’s immediately clear what and how).

Search for ideal interlocutors and like-minded people with similar interests.
Communication options via text chat, audio or video calls (to choose from).
It is advisable to immediately check the settings, otherwise after registration you will instantly begin to receive an endless stream of messages from a variety of people.

6 HiNative

Available on GooglePlay and AppStore.

It is always interesting to find out how and how people of other nationalities live, what traditions they observe, how their way of life differs. Through this application you can ask almost any question you are interested in and quickly receive an answer directly from foreigners.

The application has built-in templates for formulating questions.
You can use the function to upload your audio recording so that native speakers can check the correctness of your pronunciation and send corrections.
Among the questions: in what situations to use this or that word, how to put punctuation marks correctly, urgent translation of phrases.

What service do I use?

When I have questions about language learning or translation, I open the HiNative app. As for the other services... In my opinion, HelloTalk, Hello Pal and Tandem are similar in function and purpose. At the moment I don’t use them, because I don’t like activities without a goal and “extended over time.”

It is more convenient for me to assign a specific time and duration of the lesson to italki. You take a lesson on the chosen topic and get a clear result, and don’t just correspond “about nothing”. And here you can not only take regular lessons, but also simply practice conversation with a native speaker. By the way, there is an option to do this even without prior agreement.

If you have a goal for which you need to master English, but there is no system for studying and practicing it, follow my step-by-step 30-day program. Every day you will do exercises to train every aspect of the language (from speaking to reading) and learn to apply English in life.

What applications for language practice with foreigners have you already tested? What did you like and what didn’t?

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Where an adult can find a friend to correspond with or communicate on Skype in English. But such sites, unfortunately, are not moderated, which means that they cannot be used by children and teenagers. Therefore, today I will share with you my experience of using a special resource for international communication of children and adolescents ePals.

This is a site where teachers register who want to find pen pals for their students and carry out various projects. Moreover, not only in foreign languages, but also in any other school subjects. Therefore, if your students already speak English quite well, then you can take part in someone’s project on ecology or, for example, social studies. And this, again, is a great opportunity to add an element to the lessons.

In your profile, you indicate the age and number of students, as well as in what format and on what topics you would like to communicate. You can exchange e-mails, conduct video conferences, send postcards or letters, and many more options. Using the specified parameters, you can search for colleagues and invite them to become class friends.

You register all students in your profile. When you send emails, you first read and approve them. Upon receipt - the same thing. That is, here you definitely don’t have to be afraid that your child will receive some kind of non-childish content, unlike other similar sites where there are no age restrictions.

My experience using ePals

In general, when I found this site, my joy knew no bounds. It's so great to find pen pals in English for your students. This is such a motivation to learn a language. But in reality everything turned out to be not so amazing. No, the site itself is great, you just need to use it wisely. Therefore, I am sharing my experience so that you can avoid some mistakes.

Initially, for some reason I decided that the opportunity to correspond with peers from other countries should inspire all students as much as it did me. And I found pen-pals for two groups of children aged 9-10 years old from America, and for two more groups of teenagers aged 13-14 years old - from Greece.

No, on the whole I was right. The idea of finding a pen pal in English is inspiring for students. Moreover, much more than the need for regular letter writing. Some wrote letters on time and with pleasure, others had to be reminded three times that their response was expected. There was a child who completely refused to write further and had to be replaced with another.

During the process, it became clear that writing letters based on the models in the textbook assignments and writing real letters is a big difference. If everyone managed to write at least something based on the sample, then the real letters put some in a real stupor. There are simply no thoughts and that’s all. “Write what?” and “What to ask?” I was asked almost more often than how to write something in English. I had to use the example of several letters to explain what information to pay attention to in a letter and how to maintain a conversation. Then we started writing letters every month on a given topic and it became a little easier.

Overall, the site itself is excellent, well designed and safe for children. I will definitely use it again, but now only with motivated students who are interested themselves. Perhaps, in order to check whether the desire to write letters will not disappear during the process, I will first give those who wish from different groups the task of corresponding with each other for some time. Well, of course, I will definitely use it to participate in some international projects, where the task must be completed by the whole group. This is interesting, motivates children and is much less expensive in terms of investing time and effort in helping to write and check letters of several dozen students.

You may have heard about a great language exchange site called SharedTalk. Unfortunately, it closed, but its creator revived the project in the form of a new resource - Hellolingo. Here you can quickly find partners to discuss topics that interest you or provide advice on grammar and vocabulary.

2. Lang-8

This resource is great for improving your written language. The idea is this: you publish various texts in English, they are checked by native speakers and your mistakes are pointed out. In return, you help users who are learning your native language in the same way.

3. English, Baby

A social network for communicating with foreigners, plus daily lessons on everyday topics. To become a member of the community, you need to transfer $5 monthly to the project account. But there is a 7-day free pass for newbies.

4. italki

On the site you can meet both professional teachers and native speakers offering informal tutoring. Each user can be both a student and a teacher. Training is paid.

5.Interpals.net

A resource for finding friends, pen pals, and even travel companions for traveling around the world. You can select friends in specific countries, communicate on forums, chat or via private messages.

6. How do you do?

A platform for free communication with native English speakers. The latter are mainly residents of the UK and the USA. Text and video chats are available to users.

7. Conversation Exchange

On the site you can find a partner for face-to-face or remote communication through personal messages or chats.

8. Talk and Learn

In addition to social functions such as forums and video chat, this resource offers many useful materials and English lessons.

9. Easy Language Exchange

More than one hundred thousand people from 56 countries use Easy Language Exchange to find people to talk to in different languages. You can communicate with the community in a public forum or only with selected people via private messages. In addition, this resource contains many courses for self-studying the language.

All of these resources have a similar format and set of tools. You can visit and try out several of them to find the most convenient site and the most welcoming community for yourself. But the most important thing is that they allow you to find the right person, and the communication itself can be transferred to Skype, Facebook or another familiar service.

2. Lang-8

3. English, Baby

4. italki

On the site you can meet both professional teachers and native speakers offering informal tutoring. Each user can be both a student and a teacher. Training is paid.

5.Interpals.net

A resource for finding friends, pen pals, and even travel companions for traveling around the world. You can select friends in specific countries, communicate on forums, chat or via private messages.

6. How do you do?

A platform for free communication with native English speakers. The latter are mainly residents of the UK and the USA. Text and video chats are available to users.

7. Conversation Exchange

On the site you can find a partner for face-to-face or remote communication through personal messages or chats.

8. Talk and Learn

In addition to social functions such as forums and video chat, this resource offers many useful materials and English lessons.

9. Easy Language Exchange

Search for people to talk to on italki

One of the most important opportunities that the Internet provides for learning foreign languages is the opportunity to communicate with foreigners. Conversation practice is especially important. To learn to speak a foreign language, it is not enough just to know the words; you need to practice communicating. In this review, I will talk about sites and applications where you can find partners for practicing a foreign language (not just English).

Note: this is a general review of sites for language practice. I have already written about all the sites mentioned before, so I am adding links to more detailed reviews to the brief reviews.

1.

User profile on italki

If your level allows you to communicate at least a little in English, be sure to try to take at least one such lesson - the effect of speaking classes is very noticeable.

2. HelloLingo

The fastest and easiest way to find someone to talk to is on Hellolingo

In 2015, much to the disappointment of users, the popular language site sharedtalk.com, where one could easily find someone to chat with in a foreign language, closed down. Fortunately, the project has recently been reborn, becoming even better, now it is called HelloLingo.

This site is convenient for quick communication: you came in for a while, chatted with a random interlocutor, and left. Here you can find foreigners for longer communication. You can communicate in text and voice chat, but if you want to switch to voice communication, you first need to write in text mode - you can’t call right away.

The site has an interesting feature - you cannot put a profile photo here. The developers did this to avoid turning a language practice site into a dating site. The problem with many language communities is that there are a lot of people who want to flirt with beautiful foreign women. This is not welcome on Hellolingo!

3. Speaky

Speaky has a more “social” design than HelloLingo

Language social network Speaky(formerly Gospeaky) is good if you find HelloLingo's design and social features too simplistic. Here you can put a photo on your profile, and there is a convenient filtering function for native and non-native speakers. In addition, Speaky has a mobile version (application), which, however, does not have particularly rich functionality.

When this site first appeared, in 2015, it was possible to communicate via text and voice chat, but now voice chat has been removed - apparently due to the fact that many still preferred to exchange contacts and talk on the more convenient Skype.

An interesting feature of text chat is the ability to correct messages. Ask your interlocutor to correct mistakes, and he will be able to edit your remarks in the chat: the correct version will be highlighted in green, and the incorrect one will be highlighted in red.

4. Interpals

Interpals has very detailed settings for people search and blacklisting

On Interpals They often complain because of the abundance of all kinds of spammers, fakes and “harassers”. Here, unlike HelloTalk, they are not trying to get rid of those who like to flirt; you can even search for users with the “Flirting” filter - hence the abundance of the corresponding audience. But still, this old language site, operating since 1998, is home to quite a lot of conscientious language lovers.

If you are plagued by annoying users, you have incredibly advanced blacklist settings at your disposal, where you can block people of a certain gender, age and place of residence.

5. Tandem

The review is called “6 sites for communicating with foreigners”, but Tandem– this is not a website, but an application for practicing languages, that is, there is no version for PC. Unlike HelloLingo, which tries to look as NOT as a social network, the Tandem app, on the contrary, looks like a dating site with photos, profiles, interests, etc. However, in this community, communication not for the purpose of language practice is not encouraged.

Tandem is positioned as an application for finding 1) tutors, 2) partners for communicating in foreign languages. It’s really convenient to find people to talk to, thanks to the fact that users post a lot of information about themselves (interests, level, goals, etc.) and even leave reviews about each other. As for tutors, I see no reason to look for them on Tandem - the choice is still small, the prices, on the contrary, are rather high, and learning languages via video conference on a phone is less convenient than on a PC.

6.HelloTalk

HelloTalk– this is also an application, not a website, it has a web version, but with very limited capabilities. If you want to communicate with foreigners only using , then HelloTalk is a great option.

But as an application, HelloTalk is much better than Speaky: it has everything you could need: text correction (as in Speaky), sending photos, voice messages, convenient search for users.

You can learn more about HelloTalk in or from this video.

Conclusion

If you are serious about speaking practice, I recommend working with tutors and taking “conversation” lessons from them. In my experience, this is the most effective way. Yes, you will spend money (very small compared to the courses), but you will not spend a lot of time searching for interlocutors in free language social networks, in which there are either scammers, spammers, fakes, or preoccupied ones.