Italki- A worthy investment or a waste of money?

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mattmo
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Re: Italki- A worthy investment or a waste of money?

Postby mattmo » Fri Mar 17, 2023 9:55 pm

I personally feel that Italki is a good investment of time and money because certain things you will find hard to do by yourself such as conversation practice and corrections for writing.

With iTalki you have both of these are very reasonable price point with lot of different tutors to choose from.
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Re: Italki- A worthy investment or a waste of money?

Postby dylan413 » Fri Apr 14, 2023 6:40 am

Context is everything. There are good teachers and good students. There are bad teachers and there are bad students. There are students who don't need teachers to structure their learning because they can do it on their own. There are students who struggle to self-teach. Some instructors charge exorbitant fees. Others are much more modest. Sometimes it's easy to find partners for language exchange for free. Other times it can be quite a challenge to find someone with whom you can practice.

Since I started learning Italian about 7 months ago, I have spent no more than 40 or 50$ on language study. I am now at a solid B1 level and that's while working multiple jobs (one full time, two part time) and a family. I am quite happy with these results. I found a lot of free reading materials and youtube videos. I used free flashcard software (Quizlet, Anki) and since I started using it at the end of January, I've made ample use of ChatGPT. That being said, it would have been great to have incorporated lessons with a tutor on italki earlier in my study for the sake of my conversational Italian. Had I done this, I think it's completely possible that I would already have reached a level of B2.

It's different for everyone and there are many different ways one can spend their time with a tutor. The only appropriate answer to this question is "it depends."
Last edited by dylan413 on Fri Apr 14, 2023 2:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Italki- A worthy investment or a waste of money?

Postby rdearman » Sat Apr 15, 2023 8:47 pm

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Re: Italki- A worthy investment or a waste of money?

Postby leosmith » Sat Apr 15, 2023 8:48 pm

Irena wrote:What I did with Czech was put together a traditional study plan
Well done. Would you ever go back relying on a "traditional institution" again? Personally, I wouldn't. For me at least, taking full control/responsibility over my learning was a game changer.

(edit) Of course, I still use prepared learning materials and talk to native speakers, so teachers (Italki or not) and course creators are of value. Maybe it's more like semi-control/responsibility. :lol:
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Re: Italki- A worthy investment or a waste of money?

Postby Irena » Sat Apr 15, 2023 8:52 pm

leosmith wrote:
Irena wrote:What I did with Czech was put together a traditional study plan
Well done. Would you ever go back relying on a "traditional institution" again? Personally, I wouldn't. For me at least, taking full control/responsibility over my learning was a game changer.

(edit) Of course, I still use prepared learning materials and talk to native speakers, so teachers (Italki or not) and course creators are of value. Maybe it's more like semi-control/responsibility. :lol:

If I could take university level courses again, similar to those I benefited from in the past, I probably would take them. But unless something major changes in my life, that will never be possible again. So, I am in control of my own learning, and it's working pretty well (but Italki teachers help me execute my plan). But the fact that I'm in control of my own learning means that I'm unlikely to try something for which I feel I'd need more guidance, such as Chinese (any variety). There's too high of a chance that my methods would fail with a distant language.
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Re: Italki- A worthy investment or a waste of money?

Postby leosmith » Sat Apr 15, 2023 9:02 pm

Irena wrote:the fact that I'm in control of my own learning means that I'm unlikely to try something for which I feel I'd need more guidance, such as Chinese (any variety). There's too high of a chance that my methods would fail with a distant language.
Ime, provided you are sufficiently motivated, research fixes that issue. Reading forum posts/blogs/etc., asking a million questions...that's all it really takes for me. It didn't used to be that way though - I learned some painful lessons, especially learning Thai and Japanese.
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Re: Italki- A worthy investment or a waste of money?

Postby Le Baron » Sat Apr 15, 2023 9:04 pm

leosmith wrote:For me at least, taking full control/responsibility over my learning was a game changer.

But then there are those who can't really take full responsibility. What do we do with them? Being e.g. retired, obsessed with languages and a long-time learner of languages, and with enough financial means to spend all day learning them is one thing, but some people only need to learn a language for a reason alongside full-time work or immigration. They don't really have time to sink their entire life into this as an unpaid full-time activity. They need full guidance.

leosmith wrote:(edit) Of course, I still use prepared learning materials and talk to native speakers, so teachers (Italki or not) and course creators are of value. Maybe it's more like semi-control/responsibility. :lol:

I think they are of value. True 'self-learners' are a rarity. The majority are those employing other people's teaching methods and ideas. Perhaps in a creative way, but should that source of ideas dry up they'd be a lot poorer.
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Re: Italki- A worthy investment or a waste of money?

Postby Le Baron » Sat Apr 15, 2023 9:08 pm

rdearman wrote:If you do not have PROOF which will stand up in COURT for your accusations toward a company or person, then DO NOT post your opinions here. And even if you have proof, don't post potentially libellous or defamatory remarks here. I have no interest in being taken to court.


Well I'll just put it on record that I didn't defame or libel anyone (in fact I don't think anyone did), so I'm considering my posts merely lost to editing.

Surely all the forum needs to do is state that the opinions of users are not necessarily those the management and the problem goes away?
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Re: Italki- A worthy investment or a waste of money?

Postby tastyonions » Sat Apr 15, 2023 9:26 pm

Wow, this thread really got nuked. Didn’t it have upward of twelve pages earlier today?
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Re: Italki- A worthy investment or a waste of money?

Postby rdearman » Sat Apr 15, 2023 9:30 pm

Le Baron wrote:
rdearman wrote:If you do not have PROOF which will stand up in COURT for your accusations toward a company or person, then DO NOT post your opinions here. And even if you have proof, don't post potentially libellous or defamatory remarks here. I have no interest in being taken to court.


Well I'll just put it on record that I didn't defame or libel anyone (in fact I don't think anyone did), so I'm considering my posts merely lost to editing.

Surely all the forum needs to do is state that the opinions of users are not necessarily those the management and the problem goes away?

There was too much to edit.

No, that isn't sufficient. You can feel free to read the Defamation Act yourself: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/20 ... ts/enacted

The defence under this section is not defeated by reason only of the fact that the operator of the website moderates the statements posted on it by others.
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