I still Can’t Speak English

I Still Can’t Speak English
42
Meeting English Speakers &
Building Learning Relationships
13 Meeting English Speakers & 
Building Learning Relationships
This wasn’t too easy in 2007 when we first published our materials but every day it gets easier as the 
world gets more and more social. Follow these instructions, they will help you to make the most of the 
learning materials you collect.
Make contact with some fluent or native speakers via Skype, Facebook or an online language exchange like 
Busuu.com
18
, Italki.com
19
, Livemocha.com
20
, Mylanguageexchange.com
21
, Palabea.com
22
or The Mixxer
23 
or through Skype language learning forums
24
.
And/or use Google to search for an ‘E
nglish speaking partner
’, ‘
volunteer English speaker
’, ‘
language 
exchange
’ or ‘
language swap
’. There are lots of places to meet friendly English speakers online.
Make initial contact with them by text, video mail or voice mail, this is polite before you call someone; 
even if you can see they are online. In the message tell them what you want to talk about (i.e. the lesson 
‘
topic
’) and say it will only take a few minutes. 
DO NOT 
just call them. They will not answer you and it 
will annoy them. With the first few partners set a weekly time to talk and stick to it!
It’s also a good idea to make friends with quite a few people around the world in different time zones. If 
you have eight to ten friendly practice partners you will find that one or more will be online and happy 
to talk when you want to do some practice. Tell them that you want to practise with them and that it 
will only take a few minutes each time you call them and that they don’t need to do any preparation to 
have the conversation.
1. Use a good dictionary
2. Make sure you understand the final 
Out There
task.
3. Try to relax.
4. Call one of your
Out There
conversation partners and practice the language you have just 
studied.
5. Record it and listen again, then call other 
Out There
conversation partners for further 
practice.

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