Like free italki credit for volunteering a half hour of language practice to someone who doesn't speak your target language. I think this would be a great way to help the people who have trouble finding language partners.
A system similar to that of instant tutoring would be great for speaking practice with natives. Some sort of chain exchange (A helps B, B helps C, C helps D, D helps A) would open up the possibilities for many people if compared to the somehow restrictive tandem exchange (A helps B, B helps A). But organising that sort of system so everybody is happy with what they give and with what they get means a lot of work and resources (developers, servers, maintenance, support, etc.) and I wonder whether anybody would be willing to pay italki for the service, even if it was only a few cents (in terms of money) or a few minutes (in terms of time). Everything is possible and maybe a two layer system (free and paying) could be implemented.
My answer to the question is: yes I would... IF THERE WAS
- a strong filtering system so that both the giver and the taker could restrict (or open up) the characteristics of the people they want to help / get help from
- a reliable on-the-fly voice chat tool with no list of contacts
- a way of keeping track of the number of times one has given and taken
If it was a 50/50 exchange I would. But I won't just give away my time...too old for that.
Sounds like an innovative idea. Maybe you could make a pitch to them?
@Sina - Last time I was on lang-8 it was required to do an essay correction in order to accumulate points. Points allowed me to get corrections from other users. so you have to do a service in order to receive a service. That's how it's similar to my option 2) above.
I never said lang-8 has a chatroom.
Interesting idea that may make italki more helpful such as notebook and answer sectors. As far as I am considered the majority of members are learning English, therefore it is easy for native-english to find language partner, whereas, users who speak languages like Indian and Vietnamese will never get 50/50 exchange because no one learns those tongues as the second language. Indeed we can't find number of volunteers which can covers all member, but in order to make it fair and reasonable, it may be exclusive for active members. for instance, each member reaches 5000 point can get a free 30 minutes.
