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Hello Talk

 
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buravirgil



Joined: 23 Jan 2014
Posts: 967
Location: Jiangxi Province, China

PostPosted: Tue Mar 24, 2015 11:26 pm    Post subject: Hello Talk Reply with quote

A new mobile app(lication) for both Apple and Android.

Quickly and easily meet native-speaking language partners around the world; look for those nearest to you, by country or city, and more. And don’t be surprised when people reach out to you ... that’s one of HelloTalk’s best features: people reach out to help you learn and practice the language or languages you want to learn. And you can do the same to help people learn your native language.

Features: Voice-to-text, text-to-voice, transliteration, translation and "free" voIP calls.

Any predictions as to how disruptive this will be to our little trade?
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water rat



Joined: 30 Aug 2014
Posts: 1098
Location: North Antarctica

PostPosted: Wed Mar 25, 2015 12:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Considering how quickly bored most people are, and the "fast-paced" life of those who use apps, and that the top one billion visited websites on the net are porn sites, I don't see this new app as much of a threat to our bread and butter. Language learning is a tedious business, and until William Gibson's idea of plugging a foreign language 'app' into a socket behind your ear becomes a reality, we're gonna be OK. Now hand out those grammar worksheets and keep smiling.
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Sashadroogie



Joined: 17 Apr 2007
Posts: 11061
Location: Moskva, The Workers' Paradise

PostPosted: Mon Mar 30, 2015 8:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yip. Beyond the slick 'learning is easy' marketing drivel, there isn't much to this. Cute, yes. Effective... Seriously doubt it. Not like those cassettes you listen to when you are asleep.
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esl_prof



Joined: 30 Nov 2013
Posts: 2006
Location: peyi kote solèy frèt

PostPosted: Thu Apr 09, 2015 2:00 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

How many people have you met that learned to speak another language fluently by using Berlitz? The Pimsleur Method? Rosetta Stone?

None, right? So even if this new-fangled ap captures twice the market share of all of these previous methods put together . . . well . . . I'm an English teacher . . . you do the math.
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AGoodStory



Joined: 26 Feb 2010
Posts: 738

PostPosted: Thu Apr 09, 2015 12:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

esl_prof wrote:
How many people have you met that learned to speak another language fluently by using Berlitz? The Pimsleur Method? Rosetta Stone?

None, right?
.


Fluently, no. Absolutely agree. But improvement, yes. My Spanish--listening and speaking--improved noticeably by listening to a Spanish language program whenever I was driving, around 10 hours a week at the time. CD's while driving may rival cassettes while sleeping! Very Happy

As for endangering teaching jobs--not a chance!

.
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esl_prof



Joined: 30 Nov 2013
Posts: 2006
Location: peyi kote solèy frèt

PostPosted: Thu Apr 09, 2015 9:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

AGoodStory wrote:
Fluently, no. Absolutely agree. But improvement, yes . . . As for endangering teaching jobs--not a chance!


Oh, sure. This ap coupled with other language learning resources could certainly be useful and help a great deal with improvement. Rare is the student, however, with enough self-discipline to become fluent in a language solely through self-study methods. I have a former college classmate who successfully reached a conversational level of Spanish that way. But folks like him are few and far enough between that they won't put a noticeable dent in the teaching market.
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