Monday, March 8, 2010

italki.com - China


Italki.com is an online community dedicated exclusively to learning foreign languages. Funded by Chinese and American investors, the community, available in 30 languages, combines the merits of a social network and a marketplace. The construct of language learning is supported by three different pillars: social learning, self-study and paid professional lessons. People from around the world meet online for free language exchanges, students connect with teachers for paid lessons, and complete language learning tools are available for free, such as Q&As, group discussions, and multimedia materials for self-study. The social aspects of Italki.com connect native speakers with foreign language learners, spread teachers' expertise to anyone, anywhere around the world, offer multimedia and private lessons for English (for the time being; other languages will be added soon), utilize text, voice and video, use the wisdom of crowds to answer language questions, share free open-source language learning materials and recommend other resources on the web. More than 500,000 users from over 200 countries speaking more than 100 languages, 4,700 teachers and tutors, more than 3,200 files to download and over 500 links to language resources, all testify to the need for language learning internationally and the inevitable success of the website's undertaking.


1 comment:

  1. Hello,

    I do not want to bother you with advertising messages, but I think you might be interested in a site that some friends will launch: www.wachywachy.com

    It will allow people who want to practice conversation to improve a language to contact tutors around the world to practice conversation via Skype, Google Talk or by telephone.

    You can register as a tutor, to make money talking in your language, or as a student to improve speaking any language with native speakers, or both at once.

    They are in pre-registration stage and plan to give advantages to those who sign up before launch.

    ReplyDelete