So yesterday I had my first face to face German lesson, an exciting milestone!
The italki dashboard, when you sign in.
Well, sort of face to face. It was via Skype, and I found my teacher through italki.
So what is italki?
I heard about italki through my favourite Irish Polyglot, Benny, on his blog here. It is basically an online social platform that connects language enthusiasts. You can search for language buddies, informal tutoring, or formal language lessons. I’ve opted for the formal lessons to begin with, and hope to make use of the other features before too long.
What does it cost?
The tutoring and language lessons aren’t free, the site uses ITC (italki credit) as currency, with ten ITC’s being worth one US dollar. There are a massive range of prices and teachers, but I have found a few within the budget I set of maximum $15 (AUD) per hour. The teacher I’m trying at the moment costs around $12.50. At this price I hope to afford one lesson per week. The informal tutoring sessions are cheaper, so I hope to make more use of those when I am in a position to practise my speaking without too much correction. You can also get free ITC through their referral system, so if you’d like to try it out please sign up here!
The language buddy option is free, and works like a language exchange. Ideally you find someone who speaks the language you are learning, who wants to learn a language you know. I’m hoping to find a real live language partner in Copenhagen when university starts back up, I’ll let you know how I get on.
What do I like about italki?
italki has a huge range of options for formal lessons, informal tutoring, and language partners. Different teachers have different lesson plans, and many offer a discounted trial, so that you can try out a few teachers if you aren’t happy with the first one you choose. The review system is great, allowing you to read feedback about teachers and their lessons before you make a booking. The formal lessons are all by qualified teachers, with their credentials being checked by italki before they are allowed to claim they are professional teachers.
There are also community tutors, who are usually cheaper. They are reviewed in the same way as professional teachers. I plan on trying out some community tutors next. There are people teaching and learning hundreds of languages; if the language exists, I’m sure someone is teaching it on italki. It is a great way to get in some speaking practise, which is what I am struggling with most.
What don’t I like about italki?
I initially didn’t like the social media side of italki, where you can follow and message people like on Facebook. I received a few declarations of love, and weird requests to chat, but I reported them and have since learned that you can turn the messaging function off. You can change the settings so that only people you are following can message you, so no more creepy messages!
The only thing that I continue to find annoying are the transaction fees involved in buying the ITC. They start at 7.2% (!!) if you only buy $10USD of credit, and go as low as .3% of you buy $1000USD of credit, which seems absurd. They encourage you to buy more credit to save on transaction fee costs, but that is obviously a risk if you don’t end up using the service, as they won’t refund unused credit. I ended up buying 500ITC which cost $51.91USD, and I will buy it in $100USD lots in the future if I am still getting value for money out of italki.
Let me know in the comments if you have any questions about italki and I’ll try to answer!
Language, Learning, Laughs 