The main problem for many students foreign language- fear of speaking. Helping a student overcome the language barrier is perhaps the most difficult task of any English teacher. It happens that a student has a fairly good vocabulary and knowledge of grammar, but is still silent or builds sentences so slowly that the interlocutor can fall asleep without listening to the end of the monologue. The reason for this "braking" is the fear of making a mistake and looking stupid. We don't want to be laughed at, so we prefer once again keep silent. But learning English and being silent is the worst mistake! Firstly, if an English-speaking interlocutor hears your mistakes, then he will never laugh, but will treat with understanding (after all, this is not your native language). Secondly, the more you talk, the fewer mistakes you make every day - they knock out a wedge with a wedge. If you want to speak fluently, speak a lot.

And where can you find interlocutors with whom you can talk in English? After all, you won’t go out to Red Square and start pestering foreigners with conversations! Many do not know, but there are ways to find interesting and smart people who are willing to speak English for free and maybe even make friends with you. I will tell you about two such methods, tested on myself and my students. ( P.S! No students were harmed during the test! 🙂)

1. Free Moscow language exchange meetings Moscow Language Exchange (LEM)

Amazing free event that takes place every Sunday at 18.00 summer in Gorky Park (in good weather) or Casa Agave restaurant (in bad weather); winter- in the Hard Rock Café on the Arbat. At LEM meetings, you can practice different foreign languages ​​(German, Spanish, French, Italian, etc.), but 80% of people come here exclusively for English. This is exactly the place to go to get rid of the fear of speaking a foreign language. I take my students there by the hand, because for the first time everyone is afraid to get into an English-speaking environment. This is a kind of “bonus” for them and an opportunity for me to check what I taught them.

Pros and cons of visiting Moscow Language Exchange

Of course, this kind of language exchange has more advantages than disadvantages. Consider all the pros and cons.

pros

• Spontaneous live communication in English
• The opportunity to make new useful acquaintances with the same lovers of English as you are
• If you're lucky, you can chat with native speakers of English language and make sure your English is not so bad
• A great way to spend a Moscow Sunday evening in the company of smart and interesting people
• All this fun is completely free. The only thing you can spend money on is drinks (optional, of course)

Minuses

There are also small disadvantages noted by my students:

• There are few native speakers at the event
• Basically, you communicate with the same Russian-speaking guys who make mistakes in speech. As a result, you listen to the mistakes of others.

Such meetings, of course, will not replace, but they do not have such a goal either. The main task of a language exchange is to overcome the language barrier, train to speak spontaneously and understand an interlocutor with any level of English, find new friends with common interests. So, if you are looking for a place in Moscow where you can chat in English for free for an entire evening, feel free to go to LEM!

2.Special sites for finding language exchange friends conversion exchange and My Language Exchange.

In principle, these resources can be used not only in Moscow, but if you live in the capital, there is a high probability that in the future you will communicate with your friends “live”, as they study Russian and go to see Moscow first.

To find friends for a language exchange, you need to register on these resources and fill out a questionnaire about yourself. However, here you need to be prepared to practice Russian in exchange for English. On the Conversation Exchange site, I was lucky enough to meet a native speaker from the USA and England - both speak chic American and British English, respectively, so I had the opportunity to practice two varieties of English at once. It's great when there are people who are ready to answer questions that a dictionary cannot answer!

After registering on the My Language Exchange website, a native speaker from Australia wrote to me and invited me to free English classes on Tverskaya. I was pleasantly surprised to have a real English lesson with a native teacher! I still don’t know why they do it for free (all the guys who attended classes for about a year asked each other this question), but even I had a lot to learn from these classes.

What are the pros and cons of using these resources?

pros

• You practice English with a native speaker (you just don't add others)
• You can chat on Skype without leaving your home
• Opportunity to make useful contacts around the world
• All this is completely free

Minuses

• People on the Internet are different, so you need to be extremely careful. Be prepared to receive letters from a variety of not-so-native speakers and not-so-English
• I'll have to practice Russian in exchange for English

And so, in Moscow, in addition to paid ones, you can find a lot of options to communicate in English for free. There is a desire - a thousand possibilities.

Who is fluent in nine languages? One of his tips for those who want to learn a foreign language is to find yourself a language partner for continuous practice of the language. Ideally, if it is also a native speaker. Where to find it? There are many sites on the web specifically designed to help you find a language partner to learn English or any other language. We have compiled a selection of the most popular resources.

On this site you can find a language partner from almost any country in the world, for example, from the USA, Germany, France, Great Britain, India, Morocco, Thailand, Chile, etc. To start communication on this service, you need to register and fill out your profile. For example, you will need to indicate which language you speak and which language you want to learn. At the same time, the system allows you to specify several languages ​​- for example, you can indicate that you speak Russian, but you want to practice English and French.

The user is also invited to write a short message describing himself and his interests to attract attention, add a photo and indicate exactly how you would like to practice the language. For example, through email correspondence, Skype communication, live communication. You can also enter your name on Skype if you wish, so that you can be contacted directly.

You can choose an interlocutor for yourself by gender, by the languages ​​\u200b\u200bthat he speaks and which he wants to learn, by country of residence or by city. For example, we were able to find more than 500 English-speaking users who would be interested in improving their knowledge of the Russian language.

In addition to the main function of finding a language partner, the main page displays the latest discussion topics on the forum, which are often related to learning a foreign language, so you can immediately connect to the discussion.

Although this site is designed for finding a language teacher around the world, there is a separate section where you can find a common language practice partner. The search criteria are the same as on the previous site: gender, country and city of residence, language you speak, and the one you would like to learn. You can also specify that the system searches exclusively for native speakers of a foreign language, and not for users who simply know it well. By the way, it is very convenient that the system still shows whether there is a person in this moment on the site, plus - next to each foreign language, it is indicated at what level he speaks it.

Other goodies include, for example, Articles sections, where you can find articles on learning different foreign languages ​​(there is a filter by language to sort out inappropriate content), and Notebook. It allows you to train written skills in a foreign language. The essence is simple: you make a record on any topic, for example, talk about your work, family, travel, publish it, and other users can correct errors and leave their comments.

Users also have the opportunity to participate in discussions and ask questions that they have in the course of learning the language. But it is worth noting that if you have a free account, then you will be somewhat limited in your actions. For example, you can only ask two questions per day, add only two users as friends, etc.

On this service, the same principle of operation as on the previous ones: you register, enter data about yourself and choose the most suitable language partner for the language he speaks and the one he wants to learn.

It is very convenient that there is an online chat in the user profile, where all suitable users who are currently on the site are displayed - you can immediately start chatting. Moreover, you can both correspond and turn on audio and video chat. Also, if you wish, you can save the correspondence on your desktop.

Another feature of the resource is a built-in video chat, a mobile version and an online translator, which makes communication much easier. You can also set appointments for your language partners here and add them to your schedule.

Here you can practice only English. All content of the site can be conditionally divided into two parts. The first is, in fact, the search and selection of a foreign interlocutor to communicate in English in text, audio or video chats. Moreover, if you do not want or are not ready to communicate face-to-face, then you can chat in a general chat. The second part is the study area. There are articles, videos, thematic collections of words, dictionaries, etc. And the third part is your virtual coach. The user needs to indicate the level of English proficiency and the topics in which he would like to improve knowledge. Depending on this, exercises for training are automatically selected.

Finally, we offer you a few more resources -

DALF - international exam French(Diplôme Approfondi en Langue Française level C1), which is required for admission to universities in France. It involves not a mechanical check of vocabulary, grammar, but testing whether the examinee is able to think ...

Learning English is not only profitable, but also very useful. This broadens our horizons, strengthens our memory, raises our price at work and allows us to feel more confident in foreign trips. Each of us studied at least one foreign language at school, but school knowledge pretty superficial.

The most romantic and charming language in the world is now available to residents of the capital - French language courses in Moscow guarantee the rapid development of communication skills, knowledge of grammar and spelling, the features and nuances of French morphology. French courses will allow students to read Hugo and Voltaire, sing along with Piaf and Farmer couplets, watch Taxi or Nights of Cabiria in the original. Business, colloquial, literary: discover new linguistic facets!

So, in this article we will talk about how to find yourself a native speaker for practice colloquial speech is free.

Let me tell you a little background: a year ago, I was faced with the question of how to find someone to practice speaking. I analyzed many options, such as language exchange with those who are eager to learn Russian (I must say right away that there are very few such people), hiring a tutor (the minus is that he is usually not a native speaker), going to courses (minus group learning), various services offering lessons with natives (quite expensive in terms of pounds / dollars for rubles), ... But! All of these options have one BIG drawback - they are paid, and the goal was to improve conversational speech absolutely free.

The genes took their toll and the resource analysis process was in full swing. The first site I went to was a site containing a list of popular English and American social networks. Trite, but it worked, I pulled out 10 normal people for a decent conversation. At the same time, I registered on the Interpals language exchange site, but in fact it is the same social network, only called more officially. From there, I also managed to pull out a solid number of people to “chat” on neutral topics. I will separately mention such a site as Scout - also with a large number of users. Personally, I use the app, not the site itself. The feature of this application is that there is a feature called travel. You enter the city you want to go to and it sets your current location as if you were there. People who live in the city that you entered in the form of "travel" will see you and can write to you. I personally always put London, as a result, most people write to me from it. You also see the people who live there, so you can also write to them or just wink.

If you are a girl, and post nice pictures, put in the status on the site that you are not in a relationship, but in search, I assure you, you will not have any problems finding some English or American to talk to. Not quite beautiful, I agree, but think for yourself who wants to communicate with you when you and your martyr or you and your child are on your profile picture ... There are few people ... And in sincere friendship from the first “Hello!” hard to believe, alas. The downside of this communication is that after 2-3 weeks these people begin to understand that you won’t go to the USA or England and send interesting pictures, respectively, interest in your person will go out ... There is also a chance to run into a preoccupied jerk / good man, who will strive to show his wood or say what kind of horny he is. These are everywhere and they manifest themselves immediately, so if you have different goals with them, send them and you will not waste your time ... This method is time consuming, because you need to sort through all these horny and other perverts for quite some time / good people before finding something worthwhile. But, on the other hand, you will get several hours of conversational speech with native speaker for free.

What works for girls doesn't quite work for guys. It’s not enough for a guy to put nice pictures, and mark the status as “in search”. Something else needs to stand out. My friend and I set up an experiment, posted cool pictures on all these sites, where he is in a Porsche, on a yacht ... Not his pictures, of course, and began to wait. I must say right away that the experiment was a success, because quite a lot of people wrote to him. There were also many people who wanted to chat on Skype. But again, after 2-3 weeks of communication, the girls begin to understand that something strange is happening, because the guy speaks only over audio communication, and the video does not even offer (and! does not even cheat on anything!), Which is very unusual , and to reveal the true state of things, of course, he is not going to for obvious reasons. Accordingly, the same thing happens as in the above method, people lose interest and no longer communicate. The probability of a guy running into a horney girl is many times less than a girl running into a horny guy, but some swindler who also wants to be with him in a Porsche or on a yacht, and better both there and there in turn, very much even big. But, again, they show themselves pretty soon, so you can't go wrong ... The method is also time-consuming, but the result is several hours of free spoken English.

My friend and I tried several other ways of free conversation. Here is their list:

1. Call the support of various American / British universities and ask them about the different study programs they offer.

This method rather allows you to cope with the fear of talking to official native speakers rather than just chatting and getting a set of words for anka.

2. Call different hotels/restaurants, ask them about the options they offer.

I had the wildest conversation with the Washington Hilton, figuring out how many pillow options they have on check-in and who each option is for.

3. Skype calls to different lines for those who need support.

This method is more likely to listen to you and understand correctly what you are saying.
The reason for my call was that I am very sad and lonely and I need someone to talk to, preferably with good diction, not very fast speech and so on ...

4. Called in support of various chocolate companies in the US.

For example, I liked talking with representatives of hershey's company. I asked when they would finally launch a line of chocolate with pepper, lemon and garlic ... On the other end of the Internet connection, they asked me how I imagine such a taste and why such a combination.

5. A friend called an American zoo and asked the zoo representative about the animals they have and which of them can be petted.

If you dig on the websites of such companies, you will surely find their free Skype numbers, which you can easily call and chat with their representatives.

The advantage of these methods is that you get out of your comfort zone. You need to figure out what you will ask the representatives of those companies where you call, to be able to get out by answering their questions, not to be embarrassed and not to stand in a stupor from their questions. Personally, for me, this way of learning is much more useful than simple lessons with teachers. Such lessons are trivial, they do not have much stress for the brain, you can forget these lessons pretty quickly, but you can remember a stressful conversation about pillows or a menu in a hotel for a long time. Do not forget that representatives of American companies are usually very polite, so they will listen to you for as long as possible. Of course, this method has disadvantages, one of them is that you will not be corrected if you say something wrong. Another disadvantage is that you need to spend time looking for companies and their free Skype numbers. But, to sum up, this method is very good. The time and effort spent is fully paid off by a free conversation, which, with your ability to chat, can last 10-20 minutes.

It is worth noting that you will be able to test your vocabulary and your grammar in real conditions. Namely, with such stressful conversations, all your jambs in grammar, listening and speaking, as well as in recognizing fluent American / British speech, will come out.

I outlined my ways of pulling up conversational speech for free, if you have any other options, write in the comments, I will consider it with pleasure.