One of my pet peeves of talking to English learners on Skype is that they want me to use video chat, instead of voice call.
Just now someone did, and I said no.
He asked me for my pictures. I asked why. He said he wanted to see my office, as I was Skyping from my office. So I sent him a picture of Jia Jia (my panda) outside my office. I got off the call before the file finished transmission. I am not sure what his reaction was. I imagined he was probably quite disappointed. ^_^
Next time if someone asks me for my picture, I will send them a picture of an old lady with no teeth. I have no teeth, but I can speak perfect English. ^_^
Well, it seems to me that you're not interested in learning a language right. If you've really wanted to learn a language right, you would've known that video chatting is not only importan, but really crucial.
Let me explain. If you want to speak a language like a native, then a video chat is crucial. And since you want to learn English, I will choose the "R" in the American English as an example. To perfectly do it, it's not only important to bring your tongue backwards to do it , but it is also important to bring your lips forward. This was a knew information for me. listening the American "R" might've really helped me, but I am sure that after "watching" how to actually do it helped me perfect that sound.
Want a proof? watch this <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKDKH257j18">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKDKH257j18</a>;
Depending on your ears alone might help you, but won't make you a really good language speaker. However if you want to improve your intonation, your ears are the most important. But trust me, if you look at the native when they speak; every gesture, every body movement with rise and fall of the sounds, you will understand intonation even more.
To sum up, to"perfectly" learn the pronounciation , you must use a video chat or rather see the movements of the mouth. If you want to learn the melody of the language however, it's "ok" to listen without actually seeing the person talking; eventhough and as I wrote earlier, it will help you more if you use video chat.
On the face of it, what you've wrote is true. We talk with our mouths, but you've forgotten that we learn with all our senses. And believe it or not, in order to learn a lanugage right, you need the five senses.
Hi,
About the same subject:
I've received the same demand from a girl with whom I was voicechating, because she wanted to link the name to a visage as she said. I exceptionally agreed to open her my cam. With another girl, after a long voicechat she said me that I was the 6th person that she chat with this day, and that I was the only person who didn't ask her for videochat, so she said that she found me the most normal person she had met this day!!!
In conclusion, I think that we must be sincere with ourselves in with our interlocuors. If we have other aims, we mustn't try to reach them with indirect means.
Simo
Ummm. aaah uuuum.... haha.:D :D For the first time ever here on italki, I say to someone, what am I gonna say. Wanchain, you've got me. You're right. I have nothing to say. I hope I don't meet you in a court. :).
I don`t see any problem if smb wants to talk with you, with the help of video and mic via Skype as well.. it`s just the way of communicating, nothing more :) BUT! I`m annoyed with the people who want to use just video chat without voice, like "let`s open the cams but will continue do writing.." - why? What for? i don`t like it.. Chat is chat, normal conversation it`s a normal conversation! :) This`s my point :)
Dear Wendy and Jermaine Shows
I think both of you are right in my experience. I guess most of the people who ask for video chat are not focusing on their language learning . I like to chat on web with calling softwares like skype . I can enjoy my topics with another interlocutor far from my countries and we will seek out any interesting topics as we can to facilitate our conversation . I think to sustain the conversation roots in the fact that we cannot see each other . Once I start my chatting with video , I would like to see his response or facial expression or maybe her charming figure . And then , I found I would be influenced by his deeds or body language or her good looking . I intend to learn a language instead of making romantics that I have to tell apart in advance . On the contrary , without video interference , I can concentrate more on my speaking and listening from my partners . It drives me to treasure every moment to talk with my language partners so My preference is not to open video to distub my listening and his speaking . Needless to say , everything has exceptions , we cannot generalize everything into a simple conclusion , but it is true in most situation . That is my humble vision .
