Home » Practise speaking like a local with Busuu’s Community Corrections
You learn a language to speak it, right?
It might seem like stating the obvious, but it’s easy to forget the reason you started learning all that vocab and grammar was so you could become comfortable using it.
Soon, you’ll be out there, in the real world. Communicating with real-life people. And while you’re home, some speaking practice would do you the world of good.
Say you’re learning English.
You’re knee-deep in learning how to conjugate “to think”; the difference between “they’re”, “there” and “their”; and why the Brits would say “loo” instead of “toilet”.
It’s fiddly, mind-boggling and time-consuming work. Not to mention disheartening.
Because by locking yourself away and concentrating on those pernickety details, you’re missing out on a vital part of the learning process: speaking.
You see, there are two steps to learning a language:
1. Learning the theoretical ‘stuff’ – the vocabulary, the grammar and all those sneaky exceptions to the rule.
2. Learning how to take the theoretical ‘stuff’ and put it into practice.
If you learn English with Busuu, you won’t just be learning in theory. You won’t just be repeating what you hear, or memorising a long list of rules.
Thanks to Busuu’s Community Corrections, you’ll also get English conversation practice with fluent English speakers.
Connecting you with Busuu’s friendly Community of over 120 million learners from your couch, you’ll have the opportunity to have conversations in English. You’ll produce sentences from scratch, and make friends from all over the world without stepping outside your front door.
Like what you’re hearing, but not sure how to kickstart your home learning experience and get the speaking show on the road?
Follow this step-by-step guide to get started:
In a Community Corrections exercise, you’ll be prompted to start a conversation in the language you’re learning. For example, you might be asked to say hello, describe your family, or talk about your holiday plans.
Create your ice-breaker by either recording your response (hold down the recording button for up to 30 seconds), or writing out your response in full.
Go over your recording or message to check you’re happy, then upload it for a member of our Community to review.
Or, if you’ve already made a friend on Busuu, you can send it directly to them.
A fluent speaker from our awesome Busuu Community (or your friend) will become your conversation partner; they’ll jump in and correct you, either talking or writing back.
Use the ‘Reply’ function to chat to your newfound friend by recording a response to their corrections.
Community Corrections are just the first step towards speaking a new language fluently. After you’ve tried a couple of Corrections, we recommend speaking practice — these AI-powered lessons let you record your answers and give you personalised personalised feedback on your pronunciation, so you’ll be ready for real-life conversations.
When you’re feeling ready, Busuu’s Conversations feature is the perfect way to put it all together. With an AI partner, you can have immersive, realistic conversations and practise responding with your new language skills. Conversations is a brilliant way to try out new words and phrases in a judgement-free space, building your confidence for real-world interactions.
So how about it? Want to take your language learning to the next level and make friends around the world… without stepping outside your front door?
Get more tips and ideas from our guides on Spanish conversations and English conversations.
Get feedback on your new language skills from people in the Busuu Community who already speak that language. With their tips, tricks and insights, you can learn how to chat like a local.