As any semi-regular reader of my silly little blog will know, I have been studying 
Spanish for a while. As part of that exercise I use a platform called, italki.com. I use one professional teacher from Guatemala who is valiantly trying to improve my grammar and pronunciation. As you can imagine, working with me, he does indeed have the patience of a saint. I am also working with what italki calls tutors. These are generally folks not trained in teaching languages, but will converse with you and gently correct your errors. Some will try to teach a little. I use them mainly for conversational practice. I am currently using 4 tutors in 4 different countries to sample different accents. I also occasionally do a language exchange. There is no cost to these. You spend 1/2 your time speaking your language and 1/2 your time speaking their language. This last method sort of works and sort of doesn’t, at least for me.
I use Skype to take these lessons. My avatar on Skype is Bill the Cat going, “Thbbft“. Continue reading “Thbbft…”