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  • So the number one question that I get from English learners is, "How do I find someone

  • that I can speak English with?"

  • How do I find someone in my local town or my local city who would be willing to help

  • me learn English by having speaking practice sessions or lessons regularly.

  • So in this video I'm going to show you six ways that you can find someone that you can

  • speak English with so that you get that speaking practice in.

  • So you've probably already spent time reading in English, writing in English, listening

  • to English, and learning lots of vocabulary.

  • But speaking with a native English speaker is one of the most challenging things to do

  • as you continue to learn English.

  • So in this video I'm gonna show you six things that you can do to find native English speakers

  • that you can talk to.

  • I should say though, one of the examples doesn't involve a native speaker, but you'll see when

  • we get there.

  • Let's get started.

  • So one of the first things you can do is you can try to find a language club in your city.

  • Most large cities have language clubs where people go to learn English as well as other

  • languages.

  • So a great place to start with this is a website called meetup.com.

  • And we'll have a look at meetup.com and we'll use this website to say that we live in Paris

  • and that we are looking for an English conversation club.

  • When you do this it should give you some things that you can click on.

  • So here we see café conversation English language conversation group.

  • So meetup is a great place, you can specify the city that you are from, so let's say you

  • are in Toronto.

  • Maybe you're already in Canada.

  • And you could say that you want an English conversation club and you can see here again

  • all different options for you to be able to go to a club and practice your English with

  • other people.

  • A second way to find someone to practice English with is to find someone to be your penpal.

  • This is an older English word that means someone who you can write letters to.

  • But you can also find a penpal who is willing to have conversations with you via Skype or

  • Facetime.

  • We're going to use a webpage called, "mylanguageexchange.com" So I'm just gonna go over to the computer

  • here and I'm gonna search up my language exchange on Google and when we get to mylanguage, language

  • exchange, we're gonna go down to where it says your language exchange partner.

  • So you're describing the person you want to meet.

  • I would say their native language is English, and let's pretend I'm a French speaker learning

  • English.

  • I would say that their practicing language is French.

  • Then I would click search and you'll see that a number of people come up who say, "Hello

  • I'm interested in exchanging with people on a regular basis on regular topics."

  • So this is someone whose native language is English, but who is practicing French.

  • So another way to find an English speaking partner is to use a website called preply.com.

  • So we're going to have a look at preply.com.

  • I used preply when I was learning French or improving my French, but preply.com is a website

  • where you will have to spend some money, but you can go and find people who are willing

  • to teach you English via Skype or via Facetime.

  • So if I went to the website I could say I wanna learn the English language.

  • I wanna learn English to talk about hobbies, and I want to learn it for myself, and then

  • I'm going to say that I speak French, I'm just gonna pretend that I speak French so

  • here this will give us an option of how much we're willing to pay per hour, and we'll

  • just say show search results, we're not going to specify what days of the week, but

  • you'll see here that we right away have English tutors available who are charging

  • as little as $4 an hour.

  • So this is another way that you can meet via Skype or Facetime.

  • You can pay someone on preply.com to meet with you.

  • And another website that you can use is a website called italki.com.

  • So italki is a very similar website.

  • It allows you to go and look for an online English tutor, an online English partner,

  • speaking partner, and I'll show you in a moment just a quick thing.

  • If we say we want to learn English on the italki.com website.

  • It will find, hopefully for us, someone who teaches English.

  • So you'll see here that we have people popping up.

  • We have Sara who charges as little as $4.

  • So preply.com and italki.com are both excellent websites where you can find someone that you

  • can pay to teach you English via Skype or Facetime.

  • A fourth way that you can practice your English that sometimes English learners do not want

  • to do is to practice with someone else who is learning English.

  • Sometimes you might think that this will be bad for you, that you might learn each other's

  • mistakes.

  • But if you can find another person who's also learning English, that you can meet in

  • person or on Facetime or Skype, it will help you.

  • Whenever you know that you will need to speak English you will practice your English more

  • beforehand, before the lesson.

  • And even if you're speaking English with someone who's learning at the same time

  • as you, it is still excellent practice.

  • You can correct each other's mistakes.

  • You can ask each other questions.

  • You can read pre-written dialogues that you find on the internet or parts from a play,

  • and you can just use each other to practice your English.

  • So that's the fourth way, find someone who's also learning English and practice with them.

  • So a fifth way to practice your English with another person, and this one's kind of hard,

  • if you live near a tourist area of a large city, you will most likely have English tourists

  • there during the nicer months of the year.

  • English tourists are usually kind and they're usually willing to talk to people who are

  • learning English.

  • So if you can find a way to volunteer as a tour guide or volunteer in the tourist area

  • of the closest city to you, or in your city, you will have more opportunities to talk to

  • other English speakers.

  • Try it!

  • You won't regret it!

  • And finally a sixth way to practice your English with someone who speaks English is video games.

  • My son has a friend who's from China and he is learning a lot of English because he

  • plays video games with English speakers.

  • So he wears his headphones and he has his microphone in front of his mouth, and while

  • they're playing the game they talk to each other in English.

  • So joining any kind of video game where there is live chat as part of the game is an excellent

  • way to talk with other native English speakers.

  • You can do this with your xbox.

  • You can do this with your computer.

  • You certainly need at least a headset with a microphone, but it is a great way to practice

  • your English with native English speakers.

  • Well, hey, that was six ways to find a native English speaker that you can practice your

  • English with.

  • Bob the Canadian here.

  • I hope this English lesson was valuable for you.

  • If it was please hit the subscribe button below and give me a thumbs up.

  • I really hope you enjoyed this video, and if you have some time, there's a few videos

  • that you can watch next after this one.

  • If you haven't seen them, please do!

  • Have a great week!

So the number one question that I get from English learners is, "How do I find someone

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