Hey it's a Hadar and this is the Accent's Way. I've got a question for you.
Are you eager to improve your English and your fluency but you simply can't
find someone to speak with are you looking to improve and practice but you
don't know how to start finding conversation partners in life and online?
Are you wondering whether or not you need to look for native speakers versus
non-speakers? And are you looking for ways to do that for free cuz of course
you can pay someone to speak with you but you don't have the funds?
If you answered yes to any of those questions
then my friend this video is a must watch for you
because you know that already the only way to achieve great
results in English and to improve your fluency is by speaking is by putting to
practice everything that you've learned and that you know because knowing
English and understand English in English is one thing and speaking
English fluently is another thing I treat it as if it's two different
languages yes I can read and write rather easily that goes that comes out
naturally to me but then when I have to speak it's a
totally different ballgame right and you need to have your own strategy around it
and one of the things that you need to do you have to do you should do is to
speak as much as possible so I'm going to share with you a few tactics on how
to do that how to find conversation partners interesting intriguing
intelligent conversation partners online and offline how you can get excited
about speaking with other people even if you're an introvert and how to do that
in the most efficient and fun way and most importantly how to do that without
even investing one single dollar in it okay so let's get started so one of the
biggest questions that people ask when they're looking for conversation
partners or when they're looking for opportunities to practice English is
should I look for native speakers only my answer is no okay
if you find conversation partners who are native speakers and
amazing that's great but don't limit yourself because then you limit yourself
mentally and you limit yourself technically because there are a lot more
non-native speakers of English who are looking for conversation partners as
well which is incredible I find that non-native speakers have an easier time
conversing with fellow non-native speakers it feels like we're all in the
same boat if I make mistakes you're not gonna judge me and if you make mistakes
I'm not gonna judge you because we know how it is we know what it's like and we
are at least trying to connect and communicate if you're afraid that if you
speak with a non-native speaker they're not gonna correct your mistakes then let
me tell you this when you speak to a negative speaker they're not going to
correct your mistakes either first of all it's rude to interrupt someone and
even if you ask them to do that I mean it's not their job they're not there to
fix every single bit of your mistakes or your challenges right sometimes they
don't even notice it okay things that you think are a big deal they don't even
pay attention to it as they're trying to listen to what you have to say so unless
it's your English teacher if it's a native speaker don't assume and expect
them to correct you when you speak now if you are afraid that you're gonna
catch their mistakes then I've got a news flash for you people don't pick up
on things that they hear and see right away in order to implement something the
correct way and the mistake you need to create muscle memory around it you need
to do it yourself over and over again it's not enough to hear a mistake and
then to apply it right away you need to consciously catch it you need to
implement it you need to think about it you need to do it over and over again
until it becomes a part of your own speech so even if you hear a mistake it
doesn't mean that you're gonna repeat it right away okay this is why we don't
pick up on the right things on the correct forms so easily because it's not
that easy so don't worry about that either so the idea is to speak okay to
speak and to connect because when you create meaningful connections and
converse patience then English comes right it
should be your means to achieve what you want which is to connect to communicate
to learn things to teach things right rather than the goal the target which is
practicing English because then it becomes boring it becomes repetitive it
becomes tedious and then you quit okay so remember that English is a tool right
it's not your final goal your final goal is not to become fluent in English your
final goal is to achieve your dreams by being fluent in English okay so the
tactics I'm going to share with you today are going to help you find
conversation partners whether they're native speakers or non-native speakers
but my recommendation is not to limit yourself to native speakers only because
then you're going to be missing out on so many opportunities and that's a shame
So the first thing you can do is to find foreigners in your hometown people who
are visiting tourists or people who have just relocated to your city or a big
nearby city okay people who have recently moved to a new city or a
tourist are eager to connect with locals and probably their language skills are
not that great as they just moved in right so maybe they still don't speak
the native tongue that is spoken in that country so they are probably
communicating in English which is like the universal language and this is your
opportunity to jump in and to practice with them your English as much as you
can they're gonna be eager to learn more
about the place about the people they're gonna need guidance they're gonna need
help they're going to need people to help them communicate with with the
authorities and the municipality and the bureaucracy around relocating to a new
place and this is where you come in not only that you can truly help someone
else that as a need and when you do good things for others good things come to
you that's what I believe in so on one hand you real you become very very
helpful and on another hand you get to practice your English with
them because everything is going to be done in English and then you have an
opportunity to make new friends to do something really good and to improve
your English skills let me tell you the story of Jack Ma Jack Ma is the founder
and CEO of Alibaba I don't know if you know him but he's a pretty incredible
human being so when he grew up in China at the age of 12 he couldn't afford
going to a language school he barely went to school and he understood back
then that the only way to achieve his goals and dreams and life is by speaking
English so what this resourceful and ambitious little boy did was to ride his
bicycle for 40 minutes every single day to a nearby town where there was a hotel
where tourists from around the world would come and stay there and explore
China now he would help them get around show them around town translate what
they wanted and by that he would communicate and interact with them in
English so although his English skills were close to nothing as he just started
out he was able to improve his English by simply interacting in a second
language now these people needed something from him so they were able to
communicate with him despite the challenges when you have something
important to give to the other person they don't care about your mistakes they
don't care about waiting for another split second for you to finish your
sentence they want to hear what you have to say cause it has value right it it
holds value for them and therefore their need to communicate is as strong as your
need to communicate and improve your English so he was able in just a few
years to become very fluent in English so not only was he able to improve his
English skills he was also able to network and develop his business skills
simply by being around those people the next thing I recommend for you to do
is to find people who have the same fields of interest as you do as I've
said before when you provide value when you contribute to someone else then they
would want to connect with you they would want to speak with you they would
want to lose - what you have to say it doesn't matter
how long it takes you to say it it doesn't matter if you make mistakes it
doesn't matter that you have an accent they'd be very enthusiastic to listen to
you and to hear from you and to tell you what they think okay so the question is
what are you good at do you know how to play the piano really well do you know
how to quilt or how to sew so what you can do is think of your fields of
expertise and fields of interest and then look for forums online forums or
Facebook groups around those areas there you want to connect and create virtual
relationships with other members and then gradually offer to provide content
whether it's tutoring even if it's for free or for a very low amount right if
you're a web developer then you can teach people who are just starting out
because when you teach in English and when you provide content or when you try
to explain something that is complex then you become super fluent very very
fast because you have to think of how you deliver this thought in a
comprehensible way and how you do it in a concise way and the more you do it the
more the better you become at it okay I can tell you that for my own personal
experience the only way for me to get really fluent and an expert in what I do
is through teaching when I started teaching English I started mastering it
so it you don't need to teach English you can teach something that you know
and other people don't but do it in English and those groups and forums are
the best places for you to do it the next thing is to find an online platform
of like-minded people who are looking to communicate and connect in English so
here I have two platforms to recommend for you the first one is my community on
Facebook of non-native speakers from around the world it is the most
incredible community I have ever seen and experienced and I am objective
saying that it's a safe place for people to practice upload videos talking about
different things connecting we have discussions we
talks we have activities and it's pretty incredible and if you're interested then
you have to be serious about it you have to be super supportive no BS is allowed
there because otherwise you're booted out and you are there mostly to become
the best version of yourself in English okay
so that's the first platform I'm going to share all the links right below the
description so click the link to join us the next one is a free online platform
that I was recently introduced to by one of our community members and I love it I
think it's great it's actually a platform that was created by a
non-native speaker who is looking for conversation partners it's called free
for talk again I'm gonna post all the links right below and over there you
find different rooms with people who are there to speak so they were speaking
groups you can find a partner and move to a different group their activities so
I highly recommend for you to check it out if you are looking for conversation
partners now I actually joined a few of the conversations there because they
never recommend something that I don't test myself and I was so amazed by the
beautiful community that is created there the people the level of the
conversation how intelligent it is engaging and supportive so definitely
I'd like you to check it out another cool platform which I love is AI talky
and if you've been watching any English videos on YouTube you probably know it
by now I talkie is a website it's an online
platform to find teachers of different languages and of course English is a
very dominant language there so in addition to finding teachers there you
can also find language partners so there is an online community going on there
where people post what they're interested in right what they're looking
to improve and what languages they speak so either you can exchange languages so
you speak a little bit of English and then a little bit of your native tongue
so you both practice or you find partners from around the world in speak
English with them so another great opportunity for free now if you don't
have the time to search for those group some of those communities and to do all
the work that I gave you here and you just want to pay someone maybe you have
the extra funds and you're willing to pay a few bucks for a lesson then I
would definitely check out the teachers on italki because you can get amazing
tutors for as little as $10 an hour to have a conversation with you and give
you feedback if needed and of course teach you
you also have teachers there for up to $30 an hour so you can check that out as
well and I actually asked Italki if they can offer some kind of a discount
for my viewers and they happily agreed to offer a $10 discount on your first
purchase which is a full lesson nice nice deal so check it out use the
link that I post below to get the discount and let me know how it goes in
the comments below okay that's it I think I gave you enough tactics to get
started with right so what I want you to do now is this I want you to take action
right away so either look for a community of foreigners in your hometown
or look for a Facebook group that share of people who share the same interests
as you join our community on Facebook or go to free for talk or go to I talk II
do one thing and then let us know in the comments below what you did okay so we
can cheer you on and say you rob for taking the next step also if you have
other ideas on how to find conversation partners online and offline please share
it with us below so write a comment and tell us how you find people to speak
with in your home country or online remember the most important thing is to
speak up is to be resourceful is to be creative about your process and not to
use excuses such as I don't have anyone to talk to to hold you back from
advancing and improving okay because every
has a solution we just have to find it and you just have to do something about
it and this is why taking action right now is the most important thing for you
good luck and I can't wait to see you in the next video