The italki - website

Discussion in 'Language Resources' started by Fasulye, Jun 25, 2014.

  1. Fasulye

    Fasulye Member VIP member

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    I found out that I love to correct texts myself and to receive corrections for my languages Danish and Norwegian on italki. It has this feature in common with the lang - 8 website.

    Are there any other users of italki here? What are your experiences with italki?

    Fasulye
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  2. Stelle

    Stelle Active Member VIP member

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    Italki has been a *huge* part of my language learning.

    I've taken over 100 tutoring sessions since I signed up last year - 42 of those with one Spanish teacher who's had a very big part in getting me as far as I've gotten. I also use the notebook/writing section at least once a week for Tagalog. I used to write in Spanish, and would get lots of good corrections. I get far fewer corrections in Tagalog, but a few users in particular are very helpful every time I post. I also had a few Spanish language partners that I found through italki, but those fizzled out when my work schedule changed.

    I think that italki is a great site for language learners. They're also really open to suggestions and will respond personally to any questions and concerns.
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  3. Fasulye

    Fasulye Member VIP member

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    That's very interesting, Stelle! :)

    I am still quite new on italki but I have been an avid corrector so far! They have rankings for correctors and I am already prominent in the rankings of the past 30 days. I only correct essays which are not too long and I reply to questions. I recieve Norwegian corrections from my Norwegian Skypie and Danish corrections from a small group of Danes. It can take longer until my Danish essays get corrected. It's recommendable to write only short essays.

    I don't have money to "hire" a teacher or a community tutor. At the moment I don't feel like teaching via Skype myself.

    Fasulye
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  4. Wise owl chick

    Wise owl chick Active Member

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    Is It free or are you paid some money for this work? Which qualifications. must you have or should you have?
  5. Peregrinus

    Peregrinus Active Member

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    Do you have glasses, have your hair in a bun that has been screwed up too tight, have a general disapproving air and look like my high school English teacher? :)

    If you don't mind an English correction: more natural sounding words would be either "recommended" or "advisable". :)


    Re italki, especially since you don't use the tutoring, what is the advantage if any over lang-8? I have never used either, but some discouraging comments (to me) that I have read re lang-8 are that your native language of German was a harder one for which to get corrections, and that the more advanced one's level is, the harder yet it is to receive corrections, when they aren't for basic mistakes, but more for general style and naturalness. Do you experience anything like this on italki, or do you not consider your Danish advanced enough yet for the latter to be a factor?
  6. Fasulye

    Fasulye Member VIP member

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    Interesting questions, Peregrinus! :)

    There are QUITE A LOT people who posts essays written in German or ask questions about German. We are a group of about 7 - 8 people correcting texts written in German and also my collegues do high quality work. So people posting essays in German (they should not be too long!) will get corrections within a day! With Danish the situation is different because there are only 3 - 4 Danes and they seem not to have time so often, so they may be not online for days. As a user of italki it's free of charge and for my corrections I receive so - called "BETA - points" , whereas the the Skype - teachers (= with teaching diplomas) and the Skype - community tutors (= without teaching diplomas) are paid in money.
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  7. Fasulye

    Fasulye Member VIP member

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    As a user of italki (for posting essays to have them corrected or asking questions about certain languages) it's free of charge, but you can also choose a paid "premium membership". As a free of charge user you are allowed to hire teachers or community tutors to have paid lessons. So if you want to have language lessons via Skype, you always have to pay for them on italki. To become a corrector there is no formal qualification required, but I have been doing corrections in German and Dutch for a long time - I have less experience with correcting Esperanto. Also becoming a community tutor (= someone who teaches without having a teaching diploma) requires no formal qualification.
    Last edited: Jun 25, 2014
  8. embici

    embici New Member

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    When I was looking for an on-line tutor I took sample lessons on Myngle, iTalki and VerbalPlanet. I had read that VerbalPlanet and Myngle teachers were more expensive but more professional than teachers on iTalki so I started with those. However, I didn't find that to be the case at all so I decided to stick with iTalki where I was able to find a teacher that I liked and he charged less than teachers on Myngle and VerbalPlanet.

    People rarely write bad reviews on these sites so it is hard to know if a teacher is very good or not. Trial lessons are important. I had one particularly poor teacher on VerbalPlanet (she smoked and took phone calls during the class, and was not very adaptable) and I'll admit, I didn't give her any review after that.

    I don't use the text correction feature much as I'm focusing my learning on speaking Greek rather than writing it. For a less common language like Greek I've noticed that response times for corrections are better on Lang 8.
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  9. Fasulye

    Fasulye Member VIP member

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    Embici, thank you for giving your own experiences with italki as a feedback on my initial question! :) I myself have never used the Lang-8 - website.

    Fasulye
  10. Stelle

    Stelle Active Member VIP member

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    Italki is free to use if you're looking for language partners or corrections to texts that you've written.

    You have to pay for language tutors.

    I pay for my Spanish and Tagalog tutoring using credits that I've earned through teaching French. For me, it's much more efficient than using language partners.
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  11. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    Just curious - did you take the italki challenge?
  12. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    I only used Lang-8 briefly, but there I had to do corrections in order to receive corrections. Is there any pressure at all for non-paying users to "toe the line" at italki?
  13. Fasulye

    Fasulye Member VIP member

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    The advantage of italki is that everybody (= every free user) can just receive corrections, without doing corrections himself / herself. This freedom makes a lot of sense because not everone is capable of being a good corrector. If italki forced everybody to do corrections, you would get a lot of bad quality corrections! :( So you are free of being only a writer of essays or an asker of questions on italki. I do corrections because I am passionate aboute teaching, but this is my own free choice. :)
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  14. Stelle

    Stelle Active Member VIP member

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    Yes. I've only taken 7.5 hours so far, though, since I've been so busy with work. I'm off in July, so I'll have no problem completing the challenge. I completed a challenge last summer too - 20 lessons in 6 weeks, if I recall correctly. It's a good way to make a few extra italki credits and rev up your language learning.
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  15. Stelle

    Stelle Active Member VIP member

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    No pressure at all. People are free to post notebook entries or make corrections - there's no need to do both. Of course, it's good karma to return the favour once in a while! Notebook entries have absolutely nothing to do with paying or non-paying users. The only part of italki that's limited to paying users is the tutoring section.
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  16. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    Of LingQ, Lang-8 and italki, I think italki's plan regarding essay correction is the best. Not forcing it, and letting the community sort out the amount of correction seems like the way to go in this situation. Doesn't LingQ try to make money off of essays? I've never used their system, but I've heard a lot of complaints about point distribution.
  17. Fasulye

    Fasulye Member VIP member

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    I am a long term LingQ - user, so I am capable of comparing italki with LingQ: On italki everyone can have their essays corrected for free, whereas on LingQ you have to pay for corrections of texts and speaking practice with a tutor with points. Therefore on LingQ, I am a co-producer of podcasts, but on italki I am a corrector of texts in German, Dutch and Esperanto and a writer of essays in my Scandinavian target languages.
    Last edited: Jun 26, 2014
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  18. Bjorn

    Bjorn Active Member VIP member

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    iTalki is my favorite place for language teacher. Haven't used iTalki much for writing yet. But sometimes I correct Norwegian essays then I'm in the mood.
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  19. Pierre-Emmanuel

    Pierre-Emmanuel New Member

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    I've been teaching French on italki for about a year and a half and I've taken over 70 German/Spanish/English/Norwegian/Icelandic lessons with various teachers. Italki is by far my favourite place to find language exchange partners or teachers. It's a very friendly community: as others have said, people are eager to help you by answering your questions and correcting short texts.
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  20. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    Welcome to the forum Pierre-Emmanuel! I totally agree with you regarding teachers - huge variety, low prices. I've used it for Russian, French and Spanish. But regarding language partners, I don't like to set appointments. I like to talk when I have the need to talk, so I prefer Shared Talk. I can almost always find a partner online immediately after I get there.

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