Resources for learning foreign languages ​​regularly appear on the Internet: reading texts, audio and video with tasks for training listening comprehension. And most importantly, there are services that help you find interlocutors for speaking practice among native speakers of a foreign language!

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1 italki

I really love this resource, because it is suitable for different purposes: language exchange, full lessons with a teacher, conversation practice with any native speaker, or just communication with like-minded people from all over the world.

When your plans include not only communication, but also balanced training of all language aspects, you should try the paid option of the site - classes with a professional teacher. You can schedule a lesson in advance or take it as soon as you log into the site. Through searching, you will find people who can contact you without prior arrangement.

2

An online platform for those who not only want to communicate with native speakers, but also undergo consistent speaking practice on relevant topics, from simple to complex and with error correction.

SkyEng is regular lessons with professional teachers and native English speakers rolled into one.

3 EnglishDom

Online English school for students from beginner to advanced levels. The company has its own teaching methodology, which includes classes on a special interactive platform. The teacher and student have access to an office where materials and assignments are displayed online.

Additional options for hands-on learning include: a conversation club, self-study courses, and a database of reference materials.

4 LinguaTrip

Linguatrip is a company that helps you select foreign language courses abroad and organize the entire travel process. But that is not all. The resource also offers educational services: intensive courses are regularly held with native speakers in spoken English and.

5 Speaky

Cool site that I discovered recently. I'll review it soon after testing it.

Registration is simple and fast. Once you're in your profile, you can start communicating with other members. A list of potential online interlocutors appears on the right side of the screen, and it’s easy to write a chat message to each of them. If you add each other as friends, you can call each other by connecting video.

6 Verbling

A site for those who are mostly interested in lessons with native-speaking teachers, and not just in practicing communication on various topics.

The choice of teacher is based on different parameters. For example, a native French speaker who teaches Spanish. Or an Englishman who will teach you his native language. 🙂 In general, there are many options.

Join one-on-one sessions morning, afternoon or evening. To get more speaking practice, meet new people and still save on lesson costs, join group classes or invite your friends to learn the language together!

7 HelloTalk

The site provides communication through text chats and voice messages in more than 100 languages. There is a convenient mobile application.

The program even helps with pronunciation training: there is an option to listen to every message that is sent to you. The resource also helps to create your own database of language learning materials: sentences, pictures, words, audio.

With the help of special tools in the program, native speakers can easily correct you if necessary. You too can become such a helper for someone.

8 Pen4Pals

More than 15,000 people around the world who are ready to practice learning foreign languages ​​through language exchange are waiting for you on this resource. The site has a simple search option based on various parameters: gender, native language, language of study.

9 Couchsurfing

Community of travelers from different countries. Join meetings around the world, stay with new friends in another country, host them as guests. Or just chat with a native speaker over a cup of coffee.

10 Polyglot Club

Do you learn languages ​​not out of necessity, but because you absolutely love it? Take a look at this resource.

The site regularly organizes meetings for everyone who wants to practice communicating in different languages. Choose the language of study and the city where you live. You will find out what meetings are taking place near you and can organize your own. On the site, native speakers answer questions about learning the language and offer language exchanges.

11 Interpals

This site is mainly intended for communicating with foreigners by correspondence. Of course, when you find like-minded people, you will already personally agree to communicate on Skype.

If you are not yet ready for speaking practice, this site will give you the opportunity to start communicating with native speakers in writing. This will help you learn to formulate phrases in another language, gain confidence before a real conversation, and find new acquaintances with whom you can realistically continue communicating further.

12 Meetup

When you know a language at an advanced level or even live abroad, you look for ways to improve your foreign language level. One option is to attend meetings and lectures on a variety of topics in the location where you are currently located.

13 Internations

Additional site in the section for advanced users of foreign languages. Through this resource you can connect with people around the world and attend various events and meetings. It’s especially great for immigrants - you can quickly acquire an interesting social circle and find new friends.

14 Conversation Exchange

Another resource for finding language exchange partners. The choice of friends depends on the country of residence, language of study and native language, as well as the type of communication: chat, correspondence and conversation. To fully use the search, you must register.

15 Penpaland

After registering on this language exchange site, you can not only find new pen pals, but also maintain your own microblog, as well as create albums with photos. A real social network, only with more benefits!

16 Easy Language Exchange

On this resource you can easily find interlocutors for language exchange and correspondence. An additional option on the site is registration as a teacher. If it's relevant to you, go for it!

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17 LingQ

Among the features of the site are communication with other participants by correspondence and in conversation, lessons and courses with teachers, online sessions individually and in groups. You can ask to correct your writing or pronunciation. Please note that some options are paid.

18 Livemocha[closed]

This is a global community for learning 36 languages, where you can take training courses and create your own company of like-minded native speakers who will become your language exchange partners, Skype interlocutors, and in the future good friends.

19 Paltalk

The service provides video chats with people around the world. You can join other members in an online chat room to discuss music, sports, language learning, events and other topics. Additionally, there is an option to communicate via text messages.

20 Lang-8

Surely, while learning a language, you have encountered a problem: you make up sentences and examples with new words, but there is no one to check you. This service solves the problem. Copy here the dialogue, text, phrases that you composed, and get corrections from native speakers. Help participants who are learning Russian by answering their questions if you feel you can give a hint.

21 The Mixxer

A free educational site for finding language exchange partners with subsequent practice on Skype. Contacts can be viewed directly in the user’s profile. There are free lessons in English, Chinese, Spanish, French, and German.

22 My Language Exchange

The site is dedicated to language exchange. It looks like this: you find someone who is interested in learning your native language, but is also a native speaker of the language you are learning. By choosing a form of communication (chat, email correspondence, conversation), you help each other in learning languages: mutual lessons, tips, advice on vocabulary, or just conversations on different topics.

The site has more than a million members from 133 countries, who in total practice 115 languages! Unfortunately, you can write messages to other people only after making a monetary contribution on the site. Free options: respond to requests and messages from other people, communicate on the forum.

What service do I use?

All of the sites listed are useful in their own way. Try the training on several and you will decide which site is right for you. As for me, I chose the site for language practice italki. It is convenient to search for teachers and native speakers for lessons and language exchange, track lessons completed and feedback from the teacher. And another bonus: it’s easy to find a teacher who can conduct a lesson or conversation practice via Skype without prior arrangement.

If you have a goal for which you need to master English, but you are afraid to start practicing and communicating with native speakers, follow my 30-day program. Every day you will do exercises to train every aspect of the language, including speaking, and learn step by step how to apply English in life.

What other sites do you know for practicing speaking a foreign language? Share in the comments!

Those who study foreign languages ​​have probably heard about one of the most effective and - most importantly - free methods of learning a foreign language - in pairs with a native speaker. How it works? The Voronezh Week correspondent spoke about her experiment and the experience of her Berlin tandem colleague Benjamin Lorenza.

Unfortunately, not everyone understands that knowledge of a foreign language includes, first of all, the ability to speak it. And secondly, read, write and translate. That is why it is very important to develop auditing skills in schoolchildren, students and older students, that is, the ability to perceive foreign speech by ear. Otherwise, why do we need English, German or Chinese if we cannot say a word in it?! Without communicating with these very native speakers, few can achieve the desired level of perfection and boast that their knowledge is worthy of an excellent rating.

Several years ago, when I wanted to develop my knowledge of German and English by communicating with foreign Germans and Englishmen (or Americans), I went to the dormitories of Voronezh State University, in the South Eastern Railway region. I posted an advertisement there saying that I wanted to meet periodically for mutually beneficial communication: I offered Russian, and hoped to receive a foreign one in return. I left my phone number. Unfortunately, no one responded. At that time I had never even heard of the word “tandem”, but, as it turned out, this is exactly what I wanted from the students - guests of Voronezh.

A year ago I learned about the existence of a worldwide tandem “language exchange” community. Thanks to the Internet, now there are a lot of sites where you can leave an application indicating your personal data and the language you want to learn or are learning. This is how I met Benjamin. He is 26 years old and a student. This year he is completing his studies at the Institute of Slavic Studies, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Potsdam, located on the outskirts of Berlin. Ben is very interested in the culture of our country and its language, which he has been studying since school.

Communication with Germans is especially “fashionable” this year, because it has been declared the Year of Germany in Russia. On this occasion, I decided to ask my tandem partner a few questions. Of course, in German, because it’s easier for him to express his thoughts. Although Benjamin speaks Russian better than other native speakers. By the way, we never talked in person - we only called each other via the Internet. And this conversation is no exception.

Ben, how long have you been studying languages ​​using the so-called “you - for me, I - for you” method?

“For five years already,” my interlocutor answers. — As a rule, I can have several meetings a week: in person or online, because I study not only Russian, but also English, French and Italian. I can say with confidence: tandem is one of the best ways improve and train oral speech and conversational communication skills. In addition, there is an advantage: both parties benefit.

Are there any disadvantages? — I ask a question, but I myself think about how I would answer it.

Only that it takes a lot of time,” Ben laughs. - After all, ideally, for each meeting you need to prepare some kind of topic for discussion or written work - a translation or a so-called essay. But I don't always do this.

In order to correctly correct mistakes - oral or written - it is advisable for both partners to have a philological education. “Technical people,” most likely, will not be able to explain what, how and why is happening in their native language. It is so?

Special education is not necessary,” argues Benjamin. “But knowledge of culture and language is undoubtedly necessary.” In Germany, there is a stereotype that technical workers are not particularly easy to talk to; it is harder for them than for humanities specialists to have conversations on various topics. But this is just a cliché. With my German friend, we usually discuss news from both countries, everyday topics that concern us, especially those related to differences in the traditions of Russia and Germany. If the conversation takes place on a national holiday, tell us about the history of the holiday and the culture of its implementation. We often send each other links to Internet pages of newspapers and magazines, current videos or audio.

Our cooperation has been going on for a year now. To be honest, the first month is a time of getting used to. After all, every person is a stranger at first. Especially a foreigner. You need to accept not only the language that falls like snow on your head from the mouth of its speaker (and he speaks quickly and is not very intelligible to an unaccustomed ear), but to the person: the characteristics of his character and behavior, communication style, interests...

From his previous experience, Benjamin noted for himself that if these points do not coincide, it becomes difficult to conduct conversations with the opposite side: it is not always possible to adjust. It’s easy for someone to talk about something personal, but for others they won’t reveal their deepest secrets even at gunpoint. And another takes a very long time and painfully to overcome the language barrier - the fear of making a mistake. But fortunately, thanks to oral communication, this can be easily corrected.

I don’t think that studying a foreign language in tandem is suitable for those who have just begun to study it: they are unlikely to be able to say anything at all. It's probably worth waiting a year.

Here's what the interlocutor at the other end of the line thinks about this:

I agree, an average level of language proficiency or slightly below average is the best option. In addition, preparation plays a big role. Read a newspaper story, retell it, or even try to memorize it - and you’ll definitely be able to say at least something on the topic.

Which side of the tandem is more important to you - the interlocutor or the language?

Of course, the priority is language. That’s the purpose of finding a conversation partner,” Ben replies. “But in the process, when you get to know a person better, he becomes interesting as a person. In general, I would add a third point: the culture of the country and people. This includes not only customs, but also food, for example. After all, much of what is studied in school is outdated. And a resident of the country of the target language shares the latest information.

Services for learning foreign languages ​​online. Continuing the topic - 7 sites where you can find a suitable native speaker who will help expand your vocabulary and improve your grammar.

Functional service with applications for Android and MacOS

The main advantage of Babbel is its visual dictionary, divided into thematic lessons (the first, interestingly, is the topic of Drinks, an honorable second place is given to Greetings and goodbyes). The system offers to expand your vocabulary in three ways at once: repeating words after the speaker on a voice recorder, writing them down using the suggested letters and reproducing them in an appropriate context.

The basic course includes eight main topics, for access to the rest you will have to pay from 7.5 to 13 dollars per month (depending on how long you buy access for). Like almost all online language teaching sites, Babbel offers users other native speakers of the target language. For now, the service is just gaining momentum, so you can still have time to get a German who is not burdened by a dozen of our compatriots or, for example, a Spanish woman to correct your pronunciation. Babbel has apps for Android and MacOS, so it's time to add something other than Facebook to your wait for public transport.

Languages: English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese, Swedish, Turkish, Dutch, Polish, Indonesian.

A service powered entirely by human resources

Mylanguageexchange is a dream come true for Soviet children, an ideal service for finding a “pen pal”. Only here the friend will not be an arbitrary Bill from South Africa, but exactly who you want. When you visit the site, you describe your ideal “language partner,” as they call him here: his native language and the language he practices, as well as the country in which he would like to live and the approximate age of your partner. The rest is a matter of choice: choose the interlocutor you like and is suitable for your parameters and polish your French, German or whatever.

The site, according to the authors, has about a million users from 133 countries, they learn 115 languages. When you get tired of face-to-face communication, you can try playing all sorts of vocabulary games, scouring the local library, or simply switch to text chat instead of voice chat.

Languages: 115, including major European and Asian languages.

A service that turns any native speaker into a serious teacher

The site with the outlandish name italki.com offers crowdsourced live chats and text checking that we have already mastered. The main difference from the same Lang-8 is the ability to give professional lessons to those who wish, recording them in the schedule and contacting them at a certain time. It is unknown how popular such a model is than simple friendly chatter, but it would certainly be useful to know the statistics.

The only restriction on using the site is age. Italki insists that the user must be over 13 years old to be able to use the site. However, no one except the language partner can check this.

An analogue of VKontakte for those who don’t have enough demotivators in Russian

On home page InterPals are all smiling, long-haired girls hungry for knowledge. A special feature of the site is a huge international community, built on the principle of Facebook or any other non-professional social network, but with an emphasis on language learning. The desire to find people to talk to can be seen from every profile: young people don’t hesitate to take topless photos with their avatars, girls put on maximally low-cut T-shirts and turn themselves inside out to an advantageous angle. International multilingual friendship is flourishing.

The question of how the learning process is progressing remains open: on the one hand, only a basic level of language proficiency is required for quick acquaintance, on the other hand, motivation for classes does not have to be sought outside the site.

Languages: more than a hundred, including the main European and Asian ones.

Analogue of Livemocha with a blue interface

Lingq won’t be particularly innovative in its functionality - all the same classes to expand your vocabulary, all the same thematic lessons. For a fee (10, 39 or 79 dollars per month - depending on the user’s requests), you can receive additional lessons, import new sets of words and take more and more tests and write dictations. In addition to all this, you can get a personal mentor who will help you wade through the jungle of an unfamiliar language. Or you can act as a tutor yourself, checking other people’s homework and participating in discussions on the grammar of your native language.

Payment for mentoring is in “links”, local currency, which can be spent on purchasing additional lessons, tests, and so on. A similar model was tested at one time by Livemocha. In essence, this is a kind of communism: from each according to his capabilities, to each according to his - great or modest - needs. True, the user sets the level of needs independently.

Languages: French, Russian, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Italian, Japanese, Swedish, Korean, Chinese.

The name of the site basically says it all: Englishbaby is a site for those who managed not to learn English at school or are trying to find an alternative to being a school teacher. You can learn the language here in several ways: by chatting with other students, communicating with them on forums or in private messages, studying vocabulary, solving grammatical riddles and listening to audio recordings. The user must choose the sequence of exercises independently.

A special blessing is specially recorded English lessons (free access), each of which examines some phenomenon in English-language pop culture in the broadest sense of the word: on the Englishbaby blog we find stories about electric cars, the London Olympic Games and the like.

Languages: English.

Service for working on written speech

For those who have already mastered the basics of language practice, Lang-8 offers a wonderful approach in its simplicity. The user writes a text in the language being studied, after which a native speaker of the corresponding language takes over the text and makes appropriate changes to it (or not, if you managed not to make a single mistake).

The site is ideal for manic grammar lovers or those who, in order to speak confidently, first need to get approval - to make sure that at least everything is written correctly. From a purely psychological point of view, this is very correct; the main thing is to remember in time the need to master oral practice.

Languages: There are native speakers from 190 countries.

Today, on social networks you can not only like photos and follow the lives of your friends, but also learn foreign languages. Special language social networks will help you find a live interlocutor who will improve the level of your foreign language. And at the same time it will help to replenish your vocabulary, get rid of hackneyed phrases and enliven your speech with real phrases of English, German, Italian, Chinese, and any other language. All Courses has collected for you a selection of popular language social networks created just for this purpose.

You can already communicate “with a dictionary”, but are you still worried about pronunciation? Then social networks will come to the rescue, where you can find new friends around the world.

Lang8

The social network unites people from 190 countries, which means 90 languages ​​to learn. The idea of ​​the site is simple: the user writes a phrase or post in the language he is studying, and a native speaker checks and corrects speech, grammatical and spelling errors, if any. You can attach tags to notes, and the most popular ones get to the top. You can also make friends on the site.

There are two options for using the network: paid and free. The second allows you to learn only two languages ​​and make no more than 500 notes in a notebook. Paid content has an unlimited number of posts and languages, and at the same time you are allowed to post photos and leave comments in pdf format.

Lingq

Lingq focuses on expanding your vocabulary, so communication requires at least minimal knowledge of a foreign language. The social network has been open since 2007 and today offers access to 16 languages, including English, French, Japanese, Swedish, Italian, Chinese, and German, among others. All new words are easily saved in your profile. In addition to free communication, you have access to audio lessons and you can submit written work for review.

The site has paid and free content.

English, Baby!

The main feature of the site is communication in correct English, American or British. To do this, the site has daily free lessons on a new topic, thematic audio materials, including monologues and interviews with celebrities. Many people use the Internet when preparing for TOEFL. There are also those who prefer to improve their grammar and just chat.

There is a separate section for English teachers where teachers exchange experiences.

There is paid content.

Interpals.net

A site for finding a language exchange partner. Friends from 154 countries are now available. And these are more than 100 languages, including the main European and Asian ones. The social network is completely free. You can register with it via Facebook. There is a forum and chat for communication; you choose your partner yourself. You can select your interlocutor by age and gender, or by specifying a specific country. The resource always shows who is online and who is not currently on the site.

Conversationexchange.com

At Conversationexchange.com you need to register and select a partner to communicate in Windows Messenger or Skype. The resource is also interesting because it helps you find a native speaker of the language you are studying in your own city. This way you get an additional opportunity to communicate with a person one-on-one. In addition, on the site you can improve your written language.

Speaking24.com

After registering on the site, you will see a quick search for native speakers. You can choose your interlocutor by age, gender, or language being studied. The resource will immediately offer you the person’s contacts on Skype or other instant messengers. The main advantage of the site is communication. Fluent speaking is encouraged here and there is not much focus on grammatical errors.

Easy language exchange

The new social network for communicating in a foreign language today has about 72,000 users from 56 countries. The site pays special attention to learning English: there are courses for beginners, as well as courses for those who want to increase their vocabulary and improve their grammar. In addition, useful articles are published on the resource, there is a forum where you can find someone to talk to for learning Chinese, Arabic, Korean and other languages. A separate plus is registration as a teacher.

Paltalk

The service offers more than 5,000 active chat rooms where you can discuss the latest news in music, sports, current events, and just chat with people around the world. And these are 37 major European and Asian languages. Additionally, you can communicate via text messages, which will allow you to master the written language.

Internations

A site for advanced users of foreign languages. A community that can not only help you find people to talk to and friends around the world, but also invite you to attend events and meetings. The service will be very useful for immigrants - in a short time a person will be able to acquire a new circle of friends and get to know the city.

The site will help you practice the language you are learning. On the main page you can immediately select the interface language: English, Russian and Spanish. You select your interlocutor yourself: gender, native language, target language. In addition, there are sections “Forum”, “Articles”, “Invitations”. To communicate, you must register on the site.

HelloTalk

This is not a social network, but a chat program for mobile device, which offers to communicate with your interlocutor through text and voice messages in more than 100 languages. The program options allow you to practice pronunciation, as well as collect your own database of materials on the language you are learning (audio, words, sentences, pictures).

Today, meeting or even marrying a foreigner will no longer surprise anyone. Thanks to the development of technology and tourism, you can meet a foreigner anywhere – from the Internet to your favorite restaurant near your home. And no one knows when the meeting will take place, but you really want to prepare for it in advance. By the way, when meeting a German you will have to speak his native language, since many do not know English.

Meeting Germans to Learn German

Meeting a German for friendship, correspondence, communication, and maybe even for a romantic relationship today is not difficult, because there are a huge number of services that will allow you to do this in a matter of minutes by filling out a form and registering on a social network or website. But for the result to exceed expectations, it is better to follow simple rules.

Define the end goal

If the ultimate goal is to find a person for communication, friendship or learning German, then this is certainly worth indicating in your profile. After all, the majority of those who register on such sites do not expect any results, and only 5-10% meet in person. People, and especially Germans, love honesty, so in the column about yourself you should write “I’m looking for a friend to help me learn German” or “I’m looking for a friend for pleasant communication in German, and where this will lead us, time will tell.” With such intentions, finding an interlocutor or pen pal will be much easier than with ladies who indicate that they are looking for wealthy men for serious meetings.

Speak English!

There is no mistake here, everything is correct. It’s best to start communicating with English, so there’s a better chance of understanding each other at the initial stage, of course, if you’ve already this moment do not speak spoken German. Even a small school stock of English words will be quite enough to get acquainted and determine whether the selected candidate is suitable for the role of your teacher and tutor of the German language.

Casual conversation is the best method

It will be difficult to concentrate on the process, especially at the very beginning. But it should be understood that it is a relaxed atmosphere that will facilitate full communication on various topics. This way, your friend in one person will be able to teach you more than if you spend time reading books or listening to German speech on TV or radio.

Anyone interested in learning German should definitely use modern technologies in your learning, because this significantly simplifies the process, makes it enjoyable, interesting and varied.
Babbel- educational portal and language community. This is a portal where you can learn foreign languages, including German, completely free of charge. Here you can immediately put into practice the acquired knowledge and participate in the interactive exchange of experience and information with fellow students. Many gaming and multimedia elements of the site will only add to the student’s interest.
DeutschLern.net– here we study the German language based on current material. This source is built on a basic course for learning the German language, but exercises and tasks are constantly changing to work through the learned material, so every visit to the site will be an interesting and exciting experience.
BookRix– this network is built on the Myspace principle. Here, numerous native German-speaking authors present their works, texts, comics, novels and poems. Here you can meet, participate in discussions, start friendships and correspondence with the authors you like. All participants are open for communication.
So, the beginning of the school year is already in full swing - what a reason to start studying, even if school is a thing of the past. After all, perfect knowledge is always valuable!