Archive for the 'Kantalk Community' Category

Hosting Skypecast: Albert’s Story

June 25, 2007

For many of Kantalk users, join a group conversation at Skypecast for the first few times can be uncomfortable. Well, it’s hard for anyone to talk to strangers, let alone do it with a second language. Then, how about create and host a Skypecast? All right, let’s just say many of us would rather sit in a dentist’s chair.

However, Albert, a.k.a. Wildcats9, from Philippine, took a leap of faith a few months ago and began to host Skypecasts through Kantalk. He wants to improve his spoken English in order to advance his career. Apparently, that’s a strong enough motivation to keep him going, since he has been doing it almost daily, sometimes twice a day, under the title of Talking Room For Non-Native English Speakers or English as a Second Language.

Over time, he has built a group of the followers who joined him regularly. Not a surprise. He even lined up a couple of co-hosts from different countries to help him out. He must have made an impressive progress, because someone suggested that Albert should be an English radio talk show host someday; probably not the career in his mind when he first started out here.

For those Kantalk users who are equally motivated to improve spoken English, but feel unease to host a Skypecast, join Albert’s room and ask him for tips. Most likely, he would tell you what you already heard many times in the Nike’s ads.

Just Do It.

Join a Study Group to Transcribe YouTube Videos

June 20, 2007

Nothing makes us happier than our users telling us they love the features we developed. The latest example is the video transcribing.

We firmly believe transcribing is an excellent way to improve one’s listening comprehension. That’s why we added YouTube video feature a few weeks ago. Since then, one of our users, Sting, quickly became a top contributor. He submitted many YouTube clips and did a wonderful job in transcribing them.

It turned out Sting is a leader of a fascinating study group in China. He started the group last year to take advantage of YouTube’s rich offerings. Its members, all dedicated English learners, have since grown to over 200 from all over the world.

Each day they assign one video clip as the group homework. Using QQ, a popular IM tool in Asia, they help one another transcribe it, and have done over 200 so far. Apparently, they have a lot of fun in doing it. And learning too.

If anyone wants to join Sting’s study group and eager to take on his homework, feel free to contact him. His QQ ID is 287033838.

Who’s Talking?

June 4, 2007

Since we released the recording feature on KanTalk, many of our users recorded the “Please Call Stella” paragraph to check out their pronunciation and accent. More and more users who signed up recently also recorded a voice introduction in their profile.

You can now search for these audio introductions when you select “With Audio Intro” box on the Search page. Listen to them all. And if you haven’t done so, record your own introduction. You never know, you might make a lot more new friends when others can hear your voice!

Many of you also asked if you could record more. Yes, we are working on that. You will soon be able to record more.

Another feature we added based on user request is the ability to enter multiple languages to learn. You can now enter 3 languages to learn in your Profile.

Please email us at admin@kantalk.com or click the Feedback link to send us your comments and suggestions.

Kantalk User Community

March 8, 2007

We are glad to see a diverse user community for language learners shaping up at Kantalk.com since we launched the site two months ago.

Here are some numbers about this community that you might be interested in:

1. Top 3 native languages spoken by our members are English (13%), Spanish (10%) and Arabic (9%).

2. Top 3 countries where our members currently live in are USA (10%), Brazil (9%) and China (5%)

3. In Top 3 languages to learn, English (56%) is a clear winner, followed by Spanish (3%) and French (2%). Not really a surprise because Kantalk.com is an English website at this stage.

4. Over 65% of our members have Skype enabled on Kantalk.com.
Note: “Skype enabled” simply means a member has entered a Skype username in the profile.

We’d also like to offer one tip here regarding your Skype privacy. You can choose to show your Skype status on our website or any other websites by selecting the “Allow my status to be shown on the web” option. By default this option is turned off in Skype. Read more here.

We really appreciate those who have emailed us with questions and suggestions. Please keep the feedback coming so we know what features you would like to see the most on Kantalk.

Danielle

The Problem and Fix

February 20, 2007

Lately, a few users told us that they had experienced the “hijacked” web address problem.

We send out an email to notify out user when he or she has a Fiend Request from another user. The email body includes two URL links, one to the requestor’s Profile page, and another to the Kantalk’s sign-in page.

Sometimes (but not always), the first DOT in the link www.kantalk.com was missing. Therefore, when the user clicks the link in the email, instead of being directing to the legitimate kantalk.com site, it leads to a “hijacked” site with the address as wwwkantalk.com (no DOT between WWW and Kantalk), which was registered by someone maliciously to put out a full page of advertisement.

We have identified the cause of the problem. It’s a coding bug that causes the missing dot in the email. We believe we have fixed it now.

For those who have experienced this problem, we are sorry for the confusion it created.

David

Attention: Professional Language Teachers

January 24, 2007

We are pleased to see users signing up at an amazing rate. Most of them are language learners, but we also found some are professional, certified language teachers. They are eager to share their expertise with learners. So we thought it’s a good idea to separate professional teachers from learners.

When the professional teachers sign up, they have more options in Profile page to list their teaching expertise and credentials. We also make it easier for users to browse and search teachers. As more teachers sign up, we plan to feature them at the homepage too.

We welcome any feedbacks and suggestions from the professional teachers and learners.

David

Help Us Spread the Words

January 15, 2007

If you build it, people will come—an optimist’s view. We are optimistic. Since we put Kantalk out last week, a lot of language learners from all over the world have visited the site; many signed on to be a member. Some users made several excellent suggestions. We listened. So we made a few changes.

We encourage you to tell your friends about Kantalk by sending an invitation here. They may like Kantalk just as much as you do! Keep it in mind, the more users join Kantalk, the better chance to great people for sharing the learning experience.

Please help us spread the words.

David