Hello, this is Jack from tofluency.com,
and in this video, I'm going to talk about a mistake
I see English learners make when looking for speaking practice online
and what you can do instead to get the practice you need
so keep watching!
So, as an online English teacher
with a popular website for English learners, I received emails
every day and very often I receive emails like this...
The problem with posting messages
like this is you're not going to get a response
you're not going to find people to practice with you
This is because people don't know you yet
and they haven't built a relationship with you and online teachers
aren't going to just meet you on Skype for 20 minutes
just to talk. But there's something that you can do
to get the practice you need, and this is going to take
a change of approach. If you're sending messages like the one
I showed before. It's all about a different approach
and this is: to build relationships slowly,
get to know people, be interesting,
and then ask people to Skype.
So, pen pal world is a site that English learners use
to try and find people to practice their English with.
Now, instead of writing those messages we talked about before
this is what you can do instead: Firstly, write a
profile about yourself that is interesting to read; something that just
doesn't say,
"Hi, I'm David I want to practice my English."
Instead, write something more interesting about yourself
Then you can search people who have similar
interests to you, send them a message
introducing yourself, and then also ask them a couple questions
to get to know each other a little bit more. After doing that you can build
your relationship
up slowly, get to know this person, and then
when the time is right, ask them if they want to Skype with you.
Now, you can use this approach not just on pen pal world
but you can use on Facebook and Google+ ... any kind of learning forum or social media
website
that you use. The best thing about it is not just that you're going to get
speaking practice
but you're also going to build up relationships
with people who have the same interests as you
Now, here is one last tip: think about ways that you can help
English speakers with what you're an expert in
For example, I once needed help on my website
and someone in my English learning community helped me with this...
they got english-speaking practice and I got something out of the relationship too
because this person helped me with my website. So, think about ways that you can
help other people
and be useful for other people too. So,
what I want you to do now is this : underneath this video
I want you to write an introduction to yourself; two to four sentences
talking about who you are, what you're interested in, and who you would like to
meet.
and then click here to learn more
about this method and to get your free download.
So, thanks for watching and I'll see you next time!