Think about it logically: how will you learn to speak a language? By speaking it, right? So I’ll be listing the obvious ways to do practice speaking, while also taking into account other factors that matter, such as self-confidence, self-awareness and fear of speaking other languages, costs and technological abilities.
- Speak your target languages with your target
- Practice speaking in conversational lessons with a paid teacher
- Speak your languages with a tandem partner for free (or is it?)
- Have spoken and written conversations with AI models
- Speak (and sing) in your head and out loud
Speak your target languages with your target
It sounds weird or freightening for many, but think about it. What is the actual reason you want to learn the language? Is it to connect to people? If so, which people?
Practice speaking in conversational lessons with a paid teacher
Platforms such as italki allow you to browse paid teachers, more professional or more amateur teachers. The word “Amateur” comes from the Latin amare (to love) so they can be just as good as professionals, sometimes even better for those who are on a tight budget or those who are held back to start language lessons with professional teachers.
Speak your languages with a tandem partner for free (or is it?)
You can think about platforms such as tandem.net
On there you don’t need to pay to practice conversations with your language exchange partner, though your partner might expect you to invest time in practicing one of your native or high level languages with them in return. It can be a lot of fun and a great way to make new friends and share your passion for languages. However, if you don’t want to put time in speaking their target language(s) that you already know well, you might want to invest in other options.
Have spoken and written conversations with AI models
I’ll tell you all about my experiences with AI chats and spoken dialogues with chatgpt and other models.
Speak (and sing) in your head and out loud
Looking for other ways to learn languages?
If you want to accompany your speaking practice with other ways or if you really feel that you’re not ready for speaking yet, browse more ways to learning languages.