I'm looking for a friend to communicate in English. How to practice spoken English with native speakers for free. Lessons with a tutor

13.12.2023

English can be taught in different ways. Of course, it’s more fun to study or take courses, and there is hope for successful mastery. But nowadays many people prefer to learn English on their own. Don't think that nothing will work out in this case. It will certainly succeed with great desire and perseverance. The only problem is how fully you can practice this or that skill.

Learning words on your own is not difficult, but how can you be completely confident in their pronunciation? Especially if you don't have contact with anyone who teaches English. You can also comprehend alone, but how can you see if you are applying them correctly in practice? After devoting at least a few months to English, you will realize that you already have a vocabulary sufficient for basic communication in English. However, when it comes to live conversation, our notorious “language barrier” arises. I think I know a lot, but I can’t say. I can’t find the right word or I’m afraid to make mistakes. This problem is closely related to the lack of proper language practice. What to do to correct all the situations mentioned, but there is absolutely no time to attend courses?

There is an exit. And it is available to anyone with Internet access. I would advise you to pay attention to chats in English. The word “chat” won’t surprise anyone these days. Everyone knows that it comes from English " chat"(chatter, conversation) and denotes a means of exchanging messages over a computer network in real time. Initially, chats were just online correspondence. Now we can use both voice and video chats.

How can chat in English help in the learning process? First of all, any chat is a conversation between two people, in our case it’s you and , which already has a certain value. By communicating in any chat, you meet new people, make new friends, and this is already a big plus.

If we are talking about standard non-English chat, that is, chat correspondence, you can practice spelling skills and practice grammar knowledge when writing messages. Just immediately agree with the person that you would like to pay attention to the quality of the correspondence. The fact is that chat in English is so popular that a special slang for chat has long appeared, which has many in its arsenal. They are designed for quick communication, but since we use chat in English as a teaching tool, both you and your interlocutor will have to give up slang.

If we are talking about voice chats in English, the most important thing is to practice pronunciation, train your listening comprehension of English speech, and improve your speaking skills. You simply imagine that you are communicating with the person you are talking to on the phone. Very often, along with voice chat in English, there is also video chat. This is already a full-fledged conversation with a native speaker, except perhaps on a monitor screen. You can not only tell something, but also show it. You learn to be comfortable in the company of someone who speaks fluent English. In any case, you can always ask again. When you communicate frequently, you also begin to imitate the intonation of your interlocutor and try to get rid of the accent. These factors also have a positive effect on your English language skills.

Where can I find chat in English?

If you decide that chat in English will help you, and it will, visit several of the resources presented and choose what suits you best:

is one of the most popular resources in this area, containing not only chat in English, but also English lessons, blogs, forums and all kinds of information materials.

You can learn English for a very long time, but without practice with a native speaker, you will never know it at a level sufficient for communication. Physically finding the carrier is very difficult, in many cases almost impossible. It’s easy to find native speakers on the Internet if you don’t wait for them to talk to you.

Today, the high demand for learning English is determined by the economic superiority of Western countries. Everyone wants to know English in order to live better financially. A native speaker learns Russian to make life more interesting or to have a Russian wife, because he is completely financially secure, but finding a beautiful, flexible, obedient housewife and an excellent lover all rolled into one in the USA or Europe is very, very difficult. Feminism is doing its job. Women there are completely different. Most of them are ugly, unkempt, not painted - and this is truly freedom, because... A Russian woman cannot afford to go out and throw out the trash without wearing full war paint. Foreign men like it. For this reason, an imbalance arises:

“There are much fewer native speakers who want to learn Russian than there are Russians studying English.”

Therefore, do not expect that the carrier will speak to you first, unless you are an attractive girl. Ethnic Russians from Russia also have a slight advantage; they are more interesting for foreigners studying Russian. Here, like us, they want to communicate with native speakers from a country where Russian is the official language.

Be active, try to interest the native speaker with your deep knowledge of the Russian language (learn Russian, write and speak correctly!). They are very pragmatic people, if they see that you are able to teach them Russian for free or you turn out to be a very interesting conversationalist with a lot of knowledge about Russia, its history, culture, customs, politics, then they will definitely share their knowledge and communicate with you in their native language language, they will correct you, tell you where you need to improve your English skills.

Where on the Internet can you find interesting completely free sites, social groups, video, online voice chats, foreign chat roulettes, Skype, WhatsApp groups for communicating with foreign native speakers to learn English?

What are the benefits of communicating with foreigners? What are the benefits of communicating with foreigners?

First of all, this is teaching a real, living foreign language with a native speaker of this language, the so-called language exchange, tandem. What you were taught at school about the “Communist party” can be shoved somewhere far away. That adapted Surzhik is very far from the real language spoken by foreigners. In general, I think at school they taught it this way specifically so that they wouldn’t go off to the “decaying” West in search of a better life.
This is information about the real state of affairs in the country, and not what comes from the media, which usually provide information one-sidedly - “he who pays the piper calls the tune.” And when communicating with foreigners, you will receive information first-hand, from a living witness to the events taking place, i.e. It won’t be so easy to brainwash you and implant wild stereotypes in you now.
You can exchange gifts: any ordinary thing for a Russian (matryoshka, Russian vodka, coins, pennants and other things characteristic of the USSR, Russia) will be of great value for a foreigner, especially since they will be presented from Russia to Russians. In return, you can get very interesting things that are not in Russia: real Levis jeans, baseball cards, coins and other things that are ordinary for a foreigner, but exclusive to Russia and the countries of the former socialist system. camps.
You can exchange houses, apartments, hospitality (couchsurfing), of course temporarily. For these eccentric foreigners, living in a real Russian apartment is a super adventure, a challenge, and they will gladly provide their house (with a swimming pool and a golf course) for you) - the rich have their own quirks.
If you have a problem with money, then communicating with foreigners can solve it, ranging from simply financial assistance, offering a new job to new business ideas (they are much more advanced in this, they are more enterprising, energetic, daring and are not ashamed to earn money).
By communicating with foreigners, you can meet your future spouse, and this happens, this is life... and move to a country with much better living conditions (and we strive for them... for the better).

So, where can you find the opportunity to communicate with foreigners online for free, without having to travel or go somewhere?

There are many similar resources, so I will highlight only the most delicious ones.

Language exchange services

1. - the best international language social network for learning a foreign language with native speakers, there is a Russian version of the site. The owner of the network is Russian, so if you have any problems or misunderstandings, you can safely write to him in Russian. This network has , as well as .

2. Lingoglobe is a new, free way to learn or strengthen English language skills by communicating with native speakers through English chat, email, conversation boards (forums). The site also has video lessons where English teachers share their knowledge.

3. Coeffee - a cozy site for exchanging, learning and practicing English. There are interesting interactive team language games: two players or two teams try to describe and guess a word, i.e. some describe, others guess. There is also an interesting game for composing phrases in English.

Correspondence clubs with foreigners

1. Interpals is a foreign pen pal site where you can also find a partner for learning English, Spanish, French, Japanese, Italian and other foreign languages. You can communicate and forums on the following topics: books and literature, homework, hobbies, cars, crafts, history, humor, family and friends, love and relationships, music, philosophy, sports, travel, poetry. On the forum there are sections for teenagers, those over 20, those over 30, 40, there are also sections on the languages being studied, incl. There is also a thread for the Russian language with more than 20 thousand posts and 1 thousand topics, there are very cool topics from foreigners, for example: “What is the best beach city in Russia?”

2. Masterussian is also a foreign club for correspondence between foreigners and Russians. There is no Russian version, the entire site is in English.

3. Kidscom - a site for correspondence in a playful, accessible form with foreigners for children and teenagers. This is the only normal site for communication, namely, children and teenagers with representatives from other countries.

4. Studentsoftheworld - correspondence community only for schoolchildren, students and teachers. After registration, you get the opportunity to run your own blog, forum, present, talk about your country. There are chats, clubs, polls, schools, countries. You can also register to correspond by mail using regular, paper letters.

Skype

www.speaking24.com - free lessons via Skype with native English speakers, a very interesting site for communicating with foreigners via Skype.

Easy registration: indicate your nickname, age, gender, level of English, country, your Skype or MSN, ICQ, Yahoo messenger, purpose of communication: chat(simply communicating with a native English speaker to strengthen your English speaking skills), exam(preparation for the English exam together with an English speaker), friendship(make friends with those who are also learning English), the topic you want to communicate about.

After entering your data, you will immediately see potential interlocutors with whom you can immediately begin communicating on the topics specified by them.

3. Whatsapp group for practicing English (contact the administrator for the link) ONLY for Russians from Russia and native English speakers from the USA, Great Britain, and the European Union.

Learning Russian with Russians

Language group in Telegram for practicing English with native speakers, only for Russians from Russia and native English speakers from the USA, Great Britain, the European Union..

Groups on social networks for meeting and communicating with foreigners

Today we are increasingly seeing the influence of social networks on our lives, with the help of them they even make revolutions, create new states, and heads of state voice their decisions.

What is so attractive about social networks?

Man is a social being. Previously, he constantly lived in a close community of fellow tribesmen, members of the community. With the growth of material well-being, a person’s social circle has sharply decreased to a few family members, a few colleagues and few friends. But that ancient desire to be part of something great, to do a great thing together, not for a handful of coins, but for a great, higher goal, this call still remained inside a person.

And when there is such a hidden need, then sooner or later the answer will definitely come. And today that answer is social media. Of course, this is a surrogate for live communication, but at least something is good. In addition, often online communication goes offline, into real live, physical communication, because It is very difficult for a modern person to make new, interesting contacts between work and home.

Today's trend of meeting foreigners is smoothly moving to social networks through the formation of social groups for correspondence.

Learning with a native speaker is the most progressive, fastest, natural way of learning a foreign language, because that's how we learned our native language - we learned it with a native mother). You immediately begin to communicate with a real foreigner, and not with a teacher with distorted pronunciation (not a single super Russian teacher can compare with a native teacher). It makes sense to learn a language for money only in the initial stages, when you don’t understand what is written and can’t read. When you have already learned to read in another language, today a huge world of opportunities opens up for you for free learning with a native teacher, this includes videos, audio lessons from native teachers, for example, short, interesting lessons for everyday viewing from my favorite teacher Ronnie, rate:

I will give a small selection of social groups on Facebook, VKontakte, which I use myself and find them very useful for communicating with foreigners, for practicing the language with native speakers.

A group of social communities of the international language organization "Learning Russian with Russians" for learning English and other languages with native speakers of a foreign language.

This is the group for:

Facebook, more than 30 thousand members, a lot of foreigners.
In contact with, more than 1 thousand members, 60% foreigners.
There is a separate group for Ukrainians:

It often happens that we have no problems with grammar or vocabulary, but we are not yet very good at speaking English. The reason is simple - lack of speaking practice.
For all those who want to get more practice communicating with native speakers, we offer a list of sites where this can be done absolutely free.

And if you want to know in more detail what useful things can be found on these sites, welcome to the article.

Value:
A community where you can find a partner to communicate on Skype and a selection of useful materials for learning English. There is also the possibility of communication by correspondence and a filter by interests.

Value:
The site system is similar to “chat roulette”, where you can take part in a small relay race: 7 minutes of communication with one person, then with the next. Communication partners are selected based on interests. There are 12 languages to choose from and you can download the app to your phone.

Value:
There is its own platform for communication, a filter based on interests, the opportunity to practice skills through correspondence, separate English lessons and your own notebook for notes and bookmarks.

Value:
Website with built-in video and voice chat. There is a filter by interests, country and languages, its own application, a selection of useful materials for learning the language, 11 languages to choose from.

Value:
You can find a pen pal (a native speaker or just from another country), there is the ability to communicate via voice chat, as well as filtering by language, a selection of educational materials, a choice of 7 languages.

Value:
A social network for communicating in English with the ability to filter by interests, gender, age and language, the site contains a good selection of free English courses and a forum for advanced English experts.

Value:
A portal where you can find or post contact details of people who want to communicate and practice English or another language. The interface is still the same, but you can choose communication partners depending on age, gender, country and level of language proficiency; 17 more languages are available.

And a few more simple tips to quickly improve your speaking skills:

try to communicate with native speakers immediately after studying the basic rules of grammar and basic lexical topics;
look for opportunities to practice the topic you are currently studying;
communicate in English not only orally, but also by correspondence;
try to make several friends at once for communication and correspondence - this way you will start practicing faster;
if you play online games on foreign servers, do not hesitate to speak English.

We wish you pleasant and successful communication with native speakers and will be glad if you suggest other sites for similar practice.

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

Functional service with applications for Android and MacOS

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

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

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

A service powered entirely by human resources

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

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

Languages: 115, including major European and Asian languages.

A service that turns any native speaker into a serious teacher

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

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

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

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

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

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

Analogue of Livemocha with a blue interface

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

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

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

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

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

Languages: English.

Service for working on written speech

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

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

Languages: There are native speakers from 190 countries.

“There are much fewer native speakers who want to learn Russian than there are Russians studying English.”