Italki
Tips for the Most Efficient Use

The most important part of learning a language is speaking. The website italki helps you find language partners with whom you can walk the ups and downs of language learning together.

Language Partners

Through the website, you reach out to people who seem like a good match and then you can exchange your contact information (usually Skype or Whatsapp) so that you can continue the conversation, but this time speaking. You would then alternate between each others' target language (a technique that I find helpful is to split a 30-minute Skype talk into 15 minutes of the first target language and 15 minutes in the second). If your partner overspeaks, don't be afraid to remind them that you want to practice your target language too. Sometimes you or your partner won't realize how long they've been talking, so don't feel bad to slip in a reminder.

Professional Teachers

Italki also offers the ability to pay a tutor or professional teacher for a very reasonable price and you can decide when to meet according to the teacher's availability. This is a good option for you if you really want to focus your learning and have someone who is familiary with teaching the language rather than just someone who can speak it, but may not be able to explain the subtleties of the grammar.

Beyond Speaking

Probably the best part about speaking with otehr people is the ability to make friends around the world and gain a greater perspective of the world by learning how other people live. Another invaluable thing I have learned from these talks is to see my own country and culture from the eyes of an outsider. This really gives more context to your understanding of the world and allows you to take a step back from the nation you've known all your life.

This truly is a great website, since it makes it easy to find people with whom you can practice your target language.