I don’t know why I wasn’t using this app before – it’s awesome! I heard about it through a friend who is developing his own language-learning app. Here it is on the Play store and iTunes.
If you’ve read this blogbefore, you know that language learning is one of my big interests. I’m working on learning Persian, but I don’t find a lot of useful resources.
The cool thing about HelloTalk is that actually works: every time I log on, there are Iranians and Afghans who want to chat. It’s been a great tool for practicing those basic sentences that come up a lot in conversations: Where do you live, Why are you studying Persian, etc.
I normally just chat about what I’m doing or the weather, and sometimes I’ll send my chat partners photos of interesting things I see in the Bay Area. There’s also the possibility to have asynchronous audio conversations, but I find that a little awkward.
If you’re a native English speaker, you’ll probably never have any trouble finding chat partners. I even have people contact me who speak other languages that I’m not learning.