I use to talk with some of my skype friends and I found it embarassing at the beginning, because I imagined people laughing at my english talking (!!!!), but they told me they had the same problem, so now I'm more relaxed, and the only difficulty is to have enough spare time, or sometimes when my headset or internet phone breakes up when I start a call.....

Hi Joao: I think it should not be annoying neither embarrassing the use of mic. You are absolutely right that practising is the best to be able to accomplish any task, and of course "voice" is the powerful tool to express how much do you know of a language. Only problem I found is the issue of "accent" which sometimes makes not clearly understandable what you are talking, or also when communication is not very clear. I learned that one should talk, not matter if you do not pronounce it well, others will understand you are in the process of practising and will appreciate your effort.
Have a nice weekend!!!
Carmen

umm depends. right now i would not like to because i can't even speak, but it would be good to help someone practice their pronounciation, it would also force me to use my proper english, and it would even help me get back to my old pronunciation

I have never had this problem, although people have commented on my Australian accent.

At all !!
From time to time i do use to talk by microphone in english or french i found it workable strategy to practise languages and talk freely .
My problem it's not concerning the language itself in contrary it's about the ethics maybe u will find that experience somewhat stupid but i'd like to share it .
ill tell u about the last chat then u gonna undertand what i meant . G- guy
G- hello
me- Hi !!
G- may u use the microphone plz ??
me- yep , but not for a long time ok? cz im not allowed to !!
G- " surprised" !! ok
" Now we are using the microphone"
me : Hi again
Are u hearing me ??
G- yep sweety
So how r u??
me : Im well
G- good , tell me what did u meant when u told me that u r not allowed to talk by mic??
me : Don't be hasty u gonna know later
G - Ok
U know hoda ??
me : what??
G: i've got a soft voice
i like it so much
me : U seems good in flirt !!
G- No im not flirting,realy ur voice touched me so deeply
me- " annoyed and embarrased"
After a short silence
G- what's wrong?
me: guess ur not here to practise ur language,that's the last thing u r interesting about right?
G- what happened i was creating a romantic moment to start and broach discussing !!
me- creating? come on
G- tell me have u ever felt in love with some1?
me- seems im wasting time with u
G-what's up honey?
me- i think that u knew what i meant when i told u that im not allowed to talk by voice
cz i already know ur implicits
G- Don't complicate things let's have fun ??
me- ok ill have a try in the next century
G- what ??
me- if u excuse me now i gotta go
"offline"

yes using the mic is the best idea to improve our langague !!!! it helps a lot to learn !!

i like that question,
first of all,the problem is that some people believe in studying more grammer and memorizing huge amount of vocabularies as the best way to improve their new language skills.....
actually,that isn't totally correct because they completely forgot about the most effective and
useful part which is "speaking out loud", i realized the difference myself when i started to practice
my english using the mic and over the phone with my friends here in egypt.
Once you start to talk,you will get your fluency improved ......trust me ;)
We are here to learn,never ever be shy to make mistakes and ask for the correction...
My canadian friend told me that i'm speaking fast and my english is very good,at the begining i didn't know the reason why,but i figured out that it happened because i'm not affraid anymore of using the mic and talking to peolpe whom i've never met.Of course i make mistakes,but the good point is how well i learn from my mistakes!!!
Thank you eveybody :)