#but i already found a teacher on italki!

[descubriendo-aurelia]

tl;dr trans origin story

So, what have I done so far? How did I arrive to this point? Well, I kind of always knew that I wished I had been born a girl, but for many years I suppressed these feelings. I can remember as far back as age 4, seeing my older female cousin Jaimie and wishing I could look like her.

(Warning: I talk briefly about a sexual encounter below.)

I'd been somewhat familiar with feminizing HRT, FFS and vaginoplasty since I was an early adolescent thanks to cable TV, and transitioning seemed like such an extreme process (because it is) that it seemed impossibly expensive to achieve the results that I wanted for myself. I'd always been fascinated with hearing the stories of trans people and would watch anything related to them them any chance I got. My favourite movie since I was 16 years old was, and still is to this day, Breakfast on Pluto, a story about an Irish transwoman. How curious that it didn't occur to me until later in life that I loved this movie because I wanted to be like the main character.

Throughout the years there were other signs, like playing dress-up with my best friend and wearing their femme clothes, which led to the appearance of my Southern belle alter-ego Annabelle in our late teens while the True Blood series was still popular. Yes, with a big, floppy hat y todo. 👒

Shortly after moving to Seattle, I'd come to the realisation that I'd never been comfortable with a male identity and decided to start identifying as non-binary and using they/them pronouns.

There were two main catalysts that made me come to terms with my inner womanhood this past year. The first was a sexual encounter I had with a bisexual man who wanted me to wear panties for him. As we had sex, he sexualised me as a woman and referred to me as a woman. It made me feel validated and desired in a way that I had never been before, and it felt so right and perfect somehow. This encounter, as you might imagine, made me reflect long and hard about my gender identity.

The second catalyst was an Italki Spanish conversation class. My teacher is a trans woman, and the topic of discussion was gender identity. At one point during our discussion, she asked me, "What part of you wants to cling to the masculine?" and I realised that I didn't really have an answer for her. I realised that I was clinging to masculinity (or vestiges of it, lol) because I wanted to please other people, rather than make myself happy and discover my true identity.

A couple days later, on July 20th 2022, I decided that it was time to start doing something about it. I started by telling close friends, and it wasn't long before I settled on the name Aurelia and started to try presenting as female to the best of my ability. I'm very fortunate to work in a very trans-friendly city at a very trans-friendly business with exceptional health insurance for individuals who seek in gender affirming care. Having already worked alongside several trans people at my job, I felt comfortable enough to start coming out to my coworkers right away. They, of course, accepted me with open arms and have been amazing at using my preferred name and pronouns. A few of them even gave me clothes!

I then, of course, started shopping. In addition to makeup and clothes, I bought an epilator, silicone breast forms, mastectomy bras, a few different styles of gaffs as well as tucking tape. Not at all once, of course, 'cause all that shit was expensive. (Especially the gaffs! I tried two styles, a cheap $20 Amazon that was bulky and inaffective, and a $40 that works amaaazingly. $40 is a lot, but after I started ordering one every paycheque, I think she took notice and started sending me two per order, which was super sweet of her. Thanks, Lexy B Blair!)

I found a doctor who specialises in transgender care through my insurance and on September 6th, I started taking my HRT medications. After 5 weeks, I've seen slight (though not yet visible) breast tissue growth, skin softening, and thinning and softening of body hair. It's hard for me to gauge any emotional or psychological changes, since I was a very emotional person before HRT, lol. I guess I get angry way less often, but I also feel like this was true before I started HRT and has more to do with the relief I felt immediately after coming out that I was finally allowing myself to present female.

On October 13th, I got registered for laser hair removal, and I'll begin my first treatments in November! I'm so tired of shaving every day and having to use orange colour corrector and a full face of heavy foundation just to have a "natural" look. My facial hair comes in really dark, so no matter how close I shave, they leave behind a greenish undertone to my skin, which is why I need the colour corrector.

So, now what? We wait for the hormones to do their job. I probably won't notice any major changes until a year in, and the full effects could take 3-4 years. I asked my doctor about progesterone to help with breast development, and he wants to try it when I'm 6 months to a year in. Depending on how well that works, I may or may not eventually want breast augmentation.

Another procedure I'm definitely interested in is facial feminisation surgery. Because I went through a testosterone-based puberty during my adolescence, my jawline is very angular and I have a protruding brow bone compared to before I started puberty. HRT is supposed to help a little bit with rounding of the face via fat redistribution, but this won't be noticeable for at least a year. So, I suppose the plan will be to see how satisfied I am after the three year mark, and if not, look into getting the procedure.

And then, of course, there's the surgery that cispeople are most obsessed with: ✨vaginoplasty✨. Will I get it? First of all, if you don't already know this, please don't ever ask a trans person this question. As for me, I'm still conflicted. I don't believe in the concept of "completely transitioning" and don't think that genital surgery is a necessary step in a gender transition. I would be completely content keeping my genitals and would still feel as complete of a woman as any other. And yet, when it really comes down to it, I think I would still prefer a vagina to a penis if given the choice... which, I guess I have? But then, of course, there's the whole surgery itself, which is very extensive and scary, with a rough recovery. Plus the extensive dilations. Hmm, I just don't know about all that. If I did it, which I honestly don't think I will, I would want a very talented doctor who will perform a labiaplasty, clitoroplasty, and vaginoplasty, and who has multiple photographs of the results of former patients.

So, that's all, folks. If you're still reading this, thank you for listening to me overshare, lol.

#hrt update #mtf trans #trans #transgender #transfemme #transfem #trans woman #transgirl #trans positivity #vaginoplasty #gender affirming surgery #gender affirming care

[nordic-language-love]

I have a day off today, so I’m ducking in to tell y’all a little bit about how things are going!

I’ve taught my first classes! Most of them I’ve had another teacher assisting me, but yesterday I did my first solo class. It was... okay lol. One of the boys disengaged the moment I said I don’t speak Japanese so they have to speak English, and proceeded to yawn audibly through all activities and pretend to be asleep when spoken to (which I put on my lesson report form, so the regular teacher will hopefully tell him off haha).

On that note... Japanese kids really are like any other kids. Everyone said to me before I went, “ohhh I bet Japanese kids are so well-behaved and respectful!” I can assure you they are not lmao. Some are, others are little terrors.

I’ve had some really wholesome moments. The other day during one of the younger classes this one boy (~3 years old) was mostly a little terror, running around all the time and hiding in the corner. But then during story time he sat in my lap and directed me to hold him. Then later in the lesson he went and hid in the corner again, so I went over to him and asked if he was okay. And he just snuggled into me, so we spent the rest of the class like that.

So far 4-5 year-olds are my favourites to teach. You can be so fun and silly with them! Sure, they don’t want to sit down and do things, but I’ve found some useful hacks already (pro-tip: if you let them rub things off the whiteboard or draw a shape for answering questions correctly, they’ll suddenly be very, very attentive)

I enjoy this kind of teaching a LOT more than teaching on italki. The lesson prep I have to do is minimal and all time outside of teaching is my own, basically. Not to mention it’s much more active and I don’t spend my life hunched over a desk!

Speaking of free time, I spend most of it studying languages and it’s awesome!

My Japanese level is definitely improving. My speaking not so much, but my comprehension for sure. The kids do speak Japanese in class, both to each other (obviously) and to me, and I’m rapidly getting used to certain words and speech patterns.

I can also now more or less get through interactions at train stations and konbinis! I even managed to ask a police lady for directions the other day (go me being so panicked about being late for my train I didn’t even care that my Japanese was broken af. Literally like, if I don’t at least try to speak Japanese rn I’m going to miss my train and be late for my classes)

I’ve learned that despite being in the country, active studying is really important. I’ve not learned anything through pure osmosis; I’ve only learned through active studying and then having the immersion reinforce it. So yes, my level is improving because I’m in the country and surrounded by the language, but I have to put in the effort first.

Also, the general level of English in Japan is not high. I’ve been spoilt by travelling around Europe where I can usually find someone who speaks broken English well enough to help me if I’m stuck (or if not then I can communicate in broken French/German/Spanish), and coming to Japan and being lost at a train station and literally not being able to communicate is a HUGE motivation to get good at the language quick!

I LOVE Yamagata! There was a snowstorm the day after I moved in and I feel like I live in a winter wonderland. I can see the mountains almost everywhere I go in the city. It’s not a busy city, and every train ride makes me feel like I’m in a Studio Ghibli movie. I love it I love it I love it.

I also love the dialect here! It’s easy to understand and it’s kinda musical!

My personal supervisor (PS) is awesome and has been super helpful. I’m so grateful! A lot of people from my training course have said that their PSs haven’t given them much/any orientation, whereas mine helped me set up my internet and a Japanese bank account as well as went over my schedule with me and ensured I did at least a week of teaching with someone else in the classroom before I was on my own.

I’ve only met 3 of my colleagues, but they’re all nice. One of them lives in my block and we’ll teach together for two days next week. Another of them loves the snow and the cold as much as I do, and I think we’ll get on super well.

My flat is tiny. It’s basically one room! But it has loads of storage space and being as small as it is means it’s super easy to heat (which is fortunate, because it was -10ºC the other night).

The tap water tastes great! In Nagoya it tasted so fucking weird I couldn’t even drink it. But here it’s awesome.

I’m enjoying trying new things! I’m going through all the different candies/chocolate brands at konbinis and supermarkets and I’ve hardly had the same thing twice since I got here (including bento). This is super different to how I was in the UK, where I was stuck in a routine and knew what I liked and didn’t want to go out of my comfort zone.

So yeah, I went from crying and wondering if I’d made a huge mistake the first 2-3 days of being here to absolutely thriving less than a month later. I’m so happy right now, truly living my dream, finally able to flourish and grow in a way I always knew deep down I could.

#victoria's big japan adventure #and now to continue enjoying my weekend away from my laptop <3

[aro-langblr]

assorted thoughts about my studies atm

I met my tenative goal of 3 consecutive weeks of italki sessions... I realized I don’t particularly vibe with my german tutor and need to find a new one. I actually like my lessons with my lithuanian teacher, but I don’t feel the same way about my german lessons.

I plan to start a langblr challenge this week... I said I’d start one if I completed the above-mentioned goal, so I would like to try it ^_^ I’ll probably do the Langblr Rectivation Challenge bc that seems popular and easy

I don’t have an italki appointment for this weekend as of yet... not according to plan. I found a tutor that I’d like to try, and she has availability tomorrow, but my friend suggested I take a week off. idk if I should tho since availability is becoming more scarce due to the holidays... I’ve lowkey already committed to lazing around, but I know I’d feel so accomplished after completing a lesson.... what should I do? (/genq)

#there were less thoughts in my head than I realized. writting them out really helped tho #advice appreciated tho: should I book that appt for tomorrow? #langblr #language #language learning

[firstkanaphans]

If you answered this already just let me know and I'll search though your asks but, where did u find your Thai teacher? -DEW

Also, if u do answer this can you @indewthoughts so that I can see.

Hiii, @indewthoughts!! I found my Thai teacher on italki. When you sign up for italki, they give you three “trial” lessons for less than $10 each, so I took a trial lesson with three teachers and picked the one I vibed with the most. I have also taken group classes in the past through Hills Learning Online and those were super fun as well, but I feel like I’m getting more for my money with one-on-one instruction.

Also, fair warning about the group classes, it’s probably going to be you and like 1-3 middle aged white men who have Thai wives/girlfriends. Or at least that was my experience. This one man had literally been married to his Thai wife for 12 years, had two half-Thai children who all spoke fluent Thai, and yet he was in a beginner Thai class. I knew more Thai than him. Like SIR.

But I digress…

If you’re serious about learning Thai, I think private lessons is the best way to go. I’ve learned exponentially more in the past 3 month of private lessons than I did trying to teach myself for a year. But it certainly isn’t cheap 😬

#asks #thai language resources

[meandkorean]

Evet - Yes

Hayır - No

Please - Lütfen

Thank you - Teşekkürler

How are you? - Nasılsın

Good morning - Günaydın

Good afternoon - İyi günler

Good evening - İyi akşamlar

Good night - İyi geceler

Içmek - To drink

Kahve - Coffee

#hello i’m dabbling into turkish #langblr #turkish #these are all i know how to say #but i already found a teacher on italki!

[russianwave]

As someone with bad social anxiety, I put off finding a language tutor (or even speaking the language) for many months into my studies. I eventually plucked up the courage to book myself onto various trial lessons with tutors and I’ve decided to share what I’ve learnt.

1) Think about your learning style

Before even going on to a language tutoring platform, take some time to think about your learning style and what things you want to rule out. Having a checklist of criteria will make the process a lot less overwhelming, and it’ll give you things to look out for. There’s no point going for a tutor who teaches in a style that you already know doesn’t work. If you haven’t had any language classroom experience at all and/or really don’t know your style, that’s okay! But think about the materials you like to work with. Do you hate working through books? Some teachers just want to guide you through workbooks. Others are open to teaching through news articles, video clips, and so on.

For me, I know that a tutor not speaking any English to me would be too overwhelming. I wouldn’t be able to pick up new vocabulary through context and I’d find the process too stressful. Whilst this definitely works for other people, I knew that I could rule it out for myself. I also knew I could rule out tutors who don’t want to teach grammar - I knew that I wasn’t picking up grammar through patterns, so I looked for tutors that would do that. But also consider this: some teachers want to give you a lot of homework and then just have you discuss the answers and ask further questions in class whilst others will give you very minimal (if any) homework and have it be all about class time. Think about which style works for you.

2) What do you want out of tutoring?

For some people, tutoring is just a way to get quality speaking practice. They may find it hard to find people that are willing to give them the feedback they like, or a consistent / long enough speaking partner. Others are looking for a tutor to teach them the absolute basics, and others just want someone who can explain tricky concepts to them. Some tutors are only looking to teach people of a particular level, or just want to offer a particular kind of teaching (e.g. vocabulary or academic writing).

For me, I wanted tutors to be able to help me understand grammatical concepts as well as being a safe place to develop conversational practice. With a tutor it feels safer to make mistakes, and I feel like I’m less of a burden than trying to make an unpaid language partner correct everything I have to say. I also struggle with understanding grammar explanations, and I need the motivation that another person can bring to the lesson.

3) Think about your budget

This might seem really obvious, but it’s definitely something to bear in mind. £10 an hour might seem cheap now, but you’re likely going to be buying much more than one lesson. How many lessons can you afford to take each month? It might be better to turn down a good person that’s at the very max of your budget to go with someone (who’s still good) that’s lower priced and who you can have more consistent lessons with. Consistency with a tutor is a really good way to build upon work and progress through the programs and materials they have. 

Some tutors will offer free or massively discounted trial lessons, but then have a very high hourly rate. It might seem great to take advantage of someone who’s usually £30 an hour for free, but you want to develop a connection with a tutor that you can actually afford. There’s no point trying someone out of your budget because your trial lesson won’t be enough to work from. You’d need consistent lessons with them and you can’t get that if they’re out of your budget.

4) How many tutors do you want?

This isn’t talking about how many tutors you want to try out, but how many you want to have in the long run. You could stick with just one tutor, but you might find you get too comfortable with them and lessons become less effective. It also means if they can’t explain a particular issue to you, then you may not be able to get an easy explanation than if you had more than one. 

For me, I knew that I wanted two as it’d give me the variety I need to really stretch my language skills. This doesn’t mean going way outside of my comfort zone, it was about finding two people I could feel a comfortable connection with that I knew would push me. They have a slightly different approach with regards to explanations, material worked with, and their personalities. As someone with an attention disorder, I need variety to stop myself getting burnt out. If I was constantly having to use the same material and dealing with the same style I would get quickly burnt out.

Consider how you might want to approach having multiple tutors. It’s about striking a balance between seeing each tutor individually at a frequent enough rate to properly build upon material, as well as ensuring you’re not doing too many lessons each week. You might decide on alternating weeks with each tutor, or spreading each tutor out through the week.

5) What platform do you want to use?

There’s many different platforms for meeting a tutor, such as Tandem, iTalki, Verbling, Preply, etc. It might be worth checking each of these out and seeing what each of the platforms have to offer. A lot of tutors, no matter the platform, would rather conduct the lessons through Skype or something similar. So if you haven’t got one already, it’s a good idea to make a Skype account. 

iTalki is probably the most well known tutoring platform, but it’s worth considering that another platform might be popular with people of your target language. Some platforms also require you to go through a proper vetting process or to have certain qualifications. Whilst this makes the quality of tutors better than those that have zero vetting process, you also have to consider how that might affect cost. 

6) Properly watch their introductory video and read their profile description

Now that you’ve sorted out a lot of the crucial prep, it’s time to actually consider a tutor. Whilst it can be hard to judge personality through video and/or text, it’s worth seeing what they have to say. If they’ve barely put any effort into talking about themselves, then it’s probably best to give them a miss. If they can’t be bothered to even advertise themselves for money, how can you guarantee they’d put the effort in to teach you once they have your cash?

As someone who’s not very good at continuing a conversation, I looked for tutors who seemed like they could fill the awkward pauses. I also considered how clear their audio quality is (not to say it has to be super high quality, but if I can barely hear them then it’s going to be a struggle). If they offer demonstrations of how they teach vocabulary / grammar etc, I consider if their explanations are in a style that I like. As I’m very much a beginner to the language, I need someone that can demonstrate that they can explain concepts in English so I can understand them. Some tutors are aimed at more advanced learners that can comfortably discuss concepts in the target language, or might just be there for some professional speaking practice. 

Check back to your criteria and see if they touch upon the styles that you’re looking for or the styles you want to avoid. They’ll also often list the material that they use, it’s worth considering if this is the kind of material that you like to work with. Some tutors are very workbook or quiz orientated, others like to bring out flashcards. It’s about what works best for you.

7) Look to the reviews, not just the star rating

On sites like iTalki it’s very difficult for a tutor to get below 5 stars. This is because we want to be polite, and we might just rate a lesson 5 stars and move on rather than voice our complaints. While a lot of reviews are just going to be very basic, some of them will touch upon teaching style and materials used. Also look to mentions of personality - e.g. stern, patient, outgoing, well prepared etc. Whilst these are all subjective, it can give you a better idea. Also look to see if students are booking multiple lessons. If most of a tutor’s students are only booking 1 or 2 lessons then it’s likely that they’re not going to be great. You want to see students returning again and again to a tutor as it demonstrates their ability to build upon content and remain a good tutor.

8) Send them a message before booking a lesson

Before booking any trial lesson I sent the tutors I was considering a short message briefly explaining my current level of the language and what I want to get out of it. I mentioned the concerns I had and included that I had never had language lessons outside of school.

I found this a really good way of assessing a tutor, as well as just a polite way to allow them to prepare for the lesson. It was nice when a tutor picked up on specific issues I mentioned, and it was a way of allowing them to talk about the material they’d use to address my specific points of concern. If a tutor just ignored all of that and was just like ‘yes yes whatever book a lesson’, then I didn’t. Tutoring is a job, and people are in it for money, but they also have to be in it out of a genuine interest in helping others. If I didn’t feel like they wanted to help me and just saw me as a future purse to dip into, then I didn’t book a lesson.

This doesn’t always work though. Some tutors seemed to forget by the time the lesson came around what things I had mentioned, and the lesson came across as unprepared. Whilst others referred back to the notes I had sent, and built upon that. It meant that I wasn’t just doing alphabet lessons again and again with tutors, and it gave me a much better assessment of their lessons as a result.

9) Prepare for the lesson 

This can be tricky when it’s just a trial lesson and we’re likely not going to receive any material beforehand from the tutor but there’s ways we can prepare. Look over their tutor profile and through their intro video again, is there anything about them that you want to ask? Is there anything specific that they could help you with that day? Do they expect you to pay for additional material? Do they have a specific course of content, and how many tutoring sessions does it take to complete it?

Some tutors will already know what they want to cover, but some will be open to suggestions. Having questions is also a good way of finding out more about their tutoring without having to commit to further lessons. For example, you could ask them what kind of workbooks they use. Once the trial lesson is over you could have a look at previews of the workbook/s and see if that’s the kind of content you’d enjoy working with. 

10) Sometimes a tutor will look amazing in theory but not in practice

It’s unfortunate, but even with all the research we’ve previously done we can get it wrong. A tutor might seem really outgoing and friendly in their introductory video, and then be lifeless and bored during the lesson. They might be a really nice person and we just don’t click with them or their teaching style. 

This isn’t a reflection on you, and it certainly doesn’t make you a bad student. It also doesn’t mean that they’re an awful tutor, it just means they’re not a right fit for you. This is why it’s so important to experiment with tutors and see which one/s are the right fit for us. Likewise we can have a tutor that we get on great with, but we don’t actually learn much from them. Sometimes this can take a few lessons to really shine through, but when we do notice it then it’s time to move on. 

Don’t beat yourself up, and try and not fret over the lesson. It’s completed now. This person isn’t going to remember you, and you don’t have to do a lesson with them again. Just politely thank them for the lesson and move on. The next person you have a lesson with might be an amazing fit. It’s not all wasted time though, it can give us a better understanding of what styles work for us and what don’t. And just because we don’t click with a tutor, doesn’t mean we don’t learn anything about the language. 

The opposite can be true also! One of the tutors I booked I started having second thoughts about before the lesson. But when the actual lesson happened I thoroughly enjoyed it, and it was definitely one of the best lessons out of the wide range of tutors I tried. What this means is that it can be hard to tell how well we connect with someone until we have a trial lesson with them. It’s not your fault for picking a tutor that you don’t connect with, and it doesn’t mean that all the other tutors are going to be the wrong fit for you also.

---

Hopefully this will help make finding a language tutor less stressful. I know for me that doing a lot of research on language tutoring, and on the tutors I enquired with helped me feel a lot less anxious. I personally found it useful to group my different tutoring trials close together, so I didn’t have to worry about weeks and weeks of trials. But for some people that might be overwhelming, and they might find it easier to spread it out over a longer period. 

If you’re like me and struggle with the concept of ‘letting people down’, and feel like you might be pressured into sticking with the first tutor or two that you try then I would recommend setting a specific date which you then invest in a tutor. For me, even though I really liked the first tutor (and he was one of the ones I stuck with) I had upcoming tutors to meet. By having to wait until I tried out the other tutors, I could be confident in that I was picking someone as a result of being a good fit. 

If you’re considering getting a language tutor then I would recommend the platform iTalki. I’ve tried out other platforms such as Preply, but this was the best one for me. It’s the platform I used to meet a wide range of tutors, and it’s through that platform that I found the two tutors I really liked. If you sign up with this link and buy some iTalki credits, then you and I will receive $10 iTalki credits as a free bonus. This could cover the cost of 1 or more lessons! 

#Langblr #Studyblr #Language study #Language tutor #I will do a post about language tutors and social anxiety at some point #but I thought covering some of the research methods that helped me might benefit others #plus honestly doing a lot of research helped me feel more confident in doing it

[langblr-rose]

Italki Tips

I’m a big fan of italki as a language learning platform.  I’ve used it to take 192 classes in Mandarin, Spanish, and German.  I’ve also been working on the website as an English teacher since 2017, and I’ve taught over 2500 lessons.  I’ve seen some talk about italki while browsing the Langblr tag, a lot of it from people thinking of giving italki a try.  As such, i thought I’d share some advice on how to get the most out of the platform.  

In this post, I'm going to focus on how to assess your study needs and find a suitable tutor/teacher.  In the future, I hope to write more posts on how to optimize your italki experience.  

****ITALKI TIPS****

1.  Figure out your language learning goals.  

Before you go searching for a language teacher it’s important to put some thought into what you hope to get out of the experience.  Most italki teachers try really hard to design their classes around your specific needs.  If you have some idea of what your needs are and can communicate that to us, it makes our job easier.  Here are some things to think of: 

-Why are you learning your target language?  Do you want to travel?  Do you want to improve your job prospects?  Are you learning for fun?  Do you have to prepare for a major test?  Naturally, a teacher is going to take a different approach to somebody who needs to pass a major test vs somebody who is learning because they want to watch movies in their target language.  

-What skills do you want to target?  Do you want to focus of grammar?  Conversation?  Listening skills?  Character writing?  

- What time frame do you want to accomplish your goals in?  Do you have a strict deadline, or are you doing things on a more relaxed schedule?  

2.  Consider your learning style

If your previous language learning has mostly been classroom based, then you’ve probably had the experience of having to adjust your learning style to fit with the rest of the class and with your teacher’s teaching style.  Since all italki lessons are one on one, it’s worth putting some thought into how you like to study.  Do you like homework?  How much?  Do you want a teacher who will strictly correct all your errors, or are you happier if your teacher lets minor mistakes slide as long as they can understand you?  Are you a fan of textbooks?  Do you want the teacher to design the class for you, or do you want to design your own activities and have a teacher present for correction and advice?  Do you just want to talk?  What are your feelings on grammar drills?  Do open ended questions make you nervous?  Do you have topics you love?  Topics you hate?  

3.  Take a guess at your current language level

This Wikipedia page can help you - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_European_Framework_of_Reference_for_Languages

4.  Search for prospective teachers!  

The search function on italki lets you specify times you want to learn, prices, whether you want a professional teacher or a tutor, where you want your teacher to be from, etc.  You can also search specific words or phrases.  A few notes: 

- If you’re a beginner or want to work on test prep or technical language skills, it’s usually better to choose a professional teacher.  Generally speaking, you can expect more structure with a professional teacher, though this isn’t always the case, and very often the distinction between a tutor and teacher is very slight.  

- While searching for teachers, the things that will appear most prominently are the teachers’ photos, prices, and availability.  I highly recommend clicking through to read the teachers’ profiles, which will give you a lot more information about the kind learning experience they’ll offer you.  

-  You’ll also be able to see how many lessons a teacher has taught.  If you pick a new teacher, you’ll get the distinction of being one of their first (and therefore most memorable!) students.  Teachers usually raise their prices the longer they work on Italki, but it’s not unheard of for teachers to offer a special lower price for the people who they’ve been working with the longest.  If you pick a veteran teacher with lots of lessons under their belt, you can be sure that the teacher is already well versed in how to go about teaching online, and on how to solve a variety of language learning issues.  

- You don’t have to limit your search to native speakers of your target language.  A lot of times non-native speakers will have some great tips and tricks about how to go about learning your target language, because they’ve gone through the learning process themselves.  If you’re a high-level speaker of your target language it can also be useful to expose yourself to a variety of different accents, including those of non-native speakers. 

5.  Once you’ve found some people that you’d like to book trial lessons with, fill out their ”contact teacher form” (found at the top of their profiles).  Tell them a little bit about yourself, your language level, and your language goals.  You can also say something about what kinds of topics you enjoy discussing and what kinds of topics you would rather avoid.  I know that being the first person to make contact can be anxiety-inducing, but it helps the teachers to customize your lesson.  

- Another thing worth asking is what kind of video conferencing app the teacher likes to use.  Skype is most common, but a lot of teachers prefer Zoom because it has more features.  Teachers from China might prefer to use WeChat.  Italki also has its own video conferencing classroom, but it doesn't have some of features that other video conferencing systems have. 

6.   If you’re under 18 (as I know a lot of Tumblr users are), it's best to limit yourself to teachers who have specified in their profiles that they are willing to teach kids and teens.  Any lessons will need to be booked by your parents, and ideally your parents should also be present during your first lesson, to make sure they’re comfortable with the individual who is going to be teaching you.  As with any internet platform, practice basic online safety.  Also, be careful of spammers or any kind of older person messaging you out of the blue to offer to teach you a language.  If anybody makes you feel uncomfortable, report them to italki support.  

#langblr #language learning #language exchange #italki #english langblr #german langblr #chinese langblr

[rusocialpod]

What is a language exchange partner - and what’s the best way to find one? In this article, I’ll answer both these questions to help you understand what language exchanges can do for you, where to find language exchange partners, and how to choose the best ones for you. Language exchange partners are a fantastic resource when you’re learning a new language. And you can find the perfect language exchange partner, if you know what you’re doing. I’ll start by giving a brief overview of how language exchanges work. Feel free to skip to the next section if you already know this! What is a Language Exchange Partner? A language exchange partner is someone who volunteers to chat with you in your target language. For example, if you’re learning Spanish, then your language exchange partner will talk with you in Spanish. Typically, this exchange partner would be a native Spanish speaker, though they may speak Spanish as a foreign language to an advanced level. Here’s where the exchange part comes in. In exchange for them chatting with you in your target language, you will chat with them in their target language (i.e. your native language). To continue our example, if your native language is English, then you’d spend time chatting with your Spanish exchange partner in English as well as Spanish. You do this because they want help learning English. Typically, you’d give equal time to each language. So if you booked a 30-minute session with your Spanish exchange partner, you’d spend 15 minutes chatting in English and 15 minutes chatting in Spanish. How to Find a Language Exchange Partner I use the website italki to find language exchange partners to video chat with. You’ll find exchange partners for all major languages, and many lesser-spoken ones, on italki. I recommend it! That said, finding the right partner for a language exchange isn’t always easy. I know this from experience, because when I first started doing language exchanges, I had no idea what I was doing. I thought it was as simple as blasting out messages to other users on italki who spoke my target language and were learning my native language, then chatting with them for an hour. But after a few failed exchanges, I realised that I was going about it all wrong. I needed to spend more time up front finding a partner who was a good match so that I’d save time and have more effective online language exchanges. Here are my top tips - learned from my own experience - to boost the odds of you finding your ideal language exchange partner. Be Up Front About What You Want From the Language Exchange When you’re looking to regularly connect with someone for a tandem exchange, it’s important to clearly state what you’re expecting up front. Here are a few things to consider: Are you at the level where you want your half of the exchange to only be in your target language? Or will you need to revert to your native language sometimes, for example to discuss grammar? How long do you want the exchange to be? How long can you stay focused? How often do you want your exchange partner to correct you? And how do you want to receive those corrections? Do you want them to correct every mistake or just the ones you make repeatedly? Should they correct you immediately, or tell you all of your mistakes at the end? Do you have common interests? This can either be a pro or con. Having common interests gives you something to talk about. At the same time, not having common interests gives you the opportunity to introduce the things you enjoy to another person. You need to know what you want in order to get it. Time spent thinking about what you need from a language exchange is time well invested. Be sure to share what you need with any exchange partner you consider speaking with. If they don’t agree, then they aren’t the right partner for you. Don’t Click With Your Language Exchange Partner? Don’t Sweat It There may be a variety of reasons you and your exchange partner aren’t a good match: They are at a much higher level than you and tend to keep the conversation in your native language. You have nothing in common. You just don’t get along with them. They aren’t able to help you the way you need. They cut you off to correct you far too often even after you asked them not to. Trying to force an exchange that just isn’t working is in no way worth it. It’s not only a waste of time for you, but for your partner as well. Your time is better spent finding someone who you click with. Look for Exchange Partners Who Can Keep the Conversation Rolling Doing your part when you’re new to a language can be tough. If you commit to a 30 minute exchange, that’s an entire 15 minutes that you need to talk in or listen to your target language. And it can be exhausting or even overwhelming. If your exchange partner isn’t good at helping you keep the conversation rolling in your target language, then you probably don’t have a good match. Look for someone who asks you questions or prompts you in some way to keep going. Don’t settle for someone who lets the conversation fall flat when you run out things to say. Avoid Language Partners Who Hog the Limelight There are exchange partners that tend to take over the exchange and completely forget that they’re supposed to help you, too. And if you find that you enjoy the company of that person, it can be difficult to keep things on track and push them to give you your equal time because you don’t want to put that strain on the relationship. No matter how well you may get along with someone, remember that part of the reason you’re chatting with them is to get language practice. If they aren’t giving you your fair share, it might be time to find a new partner and just switch your status with that person to ‘friend’ rather than ‘exchange partner’. Language exchanges might not be a monetary investment, but they are definitely a time investment and your time is valuable. Don’t waste it. You can always chat with your new friend when it isn’t your study time. Need a Teacher? Then Invest in a Tutor Rather than a Language Exchange Partner Exchange partners are very rarely, if ever, able to teach their native language. Looking for a lesson? Then you’re better off investing in a tutor. Language exchange partners are for conversing. It’s unlikely they’ll be able to explain grammar points or rules to you. A language teacher can. This is when saving your time and investing money becomes the better option. Make Sure Your Language Levels are Compatible You want a language exchange partner whose language level is compatible with yours. This doesn’t mean you each need to be at the same level in your target languages. In fact, if you’re both complete beginners, you may have a rough time of it. On the other hand, if one person is far more advanced than the other, you may find that the exchange stays in the language of the more advanced person and the exchange becomes unfair. Try to find an exchange partner whose level compliments your own so that you’re more fairly matched with them. Remember the Key Attributes to Look for: Reliable, Focused, Engaging I’ve had my fair share of language exchange partners who showed up to our meetings late, unprepared, and distracted. It’s never fun and it makes the exchange a drag. It ends up being a poor use of my time. If your exchange partner is late or distracted once, it isn’t a big deal. If they’re unprepared or late repeatedly, it becomes a big deal. When this happens, it’s time to look for a new exchange partner. How to BE the Perfect Language Exchange Partner It’s easy to write off a language exchange, claiming it’s the other person’s fault that it didn’t work out. But this isn’t always the case. Sometimes you’re at fault for a less-than-perfect exchange. There are a ton of ways that you can mess up your exchanges on Skype, so it’s important to do what you can to avoid making mistakes as an exchange partner. Here are a few tips for how you can be the perfect language exchange partner so that when you find the person that’s perfect for you, they’ll also want continue chatting. Plan Out Conversation Topics in Advance One of the best ways to waste your language exchange is by failing to plan ahead. If you don’t prepare topics in advance, you risk not having anything to talk about during your exchange. Plan out conversation topics in advance, and check to see if they interest your partner. Also, study and prepare phrases or questions that are appropriate to the topic in advance. You could even consider writing a script to read in full or use as a prompt if you feel stuck during the actual exchange. Be Committed Once you’ve found a solid language exchange partner, commit to them. Before language exchanges, commit to preparing. When you’re in a language exchange, commit to staying focused. By being committed, you’ll find you get much more out of your language exchanges - and your exchange partner will too. Give People a Second Chance Sometimes the first session won’t go the way you hoped. Remember that you’re getting to know a new person and explore how you best work together. It might take time for you to “click”. If you feel like the first session had a few hiccups, but that your exchange partner had potential, give them another chance. Take Notes During Your Language Exchange Sessions Take notes during your sessions (or immediately after). I recommend having a document open on your computer for this. That way you can note down any new vocabulary and phrases you learned. And you can plan out things you can ask your exchange partner when you next converse. Did they tell you about an upcoming interview or exam? Make a note to ask them (in your target language) how it went. Did they mention they have brothers or sisters? The next time you chat, ask how their siblings are doing. Ask Them What They Need Earlier, I recommended that you let your language exchange partner know your expectations for any conversations you have. Likewise, be sure to ask them what they expect from you. Then do your best to fulfil those expectations each time you meet. And if you’re not able to, be honest about that. Send a Follow-Up Note after Every Conversation A day or two after each exchange, follow up with an email to your partner to thank them for their time, and ask any questions you have. You can also offer feedback. And if you want to meet them again, have a date and time ready to suggest. Over to You What qualities do you feel make the perfect language exchange partner? And how do you find language learners who have those qualities? Let me know in the comments. The post How to Find a Language Exchange Partner appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.

[nordic-language-love]

Hi there! I'm thinking of starting tutoring on italki but I'm super nervous about it and would love to hear how you've been finding it. I have a TESOL qualification and currently tutor kids in-person as a casual job, but I want more experience (and also would love to supplement my income a bit).

Is it difficult/time-consuming creating lesson plans for each student? Are there any tips you have about lesson prep? What was the biggest challenge you faced when you first started out?

Sorry this is a lot of questions f(^_^;

Hi! Sorry for the slow response - I had a LOT to say about this! I'm gonna put it under a read more because it got far too long lmao

Teaching on italki is very rewarding in my experience. That's not to say it's a breeze all the time, but I have more good experiences than bad for sure. There's a huge market for teaching children English on italki too, so if that's your specialisation then you should be able to get plenty of classes (note that Chinese parents are unable to book classes listed as kids classes bc it's illegal in China to seek online tutors for children under 12, but that doesn't stop them by any means lol).

When I first started I struggled a lot because I had no experience, no idea how to plan lessons and no bank to pull on. Nowadays it's less time-consuming because I already have a lot of my own materials, so I can reuse them or tweak them slightly and I don't make as many things from scratch. But I'm always updating my material as I learn what works and trying to improve my lessons, so it's still time-consuming (but a lot of that's due to my poor time management skills rather than it actually taking that long to put together a lesson plan). It depends on what kind of teacher you are though; many teachers just focus on conversation practice and don't have many (or any) materials at all.

I'd say my biggest challenge though was not knowing how to pitch my lessons at the right level. I ended up subscribing to Linguahouse to get worksheets (which I normally use as starting points for creating my own lesson plans rather than using the worksheets themselves) so that I had more of an idea of what I was doing. Engoo is also a good website for finding news articles suitable for B1-B2 level students (they claim to be up to proficient level, but honestly I think even their level 10 articles are C1 at best). Again, I mostly use it for reference or if I have lots of lessons to plan and I need something quick (because using free resources that students can look up themselves feels a bit cheeky to me).

Some general tips:

1) You'll want to set your prices low to start with. It doesn't matter how much experience you have offline; when people are browsing profiles, they'll see only see the number of lessons you've taught on the platform. You can increase them quite quickly, but remember that number of lessons really counts when people are making a decision choosing a tutor.

2) Because your prices are low, you're going to get some shitty students at first. By that, I mean you get students who aren't prepared to do the work but expect to become fluent in 2 weeks because they're ~PaYiNg FoR a TuToR~. They never last long. Just give them the best lesson you can, be as encouraging and enthusiastic (but also realistic) as possible and wait for them to drop off.

3) Be prepared to be a little flexible with your schedule to start with. I said I wasn't going to work after 4pm or before 6:30am and Tuesday would be my day off. I then ended up teaching 6am-9pm on Tuesdays. After a while, I concluded that teaching before 7am just wasn't for me, and it certainly wasn't something I wanted to do regularly, so I took those slots off my calendar. I also found Wednesdays weren't a popular day, so I made that my day off and now I stick to it. If I'd stuck to my original plan, I wouldn't have a lot of my current students. (This is the problem with working for yourself: on paper you get to set your own hours, but in practice you have to work whatever hours gets your the most customers).

4) Plan breaks in your calendar. You need food and bathroom trips, as well as time to recharge your brain! Some people leave their calendar completely open and then remove slots as they get booked up (e.g. if they're teaching 1-3:30pm and then 4-6pm, they might remove 3-3:30 from their calendar to make sure they get a break in that time). I prefer to have them already pre-planned so I don't have to update my schedule every day. Either way, don't let yourself wind up teaching for 6 hours on the trot.

5) Do not assume that the language level on their profile corresponds to their actual level! Some people list themselves as A1 despite being C1/C2, and some people list themselves as native speakers despite being barely A2. If they say they're B1/B2 then that's more accurate, but it still doesn't help much because those levels are so broad. I always send them a message asking about their goals/current level (sometimes their response is less than helpful, but usually you'll get some idea of what they want.)

6) Use the trial lesson to assess their level, but make sure it's not just a needs assessment. I watched a bunch of "how to run a trial lesson" videos on Youtube, and lots of them were just like "interrogate your student about their English level and studies" and while that's all important and good information, your students are much more likely to rebook if you give them a demonstration of what your lessons are like. I usually plan a trial lesson based on what the student's goals etc are. If they don't respond to my message or don't give me enough information, my trial lesson looks like this:

Start with general pleasantries/introductions and a little small talk (how are you? How is your week? What's the weather like?)

I then ask them why they want to improve their English, a bit about how they study at the moment (do they read books? Watch TV shows?) and what do they find most difficult/want to improve most. I also ask how they prefer to be corrected (should I interrupt them or wait until the end of class?)

I tell them I want to assess their level so I know what our starting point is. I then bring up a PDF with 4 pictures related to either the city (if I think they're low B1 or lower) or sleep (if I think they're high B1+) and ask them to describe their pictures. I might prompt them to say more (what season do you think it is? What time of day is it? Why do you think that? Where are those people going? What are they wearing?) I always try to suggest one or two words they could use so that they feel like they learned something.

The next slide is agree/disagree statements (e.g. it's better to live in the country than the city), and we discuss the statement and what we think. (I'm actually going to update this so it's more like advantages/disadvantages questions because I've noticed that some people don't like discussing their opinions. It's a big part of the IELTS test though, which is kinda what I based it on to start with).

Then I ask them if they have any questions/what else they would like to do in classes. I leave at least 5 minutes for this part.

If I have time left over, I ask them what they'll do later/for the rest of the week and just make a little small talk about that.

7) Keep a document with details about your students. Because you will forget shit (especially if you have students with the same name/other similar details), and it doesn't look very good if you forget for the third lesson in a row what they do for a living or where they live. It also helps you keep track of what you've studied and what resources you've used with each student so that you don't end up redoing exercises you've already done.

8) Google docs are great! Start one for each student and use it to keep track of new vocabulary, corrections and homework (if you choose to set it - not everyone wants it, and it's extra work for you to do too. I only set it if people ask for it).

9) People might offer to pay you outside of italki. This would mean more money because italki isn't then taking a 15% commission, but it's against italki's policy and I never do for fear of being caught (eg if I have a dispute with a student who's started paying me outside of italki, they could report me to italki and I'd get banned from the platform). Of course, you can do what you like! But if you get asked and would prefer not to take the risk, here's what I say:

"Thanks for the offer, but I prefer you booking the lessons through italki. It helps me keep track of all my lessons. Also, I hope to work in a school someday, and it will help a lot if I have a high number of lessons taught on my italki profile. I'm very happy that you offered though!"

10) Check out other people's videos on youtube about how they run their classes and what tips they have. Not all of them will apply to you - you have to figure out your own style! - but it's good to have some ideas. I really like English Teacher Ryan's videos.

11) Don't bullshit if you don't know something. Just say you're not sure, but you'll look it up and get back to them. Chances are your students will find grammar loopholes and complications you never knew English had and will come to you asking why this person used the past simple when according to your last lesson it should have been a present perfect etc.

12) If you're teaching grammar, revise it before the lesson. And revise it from lots of different resources too, because different resources will say different things, and you want to know that grammar inside out.

Okay, I think that's enough of an essay now! I hope some of it was helpful 😅 Good luck! I'm sure you'll be awesome 😊

#ask #italki

[accuhunt]

How to Indulge Your Wanderlust During the Coronavirus Pandemic.

The past few days have been rather scary. Mask-covered faces. Queues to wash hands in public toilets. Sanitizers constantly out of stock. Accusatory looks towards anyone coughing or sneezing. Eerily empty hotels, flights and streets following the lockdown travel advice for Coronavirus. Places that were once plagued by overtourism are now deserted. The spread of the COVID-19 Coronavirus has suddenly brought all usual life – and travel – to a halt.

Until a week or two ago, the panic felt rooted in social media, whatsapp forwards and even racial profiling. At that time, I posted on Instagram that I would continue my travels. But in light of recent developments, I’ve archived that post, cancelled some rather exciting travel plans until April and urged everyone to do the same.

I was scheduled to conduct a workshop on responsible tourism marketing in Madhya Pradesh and speak at the prestigious Economic Times Women’s Forum this month – but both events have been cancelled.

In fact, India has cancelled all visas for foreigners till mid April. Sri Lanka has suspended its e-visa facility. Italy is under lock down. Public events have been cancelled in most parts of the world. Schools and colleges have been shut in most Indian states. India’s travel advice for coronavirus is to cancel all non-essential travel abroad. Indians returning from China, Italy, Iran, Korea, France, Spain, Germany, Malaysia, Nepal and even the US can potentially be sent to 14 days of quarantine!

Chances are, you already know that. You, like me, have cancelled your immediate travel plans. And probably you, like me, are wondering what you can do now to indulge your wander-lusting soul!

Here are some creative ideas to satiate your travel cravings – safely and responsibly – during this uncertain coronavirus period:

Read non-fiction books by local authors to virtually explore a new region or country

I’ve dreamt of setting foot in Tibet for a long time, knowing fully well that the Tibet of my dreams is off limits (or no longer exists). So a while ago, I did the next best thing to travelling in Tibet – reading a book that movingly explores its lost beauty, culture and way of life. Tibet With My Eyes Closed is a collection of short stories by Madhu Gurung, based on the lives of Tibetan refugees in India. Some stories moved me to tears, while others left me with an insatiable longing. I can’t recommend it enough!

My point is, as per official travel advice for coronavirus, the entire world is off limits right now. But we can do the next best thing – travel to our dream places through the words and insights of people who know them deeply.

If you dream of Iran, for instance, read Reading Lolita In Tehran. If you dream of Myanmar, read From The Land Of Green Ghosts. If you dream of the Caucasus (Georgia / Azerbaijan), read Ali And Nino.

For more book recommendations, see my favorite (unusual) travel books by local authors around the world. If you’re keen to explore the world from my lens, you can also get a copy of my travel memoir, The Shooting Star

Also read: What No One Tells You About Writing and Publishing a Book in India

Learn a new language that will make a future trip more meaningful

Everywhere I travel, I try to pick up a few words in the local language. But in the weeks before I travelled to Japan, I tried to listen to one episode of a Japanese language podcast every day. By the time I landed in Tokyo, I was able to say many basic phrases in Japanese – which sure made it easier to make friends, find local vegan food and even get some unusual recommendations.

The process of learning a language can certainly make us feel like we’re almost on our way somewhere. The Survival Phrases podcast is good for conversational skills and the Babbel / Duolingo apps can help with basics. But if you really want to commit, consider signing up with an online teacher for one-to-one Skype lessons on a site like italki (I haven’t used it yet but heard good things).

I took Urdu writing lessons last year, but have been terrible at keeping up with what I learnt. I’ve pledged to practice a bit everyday now!

Also read: Unusual Solo Travel Destinations to Feed Your Adventurous Spirit

Document your past adventures

I still have tons of untold stories from my travels over the years. If you’re a travel writer, blogger, photographer, Instagrammer or any kind of storyteller, you’re probably full of stories too – and always wishing for more time to be able to tell them. Or perhaps you have a special interest in architecture, vegan food, wildlife, languages or something else – and you could combine that with your past travels to create unique stories.

All travel advice for Coronovirus suggests not going on a physical journey. But we can still journey into the recesses of our minds, relive some of our adventures and share them with the world. After all, we could all use a little break from the negative news out there!

Also read: How I’m Funding my Adventures Around the World Through Travel Blogging

Binge watch the wonders of our planet

Many of us travel to witness the breathtaking beauty of nature and the cultural wonders of the world. Unfortunately both are fast disappearing.

Video streaming sites online are full of films and documentaries about our incredible planet, wildlife, remote cultures and more. Now is a good time to plug into them, both to feed our wanderlust and to remind ourselves what we stand to lose. Maybe the travel advice for coronavirus and this time away from the road, work, school, college and social gatherings can be a time to reflect on how we need to make better life and travel choices to collectively help the planet.

I’ve been meaning to finish watching One Strange Rock on Netflix, which explains the wonders of earth from the fascinating perspectives of astronauts. And start Our Planet, which documents the impact of climate change on the world’s most remote and vulnerable regions.

Also read: Tajikistan: A Country That’s Not on Your Travel Radar, But Should Be.

Support small responsible travel businesses virtually

As you can probably imagine, this is one of the worst times for the travel industry. March, otherwise peak travel season for many places around the world, has been a month of cancellations. April might go the same way, though I really hope not. Small business owners, family-run homestays, social enterprises and responsible tourism businesses will be some of the worst hit this year.

All travel advice for coronavirus suggests we can’t physically travel this month to support them or the work they do for local communities and environment conservation. But small gestures can go a long way. Leave them a heartfelt review on Google Reviews / TripAdvisor. Mention them on Instagram / Twitter. Recommend them to family and friends for future trips. When the coronavirus pandemic is behind us, they’ll need our tourism money the most. Let’s make sure they’re found, remembered and supported then!

Also read: Offbeat, Incredible and Sustainable – These Travel Companies are Changing the Way You Experience India

Work on your storytelling

Perhaps experimenting with writing, blogging, photography or videos has been on your mind for a long time. Or you still need to perfect some skills. I know I need to get better at editing videos. I could use some professional photography help, but my heart is only half in it. I still have a ton of SEO work to do on this blog. And there’s no end to becoming a better writer.

Here’s a silver lining for the travel advice for coronavirus: Use the time you would’ve spent travelling or socializing, to work on something that might enable you to travel or work on the go in the future!

Also read: Advice for the Young and Penniless Who Want to Travel

International travel is out. But should you travel domestically now?

Many of you have reached out to ask for my travel advice for coronavirus with respect to domestic travel in India (and elsewhere). I think it’s a bad idea. For several reasons:

It’s just not fun. I felt an inexplicable anxiety during the last two days of my recent Chhattisgarh trip. Hearing someone cough sent a shiver down my spine. The last thing I wanted was to have to put myself in self-isolation in someone’s homestay or in a soulless hotel. Or worse, be quarantined in a government facility.

The fear of carrying the virus to a remote part of India. The idea of travelling from urban India – where the majority of coronavirus cases are (in Delhi, Mumbai, Jaipur, Kochi etc) – to rural India is a scary one. Imagine if we have the virus but the symptoms haven’t yet shown up. We could be carrying it to small villages where medical facilities are rare and self-isolation is difficult because entire families live in a single room. It’ll be mayhem.

The fear of infecting people more vulnerable to the virus. People over 60 and those with respiratory issues seem to be the most vulnerable to the coronavirus. We can’t risk being the vectors infecting them.

Flights, buses and trains can be coronavirus hotbeds. Given how infectious the coronavirus seems to be, being stuck among scores of people in a closed environment is a big no-no.

It’s best to postpone all international and domestic travel atleast until April (maybe longer, depending on how things turn out). We need to avoid busy places, public transport and any physical contact. We must constantly wash and sanitise our hands. And if we have even the mildest symptoms of fever, cough, cold or flu, we absolutely must stay at home and follow official protocols!

How has coronavirus affected your travel plans? If you run a travel business, what’s it been like for you?

Also read:

11 Tips to Ease Your Transition Into a Vegan Lifestyle

Incredible Experiences That’ll Make You Fall in Love With Uzbekistan

Should Travel Bloggers and Influencers Voice Their Political Opinions?

The post How to Indulge Your Wanderlust During the Coronavirus Pandemic. appeared first on The Shooting Star.

How to Indulge Your Wanderlust During the Coronavirus Pandemic. published first on https://airriflelab.tumblr.com

[feralafrica-blog]

How to Work Online and Get Paid

Working online and getting paid allows you to schedule time for things you really want to do in life like travel, spend more time with your family or to enjoy a hobby.  The focus of this website is to encourage those who love to travel to do so full time however, this article can also inspire those who merely want more time to spend with their family at home. Here is how to work online and get paid. There are many ways to earn money online like fill in surveys or read emails but these options don’t make real money.  If you are serious about making money to support yourself, view it like a business.

Teach English Online

Requirements: TEFL Certificate Computer Internet Connection Earning Potential: You can start earning from about $10 - $15 per hour and work yourself up from there. So that means if you only work only 30 hours a week you can easily earn up to $1800 per month on $15 per hour.  The more experience you gain the more you can charge. You can do an online TEFL course with many reputable companies.  We suggest MyTefl.  I personally did my online course through them and would suggest them any day.  They can assist with online job placements. If you get hired by a company to teach English online they sometimes require you to complete a minimum weekly hour requirement.  This is great because you are guaranteed a certain amount of working hours.  Opt of reputable agency even if they pay less because at least you know they are reliable when it comes to payment.  Just remember that you will have to stick to their scheduled working hours. Alternatively, you can start your own online teaching business through your website and social media accounts and use skype to teach.  This is going to take time to set up and get yourself established so getting a regular income from this might only happen in a year.  On the up side you are building your own brand and business and you have control over it. Get yourself qualified with a 120-hour professional online TEFL course. Readers of our blog can enjoy a 30% discount. PROMOTION CODE = SAVE30

Italki  Italki allows you to set up a teacher or tutor profile.  You can decide what you want to charge.  They do not promise you any work, it is up to you to attract learners with your online profile.  It's a nice way to break into the market and see if you like it.  The one benefit is that you can decide on your working hour schedule. EnglishHunt EnglishHunt offers teaching programs to schools in Asia.  As a tutor you are expected to work according to their scheduled hours and a basic requirement would be a TEFL certificate.  They offer part time work and you can make up to about $14.50 per hour of teaching completed.  You can expect anything from about 8 - 12 hours of work a week. Tip # If English is not your first language then consider teaching your first language online.

Start a Blog

Requirements: Computer Internet Connection Earning Potential: I know many travel bloggers who make over a $1000 per month from their blog.  It is going to take hard and consistent work to achieve this but it is possible. How to Go about It? Niche: Pick a niche that you will build your blog around. Choose something you like and are knowledgeable about.   This way you won’t run out of steam.    Really think about your Niche and don’t choose something too broad.  For example if you like travel you will have to choose something within travel for your niche like boutique hotels and then build content around that. Domain Name: Choose a domain name that fits with your niche. Domain names do not cost a lot.  You can get a dot.com for about $13. It’s important to buy your own domain name because you cannot earn money through a free domain name. Build Your Site: Now the fun part begins.  You get to be all-creative and build your site.  We use Wordpress as our blogging platform.  They offer free blog templates you can use so there is no need to get a web designer in for the job. Quality Content: You need to consistently create and post quality content that your audience is searching for with low competition. If no one is searching for what you are writing about then no one will visit your blog.  If you write about what everyone is searching but a lot of people are writing about then the chances of your post being on the first page of Google is not good.  It’s important to do your homework here.  Find low competition long tail keywords that are often searched on Google.  We use a great tool called Jaaxy and it takes away a lot of the guess work for us.  It allows you to search and find long tail keywords that people are searching for and it tells you what your competition is like.  Once you have found a low competition highly searched long tail keyword you can build an article around that.  Google will index your post for people to find.  That is how you found this blog post.  How to Work Online and Get Paid is a long tail key word people often search on Google, has low competition and that is why we opted to create a blog article around it.  Join Jaaxy and try it out for yourself.  Jaaxy allows you to join for free and it gives you 30 free searches before you have to go onto the paid version. Audience: Attract visitors to your website through quality blog posts. You don’t just want high volume traffic going through your site, you are looking for the right audience that is attracted to the quality content you are creating.  These are the people that will spend money on your site or click through to affiliate links and buy products you suggest earning you a commission. Earn: You earn money through affiliate programs you belong to like Amazon. For example, you write an article about a cookbook you absolutely love and you put an affiliate link for your readers to buy it on Amazon.  If a reader goes onto Amazon through your affiliate link and buys the cookbook you suggested then you get a commission for the sale.  You can also earn money for advertising you place on your site.  If your site is, popular business within your niche might approach you and ask for advertising space.  You can now charge them a monthly or yearly rate.  You could also opt to sell products directly from your site. How We Did It This might seem very overwhelming to you if you are new to this.  We got training through a company called Wealthy Affiliate.  They offer excellent training for those starting out.  They teach you how to build your blog, how to write quality articles to attract the right audience and how to monetize your blog.  The really great news is that you can sign up with them for free.  Your FREE ACCOUNT allows some training, two websites and the potential to earn revenue with your free blog through their affiliate program.  Try it out and see if you like it; you really have nothing to lose.

Freelancer.com

If you already have skills that can allow you to work online like graphic designing or proof reading then working freelance on Freelancer.com might be just the thing for you.  This website allows you to bid on work and set your own rate.  Your earning potential is really what you want it to be.  It takes time to get yourself established so in the beginning opt to do jobs for a low fee to get good reviews. When you are established on freelancer you can pretty much set your rates. The benefit of freelancing through Freelancer is that you are guaranteed payment because freelancer collects the money from the employer before the time and when you have finished your freelance job and the client is happy all they have to do is release the funds.  They have a resolution center in case anything goes wrong. We would love to hear from you.  Are there other ways to make a steady income from online work?   Click to Post

#How to Work Online and Get Paid

[myfluentpodcast]

E73 - How does one-on-one online lessons work?

For more informatoin, go to www.myfluentpodcast.com 

Don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss any new language tips and tricks! 

Transcript (only the interview without the intro and outro: 

I was born in Moscow and I've been living here in Moscow for all my life, you know, So, English is not, the first language that I learned the first language that I intentionelly learned was German and, I reached the C one level. And after reaching it, I decided not to move to Germany. And so, 10 years left and, I can admit that I have already almost everything forgotten, you know, and one year ago I decided to, learn English because it's the, the most popular, the most spoken lingua franca yes in the world. And so, I took free intensive language courses, in the language school here in Moscow.

And then I understood that, it's not enough, go to the courses and to learn that English, we should like, you know, immerse ourselves in English as much as possible. And at this moment, I started watching a lot of series on Netflix, YouTube, videos, Ted talks that is written, a lot of writings, articles, newspapers and so on.

and then I realized that, my ability to speak is not really good in order to solve this problem, I decided to, To start learning, like, study language, with a native speaker. I think when you reach, a high level of any language, it's better to learn it, with native speaker because only they can feel, this deep meanings in phrases. Yes. or something like this.

So that means It was kind of your idea. You got the idea to take lessons on itutaki. Is that right?

Yes, exactly. And, so at the beginning of this year, I started learning English. So is, It's Udemy? And Italki. Exactly.

So how many lessons did you have on Italki?

I've had about, 20 or 30, lessons with, with, uh,a tutor yes, something like this and what's interesting there are lots of tutors there on by talking and it's relatively hard to choose, someone whom you can work with. Yeah, because everyone expects, diverse, things.

Yeah. Expectations, Someone wants to learn like drama. other people want, to improve their writing skills. other people just want to, have, conversations with people and, when you leave. in a country where English is not official language, and people don't really speak English well, then, these platforms, like Itakie or something else, they can really help you to find someone and especially someone who is qualified to teach, English as a foreign language.

How exactly did you pick your teacher? One that suits your learning style?

So, yes, as I said, it was difficult because, I saw about a hundred profiles. It's not a joke.

Did you watch the introduction videos?

Yes. so on I talk to each, teacher, each tutor, has, his profile page.

and in this page you can find some description about, this tutor. You can find some information about how experienced they are and they also provide their like video introducing about themselves they tell us, which approach they have , how they teach us English and.

So I didn't want to find just someone who I can speak with, because, so it depends some people can learn any language by speaking. it's not about me at all. I need to read a lot, I need to write a lot. and I need, like, you know, Like, prepare, something, before the fall lesson and after watching about a hundred profiles on Italki, I choose about four or five tutors, that I found interesting from him. and, so I started. Nowadays I have one tutor that, is perfect for me.

Oh,

okay. So, so first you took lessons with several teachers and then you decided and picked one, is that correct?

Or yes, exactly. I had, so first, trial, you know, trial lessons with, three, different teachers. and, I chose one . Italki provides, an opportunity to take like trail lessons, with, with a tutor, it costs less than usual, lesson with them.

And, what is the teacher doing that you can improve in your language? I mean, does he correct you? How can we imagine a lesson?

Okay. So I chose a tutor who sent me, like a homework. Usually it is, an article from a newspaper or it could be also a video and with this material , He also , sends me like questions. Yeah. I need to work on this material. So, so, for example, let's imagine that it is an article, any article. So I read this article. I. Underline some words, some phrases that I don't understand or I'm not quite sure, what it means and, when we start our lesson we discuss, I tell him, like a summary about this article, what I think about, this, topic. generally, then I ask some questions what a have about, particular phrases, words. he explains me, and, yes. And, throughout our conversation about this, he also provides, some explanation, when I, tell him something wrong like mistakes and so on. yes. And, like, and in onothher part writing, so, he sent me, questions on. On these materials and I helped to write, some text. it doesn't matter how long it will be. So it depends on me. and, we discuss the texts.

We find together, some mistakes and he explains why I was wrong in this place of text or, how to say something better. Nice. So this is Allah ordinary, lesson. And

could you give instructions to the teacher? I mean, maybe you wanted to have things in a certain way or was it that the teacher has his style and he explained to you how the lesson works and then it, happened like the teacher wanted it to be, I mean, do you have a say in it how the procedure goes on?

Or of course, so, yes, you can always adjust your lesson and approach that. you and your teacher, have throughout this lessons, you can, for example, you can choose a topic that you want to discuss just cause, or you, you can ask it.

So, basically you can ask everything you want. Yes. It's about language you can ask any questions. And if this question doesn't relate to the topic, it doesn't matter. So, first of all, secondly, yes, you can adjust, the lesson and approach, that you have. for example, I asked my tutor, that we have more conversations throughout lessons and no problem.

could you improve your language skills drastically after the 20 or 30

lessons you had.

I can tell you that, I became more confident about language. so as I understand this process of learning language it's a matter , of your immersion in language.

You can immerse yourself, in English with, or without a teacher. It doesn't matter. but a teacher can help you to make it better and more quickly and so I think that after this amount of lessons, I became more confident at least.

Okay, great. And, are there , other tricks you want to give to language learners? I let's say you, you find a teacher for three bucks. would you say it is more wise to go for a more expensive teacher you know, I think it's like personal thing. Yeah. you can like someone. just because of voice or appearance or something like this. I don't think that it's the best thing because if you're, if you feel comfortable with someone is better. Certainly. so what I will suggest, first of all, you have to watch a profile of teacher. you have to understand, which approach they have because so basically , there are a lot of tutors there, who like speaking.

Yes. They think that, speaking and having conversations is, the essential thing. , but by learning a language, it's, it's true. But, you can have conversations with, with any person you want. It's not necessary that this person will be a tutor or a qualified teacher.

Yes from qualified teacher, I expect that they have their own, approach how to teach, people better. And. So I, I think that if you just want to have conversations, There are, tutors who are not qualified is just, people who, want to speak, who maybe they also learn, for example, your language and two, you can like, exchange, your knowledge yes.

Between, languages. But if you want to start there, so choose a qualified tutor.

Okay. What about the VIDEO what happens after the lesson? Do you keep it,you save the video files from the lesson to learn from it or. It doesn't matter at all.

So usually I don't record, our lessons. sometimes I do it, and, I do it, if the topic is important for me.

or if I feel that I'm not really well like seasoned, in this, on, on this topic and, The reason why I record will be like, I want to listen it later on and I understand my weaknesses. So usually it's about this because, each mistake I make, each, mispronounced, pronunciation.

my tutor will suggest me. How I should say this or this thing. And so it doesn't turn the matter, but, it's quite a useful if you want to realize your weaknesses. Okay.

Okay. And do you think, is this method also good for shy learners? I mean, taking lessons online. Or is it a, maybe be a problem? I mean, you are there with a foreigner and there is the camera. do you think it is never the last, a good method for that? So Orwell, they feel awkward.

You mean if it doesn't is shy? Yeah. maybe, maybe, but, what, Oh, what I can say about this or that qualified teachers? They usually, . They usually experienced, working with shy people. Yes. And they can, and they can, like improve their self esteem or self esteem of , students. And I think first of all, for, for shy people, if you start start, your lesson online and do you feel like you're completely. A disaster, you can always switch off.

Okay. so I will suggest, you'd better try. Yes. And if you feel, that it's not your thing, then maybe it's better to go to some language school, or

do you remember any awkward situation in a lesson. And maybe with your first teachers,

  in the trial lessons maybe, or, or anything that was funny or an anecdote or something that comes to mind, maybe not, but, I'm just asking.

so it's all this, really. How to describe this. It's like, you're always a bit self conscious when you speak a foreign language.

And therefore if you don't know a simple word that is really simple in your language, or like, I don't know, like smartphone. Yes. If you don't know this word is, it's always like, Oh, my God. What's wrong with me. Yeah.

Yeah.

And, but so we have to realize, we have to understand that, language doesn't come into our brain by, on their own or on its own.

we have to just to start it to start the heart. And so they're very them. Will be, no situation that we, , may or can feel, , like embarrassed maybe. Yeah. It's just a learning process.

I took several lessons, , actually on Italki,

but

that is about some years ago. And the funny thing about is that I felt more comfortable with a Chilean teacher who, who taught me English, you know, it's, it's just a funny thought, I think because, well, it is a non-native teacher, but for me, he was the best teacher. And because for me was not like a lesson . It became like a friend, you know, we, we talked a lot. We had the Skype conversations, but it was not like, like a English lesson. It was just like talking together with, with a friend. So I remember that that was awesome.

I ended up, I think it's sometimes happens when , it's huge and the student became friends. it could be, it could be,

yes. Yeah. And what about your future, or do you have any plans? Will you stick with this plan and take more lessons online or where is your language journey taking you?

so I don't have a really particular like goals. Yes. In this. I just want to improve my English and. like not only into the language, but also into the culture, this American culture, or maybe British culture. so, so my plan is to, to learn step by step at yes. At not really fast pace of just ordinary.

Yeah,

that sounds like a great plan to me because I don't like the notion or, three, learn a language in three months or so. I don't like that

because yes, of course.

Yeah.

First of all, it's impossible to learn any language in three months. we should admit it.

Thank you. See you. Bye. Thank you very much. Bye.

Music:

Upbeat Party by Scott Holmes is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.

  Check out this language related episode! Learn with a learner and become fluent!

[fluentlanguage]

#clearthelist July 2019: My Chinese and Welsh Progress After a Break

“Inelegantly, and without my consent, time passed.” - Miranda July

Welcome to Clear the List, my monthly language learning goals update. Yep, that time again already!

Clear the List is a round-up hosted by my friends Lindsay Williams and Shannon Kennedy, and if you’re interested in joining then don’t hesitate to check out the Clear the List linkup for #clearthelist, hosted by Lindsay Williams and Shannon Kennedy.

Let’s go!

What Happened in June 2019?

The biggest event in my June 2019 was the Fluent German Retreat, my immersion holiday for German learners.

We studied in the mornings and had fun outings in the afternoons, like a local apple farm where the owner himself showed us around. In Hamburg, we spent time in the Kunsthalle, the city’s amazing art museum which houses one of my favourite paintings: “Wanderer above a sea of fog”.

There were sea shanties and container ships, city guides in traditional dress, and not lastly delicious home-cooked meals from my retreat co-host Therese.

If you want more information about my retreats and perhaps come along on the next one, click here to join the retreat newsletter.

I also attended my first unconference in June, where conference attendees can turn up and decide to give a talk about anything. Have you been to one of these before?

New for Online Teachers

This month I also got to launch a fabulous new set of workshops for online teachers. These are open for enrolment until 7 July, and they will show ambitious online teachers how to improve the way they do business.

I’m teaching these with Lindsay Williams, my business friend and podcast buddy. Together we’re going to teach you about the best marketing tips and product strategies.

Get more details about this programme here

The Fluent Show

My favourite podcast experience of the month is definitely the afternoon I got to spend recording 4 podcasts about online teaching with Lindsay Williams. We’re friends and we chat, but we’d never chatted about the different aspects of our businesses in this way.

It also got personal and I shared my own story of creating this website and business out of my experience with depression.

If you are at all interested in online teaching and marketing, you’ll love this conversation.

Click here to listen to the podcast.

Language Goals and Progress

We are like 300 words into this article and finally it’s time to check in on my LANGUAGE goals. As you can see I’ve been engaged in lots of projects, so let’s have an honest look about whether I fitted any language learning into all this.

The German retreat took about 10 study days out of my month, but happily I returned more motivated than ever.

Is there anything better than returning from a break, eager to progress through your routine?

Chinese Core Skills

Listening and Reading

I only really listen to Mandarin Chinese when I take lessons or use Lingq, so let’s look at these two goals together.

I created 45 new Lingqs, reading a total of 350 words. In my lessons and books, I also progressed a few pages here and there, so I’ll repeat my favourite language learning mantra:

You can never learn backwards.

In other reading news, I was able to pick out 3 characters from the writing on a Sriracha bottle. It’s the little things…

Speaking

I had hoped to take 3 italki lessons, but today it’s the 30th and again I only managed one. However, during that one class the compliments were flying my way as my Mandarin teacher said I was a very quick and careful learner.

Writing

I wrote 2 pages and practiced a few more Chinese characters.

Welsh Core Skills

Felt like Welsh was a great one this month as I naturally want it in my life now, no big motivation necessary. I found that S4C’s app works on our Amazon Fire stick, so now I can finally watch the popular show Un Bore Mercher with Eve Myles.

You can watch this with me if you are in the UK, because it was actually filmed in Welsh AND English and is available in English as Keeping Faith

And the best thing I found: SUBTITLES IN WELSH!! Amazing!! You can’t get these through my usual streaming service, so I’m just delighted.

For reading and writing practice, I kept my Welsh Instagram account going (@kersydysgu, dilynwch fi os eisiau!) and had the usual text exchanges with friends. And I had a lovely language exchange with Gareth Popkins.

Language Goals for July 2019

My next few months all look like they will feature quite a bit of travel and work, so one thing’s for sure: 2019 is not going to be the “summer of language study”. But here’s what I’m aiming for in July 2019.

Listening

I have good things going here with Welsh on the radio, podcasts, and TV. In addition, Lingq recorded dialogues are a great resource of Mandarin at my level. So it’s all good and I just need to crack on.

Reading

In Welsh, I’m actually finding myself quite eager to start my next book which will be Ffenestri by Lois Arnold.

In Chinese, I’m ALSO eager to read as I’m loving the Lingq app. Let’s see if I can build more Lingqs than in June.

Speaking

Aiming for at least 2 italki lessons in Mandarin Chinese, and let’s see if I can’t find someone to speak more Welsh to. If all else fails, I’ll record myself speaking some Welsh over on Instagram.

Writing

Unclear on the goals at the moment, but I do get the feeling that my Chinese level is now calling for some vocabulary lists. I like writing vocabulary lists rather than making flashcards, as they allow me to focus and review without a screen. So let’s see if I can’t fill 2 pages with 20-40 Mandarin expressions and words.

Not sure if I should keep it pin-yin here or go with the full character set? What do you think?

On Studying 2 Languages

Studying both Chinese and Welsh at the same time is not bothering me massively. I don’t have the big goals of reaching any levels at set points, and for this month the relaxed feel fits both languages well.

I’d love to hear from you. Which languages are you studying? Are you happy with your language choices at the moment?

Leave a comment below, or why not join clearthelist as well and post your own update on your blog. I’m looking forward to hearing from you!

#goal setting #clearthelist #retreat #chinese #welsh

[eurolinguiste]

This month, I completed my Add1Challenge Day 90 video pretty early for Korean. My teacher needed to travel, so the last few weeks of the challenge, I went full throttle with my Korean studies. 

I was pretty nervous about needing to record my Day 90 long before the deadline, but on Day 64 I took a deep breath, hit record, and made it 16 minutes. 

Now that my Korean project is done, I will continue to do some low-level maintenance on the language so that I don’t lose what I’ve learned until my teacher returns. But I have a new project or two in mind based on a few travel plans I have in the coming months.

On to #clearthelist …

If you’re new around these parts, #clearthelist is a linkup where we share our monthly goals, and by we, I mean myself, and Lindsay of Lindsay Does Languages.

We’d absolutely love for you to a part of our community. You can join us by adding a link to your own goal post below.

So let’s get started, sharing our goals and motivating one another to #clearthelist!

Please feel free to tag your posts or photos with either #clearthelist on your favorite social media channels!

Last Month’s Highlights on Instagram

  A post shared by Shannon Kennedy (@eurolinguiste) on Jun 26, 2018 at 9:12am PDT

Last Month’s Blog Highlights

Travel

Where to Find Croatian Food in Southern California // Plus  Croatian food vocabulary.

Two Days in Asunción // A fun guest post from Lindsay Does Languages.

Language Learning

5 Tools I Use to Keep My Language Projects and Resources Organized // How I keep on top of my language learning tasks.

Stop Planning to Learn a Language // And just do it.

The Ultimate List of Language Resources for Spanish Learners // Native material for Spanish learners including books, podcasts, tv shows, and songs. 

Last Month’s Goals

Continue filling the gaps in my Mandarin vocabulary I’ve noticed since Little Linguist’s arrival. // A permanent item on my monthly list.

Read the next Language Reading Challenge book on my list. // In June, we read a book on learning strategies (any learning strategy, not just language related). I read a book called Never Split the Difference. It is about negotiating, which I believe to be an aspect of conversation and thus, a useful skill to learn as a language enthusiast. 

Keep working through my YouTube Queue.  // I watched many of the Korean lessons I had bookmarked, but I’m making really good progress overall. 

Continue to meet my daily goal on LingQ for Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Russian. // Yup! I love watching my word count add up.

Add1Challenge // I completed my Day 90 video for Korean, but I’m still taking part in the Intermediate challenge (Add1Advance) for Japanese. I have a few weeks left of videos to record, but I’m really enjoying the challenge, my Mastermind, and getting so much practice!

Fun Interview with Olly Richards of I Will Teach You a Language

This past month, I had an opportunity to chat with Olly Richards about introverted language learning and minimalism in language learning. 

This Month’s Goals

Continue filling the gaps in my Mandarin vocabulary I’ve noticed since Little Linguist’s arrival. // A permanent item on my monthly list. We’ve been doing a lot more reading together lately, so he’s keeping me on my toes!

Read the next Language Reading Challenge book on my list. // In July, we’re something written by someone who lives in a country that speaks your target language. If you’re an intermediate or advanced learner, you can read a book in your target language. If you’re a beginner, you can read a translation of a book.

Keep working through my YouTube Queue.  // Now that my focus has shifted, there isn’t much in my YouTube queue that is for the language I want to work on. So while I still want to go through any Japanese or Russian languages I have bookmarked, my pace here will slow. 

Continue to meet my daily goal on LingQ for Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Russian. // Since I was able to do it last month, I hope to keep it up this month.

Add1Challenge // In July, I’m wrapping up the Add1Challenge for Japanese and Korean, and starting the next. For this next challenge, I also plan to participate in the Intermediate challenge, but this time, my focus language will once again be – Croatian! It’s been about six months since I last focused on the language (though I have been doing daily vocabulary study), and it’s time to give it my attention once again. 

In August, I’m really thrilled to have been invited back to LangFest as a speaker. I’ll be giving a talk on Croatian, and I can’t wait to share a bit about this incredible language with you.

Resources I Used This Month

A quick recap on the materials I am using.

What I Am Using to Learn Chinese

LingQ – my favourite tool

iTalki Lessons – I have weekly Chinese lessons

Memrise – I do 18,000 points minimum per day 

What I’m Using to Brush Up/Improve My French:

LingQ

Immersion (we speak franglais at home)

Listening to French radio/podcasts

Lingoci

What I am Using to Learn Russian:

LingQ

Perfectionnement Russe

iTalki Lessons

Memrise

Pimsleur

What I am Using to Learn Korean:

LingQ

Memrise

iTalki Lessons

Pimsleur

Glossika

What I am Using to Learn Spanish:

LingQ

What I am Using to Learn Italian:

LingQ

What I’m Using to Learn Japanese:

Lingualift

Memrise

iTalki Lessons

Pimsleur

Glossika

What I’m Using for Little Linguist

Baby Bear, Harry the Dog, Disney Fairy Tales, and a book about an Imaginary Friend

Little Pim

Finding Dory, Cars and other films/tv shows

Day-to-day interaction

Resources That Aren’t Language Specific

Add1Challenge

The Biggest Lesson I Am Taking Away from This Month

This month, I really am starting to feel as thought I’ve gotten the hang of managing my language projects. I’ve found a good balance in alternating which languages I study, which is my focus and maintaining what I’ve already learned. 

I have no doubts that I’ll continue to improve how I organize my studies and focus, but for now, I’m pretty happy with where it’s at. I feel like I’m starting to make significant progress with each of my languages in a way I hadn’t managed in the past, so I’m excited to see where the next few months take me.

Don’t forget that I would love to hear all about your goals for this month! Please join us by adding your post to the linkup below! 

Clear The List Linkup Rules:

1. Share your goal post whether it includes your aspirations for the month or year. Submissions unrelated to the theme or links to your homepage will be deleted.

2. Link back to this post. You can use our button if you wish.

3. Follow the hosts: Lindsay from Lindsay Does Languages and Shannon from Eurolinguiste.

4. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT RULE: Please visit the site of the person who linked up immediately before you and leave them an encouraging comment! By hosting this linkup, we’re hoping to create a positive community where we can all share our goals. If you do not do this, you will be removed from the linkup.

5. Share on social media using #ClearTheList

An InLinkz Link-up

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The post Clear The List | Monthly Language Learning Strategies Update | July appeared first on Eurolinguiste.

#IFTTT #WordPress #language learning #travel #eurolinguiste

[learnspanishfans]

How Speaking from Day One Helped Me Conquer Love and The Spanish Language

When you think back five years ago, did you ever think that you would be where you are now? Maybe so, maybe not. However, I most certainly didn’t. Five years ago, I never in my wildest dreams would have thought I would be living in Colombia with my wife, speaking Spanish. But here I am now. It all started with a boring accounting job, then it became a trip to Argentina, and then a longing to be fluent in Spanish. Looking back, I think to myself: “thank goodness I found myself in a boring cubicle job.” I imagine my story might be like your own in one way or another. At some point in time you decided you had had enough and it was time to start speaking a second language. At some point, you realized it was worth it to take on the tough task of learning a language. In this article, I am going to show you how speaking from day one helped me finally learn a language, and changed my life forever.

Speaking from Day One - Why it Matters

Let me preface by saying that I didn’t start learning languages with a “speak from day one” approach. I had 4 years of high school Spanish class where I proceeded to learn very little except for the conjugation of words I didn’t understand. That, and my name in the class was Juan. Like most people I had a tiny bit of Spanish knowledge and could say introductory phrases like ¿Cómo estás? and Me llamo Nate. Part of me longed to speak Spanish, but I just wasn’t there. I finished school and got a regular job. However, after five years of accounting, I decided that I was done waiting for “someday” to learn a language and chose to take six weeks off to go to Argentina. “Someday” can mean “never” if you let it. Thankfully, I didn’t. I went to Argentina to take language classes and quickly found that my immersive program wasn’t going to make me fluent anytime soon. Most people spoke to me in English (in Argentina!) and I couldn’t really hold any actual conversation in Spanish. I came back home to the states frustrated and looking for answers. I searched far and wide to find the best and most efficient ways to learn Spanish quickly. That’s when I discovered Benny Lewis and his language hacking approach.

How I Found Fluent in 3 Months

Thankfully, around this time, I stumbled on Benny’s blog and signed up for his awesome Fluent in 3 Months Newsletter. The main thing I took away from Benny’s teaching was to start speaking in the language right away. It seems so clear now, yet almost everything I was doing at the time was the opposite to this. I was using boring textbooks and attending large classes. Instead, I should have been conversing in the language and worrying about the grammar later. I had always made the worst mistake of all - waiting until I felt ready to start speaking. Looking back from where I am now, I do wonder why it is that most school systems start off teaching the grammar structure of a language. It all seems so backward now. Just as children learn to speak by hearing a language spoken and then attempting to speak it themselves, likewise we need to hear the words and start speaking them early on.

The Game Changer: Signing Up for italki

With Benny’s prodding, I signed up for a free account on italki and Conversation Exchange. I quickly found some new friends for informal language exchanges. There was a limitless number of people that were eager to speak Spanish with me in exchange for me helping them out with their English. I met so many great friends from these two sites. Never before has it been so easy to connect with people from all over the world - even 10 years ago it would have been much more tricky than it is today. I found that many people I met for language exchanges just wanted to meet a new friend and preferred to speak Spanish the whole time. So, I essentially had free Spanish lessons despite me asking them if they wanted to switch to English. Not only that, I took Benny’s advice and started trying out a few Spanish tutors on italki. For less than $10/hour you can schedule language lessons that are 100% focused on your language goals. I scheduled two or three lessons a week with a few of my favorite Spanish tutors and soon found myself speaking new words and phrases. The main teacher that I used was great and always spoke Spanish to me and even corrected my errors as I went. I liked him so much as a teacher that I even sent him a Christmas card. I was soon having natural conversations with native Spanish speakers. I even started to think in Spanish, which to me was a great sign that I was making progress. I did this all from the comfort of my home. Amazingly, I was making more progress with my Spanish in Austin, Texas than I was in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The difference was the way I was learning. I stopped focusing on grammar and hearing about all the intricacies of the language and started to speak. Of course, as I talked with natives I was slowly picking up grammar and improving my pronunciation and vocabulary along the way. It turns out this Benny guy knew what he was talking about!

Searching for A Language Friend and Finding Love

Around this time that I met this one Spanish friend on Conversation Exchange named Andrea. We quickly swapped Skype usernames and started up a language exchange online. We immediately hit it off right away. There seemed to be some sort of connection even though she was thousands of miles away living in Colombia. We kept talking for the next year and a half online a few times a month. I improved my Spanish with her and I helped her in her nearly perfect English. Then, one day, I told her casually that I was planning on hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, Peru with friends in the upcoming year. She mentioned that it was always her dream to go and see Machu Picchu. I quickly jumped on the opportunity and invited her to come with us and to bring a friend. Naturally, she was hesitant at first and it took a lot prodding for her to finally decide to come with us on the journey with a guy she met online. We planned for it to be traveling as friends only.

The Month Long First Date…

We did start out as friends in Machu Picchu, but a week or so into the trip it became what in retrospect was a month long first date. We traveled through Ecuador to the “Mitad del Mundo” and then on to her beautiful home country of Colombia where we saw some incredible sights in Bogota and Cartagena. The month long first date had to end at some point and I headed back to the States with a commitment that we’d remain together. Anyways, she ended up coming to the US to volunteer for half a year in which I got to know her more closely. I eventually realized that I wanted to make her my wife!

What If I Never Took the First Step and Started Speaking from Day One?

As you can see, learning Spanish and speaking from day 1 has been life changing for me to say the least. I am not just saying that to be dramatic. I often think back as to what would have happened if I didn’t find myself in a boring job and a desire to travel for six weeks in Argentina. If I didn’t travel to Argentina, I might never have taken Spanish seriously and followed Benny’s advice to speak from day one. I certainly wouldn’t be embarrassing myself each week on my wife and I’s Spanish conversations podcast. By speaking from day one, I met many great online tutors and Spanish speaking friends, one of which is now my wife. The timing all seems so perfect looking back. When I finally did go to Machu Picchu a little over a year after starting the “speak from day one” approach, I was already conversationally fluent in the language. When I look back at how much progress I made it is quite mind boggling. In less than one year, I went from speaking very little of the language to having normal everyday conversations with native speakers. It was, as they say, Vale la pena! (“Totally worth it!)

Why You Should Start Speaking Your Target Language Right Now

If you haven’t figured it out by now, I believe speaking right away is essential to learning whatever language you want to learn. I cannot promise that you will find love, nor do I recommend that you learn a language to find a soul mate. But what I can guarantee is that you will be pushed and challenged more than you ever have. Good things never come easily. You will soon find yourself picking up new vocabulary words and improving your grammar and pronunciation as you hear and speak with natives. You will probably make a fool of yourself many, many times, but you will grow in confidence and learn more about the people that you come across. Fact of the matter is, you will become a better you.

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How to Find a Language Exchange Partner

What is a language exchange partner - and what’s the best way to find one? In this article, I’ll answer both these questions to help you understand what language exchanges can do for you, where to find language exchange partners, and how to choose the best ones for you. Language exchange partners are a fantastic resource when you’re learning a new language. And you can find the perfect language exchange partner, if you know what you’re doing. I’ll start by giving a brief overview of how language exchanges work. Feel free to skip to the next section if you already know this!

What is a Language Exchange Partner?

A language exchange partner is someone who volunteers to chat with you in your target language. For example, if you’re learning Spanish, then your language exchange partner will talk with you in Spanish. Typically, this exchange partner would be a native Spanish speaker, though they may speak Spanish as a foreign language to an advanced level. Here’s where the exchange part comes in. In exchange for them chatting with you in your target language, you will chat with them in their target language (i.e. your native language). To continue our example, if your native language is English, then you’d spend time chatting with your Spanish exchange partner in English as well as Spanish. You do this because they want help learning English. Typically, you’d give equal time to each language. So if you booked a 30-minute session with your Spanish exchange partner, you’d spend 15 minutes chatting in English and 15 minutes chatting in Spanish.

How to Find a Language Exchange Partner

I use the website italki to find language exchange partners to video chat with. You’ll find exchange partners for all major languages, and many lesser-spoken ones, on italki. I recommend it! That said, finding the right partner for a language exchange isn’t always easy. I know this from experience, because when I first started doing language exchanges, I had no idea what I was doing. I thought it was as simple as blasting out messages to other users on italki who spoke my target language and were learning my native language, then chatting with them for an hour. But after a few failed exchanges, I realised that I was going about it all wrong. I needed to spend more time up front finding a partner who was a good match so that I’d save time and have more effective online language exchanges. Here are my top tips - learned from my own experience - to boost the odds of you finding your ideal language exchange partner.

Be Up Front About What You Want From the Language Exchange

When you’re looking to regularly connect with someone for a tandem exchange, it’s important to clearly state what you’re expecting up front. Here are a few things to consider:

Are you at the level where you want your half of the exchange to only be in your target language? Or will you need to revert to your native language sometimes, for example to discuss grammar?

How long do you want the exchange to be? How long can you stay focused?

How often do you want your exchange partner to correct you? And how do you want to receive those corrections? Do you want them to correct every mistake or just the ones you make repeatedly? Should they correct you immediately, or tell you all of your mistakes at the end?

Do you have common interests? This can either be a pro or con. Having common interests gives you something to talk about. At the same time, not having common interests gives you the opportunity to introduce the things you enjoy to another person.

You need to know what you want in order to get it. Time spent thinking about what you need from a language exchange is time well invested. Be sure to share what you need with any exchange partner you consider speaking with. If they don’t agree, then they aren’t the right partner for you.

Don’t Click With Your Language Exchange Partner? Don’t Sweat It

There may be a variety of reasons you and your exchange partner aren’t a good match:

They are at a much higher level than you and tend to keep the conversation in your native language.

You have nothing in common.

You just don’t get along with them.

They aren’t able to help you the way you need.

They cut you off to correct you far too often even after you asked them not to.

Trying to force an exchange that just isn’t working is in no way worth it. It’s not only a waste of time for you, but for your partner as well. Your time is better spent finding someone who you click with.

Look for Exchange Partners Who Can Keep the Conversation Rolling

Doing your part when you’re new to a language can be tough. If you commit to a 30 minute exchange, that’s an entire 15 minutes that you need to talk in or listen to your target language. And it can be exhausting or even overwhelming. If your exchange partner isn’t good at helping you keep the conversation rolling in your target language, then you probably don’t have a good match. Look for someone who asks you questions or prompts you in some way to keep going. Don’t settle for someone who lets the conversation fall flat when you run out things to say.

Avoid Language Partners Who Hog the Limelight

There are exchange partners that tend to take over the exchange and completely forget that they’re supposed to help you, too. And if you find that you enjoy the company of that person, it can be difficult to keep things on track and push them to give you your equal time because you don’t want to put that strain on the relationship. No matter how well you may get along with someone, remember that part of the reason you’re chatting with them is to get language practice. If they aren’t giving you your fair share, it might be time to find a new partner and just switch your status with that person to ‘friend’ rather than ‘exchange partner’. Language exchanges might not be a monetary investment, but they are definitely a time investment and your time is valuable. Don’t waste it. You can always chat with your new friend when it isn’t your study time.

Need a Teacher? Then Invest in a Tutor Rather than a Language Exchange Partner

Exchange partners are very rarely, if ever, able to teach their native language. Looking for a lesson? Then you’re better off investing in a tutor. Language exchange partners are for conversing. It’s unlikely they’ll be able to explain grammar points or rules to you. A language teacher can. This is when saving your time and investing money becomes the better option.

Make Sure Your Language Levels are Compatible

You want a language exchange partner whose language level is compatible with yours. This doesn’t mean you each need to be at the same level in your target languages. In fact, if you’re both complete beginners, you may have a rough time of it. On the other hand, if one person is far more advanced than the other, you may find that the exchange stays in the language of the more advanced person and the exchange becomes unfair. Try to find an exchange partner whose level compliments your own so that you’re more fairly matched with them.

Remember the Key Attributes to Look for: Reliable, Focused, Engaging

I’ve had my fair share of language exchange partners who showed up to our meetings late, unprepared, and distracted. It’s never fun and it makes the exchange a drag. It ends up being a poor use of my time. If your exchange partner is late or distracted once, it isn’t a big deal. If they’re unprepared or late repeatedly, it becomes a big deal. When this happens, it’s time to look for a new exchange partner.

How to BE the Perfect Language Exchange Partner

It’s easy to write off a language exchange, claiming it’s the other person’s fault that it didn’t work out. But this isn’t always the case. Sometimes you’re at fault for a less-than-perfect exchange. There are a ton of ways that you can mess up your exchanges on Skype, so it’s important to do what you can to avoid making mistakes as an exchange partner. Here are a few tips for how you can be the perfect language exchange partner so that when you find the person that’s perfect for you, they’ll also want continue chatting.

Plan Out Conversation Topics in Advance

One of the best ways to waste your language exchange is by failing to plan ahead. If you don’t prepare topics in advance, you risk not having anything to talk about during your exchange. Plan out conversation topics in advance, and check to see if they interest your partner. Also, study and prepare phrases or questions that are appropriate to the topic in advance. You could even consider writing a script to read in full or use as a prompt if you feel stuck during the actual exchange.

Be Committed

Once you’ve found a solid language exchange partner, commit to them. Before language exchanges, commit to preparing. When you’re in a language exchange, commit to staying focused. By being committed, you’ll find you get much more out of your language exchanges - and your exchange partner will too.

Give People a Second Chance

Sometimes the first session won’t go the way you hoped. Remember that you’re getting to know a new person and explore how you best work together. It might take time for you to “click”. If you feel like the first session had a few hiccups, but that your exchange partner had potential, give them another chance.

Take Notes During Your Language Exchange Sessions

Take notes during your sessions (or immediately after). I recommend having a document open on your computer for this. That way you can note down any new vocabulary and phrases you learned. And you can plan out things you can ask your exchange partner when you next converse. Did they tell you about an upcoming interview or exam? Make a note to ask them (in your target language) how it went. Did they mention they have brothers or sisters? The next time you chat, ask how their siblings are doing.

Ask Them What They Need

Earlier, I recommended that you let your language exchange partner know your expectations for any conversations you have. Likewise, be sure to ask them what they expect from you. Then do your best to fulfil those expectations each time you meet. And if you’re not able to, be honest about that.

Send a Follow-Up Note after Every Conversation

A day or two after each exchange, follow up with an email to your partner to thank them for their time, and ask any questions you have. You can also offer feedback. And if you want to meet them again, have a date and time ready to suggest.

Over to You

What qualities do you feel make the perfect language exchange partner? And how do you find language learners who have those qualities? Let me know in the comments.

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