Learning English Using HELLO TALK Application
HelloTalk is a cool new language learning app that serves one purpose: it connects you directly with native speakers, and provides an interface to text and speak with them, all from your smartphone.
There are websites out there that let you search for people to talk with, but with these websites the actual conversation happens on Skype, Google plus, or by telephone. HelloTalk acts as the direct interface through which you find a conversation partner and chat, send voice messages or call the people you want to practice with. No need for any third-party software.
Hello talk also offers translation options from within the app. These features are the paid aspect of the app. This supports the developers to keep the rest of the app free, but I can give you a quick tip to get these tools at no cost. Sign up to the app, and one of your friends will automatically be HelloTalk Team. Simply message them “FI3M” and you'll get 3 months free membership. This includes unlimited access to HelloTalk’s premium features. These are Translation, Voice Recognition, and Transliteration.
1. Hello Talk features
Key features of the app include :
1. Voice chat
2. Text chat
3. Camera share
4. Doodle share (draw in the app to visually represent what you want to talk about)
5. Smileys and other features you'd expect from a good chat program, like notifications of new messages, GPS location sharing, text size settings.
6. Learning specific features: Translation, Transliteration, and voice recognition to help you write/speak your target language.
7. Mark exchanges (text, voice, images) for studying later, or save the entire chat to refer to later.
2. Practice Speaking Without Feeling Embarrassed
If you're using HelloTalk’s voice recognition system, then you can simply speak what you want to say. The system will attempt to understand you automatically, and convert that to text to send to your language partner. I tried this out with a few Mandarin phrases, and it worked well.
This feature lets you practice speaking without having to worry about the embarrassment of someone actually hearing you. What’s more, the conversation can continue in a slower pace than it would if you were speaking on Skype. Your conversation partner can choose whether they reply using text or voice. If they opt for text, you can use the text-to-voice feature to have a voice synthesizer replicate what they may be saying, as if you were having a voice chat.
Mileage in this feature will vary widely depending on the language, how closely you can emulate a native speaker, and of course limitations of the voice recognition system itself.
3. Find a Language Partner in Your City
In the past, very recommended using social searches to find language partners who live near you. Meeting with people who speak your target language from your local area is great when you want a break from online lessons.
HelloTalk has this covered. Its local specific search option helps you find a language partner who lives near you that you can invite out for coffee. As there are over a million HelloTalk users, there’s a good chance of finding somebody in your area.
The tested this feature out in Sydney, Australia (where I am at the time of writing) and found 24 people within a few kilometres of me looking for a Chinese-English exchange. I also discovered several people ready to offer exchanges for other languages like German, Japanese, Italian, and Spanish. As with Whatsapp, you can share your GPS location to make it easier to find language partners nearby.
However, unlike many social language sites, HelloTalk doesn't come with a review system for its users. There’s the option for users to fill out an introduction for information about themselves, although many people don't do this. This makes it a little riskier when you are meeting up with strangers, as you don't necessarily know much about them. For this reason, I'd recommend using the meetup feature with caution.
To find people in your area, just use the search feature to find people who speak the language you are learning, and who want to learn a language that you speak. Then, change the search order to “by location”. Generally, I'd stick to using just the live chat feature via the app, rather than arranging a meet-up if you'd prefer to be cautious.
Another thing you can do – which I think is a much safer – is use this app while travelling to connect with people in your destination. Then you can pick up local tips on getting around and places to eat, all while getting language practice.
4. Includes Automatic Translation
HelloTalk also includes an automatic translation feature. This is really helpful if you are OK with just getting the general gist of things. It can also help keep conversations flowing, since you don't have to open another app/window to get the translation.
When you’re chatting using HelloTalk, you can see your conversation partner’s language/location as a flag. Additionally, while you talk to them, their local time is shown at the top of the chat window. This is handy if you need to know whether to say good morning or good evening to start your conversation.
5. Grammar Correction Feature
Another cool feature is the option to highlight your conversation partner’s reply and select it for correction to help them improve their sentences. They can do the same for you. This is different to simply replying with the right way of saying something, because it keeps the dialogue focused on the actual conversation.
Finally, the app has a mode that counts the amount of characters or time spent (e.g. 500 characters or 5 minutes) in one language. When it reaches the limit, it suggests that you switch languages. This avoids the awkwardness of trying to bring it up yourself in the conversation.
How to set up Hello Talk application ?
When we set up the hello talk accounts we will be directed to fill in names, ages, native languages, mother tongue, a tongue, and a language that one wants to learn (it can be more than one language). We must also fill in some degree of understanding in our mother tongue and in what language we would like to learn (since we may have already studied it).
Then start looking for any conversation you want. Hello talk will direct people from different languages and countries toward those of us who both want to learn foreign languages.
Reference: : https://www.fluentin3months.com/hellotalk-review/
LILI HARYATI (2118030)
ICT 5B