skype learning conferences

Hi excuter, that is exactly the reason the Practice plan is so valuable and why I think that a professional teacher makes a huge difference. Of your list I would regard No. 2 as most important, at least if you are starting from a Basic or Intermediate level because there are constantly some barriers you are hitting. *But* your partner must also be patient and demanding enough to use English only as a last resort (that is maybe the harder qualification). A teacher also needs to be trained and skilled to understand his foreign student despite all those grammer and pronounciation mistakes - otherwise it gets very tiring. Regarding speed: A talented teacher like Aggie knows exactly how to adjust speed according to her counterpart including daily performance + to the current Skype transmission conditions (very important factor!). Only with the first point I am not that certain. In my practice plan sessions we start with a lesson and try to include the core vocab in our discussion. But it is used rather as a loose theme applied to my personal communication needs than as a rigid corset.

excellent, then tell us when your ready and we can make up a topic and time. After your holliday you shure talk mandarin even when you sleep maybe you can tell us a bit ´bout the experience then (if you don´t mind) ^u^

ok, henning and I were replying at the same time, i can't agree more with is recommendation. Being a native speaker doesn't make you a teacher, can even be very frustrating. Noisy lines, delays and other interruptions can also be extremely distracting, and remember you don't have any body language so you have to know the basics, how to make the teacher slow down, repeat, repeat again, rephrase, ask for a word etc. without resorting to English

Goulniky, indeed that looked almost coordinated. ;)

Henning, I didn´t mean the speakers speed but that is a realy important point too. I meant that those non prepaired talks are over soon because you run out of vocab and ideas . Goulniky, those crowd is exactly what I´m looking for, because everyone can tune in from time to time and if you run out of ideas what to say (can happen very quick even if your prepaired) you can let the others talk until you know what you want to say more than 5 might be to much but if all are concentrated and wait ´till one said what he wanted to say it can be very effective. Yes, Cpod material is definately what´s to start with. :-)

By the way I didn´t think of a teacher leading the communication, just wanted some people talking about a whatsoever topic and gettiing more used to use the vocabinput to a real talk, because if you don´t use it you lose it right?

Check out xlingo.com, or just google "language exchange" and you'll surely get a dozen hits leading to sites that do nothing but network people for online language exchange. These are good because they're a) free and b) have tons and tons of people to network with.

I'd have doubts serious about this without one native speaker or at least s.o. way more advanced than the others, leading the discussion. In my experience with the CPod pratice plan, running out of ideas is never an issue, after15 min. now I feel this could easily go on for another 15 minutes. I guess it depends on your level, for newbies and elementary I can see it being an issue, all the more so without a tutor / teacher. But either way, as s.o. mentioned in another thread, the more you bring (pre-study) the more can get.

'serious doubts'

xlingo actually links native speakers to each other. In your profile you list the langugages you speak, which is your native language, and which languages you want to learn. The search function does the rest, networking you with people who teach the language you want to learn while also wanting to learn your native language. It's a cool site.

Well, you may want to sign up for 1-month of practice plan or whatever the shortest option is. Others on this plan such has henning have been commenting about it. What I would say is, in these circumstances, two is company if well-prepared and structured, three definitely would be a crowd. You can of course come up with your own discussion topics I'd suggest that existing CPod material are a good starting point but you need to then agree on what to prepare, so if it's about Traditional Residences (my lesson today) you may want to agree to discuss urban housing in your area, your own living preferences or whatever, but some boundaries to kick off.

I think this idea was floated a few weeks ago, and the reaction was something similar. On one hand, I think it makes a lot of sense for students to get together and cooperate but when it comes to language it's a bit too easy to share mistakes. That said, I'd be interested in trying this out...

By the way - has anyone actually trying xlingo? If so, what do folks make of it?

I think the idea is worth a try as well. I've never been on skype but I know my kids use it so maybe they could teach me. I do the practice plan, but on the phone Shanghai to Hong Kong. I love it. I know my tones are terrible, and my sentence construction is faulty. You will not be able to use me as a guide. But at least we would be trying to get our thoughts together. Any practice would be just that, practice. How bad could it be? But I warn you, I am painful to listen to, as both Vera and Aggie will attest. I'm willing to put myself out there in spite of my embarrassment about my bad Chinese.

Brendan, yesterday I signed up at xlingo and it seems to be more about giving vocab writing blogs and e-mail to exchangepartners then actually talking, but there´s a skype button like here on cpod.Didn´t checkout all of the site but that are the things I noticed `till now. wei1xiao4 since my chinese is probably the same (or less? Uhh what I´m getting into here...ähm...) level, I´m shure we´ll be a great language rapist team :-) So anyone willing to be mr know it all...ähm...the conversation leader? :-)

Wei1xiao4, Skype is easy to use - I'm sure you'll get the hang of it. It has an advantage over the phone for Practice. When I asked Vera about a word I didn't understand, she skype-texted the word to me. After each session I was able to copy-paste to a document. There is also a plugin for skype that allows you to record a conversation - I didn't use this, but next time I would so I could listen back to my 'tones'.

excuter, Who will bell the cat? All you need to do now is to find someone who has no prospect of learning anything from us, but is willing nonetheless to devote time and energy online with us. Easy ;-)

hmmm... Henning my friend don´t you wanna join? ;-)

excuter, yes, but unfortunatelly I will be pretty busy this last week before my holiday. Don't know yet about my Internet situation after I arrive in Beijing on Saturday (which will hopefully be "Mandarin study group XXL" all day long anyway)...

Goulniky someone leading the discussion would be a good thing which realy can be important and that person has to be choosen before the discussion starts. kyle (just thought of southpark when I saw your name hehe...sorry no offense...) I definately try that site. :-)