Want to practice your English with REAL people? Here’s how 👇

Hey it's a Hadar and this is the Accent's Way. I've got a question for you.

Are you eager to improve your English and your fluency but you simply can't

find someone to speak with are you looking to improve and practice but you

don't know how to start finding conversation partners in life and online?

Are you wondering whether or not you need to look for native speakers versus

non-speakers? And are you looking for ways to do that for free cuz of course

you can pay someone to speak with you but you don't have the funds?

If you answered yes to any of those questions

then my friend this video is a must watch for you

because you know that already the only way to achieve great

results in English and to improve your fluency is by speaking is by putting to

practice everything that you've learned and that you know because knowing

English and understand English in English is one thing and speaking

English fluently is another thing I treat it as if it's two different

languages yes I can read and write rather easily that goes that comes out

naturally to me but then when I have to speak it's a

totally different ballgame right and you need to have your own strategy around it

and one of the things that you need to do you have to do you should do is to

speak as much as possible so I'm going to share with you a few tactics on how

to do that how to find conversation partners interesting intriguing

intelligent conversation partners online and offline how you can get excited

about speaking with other people even if you're an introvert and how to do that

in the most efficient and fun way and most importantly how to do that without

even investing one single dollar in it okay so let's get started so one of the

biggest questions that people ask when they're looking for conversation

partners or when they're looking for opportunities to practice English is

should I look for native speakers only my answer is no okay

if you find conversation partners who are native speakers and

amazing that's great but don't limit yourself because then you limit yourself

mentally and you limit yourself technically because there are a lot more

non-native speakers of English who are looking for conversation partners as

well which is incredible I find that non-native speakers have an easier time

conversing with fellow non-native speakers it feels like we're all in the

same boat if I make mistakes you're not gonna judge me and if you make mistakes

I'm not gonna judge you because we know how it is we know what it's like and we

are at least trying to connect and communicate if you're afraid that if you

speak with a non-native speaker they're not gonna correct your mistakes then let

me tell you this when you speak to a negative speaker they're not going to

correct your mistakes either first of all it's rude to interrupt someone and

even if you ask them to do that I mean it's not their job they're not there to

fix every single bit of your mistakes or your challenges right sometimes they

don't even notice it okay things that you think are a big deal they don't even

pay attention to it as they're trying to listen to what you have to say so unless

it's your English teacher if it's a native speaker don't assume and expect

them to correct you when you speak now if you are afraid that you're gonna

catch their mistakes then I've got a news flash for you people don't pick up

on things that they hear and see right away in order to implement something the

correct way and the mistake you need to create muscle memory around it you need

to do it yourself over and over again it's not enough to hear a mistake and

then to apply it right away you need to consciously catch it you need to

implement it you need to think about it you need to do it over and over again

until it becomes a part of your own speech so even if you hear a mistake it

doesn't mean that you're gonna repeat it right away okay this is why we don't

pick up on the right things on the correct forms so easily because it's not

that easy so don't worry about that either so the idea is to speak okay to

speak and to connect because when you create meaningful connections and

converse patience then English comes right it

should be your means to achieve what you want which is to connect to communicate

to learn things to teach things right rather than the goal the target which is

practicing English because then it becomes boring it becomes repetitive it

becomes tedious and then you quit okay so remember that English is a tool right

it's not your final goal your final goal is not to become fluent in English your

final goal is to achieve your dreams by being fluent in English okay so the

tactics I'm going to share with you today are going to help you find

conversation partners whether they're native speakers or non-native speakers

but my recommendation is not to limit yourself to native speakers only because

then you're going to be missing out on so many opportunities and that's a shame

So the first thing you can do is to find foreigners in your hometown people who

are visiting tourists or people who have just relocated to your city or a big

nearby city okay people who have recently moved to a new city or a

tourist are eager to connect with locals and probably their language skills are

not that great as they just moved in right so maybe they still don't speak

the native tongue that is spoken in that country so they are probably

communicating in English which is like the universal language and this is your

opportunity to jump in and to practice with them your English as much as you

can they're gonna be eager to learn more

about the place about the people they're gonna need guidance they're gonna need

help they're going to need people to help them communicate with with the

authorities and the municipality and the bureaucracy around relocating to a new

place and this is where you come in not only that you can truly help someone

else that as a need and when you do good things for others good things come to

you that's what I believe in so on one hand you real you become very very

helpful and on another hand you get to practice your English with

them because everything is going to be done in English and then you have an

opportunity to make new friends to do something really good and to improve

your English skills let me tell you the story of Jack Ma Jack Ma is the founder

and CEO of Alibaba I don't know if you know him but he's a pretty incredible

human being so when he grew up in China at the age of 12 he couldn't afford

going to a language school he barely went to school and he understood back

then that the only way to achieve his goals and dreams and life is by speaking

English so what this resourceful and ambitious little boy did was to ride his

bicycle for 40 minutes every single day to a nearby town where there was a hotel

where tourists from around the world would come and stay there and explore

China now he would help them get around show them around town translate what

they wanted and by that he would communicate and interact with them in

English so although his English skills were close to nothing as he just started

out he was able to improve his English by simply interacting in a second

language now these people needed something from him so they were able to

communicate with him despite the challenges when you have something

important to give to the other person they don't care about your mistakes they

don't care about waiting for another split second for you to finish your

sentence they want to hear what you have to say cause it has value right it it

holds value for them and therefore their need to communicate is as strong as your

need to communicate and improve your English so he was able in just a few

years to become very fluent in English so not only was he able to improve his

English skills he was also able to network and develop his business skills

simply by being around those people the next thing I recommend for you to do

is to find people who have the same fields of interest as you do as I've

said before when you provide value when you contribute to someone else then they

would want to connect with you they would want to speak with you they would

want to lose - what you have to say it doesn't matter

how long it takes you to say it it doesn't matter if you make mistakes it

doesn't matter that you have an accent they'd be very enthusiastic to listen to

you and to hear from you and to tell you what they think okay so the question is

what are you good at do you know how to play the piano really well do you know

how to quilt or how to sew so what you can do is think of your fields of

expertise and fields of interest and then look for forums online forums or

Facebook groups around those areas there you want to connect and create virtual

relationships with other members and then gradually offer to provide content

whether it's tutoring even if it's for free or for a very low amount right if

you're a web developer then you can teach people who are just starting out

because when you teach in English and when you provide content or when you try

to explain something that is complex then you become super fluent very very

fast because you have to think of how you deliver this thought in a

comprehensible way and how you do it in a concise way and the more you do it the

more the better you become at it okay I can tell you that for my own personal

experience the only way for me to get really fluent and an expert in what I do

is through teaching when I started teaching English I started mastering it

so it you don't need to teach English you can teach something that you know

and other people don't but do it in English and those groups and forums are

the best places for you to do it the next thing is to find an online platform

of like-minded people who are looking to communicate and connect in English so

here I have two platforms to recommend for you the first one is my community on

Facebook of non-native speakers from around the world it is the most

incredible community I have ever seen and experienced and I am objective

saying that it's a safe place for people to practice upload videos talking about

different things connecting we have discussions we

talks we have activities and it's pretty incredible and if you're interested then

you have to be serious about it you have to be super supportive no BS is allowed

there because otherwise you're booted out and you are there mostly to become

the best version of yourself in English okay

so that's the first platform I'm going to share all the links right below the

description so click the link to join us the next one is a free online platform

that I was recently introduced to by one of our community members and I love it I

think it's great it's actually a platform that was created by a

non-native speaker who is looking for conversation partners it's called free

for talk again I'm gonna post all the links right below and over there you

find different rooms with people who are there to speak so they were speaking

groups you can find a partner and move to a different group their activities so

I highly recommend for you to check it out if you are looking for conversation

partners now I actually joined a few of the conversations there because they

never recommend something that I don't test myself and I was so amazed by the

beautiful community that is created there the people the level of the

conversation how intelligent it is engaging and supportive so definitely

I'd like you to check it out another cool platform which I love is AI talky

and if you've been watching any English videos on YouTube you probably know it

by now I talkie is a website it's an online

platform to find teachers of different languages and of course English is a

very dominant language there so in addition to finding teachers there you

can also find language partners so there is an online community going on there

where people post what they're interested in right what they're looking

to improve and what languages they speak so either you can exchange languages so

you speak a little bit of English and then a little bit of your native tongue

so you both practice or you find partners from around the world in speak

English with them so another great opportunity for free now if you don't

have the time to search for those group some of those communities and to do all

the work that I gave you here and you just want to pay someone maybe you have

the extra funds and you're willing to pay a few bucks for a lesson then I

would definitely check out the teachers on italki because you can get amazing

tutors for as little as $10 an hour to have a conversation with you and give

you feedback if needed and of course teach you

you also have teachers there for up to $30 an hour so you can check that out as

well and I actually asked Italki if they can offer some kind of a discount

for my viewers and they happily agreed to offer a $10 discount on your first

purchase which is a full lesson nice nice deal so check it out use the

link that I post below to get the discount and let me know how it goes in

the comments below okay that's it I think I gave you enough tactics to get

started with right so what I want you to do now is this I want you to take action

right away so either look for a community of foreigners in your hometown

or look for a Facebook group that share of people who share the same interests

as you join our community on Facebook or go to free for talk or go to I talk II

do one thing and then let us know in the comments below what you did okay so we

can cheer you on and say you rob for taking the next step also if you have

other ideas on how to find conversation partners online and offline please share

it with us below so write a comment and tell us how you find people to speak

with in your home country or online remember the most important thing is to

speak up is to be resourceful is to be creative about your process and not to

use excuses such as I don't have anyone to talk to to hold you back from

advancing and improving okay because every

has a solution we just have to find it and you just have to do something about

it and this is why taking action right now is the most important thing for you

good luck and I can't wait to see you in the next video