Frequently asked questions

Make sure you activate your account after registration (check your spam folder).

Email blocked – Sorry, we are using a strong spam filter to prevent bots, and it’s possible that some valid emails are blocked. If this happens, please contact us here: contact@speakingclub.com
VPN – Please disable your VPN and try again.

You can visit the Getting started page, that is the best way to start using this platform.

You can use the Find a partner search form.

If you find someone you’d like to have a conversation with, you can send them a friend request, then you can start messaging and arrange a time to meet up and chat.

Go here to add your Social Networks.

Here are the current available badges:

   Host – Become a Speaking Club host

   Premium – Buy a premium membership

   Top reviewer – Write 5 reviews

   25 Meetings attended – Attend 25 Speaking Club meetings

   50 Meetings attended – Attend 50 Speaking Club meetings

   100 Meetings attended – Attend 100 Speaking Club meetings

   200 Meetings attended – Attend 200 Speaking Club meetings

   500 Meetings attended – Attend 500 Speaking Club meetings

Reviews are an important part of the Speaking Club experience.
They can help others find language partners and bring accountability to the language exchange model.

The meeting times are displayed in your local time zone using the time set on your device.

We use Zoom for the meetings.

The hosts of Native Meetings are native speakers of the language of the meeting, the hosts of Community Meetings come from all over the world… but remember that during the meetings you will be speaking primarily with other English learners.

Practice – With an intermediate level minimum, you will still be able to have one-on-one conversations providing you with ample opportunity to practice speaking in a real life setting.

Confidence – Confidence in a language is a key part of being able to express yourself fluently. To gain confidence, you just need to practice and place yourself in an environment where speaking in the target language is the only option.

Active vocabulary – One of the main difficulties in advancing to a higher level, is learning to use all the vocabulary that you know. The problem many students face is that they can understand and recognize many words, but they can’t remember them when they speak. In order to get vocabulary from the passive phase to the active one, you need to hear/see the words many times, ideally in many places.

The minimum age to participate in the regular meetings is 16 years old.

If you ever feel that your partner’s level is too low, feel free to call the host to your room. They are trained to deal with this kind of situation. We try to always make sure that everyone meets the minimum level criteria.

If your partner disconnects and you find yourself alone in your breakout room, the best thing to do is to look for the ‘Ask for help‘ button in your Zoom breakout room and wait for the host to come. Please be a little patient as the host may be helping someone else.

If, for whatever reason, you find yourself uncomfortable talking with your partner, you can leave the breakout room and return to the main room, explain to the host that you would like a new partner and the host will try to accommodate you.
Alternatively, you can also leave the meeting and re-enter, then explain the situation to the host when you return.

No, the hosts don’t take requests.

Regular meetings are NOT recorded.
However, there may be some recorded meetings. Such as the Debate meeting, or Free meetings.
When Recorded, you will see this icon in the timetable [  ] and the host will make sure that everyone is aware when starting a meeting.

When Recorded, meetings may be streamed live, or posted on YouTube or other similar Video sharing platforms.

By entering your Zoom name exactly as it is written in Zoom, we are able to greatly improve your meeting experience.

You can check out this tutorial from Zoom on how to change your Zoom name.

Of course! If your name doesn’t match then we will not be able to use your data on the site during the Zoom meeting, but you will still be able to join the meetings normally.

Community Meetings are meetings held by non-native English speakers. The hosts are from the Speaking Club community and from all over the world. They are hosting meetings as part of the Host Exchange Program.

As part of the Host Exchange Program, there are non-native hosts offering additional times. These meetings are essentially the same, and the hosts have been trained in the same way, but they are not from an English speaking country.

Community Hosts are part of the Host Exchange Program.
To be able to host English meetings as a non-native speaker, you must have attended at least 40 Speaking Club meetings.

Yes, the forum is open to everyone. Feel free to post or answer questions.
There are some threads to find language partners also which may be helpful.

There are a few topics that we do not allow on the forums, such as anything that might be considered rude or offensive, anything directed at a mature audience, and other speaking clubs.

You are allowed to post your contact information, but we would advise you NOT to post your phone number as it would make you a target of spammers and other unwanted solicitors.
Other members can send you a friend request and then you can exchange contacts privately.

The Feedback Feature is a new tool designed to help you gain some insights into your performance during the Speaking Club meeting – watch YouTube Tutorial here.

In order to get feedback, you will need to:
1. Save your Zoom meeting transcript.
2. Upload your Zoom transcript and the name used during the meeting.
3. Click on Analyze.

Zoom Transcript Tutorial: https://youtu.be/i9YZATodtTQ

You can create your Transcript by making sure your Captions are turned on during the Zoom meeting.
Then, you will need to click on the Captions menu on your Zoom toolbar, then on ‘View Full Transcript‘, and finally you can click on the ‘Save Transcript‘ button.
This will create a file that you can later upload in order to get your feedback.

Please note that while it is possible to turn on Captions on Mobile, it is not possible to save them.

The feedback is in 2 parts:
1. Text Analysis with information on the complexity, word length, and sentence length used.
2. Recommendations (provided by chatGPT) with suggested vocabulary and sentence corrections.

ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot.
Please note that the results can be somewhat inconsistent, but while it is not perfect, we believe it can be of some use to members and hopefully provide some helpful feedback 🙂

The Zoom Captions are still being developed. It does seem to struggle a bit with foreign accents. We are confident that Zoom will improve their transcription accuracy in the near future.
Make sure to set the Captions language to English.

We save the Text Analysis data, in order to display it in your summary page.
We save the chatGPT recommendations for 14 days, in order to enable you to download them from the summary page. We then delete them completely.
We do not save any part of the Zoom transcripts.

The Speaking Club Group discussions are meetings to practice public speaking in a friendly manner. It’s a fun way to discuss a variety of topics with friendly people from all around the world.

No. The meetings are currently NOT being recorded or streamed.

• No shouting
• No insults
• No interrupting
  Remember to always be respectful and listen to the other participants when it is their turn.

The meeting is one hour. The exact format changes frequently but the idea remains the same. There are topics discussed in small groups with a moderator that will guide the discussion.

In order to participate, you must have attended 10 normal meetings.

You must be over 16 years old to participate in the Speaking Club Group discussions.

IELTS Preparation Meetings were created to help members prepare to pass the Spoken Section of the IELTS exam.
It’s a great opportunity to practice the three parts of the IELTS Speaking Exam with partners from all over the world.

Round 1 (15 mins): IELTS Part 2 Queue Card
Random Queue Card
1 minute preparation, then take turns speaking for 1-2 minutes.

Round 2 (15 mins): IELTS Part 3 Role-play
You will be given a list of questions related to Round 1, then one participant will play the role of the examiner, asking questions for 4-5 minutes (not all the questions necessarily), then switch roles.

Round 3 (15 mins): IELTS Part 2
Round 4 (15 mins): IELTS Part 3
All rounds are one-on-one

Absolutely, anyone can join!
However, the participants are encouraged to answer the questions in long form. In the IELTS exam, you are required to speak for 2-4 minutes continuously, so do not be surprised if the answers are longer than usual.

The Job Interview meetings were created to help members practice English for Job Interviews.
The Questions are ones you might be asked during a job interview.

Round 1 (15 mins): Basic Interview Questions
Round 2 (15 mins): Intermediate Interview Questions
Round 3 (15 mins): Advanced Interview Questions
Round 4 (15 mins): More Interview Questions
All rounds are one-on-one

Absolutely, anyone can join!
However, the questions are all to do with Job Interviews.

The Speaking Club Certificates of Completion are Certificates to show how many times you have participated in the meetings for each language.

You can show them to potential Employers, or just print them as a reminder of your amazing performance.

In your profile page, look for the Certificates tab.