Do You Need an English Speaking Partner? Here's How to Find One!

215,520 views ・ 2019-06-11

Learn English with Bob the Canadian


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:00
So the number one question that I get from English learners is, "How do I find someone
0
320
6170
00:06
that I can speak English with?"
1
6490
2410
00:08
How do I find someone in my local town or my local city who would be willing to help
2
8900
6670
00:15
me learn English by having speaking practice sessions or lessons regularly.
3
15570
6140
00:21
So in this video I'm going to show you six ways that you can find someone that you can
4
21710
5110
00:26
speak English with so that you get that speaking practice in.
5
26820
9000
00:35
So you've probably already spent time reading in English, writing in English, listening
6
35820
5629
00:41
to English, and learning lots of vocabulary.
7
41449
3110
00:44
But speaking with a native English speaker is one of the most challenging things to do
8
44559
5711
00:50
as you continue to learn English.
9
50270
2260
00:52
So in this video I'm gonna show you six things that you can do to find native English speakers
10
52530
6829
00:59
that you can talk to.
11
59359
1340
01:00
I should say though, one of the examples doesn't involve a native speaker, but you'll see when
12
60699
5001
01:05
we get there.
13
65700
1000
01:06
Let's get started.
14
66700
1000
01:07
So one of the first things you can do is you can try to find a language club in your city.
15
67700
7300
01:15
Most large cities have language clubs where people go to learn English as well as other
16
75000
6259
01:21
languages.
17
81259
1011
01:22
So a great place to start with this is a website called meetup.com.
18
82270
3950
01:26
And we'll have a look at meetup.com and we'll use this website to say that we live in Paris
19
86220
10439
01:36
and that we are looking for an English conversation club.
20
96659
6881
01:43
When you do this it should give you some things that you can click on.
21
103540
5110
01:48
So here we see café conversation English language conversation group.
22
108650
5120
01:53
So meetup is a great place, you can specify the city that you are from, so let's say you
23
113770
6919
02:00
are in Toronto.
24
120689
1101
02:01
Maybe you're already in Canada.
25
121790
2880
02:04
And you could say that you want an English conversation club and you can see here again
26
124670
4770
02:09
all different options for you to be able to go to a club and practice your English with
27
129440
4940
02:14
other people.
28
134380
1000
02:15
A second way to find someone to practice English with is to find someone to be your penpal.
29
135380
6630
02:22
This is an older English word that means someone who you can write letters to.
30
142010
4960
02:26
But you can also find a penpal who is willing to have conversations with you via Skype or
31
146970
5740
02:32
Facetime.
32
152710
1310
02:34
We're going to use a webpage called, "mylanguageexchange.com" So I'm just gonna go over to the computer
33
154020
7140
02:41
here and I'm gonna search up my language exchange on Google and when we get to mylanguage, language
34
161160
9220
02:50
exchange, we're gonna go down to where it says your language exchange partner.
35
170380
4900
02:55
So you're describing the person you want to meet.
36
175280
2490
02:57
I would say their native language is English, and let's pretend I'm a French speaker learning
37
177770
7240
03:05
English.
38
185010
1000
03:06
I would say that their practicing language is French.
39
186010
4170
03:10
Then I would click search and you'll see that a number of people come up who say, "Hello
40
190180
5970
03:16
I'm interested in exchanging with people on a regular basis on regular topics."
41
196150
4470
03:20
So this is someone whose native language is English, but who is practicing French.
42
200620
5510
03:26
So another way to find an English speaking partner is to use a website called preply.com.
43
206130
7490
03:33
So we’re going to have a look at preply.com.
44
213620
3010
03:36
I used preply when I was learning French or improving my French, but preply.com is a website
45
216630
7700
03:44
where you will have to spend some money, but you can go and find people who are willing
46
224330
6150
03:50
to teach you English via Skype or via Facetime.
47
230480
4400
03:54
So if I went to the website I could say I wanna learn the English language.
48
234880
4080
03:58
I wanna learn English to talk about hobbies, and I want to learn it for myself, and then
49
238960
7830
04:06
I’m going to say that I speak French, I’m just gonna pretend that I speak French so
50
246790
7450
04:14
here this will give us an option of how much we’re willing to pay per hour, and we’ll
51
254240
7040
04:21
just say show search results, we’re not going to specify what days of the week, but
52
261280
5320
04:26
you’ll see here that we right away have English tutors available who are charging
53
266600
6060
04:32
as little as $4 an hour.
54
272660
3090
04:35
So this is another way that you can meet via Skype or Facetime.
55
275750
4570
04:40
You can pay someone on preply.com to meet with you.
56
280320
4520
04:44
And another website that you can use is a website called italki.com.
57
284840
6560
04:51
So italki is a very similar website.
58
291400
3350
04:54
It allows you to go and look for an online English tutor, an online English partner,
59
294750
7690
05:02
speaking partner, and I’ll show you in a moment just a quick thing.
60
302440
4030
05:06
If we say we want to learn English on the italki.com website.
61
306470
5900
05:12
It will find, hopefully for us, someone who teaches English.
62
312370
4840
05:17
So you’ll see here that we have people popping up.
63
317210
3220
05:20
We have Sara who charges as little as $4.
64
320430
2850
05:23
So preply.com and italki.com are both excellent websites where you can find someone that you
65
323280
7660
05:30
can pay to teach you English via Skype or Facetime.
66
330940
3990
05:34
A fourth way that you can practice your English that sometimes English learners do not want
67
334930
6230
05:41
to do is to practice with someone else who is learning English.
68
341160
5110
05:46
Sometimes you might think that this will be bad for you, that you might learn each other’s
69
346270
5260
05:51
mistakes.
70
351530
1000
05:52
But if you can find another person who’s also learning English, that you can meet in
71
352530
4820
05:57
person or on Facetime or Skype, it will help you.
72
357350
5030
06:02
Whenever you know that you will need to speak English you will practice your English more
73
362380
5340
06:07
beforehand, before the lesson.
74
367720
3669
06:11
And even if you’re speaking English with someone who’s learning at the same time
75
371389
4191
06:15
as you, it is still excellent practice.
76
375580
3890
06:19
You can correct each other’s mistakes.
77
379470
2510
06:21
You can ask each other questions.
78
381980
2159
06:24
You can read pre-written dialogues that you find on the internet or parts from a play,
79
384139
7031
06:31
and you can just use each other to practice your English.
80
391170
3050
06:34
So that’s the fourth way, find someone who’s also learning English and practice with them.
81
394220
4880
06:39
So a fifth way to practice your English with another person, and this one’s kind of hard,
82
399100
5600
06:44
if you live near a tourist area of a large city, you will most likely have English tourists
83
404700
7580
06:52
there during the nicer months of the year.
84
412280
3300
06:55
English tourists are usually kind and they’re usually willing to talk to people who are
85
415580
5940
07:01
learning English.
86
421520
1000
07:02
So if you can find a way to volunteer as a tour guide or volunteer in the tourist area
87
422520
8330
07:10
of the closest city to you, or in your city, you will have more opportunities to talk to
88
430850
6000
07:16
other English speakers.
89
436850
1350
07:18
Try it!
90
438200
1000
07:19
You won’t regret it!
91
439200
1000
07:20
And finally a sixth way to practice your English with someone who speaks English is video games.
92
440200
6420
07:26
My son has a friend who’s from China and he is learning a lot of English because he
93
446620
5400
07:32
plays video games with English speakers.
94
452020
3560
07:35
So he wears his headphones and he has his microphone in front of his mouth, and while
95
455580
5480
07:41
they’re playing the game they talk to each other in English.
96
461060
3970
07:45
So joining any kind of video game where there is live chat as part of the game is an excellent
97
465030
7500
07:52
way to talk with other native English speakers.
98
472530
3600
07:56
You can do this with your xbox.
99
476130
1800
07:57
You can do this with your computer.
100
477930
2300
08:00
You certainly need at least a headset with a microphone, but it is a great way to practice
101
480230
6070
08:06
your English with native English speakers.
102
486300
1970
08:08
Well, hey, that was six ways to find a native English speaker that you can practice your
103
488270
4840
08:13
English with.
104
493110
1000
08:14
Bob the Canadian here.
105
494110
1089
08:15
I hope this English lesson was valuable for you.
106
495199
3071
08:18
If it was please hit the subscribe button below and give me a thumbs up.
107
498270
3780
08:22
I really hope you enjoyed this video, and if you have some time, there’s a few videos
108
502050
5020
08:27
that you can watch next after this one.
109
507070
3120
08:30
If you haven’t seen them, please do!
110
510190
2830
08:33
Have a great week!
111
513020
939
About this website

This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.

https://forms.gle/WvT1wiN1qDtmnspy7