What is Reddit's opinion of
Italki?
From 3.5 billion Reddit comments
100 reviews of this app found across Reddit:
People have already posted Duolingo, so I'm going to post italki. Italki won't teach you vocabulary and sentence structure like Duolingo would. Italki allows you to speak to people who know the language and write in your target language to then get edited by people who know the language. Italki gets you involved with real people! That's something you can't replicate by doing tests and drills.
You can definitely learn a language through the internet for free, but you have to involve yourself. You do not have to go to another country to learn a language. If you want proof, look no further than fluent in 3 months.
I'd like to add that you can also use the "Language Partners" option (http://www.italki.com/partners), where you can find someone who's learning English and whose native language is Japanese. This is kinda informal, but free ($ wise).
Don't despair! Everyone learns in different ways. Russian has a long initial period where you just study and study. I thought of this period as "loading" - and I just learned a lot of vocab knowing that actual production would be in the future.
Do you know this course? It has audio. http://www.memrise.com/course/78454/learn-basic-russian/
Go here and play this now:https://babadum.com
Make a profile here and talk to Russian speakers on Skype: http://www.italki.com
There are many other options in the sidebar.
How about speaking to Russian speakers?
You can do this by the seat of your pants, anytime, with no commitment, drunk, after the pubs, here: http://www.sharedtalk.com
Or you can make an appointment for Skype Language exchange here: http://www.italki.com
Don't hate yourself. What you are trying to do is very hard. I feel a lot of language learning outlets set up unrealistic expectations, i.e "Become Fluent in One Month with this magic trick!" In reality learning a language is harder than that.
I think it's best to relax and have fun with the language. Do you like any Russian music? I like to listen to some songs and try and work out the lyrics in my head and then read the written lyrics, then listen again. You don't need to know every word to enjoy yourself and learn a few words. What kind of music do you like?
If you like grammar exercises I put a bunch of links for those here: https://www.reddit.com/r/russian/comments/3cwh0k/are_there_any_free_online_grammar_challenge/ct0h2uo
I've done this for multiple languages with language-learning podcasts, and I get a lot out of it. It's slow going because I don't spend nearly as much time driving as you would as a truck driver, but I'm fine with that. I do supplement with speaking practice via Italki and additional vocab learning via Memrise, which helps a lot. The podcasts alone would take me a long way, but not nearly as far as I can get with additional non-podcast material.
Yeah... that's not an excuse.
Few resources:
shared talk - a room of language learners. you can organize by language. allows text and voice chat. helped me immensely.
conversation exchange - useful if you want to meet people in person to do a language exchange with (although meet ups work too)
italki - allows you to search for people around the world to do a language exchange with
The next step is to have a coherent conversation with a German speaker.
I can't speak for the other lessons/apps/sites that people are posting about but to be honest, once you have the core vocabulary down, there is nothing that is going to help you like practicing speaking with a native. No matter how well you think you know and understand a language, early attempts at speaking with natives is usually pretty humbling.
IMO, the biggest lesson is to simply realize that there will be times when you don't understand and times when you can't seem to make yourself understood...and that's ok. Figuring out how to get through those is a giant learning step.
There are lots of sites for finding language partners: iTalki, the Mixxer, Interpals
EDIT: I accidentally posted twice when I thought my first had been lost. Merged them.
Also interesting for me as a non-native speaker, why the 一个 was placed in the end.
http://www.italki.com/question/106845
Apparently it serves to "highlight your love or hate", i.e. to put an emotional emphasis on the meaning.
You can find what you're looking at one of these places:
https://www.verbling.com/ - like Chatroullette for language learning.
http://www.italki.com/ - finding language partners
I've also used http://www.interpals.net sucessfully to find pen-pals (both email and snail-mail).
There's some decent stuff on there but most of it is really unnecessary. Genki is your bread and butter. Genki covers hiragana, katakana, some basic kanji, and a big chunk of what I would consider to be the essential grammar you need to get by in everyday situations.
So you don't need any "ultimate guide" to kana, it's an important first step but really just such a minuscule part of learning the language that it's best just to learn it in the quickest most convenient fashion possible rather than spend any time at all thinking about what resource you're going to use.
A grammar supplement is also unnecessary, following Tae Kim's guide and Genki at the same time might even lead to confusion since Tae Kim has his own way of looking at the language and his own opinion on linguistics that differ greatly from the authors of most classroom textbooks. However, if you have the money spare, a copy of the Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar can be really excellent to dip into when you learn a new grammar point. By far the most easy to understand grammar explanations I've seen, and packed full of great example sentences for beginners.
Erin's Challenge is great, I recommend it to a lot of people.
Lang-8 is also great. A good way to use it might be to write a few blog entries every time you finish a chapter, make sure you use all the new grammar+grammar covered in previous lessons, along with at least some of the new vocab. You can also make friends for language exchange which depending on your situation could be essential since finding Japanese speakers can be hard. An alternative is italki. Anecdotal, but I have had better luck with the latter as far as finding people to talk to on Skype, LINE, etc. but for corrections on blog entries, the former shines. In other words they're free so just use both.
You sound like a high enough level to listen to real audio. Get TuneIn Radio on your phone and listen to RFI, Inter, or any of the other french stations.
The Harry Potter series is also available on audiobook and is a pretty good listen.
I know you are looking for commute material but the real next step is real conversation with a native speaker. Try to schedule time to connect with someone using iTalki, Mixxer, Interpals, or some other language-partnering site. If you aren't already, you will be amazed at your progress once you start talking with people.
Thank you for watching! I wrote a detailed summary in the first couple of chapters of my ebook (you can download it using the link at the bottom) but didn't want people to think I was trying to force them to buy my book!
My mistake - I thought Anki was quite well known. The paid tutors on italki.com, although if you fancy going down the paid route, then you should get a free lesson (me too!) if you sign up with my referral link. Up to you, but wanted to give you the option so that you don't miss out.
What other mediums of Polish are you using? Would be great to hear what you're pairing it with. Maybe I've been too hard on Duolingo!
I'm teaching on a mentor site called iTalki. Doing 1on1 lessons on Skype. There are 1-2 other native icelandic teachers, I recommend checking them out as well.
http://icelandiconline.is/ also has a mentoring program with people from the University of Iceland. Don't know much about it though. But of course I am the best of all. That's what my mom says at least :þ.
EDIT: Pretty sure there aren't any programs out there to learn icelandic.
You may have learned about Formal and Informal speech in school, probably when you were learning another language (as its not often addressed with English in elementary/primary school). It's also called the difference between "Polite" and "Impolite" or "Casual" speech.
Here's a pretty concise explanation:
>Both ore and boku are the first person used by men in a casual situation(when you are talking with friends/someone who you are close to) as Ms Sa-sa mentions. In a formal situation, written language, and to someone who you have to be polite such as your boss, teacher, who you don't know, watashi has to be used.
>The difference between ore and boku is that boku can be polite while ore can't. >In fact, some men use boku even in a formal situation instead on watashi, and it doesn't sound rude in most cases.
>Compare the politeness below... watashi > boku > ore
>I hope this will help you a little.
From more to less polite:
Watashi wa Amerika-jin.
Boku wa Amerika-jin.
Ore wa Amerika-jin.
All of these say "I'm an American" with varying levels of politeness.
For most of my students, the biggest problem is not knowing what mistakes they make. To fix this, you need to have a teacher or native speaker tell you what you are doing wrong. Then you can see the most common mistakes you are making and really concentrate on those while you are practicing.
If you can afford it, a private teacher is the best way: http://www.italki.com. If you can't afford that, then http://lang-8.com/ is a free resource. You don't have the same person correcting your writing every time so you will have to pay attention to the mistakes that keep coming up.
/r/LearnJapanese にオンラインで日本人の友達を作って日本語の練習をしたいと思ってる人がよく書き込んでいる。いわゆる language exchange というやつ。
実際にやってみるといろいろと問題は起こるみたい。時差とか、相手の望んでいる日本語との時間配分とか。
オンラインでの講師を見つけるということだと http://www.italki.com/ なんかが勧められているのをよく見かける。安いらしい。
友達を作る、というのについては、日本在住の外国人の典型的なグチに「英語の練習をしたがる人ばっかり近づいて来る」というのがあったりする。だいたいなんで日本にいるのに日本語じゃないの、というのがあるし。
個人的には、基礎を固めるためには、やっぱり英会話学校に通ってプロに習うのがいいと思う。これは /r/LearnJapanese で日本語を学ぼうとしている人たちの書き込みを見ていてつねづね思うこと。自分で逆の立場から考えてみると、どんな問題が起こりうるか想像できると思う。
Personally. I'd recommend sites like Duolingo, Memrise and italki. Duolingo + Memrise will help to learn vocab, and italki allows for fast access to tutors as well as people who speak German natively and are able to talk through Skype or services like that.
Also, have a look out for some phrasebooks; I hear that the Lonely Planet phrasebooks are quite nice. Also, get yourself a grammar guide; however, have a look around and see if there's an 'essential guide to German grammar' or something like that which won't go through every single nitpicking thing in the existence of German, but will rather teach you what you need to know.
Also perhaps have a look around for somewhere to watch news, podcasts or other stuff like that in German.
Upvote for a fellow Shanghainese person. I just burst out laughing from seeing "gan du ni ze" written out on the Internet. That's a name I've been called fairly often by my parents. It doesn't quite mean "idiot" though, since you can't just call anyone that; more precisely you're someone's mentally handicapped son.
However, I did not know it would be written the same: 傻瓜儿子. How can that be true? 瓜 means melon or gourd. And in Shanghainese, we don't pronounce something watermelon 西瓜 something-du. It seems more like a translation than actually the same thing.
EDIT: Found a site that renders gang du as 戆都: http://www.italki.com/knowledge/print.htm?page=How+to+be+a+nasty+shitty+talker+in+Shanghai
I hope you find some nice people on this forum, but if you don't, you can register here to find Russian Skype buddies: http://www.italki.com/dashboard
And this is instant: http://www.sharedtalk.com
Russians, you can find English speakers here too.
I have to be careful with Italki because I get really motivated and chat with a bunch of people, and then I get busy and ignore their messages for too long.
I'm still working through Duolingo myself. I'm also working through Babbel (www.babbel.com). You have to pay for Babbel but I've found it to be pretty good, the courses are a lot more in depth than Duolingo's. It's about £20 for 3 months which isn't too bad at all if you're serious about learning Spanish.
Another good (free) course I found recently is Complete Spanish. This is an audio course - I've found that it explains things really well and has helped me to compound what I've learnt on Duolingo and Babbel.
If you're six months in you might be ready to start talking to Spanish speakers on a site like italki.com. I've joined this site but my Spanish is probably a bit too weak at the moment to be able to have conversations with Spanish speakers.
Finally, another site I discovered recently is lang-8.com. This is free too. This isn't a course - you can basically write notes about anything in Spanish and have native Speakers offer corrections and help. I've written a few notes on here and gotten some good tips and feedback on what sounds natural and what doesn't, stuff you can only really learn by talking to native speakers.
I basically discovered everything mentioned above on this subreddit - if you aren't already, then checking in here every day is a good way to find resources as well as learning things from other people's questions.
I'm only about 2 and half months in so I hope the things I've mentioned are still useful to someone who is a bit further a long like yourself.
http://www.languagetransfer.org - This is one of the best things I've done for my Spanish. Big update coming soon for it. It's a free audio course that gets you producing lots of Spanish. No memorisation required. I learned lots about using the different tenses from this.
italki is great for finding both free language exchange and paid lessons via skype or Google hangouts. They also have a great'notebook' feature that has natives correct your writing for free. Highly recommended. http://www.italki.com/?ref=1084173 - my referral link, if you buy credits I get some free and till the end of this month I think you get free credits too (if this is against rules tell me and I'll remove it).
Also check out Señor Jordán en YouTube. His videos are very entertaining as well as informative http://www.youtube.com/user/tontitofrito . He gets a better camera about halfway through. Check out Spanish 1,2,3 and the stories section
I can recommend italki. I signed up there to practice Serbian/Croatian and there are so many people from Serbia/BiH/Croatia who want to learn English (or German, in my case).
Good luck!
http://www.arabic-keyboard.org/
>Actually chinese keyboard is the same to what people use in US. We use latin alphabet to phoneticize Chinese characters. What we need to do is just typing latin alphabet with keyboard, then through a small typewrting software, Chinese characters can be looked up and inputed.
>Chinese characters can also be typed by strokes or codes. Each key-press or code reprentives some characters. These ways are quite complicated and few people use them now.
Source: http://www.italki.com/question/46681
Interesting, I didn't know the chinese one either. So I guess it differs from language to language.
Verbling is like Chat Roulette but you get matched up with fluent speakers of the language you want to learn and who want to learn/are learning your language.
iTalki is another conversational practice matching site. Haven't used it.
Interpals.net - This was the first sight I used to match up with pen-pals and have gone through a few. I've met a couple of people that I've kept contact with for years.
I am a fairly fluent Japanese speaker (learned through classes in Japan and immersion) but I never get the chance to use the language anymore and my skill is eroding heavily. Like cazort2, I started doing the reverse tree and found it pretty helpful but only because I already have a lot of knowledge. It definitely sounds hard if you're a completely new learner.
What I'm about to say is I'm sure an unpopular opinion in the language-learning community, but I wish some languages would be taught in Latin script only for conversational use.
On its face this idea sounds really Eurocentric but hear me out. Mastering written language is never easy, but it is exponentially complicated when learning languages like Japanese or Chinese that don't have a Latin-based script. It's part of the reason why Duo doesn't have a JP for Eng speakers course yet. My goals for speaking Japanese are purely social and romaji suits me just fine. There could be "advanced" courses for people who have learned advanced spoken Japanese and now want to map that to reading/writing skills.
Just understand that this is coming from someone who has spent 1000s of hours in a classroom setting grinding out kanji practice to have already forgotten most of it. Now, learning Spanish, I feel that my study time has been better utilized where it matters: learning vocabulary and grammar.
TLDR; kanji is too much work Spanish has a better ROI for native English speaker lulz
And since I realize most of my post was off-topic to your question: I second the Genki series (what we used in college) and would add that you should try italki as a great way to learn/practice Japanese and supplement Duo learning in general.
My guide to learning Latin would to focus on audio resources and use literary to supplement them. Here is a list of resources:
Evan Der Millner is a great latinist and I think that he is a good starting point with Adler's Latin Course and Vestibulum.
In terms of thinking in Latin, you are going to need to take in tons of audio before you can think in Latin. I would recommend a tutor if you want to practice conversationally.
Ivana on Italki:
Hi. I use "iTalki" (http://www.italki.com/) to meet fluent speakers, it's free, and there's a lot of people in there. So far I've met 3 of them that I Skype with regularly. Just a word of warning. A lot of dudes there want to "online date", so if you're a girl, make sure they're really interested in learning. If you're a guy, be polite and have some tact, otherwise girls are gonna think you want to online date them.
There are a few routes you can go:
- Go official and take up classes at Goethe-Institut (location based so mileage may vary)
- You need to start building vocabulary. Check out the this course on Memrise
- You also need to start building your listening skills. Check out the Warum Nicht Podcast
- Once you feel comfortable enough that you want to start building your actual speaking skills and speak to another human being (but want to stay in your underwear), check out a site like iTalki
I've posted this elsewhere on the sub and it always seems to be helpful. It's what I have found doing a few nights of research on how to actually learn this language. We are fortunate that German has a lot of resources available.
I don't know of any specific, dedicated Skype groups, but there's websites like WeSpeke and italki, where it's not hard to find people to talk with, and you've already taken German on Duolingo, which isn't always a prerequisite there.
Additionally you can always ask on the Duolingo forums if anybody would be willing to help you on Skype. The community seems very receptive to that kind of thing.
Set up accounts on Lang-8 and italki. Use Lang-8 regularly. On italki it might suffice to just have an account. The folks on both platforms are searching for language learning partners. Once you've got contacts there suggest Skype sessions. (As others have mentioned having a Line account won't hurt — might be more comfortable for the Japanese folks.)
I personally follow the rule: "if I learn a word I have to learn the kanji it's written with" — results in a somewhat kanji centered learning approach for the first 1.5 - 2 years (in my experience). Other approaches might be more fun. ;)
I'd say yes. But you should always make a dedicated effort to understand. Don't just passively listen/skim over text. If you think you almost understood something. Listen/read again, try to understand again.
If you're into anime watch them in Japanese w/ subtitles but set a certain delay for them. Listen -> try to understand -> confirm by reading subs.
If you can find Japanese friend that you can talk face to face, that is the best. If it is difficult, I recommend to do online tutoring as others say. For my English learning, I tried italki and ClassDo. They offer similar service but italki does not have "free" trial. ClassDo has free trial lesson but price range for normal lesson is really depends on teacher. Expensive teacher tends to be more professional but there are really good teachers who offer lesson for around or less $10. It just takes lots of trial lessons with different teachers to find the best deal. For writing, lang-8 was the best for me. I translated Japanese songs' lyrics to English when I couldn't come up with what to write. Language study takes time but it worth! You can make lots of new friends and expand your world! がんばって！
I have been using iTalki to schedule lessons with a tutor over skype.
Edit: I pay about $10 an hour for informal lessons with tutor I found on this site, but there are cheaper and more expensive tutors as well. You can also arrange to do language exchanges with people I believe, but I would rather just pay to keep it in Japanese with someone that can correct my mistakes.
You can watch stuff on ZDF for free and most of it's not blocked in the U.S.
Also try out italki and try to find someone to do a Skype video exchange with.
If you have an e-reader, buy some German books or rent some from your local library (you can rent ebooks!). If you don't have one...you can download a free Kindle app to many different devices and then read books you buy on amazon.
I'm currently using iTalki for learning Japanese. You can friend people who are currently trying to learn English, and you can also get some one-on-one tutoring through Skype as well.
Connecting with people via sites like italki can be a good way to practice more natural English with native speakers from the States (so you can get a feels for American English accent, slang, etc.)
Italki is a social networking site that helps you to make friends with speakers of any language you're learning. You can post questions to the community, you can post blogs and have them checked by native speakers, and you can write messages and exchange skype usernames with users.
But, as a lot of other people have said, your skills will rapidly increase through immersion once you're here.
http://www.languagetransfer.org - This is one of the best things I've done for my Spanish. Big update coming soon for it. It's a free audio course that gets you producing lots of Spanish. No memorisation required. I learned lots about using the different tenses from this.
italki is great for finding both free language exchange and paid lessons via skype or Google hangouts. They also have a great'notebook' feature that has natives correct your writing for free. Highly recommended. http://www.italki.com/?ref=1084173 - my referral link, if you buy credits I get some free and till the end of this month I think you get free credits too (if this is against rules tell me and I'll remove it).
Also check out Señor Jordán en YouTube. His videos are very entertaining as well as informative http://www.youtube.com/user/tontitofrito . He gets a better camera about halfway through. Check out Spanish 1,2,3 and the stories section.
I haven't found it hard at all. If you're interested and you want to learn it, you'll learn it. It becomes hard when you decide that it's hard; you're just psyching yourself out by listening to people who tell you it's particularly hard to learn. Focus on learning German rather than on listening to people who say discouraging things.
Coffee Break German is an outstanding free resource that'll get you started with German and give you some more confidence. Memrise is another terrific free resource, as is Italki.
Well, asking someone on the net to give you his/her time for free is problematic. You want a good teacher and what is the other person getting out of it?
I'd recommend you to get a good course (book etc.), try Duolingo.com for fun practice and on http://www.italki.com/ you can find teachers (for pay or in exchange for giving English lessons) aswell as language exchanges.
There are many people recommending to speak as early as possible. I used to be sceptical, but having studied Italian for about 1 1/2 years now without speaking/writing much, I feel like I can't hold a simple conversation :( (So I'm starting to look for language exchanges etc. right now).
Good Luck! Sorry, I mean: Viel Glück! :)
P.S.: There is also lang-8.com for written practice. Nice site, I used it a couple of times, but I'm having trouble finding topics to write about and the motivation to sit down and do it...
Gecorrigeerd worden is de beste manier om beter te worden! Ik weet niet of je Italki kent, maar dat is een website waar je een stuk in een bepaalde taal kan schrijven en anderen corrigeren het dan voor je. Erg handig.
I use a language sharing website called italki which offers language exchange, tutoring or teaching. If you create a profile you can find someone that wants to arrange a skype exchange (for example a French person learning English) and swap details. Alternatively you can pay for tutoring sessions or more formal teaching.
I've used the site for all three and have had extremely positive experiences: I tutor English, have received Arabic lessons and have found exchange partners for Spanish. This coming week I have my first German session after studying the language on Duolingo since just before Christmas which I'm hoping will help me pull together the phrases that I've learned.
This is my referral link, so if you sign up I'll get credits to put towards lessons - don't use it if you don't want to though!!
edit: Seems this sentence comes up in other places as well.
http://www.italki.com/answers/question/101369.htm#.UNXgaIleuE5
I used 'incomprehensible' only because when I said this to a Japanese friend of mine I was with tonight, he cocked his head and asked me for clarification.
I deleted my later post, but I'll restate here I definitely agree that the downvotes are detrimental to promoting discussion and encouraging people of all levels.
Thanks for the examples and clarification below.
Ruthless self promotion here. The company I work at italki organizes 1 to 1 language exchanges around the world, through our teacher market place. You might benefit from checking out low-cost opporutnities to make friends around the world.
Get a phrasebook and learn phrases. I don't know if Tatoeba is back up yet, but that's an absolute treasure trove of sentence examples too.
You can find plenty of natives to help you on language exchange websites like italki.com too.
Good luck!
There is a website called italki which has a language exchange. Usually it works by paying teachers, but if you search the user base, you can easily find users who speak your target language. Send them a message with your Skype username and you have an instant pen pal who speaks your target language perfectly - - you teach them, and they teach you! Can confirm it works, at least for German and every other language (even dead ones like Esperanto).
Wenn du kein Sprachtandem (language exchange) bekommst, würde ich http://www.italki.com empfehlen. Dort kann man für circa US$10 pro Stunde "informal language tutoring" bekommen. Man spricht die ganze Zeit Deutsch und die Leute sind sehr hilfreich, quasi-Lehrer. Man kann auch gratis Skype Sprachtandems suchen. Es hat mir beim Deutsch lernen sehr geholfen.
Viel Glück!
There are people on iTalki for US$8 an hour and up that isn't too bad, really.
There is also the site Talk in Arabic which has a lot of content. That site is a freemium service so you get some content for free but you get more if you subscribe. All-in-all, I've studied languages that that lack resources and I certainly would not consider Arabic to be one of them unless you are strictly looking for free online content.
El sitio web italki tiene una página "Language partners" donde siempre hay gente que quiere practicar todos los idiomas del mundo, por internet. Normalmente practican x minutos en el primer idioma y después x minutos en el otro.
También hay un café de idiomas en Groninga cada dos meses. Según su página Facebook la próxima vez que se encuentran es el lunes 14 diciembre. Será también un sitio para encontrar exactamente la gente que busques.
I use a service called iTalki. You can find people there willing to do language exchanges but I normally just find someone who is listed as an informal tutor for my target language and either buy a 30 minute lesson or an hour. There are other services around that do similar things, I just happen to prefer iTalki, likely because it was the first one I found and started to use, and because it was the one people like Kris Broholm and Luca Lampariello (among others) talked about.
Other than that, make sure you look at the wiki because it will have links to language exchange sites and other resources for German.
I would recommend italki or a local online site with teachers. A lot of the language teachers in Eastern Europe use the old Soviet style of language instruction - memorization of set text and lots of target language -> native language translation, which isn't very useful to be honest. Try to find a younger (or at least more modern) teacher in order to avoid that nonsense. :)
In this context, and maybe as a general rule, one could say that, since you're talking about a specific summer, you need the definite article article el.
Even though it is hard at first, you shouldn't assume that the grammatical structures in a language A always have a similar equivalent in another language B.
In English, when you make generalizations, you omit the article:
Bears are animals.
People are nice.
I'm obviously omitting the cases where you take an adjective and nominalize it, as in "the poor," "the rich," etc..
However, in Spanish, using the corresponding article in such cases is mandatory:
Los osos son animales.
Las personas son amables.
못 is like describing a lack of ability to do something, 을 수 없/있다 is a literal physical ability to do something.
I hope that makes sense? There isn't a totally hard and fast definition afaik.
못 만들었 I am bad at making/I can't make~ (because I don't know how)
만들 수 없다 I can't make~ (because I lack the parts needed, for e.g.)
check this link which may help you more.
It took me 3 reads to understand your question! You've got about a 2 month wait on Duolingo and here's some resources.
This is a good site for grammar and vocab: http://mowicpopolsku.com/
Maybe get a tutor with iTalki, or wait till you're conversational and get a community tutor: http://www.italki.com/?ref=1750591
If you can't find anyone here or you want to speak to many different people, I recommend the website italki. The "language partners" section I linked to is basically just to find people speaking the language you want to learn and wanting to learn your language. It usually works by speaking about 10 minutes in one language (e.g. Dutch) and then 10 minutes in the other (e.g. Danish) and maybe starting over again.
Even for Danish-Dutch, what I thought would be an exotic combination, there are plenty of people online at the moment. Only disadvantage may be that they're all from the Netherlands (right now) so you might pick up our awesome accent.
Hey, I wish! Unfortunately those might be hard to come by. I think your best bet might be looking for a language partner to chat with on an exchange site like Italki. You might find someone who speaks the Palestinian dialect and is willing to teach!
/r/homeworkhelp might be more appropriate for this post.
As for why exactly knowing SV-agreement (or indeed, any English grammar) is useful, this post found via google might be of use.
Similarly, the wikibooks article on SV-agreement may be of inspiration.
Hey! You should try and check out http://www.italki.com/ - Though its main aspect is finding a teacher you can also just search for other people speaking the language you want to learn and write them a message. If you have any questions, just shoot me a message here.
I don't know the specifics of your situation so this suggestion may not be applicable. But you can find informal tutoring on iTalki for US$6 to US$8 pretty easily. 2 one-hour lessons per week would be the equivalent of skipping Starbucks on those days. Those can provide anchor points for your study as well as drive motivation for study between sessions. Here is what I suggest.
- Schedule your lessons a week in advance and prepare for them Send your tutor a topic you wish to discuss and then learn the vocabulary and any grammatical structures you think you will need.
- Record your lessons. This is really important as you can then review them to help reinforce what you learned and also to see what mistakes you make and track your progress.
- Actually take time to review the lessons at least 4-5 days after but never sooner than 2 days after. Add things you learned to your Anki deck and you can even include pieces of audio from the lessons to help test your memory.
That all takes a bit of effort and organization and should provide the type of structure you need. I'll also say that after a few weeks of lessons two of my instructors offered doing language exchanges with me (30 min English for 30 min Italian) so I now get about 2 to 2 1/2 hours of conversation but only actually pay for one hour as I like to keep one regular hour-long lesson. Do your review and prep work right after you get up. This will add regularity to your study patterns and having someone you are accountable to and consider a friend will boost your motivation.
Excuse the shameless plug but I recommend iTalki a site where you can find natives or professional language teachers and get lessons over the internet.
I have currently have some time for more students who wish to learn icelandic (you know, in case all the other religions are wrong and Þór, Óðinn, Loki and those guys start roaming the earth).
I'm currently learning French. I speak a little of the native tongue of my culture (Chamorro). A little Spanish (our language is heavily influenced by it) and I can speak a little Japanese (our tourism industry is mainly Japanese and I have Japanese friends).
Have you checked out italki? You can find tutors for relatively cheap and pay by the hour.
This is probably going to come back and bite my on the ass when people start going through my history o_O but thanks for the shout-out!
If you might be interested in signing up I would appreciate if you could use my referral link: http://www.italki.com/user/1722884?ref=1722884 (results in a few bucks coming my way). Feel free to send me any questions you might have here or on iTalki, I'll try to reply asap.
EDIT: I just remembered one that could be used: ["Hoppaðu í rassgatið á þér!" = Jump inside your own asshole!]. And one more used by older generations: ["Karlfauskur" = old geezer] most often with Andskotans/Helvítis/Djöfulsins in front. Also a fairly popular but relatively sarcastic english take word: ["Móðurserðir" = Motherfucker].
EDIT2: Is this the first link in this sub-reddit that qualifies as nsfw? Congratulation /u/u2622 ! :P
italki is a very good website for this. They sell private online lessons with teachers, but it's also possible to look for a language exchange partner for free. I used it for Russian, I had no problem finding someone to practice with.
Yeah, I was asking about jobs.
If you go to the "community" tab and then look under "language partners" you'll find more what you're looking for. You just need to reenter at every stage what you're looking for, which is kinda stupid, but the site works just fine for me. (http://www.italki.com/partners#learn=english&speak=russian&country=BY&native=1&page=1)
It depends on how you define "speaking and reading." You probably won't achieve native fluency in two years, but if you put in 1-2 hours a day, you should be able to engage in everyday conversation and read Lithuanian books.
Given the relatively small amount of resources available for Lithuanian (compared to Spanish, for example), I'd also recommend starting interacting with Lithuanian speakers as early and often as possible. Even if all you can say is a basic introduction, language partners can be a great resource for questions and help with pronunciation.
As has been said Duolingo is great, but it's lacking in a few areas. Check out these other resources in addition.
http://www.languagetransfer.org - This is one of the best things I've done for my Spanish. Big update coming soon for it. It's a free audio course that gets you producing lots of Spanish. No memorisation required. I learned lots about using the different tenses from this.
italki is great for finding both free language exchange and paid lessons via skype or Google hangouts. They also have a great'notebook' feature that has natives correct your writing for free. Highly recommended. http://www.italki.com/?ref=1084173 - my referral link, if you buy credits I get some free and till the end of this month I think you get free credits too (if this is against rules tell me and I'll remove it).
Also check out Señor Jordán en YouTube. His videos are very entertaining as well as informative http://www.youtube.com/user/tontitofrito . He gets a better camera about halfway through. Check out Spanish 1,2,3 and the stories section.
嫌う is a verb, 嫌い is an adjective.
や is an indefinite listing particle, when you use it, it means you're listing non-exhaustively. それとも is an "or else" statement.
Looking at previous discussions such as this one, they're basically the same, but in doubt use 色々. 様々 is more literary, whereas on a daily basis you hear 色々 more often. For example, you don't say 様々ありがとうございます!
Astral Hell is real.
Every year since I was very young, I've always felt incredibly uneasy in the 6~ish weeks preceding my birthday. Every year I get depressed, anxious and down. And one or two weeks after my birthday goes by, things start to get better.
It may be psychological of course, it's not difficult to feel uneasy being reminded of the unstoppable time bomb that is life and that's usually when your age counter flips up by one. But I know whatever reason is there, this shit definitely exists.
I like Ukrainian Grammar and Ukrainian Language.uk for grammar references online. The hard part is finding a teacher. I'd suggest Italki or just come here to L'viv and I'll find you a teacher. :)
- R
Here you go sir or ma'am. Plenty of Mandarin-speaking language partners to choose from. I use the same site all the time. I am learning Russian and now I have tons of native Russians to skype with.
I've had great results with Coffee Break French. I only use their free content and that's got me to a decent intermediate level, but they have more content available for purchase. (My language-learning goal is to learn all my chosen languages without spending any money on it.) Memrise has been a huge help with boosting my vocabulary, and Italki gives me the spoken practice I need. All for free, although Italki also has stuff available for purchase. And because the Coffee Break French podcasts are aimed at native English speakers, they'll help you maintain your English as you work on French.
Guten Morgen turbotorsk, I have plenty of study tips and have already written them down on my homepage as well as mention a few in the videos recapitulating the project. While you can learn German without spending a dime nor having any teacher I would strongly recommend that you took individual lessons at least once a week with one simply for guidance, pronunciation feedback and having to report your progress to someone. You can find those on google helpouts or italki among a few others. If you learn on your own, I can recommend the Assimil course "German with Ease" but make sure that you get the Audio to it. Listening is tough and crucial for your success.
I hope that helped you a bit. Have a good day and viel Erfolg with your German.
Find someone on italki (the 'community' tab has the free stuff). Narrow the search down to the city you're in.
There is a program called Anki, which is an Open Source program that lets you create flash cards. It uses a special recall algorithm that lets you recall forgotten words soon than those you learned.
Theres a website call iTalki that lets you find language partners across the world. The site is a social platform for video chatting. You can find language partners (50%/50% exchange), language tutors (paid but 80%/20% exchange), or legit language teachers (100% for you to develop your language skills).
The most important thing is the willingness to put in the time. If you just want something thats premade and 'downloads' a language into your head, your not going to learn anything. Anki lets you make your own flash cards (meaning you can associate sound or visuals to a word), recall them on mobile devices and study.
Hey! Don't forget your Chinese brethren!!
italki.com Pronounced eye-talk-eye
This is a redditor born foreign language learning service. iTalki creates the platform for you to connect with the foreign language you want!
If you want to learn Arabic, but live in Kansas or learn Chinese but stuck in Moscow, we connect you to native speaking teachers in the countries you want to learn from.
TLDR: iTalki is the worlds most popular language learning network for students-teachers
Edit: you sir are a gentleman(or woman) a scholar, and a knight of the narwhals.
Ni hao = Hello, Ni hao ma? = How are you?. Ni hao, ni hao ma? = Hello, how are you?
edit: I'm not fluent in Mandrin but this is what I learned from my tour guide in Beijing. Apparently it's not extremely common to say it like that but it translates fine.
italki is a language learning social networking site. It has a Q&A section for each language, although answers are not necessarily restricted to native speakers.
EDIT: Getting stupid links to work.
Sounds strange that you can't find a Swedish dictionary. But if you can't find one in local shops then why not buy one at Amazon.com? My experience in dictionaries isn't the greatest but I think Berlitz make high quality language books.
A great tool for translating is Google Translate, I use it all the time and the translating between English and Swedish is very accurate.
There are also several language community sites out there which can be beneficial when learning a language. I'm personally a member of italki but there are other very similar sites aswell that you might want to try out.
If you are motivated I think you will be fluent in Swedish in much less than 3 years.
I see… so 250 is good enough from your perspective. If you have time, could you check my friend’s profile, maybe anything she can improve? She asked friends to promote her anywhere. But I barely use italki. http://www.italki.com/teacher/9986514/french
I had the stereotypical asian upbringing and I went to Chun Wah Chinese School on the weekends as a kid (alongside Northshore and playing the piano and cello).
Unfortunately, my parents weren’t pushy about Chun Wah so I wasn’t v diligent and didn’t learn much. My selective learning resulted in my Mandarin being limited to phrases such as “I’m hungry”, “Give me candy”, “Where are we going?” etc.
Overall, Chun Wah wasn’t fun and didn’t help much but maybe it’s better as an adult. I can speak Cantonese tho, so hmu if you get to that stage!
I highly recommend italki. My eldest sis and her partner is currently learning Mandarin through italki and I’ve noticed their progression. You pair up with a tutor, it’s customised learning and it’s very flexible.
I used duolingo to learn Russian when dating my 2nd ex but you learn the most random phrases that isn’t particularly the most useful. Defs consider italki.
Good luck!
Can she tutor people in Spanish? If she has enough English to get by in a classroom, then she could try either tutoring or teaching on Italki. Italki hires both credentialed teachers and Native speakers so even if she doesn't have a teaching background she could still use her language skills.
My low-cost, time-efficient suggestion:
Use Language Transfer to hone your listening skills and build some basic vocabulary. Then use WordBrewery for further vocab building and grammar practice. All the sentences are from the news, and their beginner Spanish has native audio. Or try a tutor from Italki.
Get a good grammar book/website for reference and learn as you go. Find a meet-up group to practice speaking once you fill ready.
When I was teaching myself Korean, I used[http://www.italki.com](italki.com) to find a language partner. I Skyped with a few duds and then clicked with one I still text occasionally. Being forced to figure out how to say what I wanted taught me a lot of grammar quickly. I also volunteered with a local non-profit that helps newcomers with English conversation and cultural integration. They matched me with two Korean speakers and that helped a ton! Fwiw, Memrise was my flashcard app of choice, and I drilled vocab every day. (Having a fairly large vocab base really helped when I was in Korea.) For listening practice, I listened to Korean language learning podcast when driving or working out that helped my listening skills. My reading and production outpace my listening skills by far, though. I also added a bunch of Korean celebs on Instagram (this was before they has a translation feature) and tried to figure out their posts. Having the picture as context helped a lot. Anyway, I know that Korean and a Japanese are not the same, but I'm hoping some of this is helpful.
I can suggest you some sites like http://www.italki.com/?ref=1296254x where you can find tutors or maybe some language exchange partners. You will be able to talk on Skype or another software.
And if you want to improve your listening you have to do active listening. Focus yourself to understand short audios. You can use some sites like http://www.podcastfromspain.com/
Firstly Duolingo, as thatoneguy54 said, and once you start making some progress:
Musica y iTalki http://www.italki.com/?ref=1750591
Recently i've been listening to exclusively Spanish music and it's been really helpful to learn the lyrics and sing along. I've also got some informal tutors on iTalki - I chat to them weekly and get better every time (I'd say I'm already about fluent). I also meet people on a weekly basis, but that's easy for me because I live in a diverse city.
If you've already got an understanding about the grammar, just prepare for a topic, tell the iTalki tutor what you want to talk about and see how it goes.
It's best to find a native speaker to talk with otherwise you might just reinforce some incorrect grammar. You can find language partners on Italki and you can practice speaking/listening and help each other with Japanese/English.
I am bookmarking this, it is gold. The only thing that's missing is Italki, a language site. Tutors are paid, but language exchange is free (finding Skype partners) is free and easy.
UKに住んでいますかい？
そこと日本との時間帯は違うなら大変ですよね
あるサイトにはたくさんの英語を習う日本人がいるので、最初にそこで調べる方がいいですね (http://www.italki.com/ ・ http://www.hellotalk.com/)
日本人ではないけれど、もう一人の日本語を勉強している人と練習するのに興味があれば是非そう言ってください（スカイプユーザー名：Cysote）
アメリカ人ですけど私も２５歳のゲーマーです。日本語能力試験のN1テストを今勉強中ですから、私も練習しなくてはいけませんね。
The sense of "because it is not some other time" comes from から、not こそ。
In the same way the "and not before" meaning of してから also comes from から。
こそ does not mean だけこそ、「だけこそ」and 「のみこそ」 mean だけこそ。
http://www.italki.com/question/225962
The sense you're hearing - and it is there - of "the one who has the heart even if others don't is..." comes from に vs には or にも. Basically it's は vs. が again.
That's why I said にもこそ and not にこそ。
The best argument against にもこそ is that "not even the Japanese say that," which is well supported. My only reasonable answer would be along the lines of "not speaking standard language perfectly is a non-native's prerogative."
That's something I actually believe, and in doing so I take a stand against the cultural norms of JSL-students ("we can assimilate! we shouldn't be different! 日本語は日本特殊なものであり、国際的ではない。"). That's crystallization and I lose Public Forum style debate to it.
(I should ask the mods for a 普通の言葉には興味がありませず flair.)
http://www.italki.com/ is the best site for this. Lots of demand for English Speakers by Russians.
Seriously, sometimes I feel like a hot girl (I'm neither a girl or hot) on Ok Cupid or POF with the amount of messages I get a day.
Interpals just feels cheap IMO
iTalki has a lot of Spanish language teachers for various prices (and various levels of skill) that you can do Skype lessons with. I find them to be extremely helpful because you can actually talk with a native. It is a bit of a wild-west scenario since there is little in the way of teacher credential verification but I have had some very good classes there. Sessions range from 5$ to about 30$ depending on the education and country of the teacher (Venezuelan teachers, for instance, are very cheap right now for obvious reasons). Lots of teachers from Spain available there.
I also like 121Spanish. They are a bit more formal and the prices are set, but it is a good deal and all the profes are qualified. I have used them the most since I hit it off with some of the teachers there.
Edit: added links
Kudos for the willingness to learn another language, while being in a different country. Especially such a low-key one as Greek. Keep us posted whether you managed to find one!
On a general note, if you find it a problem finding a teacher in Shanghai, you might wanna try online studying through iTalki, where you can also find teachers for many languages.
Doch, sie ist kostenlos. Nur wenn man eine Lektion mit einem Lehrer (community teacher oder professional teacher) buchen möchte, kostet das Geld.
Hier kann man Leute finden, die z.B. Englisch lernen möchten und Deutsch anbieten. Diese Leute kannst du per Nachricht anschreiben. Am besten guckst du in das Profil der Leute, um zu erfahren, ob sie wirklich einen Sprachpartner suchen.
Hab's nie benutzt, Chinesisch zu lernen, sondern nur Deutsch, aber ich hab http://www.italki.com toll gefunden. Ich glaub, es wurde von Chinesen erfunden, es soll deshalb eine gute Gemeinde dafür haben.
Es geht meistens um sprechen und hören, d.h. dass du für Skype-Unterrichte bezahlen oder umsonst Tandems/Sprach-Austausche organisieren kannst.
Viel Glück!
First off I'm on mobile so there might be some typos.
I found this regarding um and mag
Summary:
UM
- verbs that happened already or are currently happening
- as a prefix, used only when root words begins with a vowel
- past tense -- um + verb
- progressive (-ing in English) -- um + first syllable of verb + verb
MAG
- present* or future tense
- can be used with vowel or consonant
- used only as a prefix
- present* -- mag + verb
- future -- mag + first syllable of verb + verb
*This is a bit questionable because as a native speaker mag + verb sounds more like an order. Eg. Mag-aral ka. -- (You) study.
Then again, um + verb also sounds like an order. Eg. Umalis ka! -- Go away!
If your looking specifically for game dev check out this company:
http://www.cc2.co.jp/recruit/?page_id=561
they say they are looking for game devs and i know for a fact they hire foreigners, if you suit the specifications they will interview you via skype. its says so on the company website.
for learning Japanese i recommend(on-line learning via skype at your convenience): http://www.italki.com/
i work in the game industry in tokyo(animation) and often i see game companies post jobs here: http://cgworld.jp/jobs/ Ubisoft posted a job there recently. message me if you land a job here. cheers!
I do some personal tutoring over a site called iTalki. I'm used to being very conversational and casual in classes. You can also just send me any questions you might have there on reddit or here.
http://www.italki.com/ is a brillant webstie for chatting with native speakers and teachers to improve verbal fluency.
For drilling in vocabulary, you can use an SRS like Anki or Merise but the one I favour is iknow.jp, it costs around £7 a month but as well as using spaced repetition for the word, it also tests you on sample sentences, the kanji and the hiragana so you can use it more effectively, quicker.
Na/nouns conjugate the same, so じゃなくて would work for both. Verbs are similar, for example 食べる -> 食べなくて or 飲む -> 飲まなくて.
So what you said is just fine.
Edit: For verbs, there's also ないで (ex: 食べないで) Read here for more: http://www.italki.com/question/201172
http://www.italki.com/question/127183
i meant what i said, but thanks for making me check so now i know for sure.
i dont need to reply to your points because i am not discussing them but the topic at hand. your points do not relate to my statement in any way. they only apply on possible conclusions drawn from the topic.
when the question is "Why do those spots exist?" i respond to that question.
The logic behind them is that they exist because nightly attacks seem to occur predominantly on women. That is why it has become relatively widespread in germany to offer women parking lots to help lessen the problem.
With shorter walking distance the opportunity for getting attacked is lower so one could assume that those parking lots help with the issue.
Political agenda / Marketing makes sure that this concept spreads.
edit: to clarify my statement:
Assumption: only women are affected / men do not face this problem
Assumption 2: the solution is exclusive for women
Conclusion: the solution matches the target audience
edit 2: another possible confusion: the topic of my response was male 'rape in dark parking lots' not 'males dont face danger at night in dimly lit parking lots'
I can't help correct your sentences but have you ever seen or heard of Lang-8? It's a website where you can enter text in a language you're learning and native speakers of that language correct it. It works because more you correct other peoples work with your native language the more it'll show your entries to native Chinese speakers. The Chinese speakers will correct your Chinese in order to get their own stuff corrected and everyone benefits.
I mention it because I use it almost exclusively to do what you're trying to do here. I'll try to write some Chinese sentences, post them up on lang-8 (along with English area so people correcting me know what I was actually trying to say). I then go correct someone's English and give it 10 minutes or so then I have native checked sentences. I usually add them to Anki to memorise to top it off.
Edit: Also iTalki is mostly the same thing if Lang-8 doesn't suit you. I prefer the Lang-8 interface better but they're both good. Sometimes I post to both and compare the corrections if I'm super keen!
I would start with a foreign language - Fluent In 3 Months appears to fit your timescale!
italki.com and Duolingo.com also also useful websites for this purpose.