4 sites for communication in foreign languages

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Only speaking practice will teach you to speak a foreign language fluently. With the help of these four sites, you can easily find interlocutors.

1. Hellolingo

Hellolingo is a new version of Sharedtalk.com, a website for communication in foreign languages, which was closed in 2015. Like its predecessor, Hellolingo is distinguished by the maximum simplicity in finding an interlocutor. Fill out the profile form, go to the general chat and choose who you want to talk to. There is a minimum of information about users: country, gender, age, native and studied languages.

Unlike other similar sites, you cannot put a photo on your profile picture on Hellolingo. Thus, the developers are trying to reduce the number of annoying users who just want to meet, flirt, and not practice communicating in foreign languages.

Having started a correspondence, you can also contact the interlocutor using voice communication. You cannot call without prior correspondence. The site also has Voice Chat ++, but it is not intended for making calls, but only for exchanging contact information. For example, you can specify your ID in Skype and invite your interlocutor to chat using this program.

If you could not find a suitable chat buddy, go to the Find a Language Partner section. Here you can write to any user who is not currently on the Web.

HelloLingo →

2. Speaky

The language social network Speaky (formerly Gospeaky) differs little in functionality from Hellolingo, but it has a brighter, lively design, and also has a mobile application.

Convenient search for interlocutors is made: using the filter you can hide those who are not native speakers if you are looking only for native speakers. Communication is possible only in a text chat, there is no voice communication here, but on such sites, as a rule, little is used. Many people prefer to exchange contacts and talk on the more familiar Skype.

An interesting feature of the chat is the ability to correct the text of messages. And both their own and the interlocutor. This is useful if you want the other person to correct your mistakes. In this case, your text will be crossed out and the correct one will appear next to it.

The Speaky mobile application is not inferior in functionality to the web version, but it is not very convenient to correspond in it. Many people lack the standard functions for instant messengers: sending photos, voice messages.

Speaky →

3. Lang-8

This site is notable for the fact that it specializes in writing practice: not in chatting, but in writing various texts, essays, essays.

Learning to write correctly in a foreign language is difficult, for this you need to have a good vocabulary and knowledge of grammar. One of the best ways to practice is to write and submit texts for review by native speakers. That's where the Lang-8 comes in handy.

On the site, you need to blog in a foreign language. Entries can be anything. After the post is published, it will be checked and commented by native speakers of the language in which it is written. The verification interface is conveniently made: in the text, the corrected words are crossed out, and the added ones are highlighted in color.

With the help of such proofreading, even a person who is confident in the language will find gaps in knowledge. You, in turn, can check the texts in Russian, it is quite popular on Lang-8.

Your activity on the site will be encouraged. L-points are awarded for corrections. The more there are, the more noticeable your post will be in the feed of other users. Accordingly, you will have to wait less for it to be checked.

The Lang-8 has the basic elements of a social network: photos, adding to friends, private messages. The site can be used not for its intended purpose, but simply to find penpals.

Lang-8 →

4. Interpals

Interpals is one of the oldest language sites. It has been operating since 1998 and brings together millions of participants from different countries. Despite its outdated design (Interpals resembles Facebook from five years ago), this social network has a lot of members, so it won't be difficult to find penpals.

The site has everything that should be on a social network: here you can fill out a detailed profile with an avatar and photo albums, participate in discussions on the user's wall, find friends using profiles.

Unlike Hellolingo, the creators of Interpals do not struggle with users who are looking not only for language practice, but also for romantic relationships. There is even a special Romance / Flirting item in the search menu. Perhaps because of this, Interpals often receives spam and messages that are not at all educational in nature. In this case, the privacy settings will help you. The blacklist on Interpals is surprisingly fine-tuned, up to the point that you can block messages from users of a certain gender, age (up to a year), living in a certain country.

Compared to Speaky or Hellolingo, Interpals lags behind in terms of design, overall usability, but this social network is much more famous due to its age. If you can't find people to talk to on Speaky or Hellolingo, be sure to search Interpals.

Interpals →