LanguaTalk is a new platform in the language tutoring space. You can hire a teacher to have 1-on-1 conversations in your target language and receive feedback. Have you heard about iTalki? Well, LanguaTalk’s focus is to bring top-quality teachers to the iTalki concept.
LanguaTalk started in 2021. But despite its short history, it’s getting popular fast!
Diving deeper into LanguaTalk
LanguaTalk is a start-up that offers 1-on-1 language lessons with experienced tutors.
The platform currently supports 16 languages: English, French, Spanish, Italian, Romanian, Dutch, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, Swedish, German, Korean, Greek, Russian, Arabic and Thai!
LanguaTalk is notable for two reasons:
- It’s easy to use.
- They only choose the very best tutors to teach on their website.
Verdict at a glance
If you want high-quality tutors and don’t mind the slightly more expensive price tag, then LanguaTalk is for you.
Do you enjoy language learning videos on YouTube?
If yes, you’re probably acquainted with Lucy Bella Simkins (English with Lucy) and Olly Richards (Story Learning). They both teamed up with LanguaTalk after becoming aware of the project.
How to get started with LanguaTalk
Before you join LanguaTalk, you can explore the website to watch teachers’ introduction videos, see promotions, and read simplified profiles. Everyone can watch the videos and see promotions. But for detailed profiles and for booking lessons, you need to create an account. Don’t worry, it’s free. You only pay for the classes you take.
LanguaTalk allows you to try out different tutors without any obligation. You can do this by booking a 30-minute trial lesson. Your first trial is usually free. After that, each trial costs 30% of the price of a regular lesson.
The only problem with this is that it might be hard to decide which tutor to try out first because you might want to try them all.
Booking a trial lesson
LanguaTalk’s website is easy to use (this is one of its best features). Booking a 30-minute trial video lesson is simple. Just choose the language you want to learn and then use filters to find a tutor based on time, price, learning goal, and age group. Once you apply the filters, you’ll see profiles of many teachers with videos and written descriptions. These videos show you how the tutor teaches and what they’re like. The written descriptions give you even more details. With all this, you can decide which tutors might fit you best.
After you choose a tutor, a calendar will show you when they’re available in your time zone. Then, you can pick a time that works for you. You’ll also need to answer some questions about yourself and decide which video conferencing software to use. Once you’ve done that, you’ll get an email to confirm your booking. The link for the meeting will appear on your profile.
How much does Lingua Talk cost?
LanguaTalk tutors work for themselves. They decide how much to charge for each lesson they teach.
Usually, tutors charge between $10 (£8) and $40 (£30/€35) for one lesson. The price depends on different things, such as the language, how experienced the tutor is, their qualifications, and how many students want to learn from them.
Book several lessons at once, and you might get a small discount.
LanguaTalk uses Stripe to handle payments. They accept various credit and debit cards. Even though all the prices are set in US dollars (USD), when you check your account, you’ll see them in your currency. It makes it easier to know exactly how much you’re paying.
When looking for a tutor, choose the price range you’re comfortable with. This way, you won’t see tutors who charge more than you want to pay.
At the beginning of this article, we said LanguaTalk costs more than other similar language tutoring platforms. But when we look closer at their prices, we see they give you more for your money. Here’s why: LanguaTalk takes less of the money you pay. In other words, almost all you pay goes to the teacher.
It’s not easy to become a tutor at LanguaTalk. Only about 10% of the people who apply get accepted. The founders of LanguaTalk spend a lot of time each week looking at applications. They’ve been doing this for a long time, so they know how to find the best language tutors.
LanguaTalk’s determination leads to two things:
- You can trust that the tutors on LanguaTalk are the best.
- Good tutors are in higher demand. So, LanguaTalk doesn’t take as much money from them as other sites do. Thus, good teachers stick around with LanguaTalk.
That’s why even though LanguaTalk’s prices might be higher, you’re still getting better value for your money.
If you want to find casual tutors for less than $8, try looking at the biggest platform for language tutoring, Italki.
LanguaTalk’s premise
LanguaTalk doesn’t want to compete 1-on-1 with Italki. Instead, they focus on providing highly skilled tutors for people who want the best. LanguaTalk believes experienced tutors can understand and help students better. They think students will improve faster when learning is tailored to their needs and goals.
LanguaTalk Review Summary
The good
- The platform has great teachers.
- Tutors design lessons to fit what you need.
- You get plenty of chances to practice speaking and listening (which helps you talk more naturally).
- You can choose when you want to have lessons.
- The website is easy to use.
- Extensive FAQs answer almost every question.
- Don and Alex, the founders of LanguaTalk, handle all customer support, so you’re talking to real people who want to fix any issues quickly.
The bad
- If you’re learning a language that is not in the popular group, there might not be many tutors available.
- You can’t change your lesson time if it’s less than 24 hours away, which can be rough if something unexpected happens. But this rule helps tutors get paid even when students don’t show up since they might not find someone else to take that time slot. But in these cases, tutors might agree to change it anyway. You need to ask.
Additional things included and excluded from LanguaTalk
What You Get Additionally with LanguaTalk:
- Articles and tips on learning languages.
- Podcasts for French, Spanish, and Italian.
- A detailed help section.
What LanguaTalk Doesn’t Have:
- If you want an app, practice for vocabulary, or fun games, LanguaTalk doesn’t offer those. They don’t have any lessons, games, or rewards.
- LanguaTalk lacks a community feature, so you can’t chat with other learners.
LanguaTalk Review: Conclusion
Speaking can be the most challenging part of learning a language.
People who speak fluently usually talk fast and might say words differently than what you’re used to hearing in lessons. It’s even worse if you miss a word or don’t understand something (because then you might feel lost and struggle to get back into the conversation).
It’s easier when you can read and listen simultaneously (but in real life, there aren’t subtitles).
That’s why LanguaTalk focuses on talking with actual people who are great teachers. It helps you learn better. And many students see quick improvement.
If you want a tutor who knows what you need, then LanguaTalk is your best choice.
