FAQ
General
Make sure you activate your account after registration (check your spam folder too)
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Profiles
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.
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
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.
Meetings
You can visit the new member page for more info.
The meeting times are displayed in your local time zone.
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.
Community Meetings
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 🙂
The Community Membership is half the price of the Premium Membership.
You can get it here.
There are currently 16 Community Meetings per week.
You can use the filter on the timetable page to see which meetings are hosted by Community hosts.
The Community hosts also have a blue circle around their profile pictures.
Unlike meetings held by native English speakers, community meeting days and times may change at any time. While there is a high level of consistency, changes may occur, so be sure to keep an eye on the timetable from time to time.
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 50 Speaking Club meetings. → Apply here.
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 🙂
The Community Membership is half the price of the Premium Membership.
You can get it here.
There are currently 16 Community Meetings per week.
You can use the filter on the timetable page to see which meetings are hosted by Community hosts.
The Community hosts also have a blue circle around their profile pictures.
Unlike meetings held by native English speakers, community meeting days and times may change at any time. While there is a high level of consistency, changes may occur, so be sure to keep an eye on the timetable from time to time.
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 20 Speaking Club meetings. → Apply here.
Feedback Feature
Feedback Tutorial: https://youtu.be/Co1F6lirVr8
The Feedback Feature is a new tool designed to help you gain some insights into your performance during the Speaking Club meeting.
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 inconstitent, but while it is not perfect, we believe it can be of some use to members and hopefully provide some helptful 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.
Forums
There are a few topics that we do not allow on the forums, such as anything that might 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.
Speaking Club for Kids
It is very similar to the normal meetings except that only under 16-year-olds are allowed to participate.
We wanted to provide a place for our younger members to be able to interact with other youngsters from around the world and discuss topics more closely related to their age group.
The minimum level is intermediate. You need to be able to have a conversation in English to be able to participate.
If you are not sure whether or not your (or your child’s) level is sufficient, you are very welcome to come and try. If your level is insufficient, the host will take you aside and let you know 🙂
No. Parents are not required to attend, but they are very welcome to be nearby. We do ask the parents to not participate as we want these meetings to be for young people to talk. There is a host there to provide a safe environment for our young members.
Safety is a major priority for us at the Speaking Club. This is why there is always a host on hand to organize the rooms and make sure that only kids attend. The host is also always going around the rooms during the meeting and can be called to the room by all the participants to help if needed.
Speaking Club Debates
The Speaking Club Debates is a meeting to practice debating in a friendly manner.
This is NOT a place to push your personal opinion.
- 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.
Part 1: 15 mins – Debating one on one
You can choose to be either FOR or AGAINST.
IMPORTANT: Make sure to rename yourself and add F or A after your name.
Part 2: 15 mins – Debating one on one
Switch – You will now debate for the other side.
Part 3: 30 mins – Group debate
10-12 participants together with 1 moderator.
Speaking in turn, debating each point one at a time.
IMPORTANT: To speak, you must raise your hand and the moderator will let you know when it is your turn to speak.
IMPORTANT: Make sure to reply to the previous participant. Only once the argument is exhausted will we be moving on to the next argument.
In order to participate, you must have attended 10 normal meetings.
You must be over 16 to participate in the Speaking Club Debates
No need to worry, only one main room will be recorded. The host will only put people that want to be part of it in the room. The other rooms will not be recorded 🙂
The Speaking Club Debate is a meeting to practice debating 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.
Part 1: 30 mins – Group debate
You can choose to be in a small group (3-4) or large group (6-8).
Part 2: 30 mins – Group debate
You can choose to be in a small group (3-4) or large group (6-8).
In order to participate, you must have attended 10 normal meetings.
You must be over 16 to participate in the Speaking Club Debates
IELTS Preparation
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
Not at all.
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 3-4 minutes continuously, so do not be surprised if the answers are longer than usual 🙂
Job Interview
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
Not at all.
Anyone can join, however the questions are all to do with Job Interviews 🙂
Certificates
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
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
Contact us
If you have a question that hasn’t been answered yet, please send us a message and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
