italki and the “25 hrs in 2 months” challenge

Discussion in 'Language Learning Logs & Super Challenges' started by Big_Dog, May 15, 2014.

  1. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    (note – I’m not affiliated in any way with italki, and don’t stand to gain anything from this post. I just think it’s a great tool, and want to share it with you.)

    The challenge. italki just announced today that they are doing their annual challenge. The official title is “The 2014 italki World Cup Language Challenge”. Here are the rules. In a nutshell, you have to pay $20 to enter. If you take 25 hours of lessons or more from June 1 thru July 31, they will return your $20 entry fee, and give you an additional $40 worth of credit.

    I’m fortunate because I’m taking my own challenge of sorts. After realizing my Russian conversation was lagging way behind my listening and reading, I made a commitment to myself to do 200 hours of Russian conversation within a year. I’m about 40 hours into that “challenge” already, and noticing some nice improvement. I try to do an hour a day. I’ve averaged 6 hours a week for the last 7 weeks, so I’m on schedule. This challenge is a forgone conclusion to me, and just amounts to a way to save $40. But if you like a challenge, think your conversation can use a boost, and don’t mind paying for a tutor, I encourage you to give it a try.

    About italki. I’ve written a little about italki before, and recommended it, but I feel it’s time to give a more thorough summary. italki has over 1.5 million students and 2000+ teachers of 100 languages. It's a website that puts language learners in touch with teachers and tutors, and manages the scheduling and payment for the meetings. There are other amenities, like contact with language exchange partners and discussions, but the main point of the site is language tutors.

    Let me walk you through the process of using a teacher with italki.
    · become a member – sign up with email, Facebook, etc
    · purchase credits - buy with paypal, credit card, etc. They use units called ITC’s. 10 ITC = $1.
    · search for a teacher – First you must choose “professional lessons”, meaning the teacher is accredited, “informal tutoring”, meaning the teacher is unaccredited, or “instant tutoring”, meaning the teacher is online at that moment. Regardless of what you search, there is a toggle that will let you see all if you want. Next you choose teaches (the language taught), also speaks (maybe good to put your L1 here if your level is low), from (country), price (I always choose the low range: 0-$10), native speaker (check box if you want a native), trial available (up to 3 discount trials are available per user, and many teachers agree to this), video introduction (some teachers have video introductions)
    · schedule a session - First select from various types of lessons offered by the teacher you have chosen. Next select the time. The time shown is your local time, assuming you have told italki your current time when you joined. It’s possible to reschedule or cancel, within limits, as long as both parties agree.
    · complete the session – I do all my sessions on skype, although you can have your teacher meet you any way you both agree to. italki will warn you when you have a session coming up. They send you an email 24 hrs before, and there is a countdown on the site. Skype info is kept conveniently within the session info.
    · confirm the session was completed – after the lesson, you will receive an email to confirm, in case you forget. You need to select whether “the session was completed”, or “there was a problem”. If there was a problem, money will be refunded if both parties agree. I’m sure there is a dispute process, but I’ve never had to use it; the teachers have been very trustworthy. If the session was completed, you are asked to rate the lesson and leave comments (optional). After you confirm, the money is transferred from your account to the teacher’s account.

    There are many online teaching sites out there, and it’s possible just to put an ad in craigslist or request help from a specific teacher’s blog, for example. So I will tell you what I consider the pro’s and con’s of italki, comparing to every method I’ve used for finding tutors.

    Pro’s
    · Price – it’s much cheaper than any other way I’ve used. As far as I can tell, prices start at just $4/hr. I’ve seen 30min trials for as little as $1, although you are limited to a lifetime total of 3. And there are lots of teachers in the lowest price range (0-$10) in the languages I study.
    · Large variety of teachers – one of the biggest databases of teachers I’ve seen, and most are active
    · Quality – the teachers I’ve had have been, on the average, as good or better than from any other source
    · Scheduling – seeing the teacher’s available time in my local time is a real plus for me. In other methods I have had frequent problems scheduling.
    · Payment – I know most sites operate in a similar way, but it’s nice only having to make the occasional paypal payment to a single site. Having a bunch of separate people to pay can confuse me sometimes.

    Con’s
    · Pay before the lesson – I know most of these tutor sites are the same, but the first time I use one I’m hesitant about depositing a chunk of money into their vaults. Now that I’m comfortable with them, I find it convenient, but I didn’t feel this way in the beginning.
    · Contacting a teacher for the first time – if you just want to send a message to a teacher you have 3 choices 1) fill out the contact form, which makes you claim that you want to take lessons at least once every 2 weeks amongst other things, 2) follow the teacher, and request they follow you. After you are following each other, you can send each other normal messages 3) just schedule a session, and then you can message each other.

    Happy online learning!
    Last edited: May 16, 2014
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  2. Fasulye

    Fasulye Member VIP member

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    Hi Big Dog,

    I have never used italki lessons so far, so thanks for giving an introduction for beginners on the italki website. If in the future I get the idea of trying out a language lesson on italki, I will refer to this introduction to make sure that I don't forget important steps.

    Fasulye
  3. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    You're welcome Fasulye. I forgot to mention that it's pretty easy to become a teacher on that site too, in case anyone is interested. I think italki takes a 15% cut, but I could be wrong.
  4. biTsar

    biTsar Active Member VIP member

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    How easy is easy ? I know someone who could really benefit from such an arrangement.
  5. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    I mean you don't have to have a degree. I think you just need to have skype(or something similar) and paypal(or something similar). To find out the exact requirements, go here.
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  6. Jim

    Jim New Member

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    Great forum Big Dog! Thanks for the post about the Language Challenge. It's a promotion that we've been running pretty regularly now where everyone wins. The students win because they learn a language. The teachers win as they get lots of motivated students and of course, we win because it makes everyone happy.
  7. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    Thanks, and welcome to the forum Jim. Yeah, I was pretty happy to see the promotion - it's a no-brainer for me. If you'd like, feel free to put your home page url in your member information. And just curious - is your native language Mandarin or Cantonese?
  8. Jim

    Jim New Member

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    Myself - I'm actually from the U.S. so English is my native language though I've been in China for over a decade so my Mandarin is pretty much fluent as well. Everyone at italki pretty much has to speak both English and Mandarin (at varying levels) as we're based in Shanghai and half our team is local Chinese (mostly our devs) and half our team is Western (European / American). Makes for a very interesting company culture :)
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  9. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    Cool! For some reason I thought you guys were based in HK. I sure appreciate your site. I just passed the 50 hour mark in my 200 hour challenge today :)
  10. Fasulye

    Fasulye Member VIP member

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    Thanks, Big Dog, for the encouragment! I don't have a formal teaching diploma, but some university background and some 1 to 1 language teaching experience. And two languages to offer. But so far I am still hesitant.

    Fasulye
  11. Jim

    Jim New Member

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    Our business registration is in Hong Kong (you really don't want to register an international business in China) but we actually all are living and working in Shanghai.
  12. biTsar

    biTsar Active Member VIP member

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    Do you enjoy living in Shanghai ? Tell us about it.
  13. Jim

    Jim New Member

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    Shanghai is a great city to live in. It's changed so much since I arrived here over a decade ago. I really think Shanghai was a big part of why italki was able to be created out here. Pretty much everyone here is focused on learning another language - if it's foreigners learning Mandarin or local Chinese learning English (or any other language). Learning a foreign language is just part of the norm here... unlike the U.S. where you can get by with just English.

    Here's a cool video of italki featuring Kevin Chen, one of the co-Founders of the company. It sort of gives you a behind the scenes look into life at italki in Shanghai.
  14. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    On June 27th, I should complete my 25th hour of lessons. Success is just days away...
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  15. Stelle

    Stelle Active Member VIP member

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    Amazing! I'm still very far from finishing, but I have no doubt that I'll make it. What language did you focus on this month?
  16. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    Thanks! Almost 100% Russian, with maybe 1 or 2 hours of French.
  17. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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  18. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    As I mentioned at the start of this thread, I had over 40 hours going into the challenge. Today I hit the 100hr mark! So I'm half way to my goal. So even though I got some bad business news, which results in me not being able to travel for a while, the good news is that I have a chance to complete my 200hr challenge before I go to a Russian speaking country. So I'm psyched about that. Anyway, the 100hrs have made a big difference. I feel I've gone from B1 to B2, and have a chance at reaching C1 in the next 100hrs.
  19. Peregrinus

    Peregrinus Active Member

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    Big Dog,

    Sorry about the bad news you received, but great way to counterbalance it. I have a couple questions about your experience if you don't mind. First, do you believe that you already have a C1 vocabulary but just have trouble putting it all together, which is the point of these lessons? Second, could you walk us through an average lesson, how it was designed (unless you're just free-styling), and what is covered? OK three questions. Do you record the lessons to review later?
  20. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    1) I'm short on vocabulary. My goal is actually to be C1 in listening. If I'm a strong B2 in conversation, I'll be happy.
    2) The point of the lessons? To become a better, more comfortable speaker I suppose. I also wanted to significantly improve my conversational grammar.
    3) They are conversation for the sake of communication, with minimal correction. I choose a topic about half the time, but don't do any prep.
    4) I recorded a few in the beginning. I think it's a good idea, but it messes with the connection, it makes me a little nervous, and I don't have the time to review them, so I stopped doing it.

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