italki is an online destination for language learning, comprising a social network and marketplace. The company is based in Shanghai, China. italki was founded by American and Chinese entrepreneurs.
Community
The website currently has over 700,000 registered members, from over 200 different countries. The South China Morning Post revealed italki's user traffic:
About 20 percent of its users are from the mainland China and the rest spread across the globe, including 7 percent from the United States, 4 percent in India and 2 per cent in France.
Features
italki has a variety of features to support language learners: social learning, self-study, and paid professional lessons.<
Social Learning
- Language Partners - Search for people who are native speakers of the target language and practice through language exchange
- Q & A - Ask language related questions and get answers from the community
- Groups - Study together in groups. Discuss topics surrounding culture, language acquisition, topics of interest. Work together to get help from people studying the same language.
Self-study
- Podcasts & videos - Listen to or watch videos about different cultural and linguistic aspects to improve language ability.
- Files, Wikis (Knowledge), PPT - Share valuable resources with other members of the community. Read documents and study from text sources, just like using a traditional textbook.
- Resources - Find other resources on the web, including flashcards, self-progressed lessons, news broadcasts, test prep, etc.
Paid Learning
- Independent teachers/tutors - Find qualified teachers. "The new feature connects teachers and students for paid teaching of foreign languages. Teachers create a profile and set their own rates," writes Ryan McLaughlin at CNet Asia. Students give ratings and feedback to the teachers to help potential students identify the best teachers .
- Language teaching providers - Online schools, podcast companies, materials developers, and any language teaching products and services will be available on the italki Marketplace. The first company, Eleutian joined the Marketplace in July 2009 .
Membership on italki is free. Members can engage in social learning or self-study for free as well.
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