Learning languages has never felt accessible to me because private tutors are expensive, classes are expensive, and we all know duolingo doesn’t really cut it for actually speaking a language. I’ve always heard that the best way to learn a language is to immerse yourself in it, but traveling to other countries is expensive too!Enter italki: an affordable platform where you get to connect with native speakers of many many languages and dialects (this is the only place I’ve found a tutor for Egyptian Arabic). You can watch videos from tutors introducing themselves to see if you think your tutor will be a good fit for your learning goals and common interests, and you can see their whole schedule. Italki seriously makes it so so easy. I can’t necessarily jump on a plane to Mexico or Egypt to immerse myself in a language, but italki feels pretty dang close. I’ve learned more, and more quickly, than ever before in my life. For the first time being fluent in another language feels possible!I truly can’t recommend italki enough!And some other online tutoring platforms seemed really sketchy, but I can confirm from years of usage that italki is straightforward and there are no hidden fees. 🖖🏼 Happy learning!!

5 star classes with great teachers. 2-3 star app which needs replacing. Nothing beats italki for learning a language online. No screen app - just the in person video classes from experienced native speakers or those with much training in the language, almost all of whom have teaching credentials of one kind or another - and who can work with you at any level, A1 beginner to C2 advanced. Plus, so many languages with teaches all over the world. That's the 5 star part. The 3 or 2 star part is the app itself. Just about everything on it is difficult to navigate, hard to find, and, in the case of calendaring, gives a completely insufficient amount of useful info. Please italki, contract a professional app developer and have your site completely modernized and rationalized. Sometimes I think using your app is harder than learning the dative case in German! Ok, well maybe in some more difficult language. No matter how rubbish the italki app, absolutely use the italki service if you really want to learn a foreign language and you're not in that particular country. It's available at many different prices and teacher levels. You really don't need a highly trained & expensive teacher at the beginning, but you will as you progress. But then you'll be committed in your mind to learning. There are many different teachers - so if not having success with one, try another!

Honestly? I don't know how I'd survive learning Japanese without Italki. I've been using it since 2019, when I started learning the language at college, and I pretty much live on the app now. I use it every week to contact my teacher, get assignments, book classes, and brush up on my vocabulary. I can even send audio messages, which has been super helpful in checking my pronunciation. Having everything available in one app is convenient, especially on busy days when I only have my phone on me. Sometimes the Italki video sessions freeze, but this has only happened 2x in all the times I've used it. If this happens, there are other video platform options that Italki works with. If I had anything to suggest, it would be that I think the app needs a better way for teachers/students to share resources and assignments. Currently, the files get dropped into the chat box, but this makes it hard to find sources later, should you want to review them.

The concept of italki is fantastic and there are some great tutors out there. I have been using it very happily until…There are a few teachers who are unreliable and don’t show up. Unfortunately italki does not resolve these well. Here’s why: if a teacher cancels within 12 hours, you cannot schedule another class during that timeframe. You have to just wait until it’s over. The teacher does not get penalized in any way, in fact, their attendance rate still shows as 100%. So you cannot filter out the reliable teachers/tutors from the unreliable ones. There should be a “late cancel” option. Furthermore I have a teacher who did not show up, then wrote to me and said “oops I didn’t notice I had a class” yet he didn’t want to mark the class as no show. The class has gone into dispute and I can’t block this teacher who keeps sending me nasty messages because I didn’t accept his request. Italki is good, but this is a very bad way of handling No Shows and Last Minute Cancellations. I have a busy schedule and I want to take a class every day yet due to this unfortunate feature, I cannot. Currently looking into italki alternatives.