IWTYAL 158: Skype conversations as a beginner

Max asks: “How can I hold Skype conversations if I'm just a beginner?”

In this episode:

• Many people freeze up as a beginner because they lack vocabulary and confidence
• If you're willing to make mistakes, you can go far!

Keeping conversations going as a beginner:

• “How do you say ___?”
• Ask questions
• Become a master at paraphrasing
• Success with this depends a lot on your teacher – see Olly's teacher in Thailand for an example of how this can work well:

All this develops your communicative competence.

• But a “Tarzan” approach can leave you with gaps – e.g. grammar and key vocabulary
• It can be different between languages too
• You might prefer a more structured approach
• Choose a textbook to work through, and use your lessons to practise the content of individual modules

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

• Speaking Bootcamp – my complete course in speaking a new language as a beginner

Start speaking today

I’d like to thank iTalki for supporting the show. iTalki is the best place online to connect with affordable and effective native speakers teachers and tutors.

To claim your free lesson and start speaking today, simply visit:https://storylearning.com//italkishownotes

Do you have a question?

Ask me your language learning questions by clicking here, and I’ll do my best to feature it on the show!

Also, please subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic updates.

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the podcast!

If you’ve got any comments about the show then please leave them in the “comments” section below!

If you’d like to help me out, then I’d love it if you could…

• Share the episode using the social media buttons around you
• Leave an honest review and rating of the podcast on iTunes (click here to do that)

iTunes reviews in particular really help the rankings of the podcast and help me to reach other aspiring language learners out there!

See you in the next episode of the I Will Teach You A Language podcast!

Olly Richards

Creator of the StoryLearning® Method

Olly Richards is a renowned polyglot and language learning expert with over 15 years of experience teaching millions through his innovative StoryLearning® method. He is the creator of StoryLearning, one of the world's largest language learning blogs with 500,000+ monthly readers.

Olly has authored 30+ language learning books and courses, including the bestselling "Short Stories" series published by Teach Yourself.

When not developing new teaching methods, Richards practices what he preaches—he speaks 8 languages fluently and continues learning new ones through his own methodology.