Linguapax
Bilingual Chat
Imagine learning a foreign language and having real live conversations with native speakers without even leaving the country - or even your home! A free resource was recently launched for this very purpose. Bilingual Chat (bilingualchat.com) is an online community of people around the globe who are learning new languages and allows them to practice language exchange using video/voice chat, instant messaging, forums, email, and group chat rooms.
With growing globalization and the increase in international travel, more and more people are studying foreign languages. However, "there is only so much that books and classrooms can teach," says Bilingual Chat founder Jamie Sprenger. "To really master a language, a person must practice writing and speaking with natives." Making international friends is one solution to this issue, and allows the student to learn colloquial terms and phrases that aren't usually part of a formal curriculum. While immersing oneself in a foreign country is arguably the best way to learn a language, not everyone has access to such because of time and money constraints. The site serves as an alternative way to interact with a different culture.
Features of the site include flash-driven voice and video chat, forums, resource blogs, interest groups, chat rooms, a Google Translate tool for interpreting the site content into multiple languages, as well as a soft keyboard for inserting foreign characters and accent marks into chats, comments and blogs. Those interested in international culture can make friends from around the world, help others with their English, learn about foreign countries, and get first-hand travel advice.
Sprenger created the site to maintain her own foreign language skills. She earned a bachelors in Spanish from Davidson College in 2008, but realized a few years later that if she didn't use her language skills, she would forget everything she spent so many years learning. Sprenger added she has always been interested in having an international pen pal, and even tried to find one online while living in London. "I put an ad on an English website seeking a foreign language partner, but never seemed to find the time to organize a meet-up," she wrote. "It was too complicated to coordinate schedules, commute across town to meet the people, and to be honest I was way too shy and nervous. I wanted to chat with international friends online."
While it is a new website, Sprenger said she has very high hopes for Bilingual Chat, as it is already growing extremely rapidly. Within the first two months of being live, membership already represents people from 80 countries who speak over 59 languages.
Nicole Librandi, an adjunct Italian professor at Elon University, said Bilingual Chat can serve as a nice supplement to classes and books. "It would be different from the classroom experience specifically because it would provide a real-life chance to use Italian," she said. There is a significant difference between language theory and experience, according to Samuele Pardini, assistant professor of Italian. He witnessed this first hand when first learning English. "What you learn in the classroom is, of course, necessary, and it's foundational," Pardini said. "But it's like learning the rules of driving. You learn them, and that's how you get your driver's license, but nobody respects those rules 100 percent." This experience applies to languages, with tenses used differently than that found in a textbook, accents changing from one location in a country to another and the speed at which native speakers communicate, he said. "There is no way you can do this in the classroom."
Bilingual Chat crosses virtual borders and breaks language barriers by promoting global communication and cultural awareness. Use of the website is fun, educational, and will advance your language proficiency in your own home and on your own schedule.