How to find native speakers to help you improve your skills

If you want to take your new language to a whole new level you should surround  yourself with your new language as much as possible. The best way to do this is to have a native speaker by your side. A native speaker can correct you, help you with pronunciation etc. The possibilities are endless. But if you live a 100 miles apart how do you find one? Since we live in the 21st century there are a lot of options. On the internet you have a lot of nice websites where you can start connecting with people from the other side of the world. I will introduce two of them in this post.

Interpals
Link; http://www.interpals.net/index.php
My profile; http://www.interpals.net/Meimeisensei

Interpals was actually one of the first language exchanging sites that I found when I started studying Japanese. (So I also had to remove the dust from my profile before writing about it). Interpals is a website that lets you make your own profile. You can fill in which languages you speak (and what kind of level you are) and you can fill in which languages you want to learn. You can also update your profile with all kinds of personal information like your favorite books, movies, quotes etc.

Then you have the option to search for friends. You can select the boxes for your preferences. You can search by continent, country and language. After that you can also select what kind of contact you want; language exchange, email penpals and several other options. You can send people messages to get in contact with them. Then you can choose yourself how you would like to exchange information.

Personally I really like Interpals because of the many options. You can just look for a casual friendship with a person from a foreign country or find someone which you spend your time with studying together. I think that is something that makes Interpals very versatile.

Lang-8
Link; http://lang-8.com/
My profile; http://lang-8.com/713828

Lang-8 is a new site which I recently discovered. I was searching a topic in Japanese on Google and accidentally stumbled upon Lang-8. I'm very excited to share this site because I have very high expectations of it. I just started with Lang-8 but so far I'm very pleased with what I see. Lang-8 is a website where you can make a profile just like Interpals. The major the difference is, you can post a journal in the language you are learning and it will appear directly to native speakers. The native speakers can correct it and give you tips so you can improve your skills. Also you can correct the journals of others to help them and earn points. The more points you earn more people will view your journals. I really like Lang-8. You can perfect your own language, improve the language you are learning and make new friends worldwide. Also the layout of Lang-8 is really convenient en clear.

It would be very nice if you would add me on one of these pages so we can study together. I would love to hear your thoughts one either of them.

~Mei Mei