Answers
Aug 15, 2017 - 02:47 PM
I have been seeking the same thing. I did find a site mylanguageexchange.com. I don't have any first hand experience to say if it is good or bad or works or does not work. I just registered on it a coupe of days ago. I have not attempted to initiate an exchange yet. But it looks like it would be what we are both looking for. I'm still just a bit nervous about doing it (which shows why I need it!). I would be interested to hear if anyone else has had an experience with them.
Aug 16, 2017 - 06:36 PM
Ive done that on italki, uploaded my text and it was corrected within minutes for free !
Aug 18, 2017 - 10:38 AM
Fabrice - thanks for the tip. I just took a quick look at italki and it looks much more modern and robust than mylanguageexchange. I will take a deeper look at it. I spend most of the fall and winter in Mexico and we are headed back in a couple of weeks. But everyone in our condo complex is from the US or Canada, so not much Spanish is spoken. My only exposure is talking to shop keepers and waiters, so the conversation and topics are limited. There is a coffee shop in our town that sponsors a Friday evening "Conversation Hour" where Spanish speakers come to learn English and English Speakers come to learn Spanish. I think they talk 1/2 hour in Spanish and a 1/2 in English. I had been afraid to try it for the last couple of years but have been too afraid it would be over my head. But now I am almost done with the Fluenz course (2/3 of the way through Level 5). So this trip I have promised myself that I am going to give it a try (I just need to push through the anxiety).
Aug 18, 2017 - 03:39 PM
Thank you both for the sites.
Aug 18, 2017 - 05:20 PM
@ScubaCPA, I just did the same thing on that site.
Aug 20, 2017 - 09:27 AM
ojos - I found something better than the two we have discussed. Tandem. It is an iPhone or Android phone app. I installed it yesterday and had instant access to 1,000's of people (almost too much and I had to use a filter to narrow it down to just a few hundred) who are native Spanish speakers that want to interact with native English speakers (there are hundreds of languages to choose from - but I picked Spanish only). Within minutes I was text chatting with people from Mexico. I only did the text chat to start out, but you can also do voice or even video directly from the app. They also have paid tutors available.
Aug 21, 2017 - 02:10 PM
@Scuba. I'll be checking this out for sure. Thanks!!
Aug 21, 2017 - 03:16 PM
@Scuba and @Fabrice. Just signed up with Tandem, they said I'd be getting a notification so I'm waiting. In the meantime, I think one or both of
you mentioned using mylanguageexchange and/or italki with skype. I am registered with skype along with mylanguageexchange and italki. I don't know what I'm missing but I can not find anything on how to use these apps together. When I go to either site, I can't find any means how to open the program in skype or how to open skype inside either program. What am I doing wrong? From the above responses, it looks like I should be able to use either program in conjunction with skype. Is there not a way to integrate either program with skyre? Is it a matter of having 2 screens; one for skype and one for italki, for example? Thanks.
you mentioned using mylanguageexchange and/or italki with skype. I am registered with skype along with mylanguageexchange and italki. I don't know what I'm missing but I can not find anything on how to use these apps together. When I go to either site, I can't find any means how to open the program in skype or how to open skype inside either program. What am I doing wrong? From the above responses, it looks like I should be able to use either program in conjunction with skype. Is there not a way to integrate either program with skyre? Is it a matter of having 2 screens; one for skype and one for italki, for example? Thanks.
Aug 22, 2017 - 06:01 PM
Sorry ojos - Never got that far. After finding Tandem I never even looked at italki and I cancelled my registration for mylanguageexchange which I had not really started to use either. Tandem has fully integrated text/voice/video as part of the app. But from what I know about Skype (which I have used for business discussions) it's totally separate. I think you would have to "hook up" on mylanguageexchange, exchange Skype names and then contact each other via Skype just as you would a friend or family member.
Aug 23, 2017 - 12:40 PM
As I suspected. Thanks Scuba.
Aug 26, 2017 - 08:48 AM
Last night I had a great experience. I did a live face to face language exchange. The town in Mexico that we live in has a coffee shop downtown that sponsors a "conversation hour" every Friday evening at 6:00. Last night I attended for the first time (I have been wanting to do it for a while and just kept putting it off - mostly in fear of embarrassment - this thread finally pushed me to do it - Thanks ojos). I had a great conversation with a young Mexican woman (a biologist) who is learning English (her English was much better than my Spanish!). We spent half the time speaking Spanish and half the time speaking English. I think I am going to make that a regular Friday evening routine.
Sep 06, 2017 - 10:48 PM
I signed up with Tandem. So far I have found the people on Tandem to be rude and not very nice. Most of the people I have approached on the app have completely ignored me. I cannot recommend Tandem.
Sep 07, 2017 - 09:47 AM
Decided not to go with Tandem but when I was checking it out I got a similar vibe. I decided to go with italki.
Sep 14, 2017 - 08:51 AM
Based on these discussions I tried iTalki to compare it to Tandem. The content and numbers of tutors available in iTalki are a lot better. But their iPhone App is very buggy. Tandem's app is better, more stable and a lot more features. But iTalki has a web version which Tandem does not. Using the iTalki web interface went very well. Based on this I am going to switch over to iTalki but using the web version.
Sep 20, 2017 - 09:37 AM
iTalki is great for that.
