Italki – become fluent in any language – learning a language from anywhere in the world from people around the world

With COVID-19 still causing a headache for many parts of the world and probably even in your home state, you may be looking for something to do, to learn or to pick up as a hobby. Well, let me recommend something that I have been doing for some time and think it incredibly worthwhile and life changing, it is learning a foreign language. By using italki, I am learning at my own pace, in my own time, with the teachers I choose and on the medium I want (sort of).

I have been learning both Japanese and Mandarin for some time and have found italki to be a fantastic platform to search for tutors or teachers in the language I want to become proficient in. There are heaps of languages on the platform for you to learn, from Italian to Afrikaans to Khmer, and plenty of teachers to boot. I have been using italki since April 2018 and have continued to use it to this day, in fact I have remained with the same teachers since the day I started (though I did pay for some trial lessons with other teachers to see whom I liked the most). I really like my teachers on the platform and as a result, I have come a long way in my language learning. Of course, I respect people who prefer to change it up every now and then with their teachers.

Italki will let you select the target language, then show you a list of all the available teachers. You can read their biographies and their video introductions to get a gist of their style of teaching. Once you have decided who you like, you simply book a lesson based on the times they have available in their calendar, choose the medium for the session, e.g. on Skype or italki classroom, and pay for the lesson. The currency on the platform is United States Dollars. and the lessons are not usually cheap, because italki charge a fee on the teachers and when buying their credit. (So I recommend buying italki credit when your currency is stronger than the USD.)

Most teachers offer lessons in 30 min, 45 min and 60 min blocks and even offer small discounts on lesson packages.

Take note that some teachers are either community tutors or professional teachers, it depends on whether they have a degree or not. (I honestly don’t think you need a degree to be a good teacher, so I can say I am not an elitist. Maybe?) You can also see how many lessons they have completed and their student rating out of 5.

Hopefully you find the teacher for you and hope you enjoy!

After you lesson, both you and your teacher will provide each other feedback. And then you take part in the community boards and make new friends by putting yourself out there. I have managed to get random messages from people and have ended up with a few pen pals from around the world as a result. So hopefully your language learning journey flourishes too. Enough about me and italki, get out there and good luck!