Iker Uriarte: italki past, present, and future

** Welcome to the actual fluency podcast. Each week you'll find inspirational, motivational interviews with some of the world's best language learners, industry experts, all trying to help you to learn foreign languages better, faster and more efficiently. And here we go.

** Yeah, sure. I first of all, thank you for having me. Uh, I'm uh, my name is Iker, I'm the marketing director at Italki. And uh, Italki, in case you don't know, is a uh community marketplace that connects language learners with uh language teachers for online lessons.

** Interesting. So that was your background. Did you have any sort of uh language learning interest or experience before you joined Italki or have you have you been bitten by the bug after?

** I'd say that I've been learning languages in one way or another for most of my life. So, I'm from the North of Spain, from the Basque country. And uh, when I was when I was a kid, uh, I moved outside of the of the Basque country for a while. So, my mom was teaching me uh Basque at home. Uh, that's when I was like maybe five, six years old, and a little bit later I started learning uh English at school.

** Very cool. Yeah, like putting it into practice basically.

** Yeah, yeah, that part of putting it into practice that, uh, well, it cannot it should be the goal of of learning a language, but in many cases it doesn't really happen. Uh, when I went to university, I started learning uh German. So I was learning German for for three years. Uh, but in those three years, I didn't speak with uh with a single uh native German speaker. I didn't use it outside of of the class. So I was basically preparing for some exams, just to pass, to get a good score. But uh, there was nothing meaningful on on that. And still, today, I have been learning German for I was learning German for three years, uh but I have nearly completely forgotten everything from there because of the lack of of use. And then

** Right.

** when when I uh I moved to to China, I started learning Chinese. So that's basically what I'm trying to do right now. So, I think to sum up here, I've been learning quite a few different languages. I also learned uh Latin in in high school. Uh, and uh now with Italki, I've been trying to uh get grasp of of some languages before I traveled to uh, yeah, to some countries. So, for example, when I went to a polyglot conference in in Iceland a couple of a couple years ago, I took five lessons on on Icelandic before going there, which is like, well, it doesn't really uh make you an expert in the language, you don't really learn that much, but it helps you, it makes a difference for me uh when I travel to a different country.

** Yeah, that's a good point. Yeah, definitely. And uh I guess the question people have, if you work for a language company, do you get free language lessons?

** Yeah, definitely, we have. I think that the something that the the management of the company encourages is for us to uh to learn more languages. And uh many of the people working at Italki, uh, are language teachers, polyglots. Uh, so, yeah, for a lot of us, it's a it's a great benefit to have the opportunity to have free language lessons with uh with the teachers at Italki.

** Fantastic. And uh how's the culture shock been for you as a Spaniard going all the way to China? I mean, a lot of people say that it's kind of up and down and everything is different. How have you felt coming over there?

** Well, uh it was not my first step outside of Spain. So uh from Spain I went to UK and then to to China. So I had experience living abroad, so maybe because of that, the culture shock was not that big also my uh my wife is Chinese. So, so that really helped a lot uh to get in the to the culture here. And and to be honest, I have also I think that there are many similarities uh with the with the culture in the in the South of Europe or in Spain. Uh the the feeling, the importance of the of the family, uh is something that, yeah, I I I really I really appreciate and uh uh yeah, it really feels it makes me feel more like at at home.

** Yeah. Yeah. And uh where is where's uh Italki based?

** It's based in Shanghai. We have our

** Okay. So that's where you work from as well, or are you remote?

** Yeah, we work here in Shanghai. Our marketing team is uh here in Shanghai. We have people from uh multiple nationalities, uh multiple languages. But yeah, most of the the team uh from marketing, tech, product is located here in Shanghai.

** Cool. And obviously, uh Italki has been around for for quite a while. Uh how long have you been with the company again?

** I've been working with Italki for four years. Uh,

** Okay. One and a half years.

** Yeah, but Italki has been around for a much longer time. Uh so, around like 12 years since it was founded. So, I've been here for uh, yeah, for the last part of the of the journey. Uh it's been very interesting, but yeah, Italki has a much longer story.

** Yeah. So, did you find it challenging coming in and in an an existing company with an existing kind of framework to try and grow it? I assume the marketing, uh the marketing job of any company is to get more customers. But did that you find that challenging or was it were they very open to new ideas and flexible?

** Well, it's challenging in the sense that we uh have ambitious goals, we want to to grow, uh, and we want to to help our students and our teachers to get the most out of of our platform. So, definitely we have to work hard in that sense. But in terms of the the the work inside the company, the the people that we have, uh, I think I was very lucky when I when I joined Italki. We have a lot of very open-minded, multicultural people that uh really love and are passionate about about language learning. So that definitely helps to to make any any new comer any new comer more uh included and and get up to speed much faster.

** So, how do you actually improve your results with Italki? Because, if you look at the basics of it, Italki lessons are essentially just a teacher and a student kind of placed together, usually in Skype or whatever software they want to use. So how can you as a company add anything to that that would make the student more successful?

** Right. I think that there are multiple ways in what we can do it, but uh in the end, one of the uh the key things for for language learning Italki is to to find the the right teacher. So,

** Yeah. I I agree with that.

** That's something that I've seen when I when I talk to to polyglot language language experts. Uh there's no single method that uh adapts to everybody. So, I talk to someone who uh can speak like 20 different languages and they tell me that the best method for learning is A. And then I talk to another one who have been learning, I don't know, 30 languages and they say, no, it's not A, it's B. So, I think that the is is about finding the the right method for you, right? Uh finding the right uh person, the right teacher to help you uh to help you learn. And and in that sense, what we try to do is help our students in the journey. So, how can we uh help our our teachers to create the best profile, to give the the right information so the students that are browsing our listing of 10,000 teachers can find the one that is right for them.

** Right. So how have you been working on that? What kind of uh elements or initiatives have you been implementing to try and make that more seamless?

** Well, we're actually working on a new version of the site that people can uh can try. We have a a beta that is open to to everybody. And in in there, we have uh we have improved our user experience, we have improved the the design, we have tried to work with our uh with our students, with our users to understand what are the the pain points, what are the the problems that they were facing. And uh, yeah, and and take that feedback and and put it into improvements that we are releasing on the site.

** Right. It must still be challenging because uh I know that as a language learner, consistency is very difficult, no matter what platform or app or method you use. So I guess you have the same kind of problems as as any other place where you you need people to stay consistent to have the results. Sorry, can you repeat that again?

** Yeah, I was just saying consistency is the biggest problem, isn't it? So, that any platform that mitigates that is going to be a success. So, I I've seen some of you you do some challenges and stuff to keep people motivated or interested to learn regularly or at least more than they would normally to try and stay focused, which is the biggest challenge, isn't it?

** Yeah, definitely. Uh one of the key things for for language learning is the the motivation to uh to continue learning, don't give up, uh, don't stop. And I think that for that, one of the the key things is actually the the teacher that you that you choose, that you feel comfortable with the with the method, that you feel comfortable with the with the person that you are that you are talking to. So that's why when uh when someone joins Italki, we try to incentivize them to try different teachers. Uh, we have a trial lessons, discounted trial lessons, uh, that that allow our our new users to, yeah, to to have a lesson with a few different teachers before they decide which one is the best for them. And we have seen that that really makes a big difference.

** I think it's also one of the best kept secrets, I think of the of the polyglot, or let's call them like the the learning community, because I think a lot of people who might want to learn languages think that one-on-one teachers are very expensive, or that you have to go and find someone in your hometown or something that there's no online teaching. Uh, or if there is, it's very expensive. But when I tell them, you know, you if you're learning a popular language like Spanish, you can find teachers for $5 an hour. They're like, what? And they're like, oh, it must be a scam, or there must be 40 students in the class. I'm like, no, no, it's it's all yours, you know, it's 100% focus on you.

** Right. Yeah, I think it's it's it's surprisingly true. There are a lot of people that still uh don't know about the the the availability of those one-on-one lessons online and and they're still thinking about, hey, I need to find someone uh in my city or or or I need to ask my friends to see if they know someone who can teach me, while uh yeah, like for example, Italki, we have more than 10,000 teachers that you can access uh online anytime, yeah. So, that's that's definitely a great advantage and and in terms of the price also, like having teachers from around the world uh give us like a big flexibility in terms of the of the range of of prices. So it really helps people to find something that is uh good for their uh for the price range, good for their uh, uh for the learning schedule. And uh yeah, someone that can adapt their their learning methods and and adapt to their goals and and to their requirements.

** Because otherwise, I think it's very important. So you can tell people, you can tell the teachers exactly what you want to learn. And I I'd say really tell the teacher when you start, what your goals are, what you want to be doing with the language, and what you like, because then the teacher can really build the lessons for you. If you don't, then you're going to get the kind of cliche, standard lessons, which might be fine. But it's just going to be much better if you if you open up about that. Some people think that it it's like a fixed curriculum, I guess they're used to it from school, that you don't have much influence on the curriculum. But on Italki and and certainly other places as well, you can just tell the teacher what you want. Exactly what you want. Like if you want to learn how to fire someone in Spanish, here you go. I mean, we can do that. And uh it just gives some some great opportunities for flexibility like you said, that you can build your own lessons and you know, for that price, it can't be beaten.

** Yeah, I think it has to do also with the with an entality that uh we have like suffer, we have experienced uh at school for so many years. Yeah, you wouldn't think about telling your teacher school like, hey, I don't want to have homework or please give me more homework or I don't want you to correct me every time I talk or please correct me more. And uh, but that's something that you can do at Italki. And sometimes people don't realize that. So, so that's actually feedback that we have from some users that they have a lesson with the teacher and say like, well, I'm not happy with that teacher because they didn't give me homework. Uh, you can tell them to

** Yeah. Yeah.

** You can exactly, you can explain them exactly how do you want to learn, what are your preferences, whether you want to uh spend most of the lesson, uh, talking to them and being the one kind of like leading the uh the conversation or leading the the learning or if you want something more structured, or you want to focus on on writing, on grammar. So, that's definitely up to up to you. But I but I think that yeah, in some senses it's also about changing that mindset that we that we have, that we have had for so many years learning at school or even at university, and say like, well, there's there's a different way to to learn. We don't have to to feel restricted by by those boundaries that we have before.

** Yeah. It's a it's a totally new and flexible way. And I think if you did nothing else than two lessons a week on Italki, you would be you could be speaking very well in three months, and you would have complete functional language in a year, I think. Just because it's direct, it's one-on-one, it's feedback, you're fixing all the problems as you go along. It's not like you have a textbook that doesn't care about you at all, that just teaches you some standard stuff. In lessons, you're learning exactly what you need to learn, and you're fixing exactly the problems you have, both pronunciation and grammar and vocabulary. And it just makes a a much more functional language.

** Right. Yeah, uh I think it's it's I mean, you have mentioned also about like setting up those those goals and and how do you get to to there. And yeah, one year you can make a lot of progress. Uh a few weeks ago, uh, we were talking to to one of our users. I think we can see a uh we have a video user story of of his progress on Italki. And uh his method of his his way of setting up goals is he uh plans his trip for the following year. So maybe he'll say, okay, next year I'm going to go to Norway, or next year I'm going to go to Italy. And uh during that year, before that trip, he tries to learn as much as he can on Italki. By way, when he arrives at that country, uh he will be able to to experience the the trip in a completely different way, he will be able to have a conversation with the with the people there. And that's uh that was working really really well for for him. I think he had like seven different languages on on Italki.

** It's not everyone has the the the same goals or the same motivation to learn multiple. Of course. But it's good to have an end goal inside like a trip or speaking to a family member or a conference or something.

** Right. Yeah, it's about like you can be creative with your with your goals. And I think also the important thing is that uh you understand that language learning is is is a journey and uh uh the goal is not learning by itself, but your the ability to to communicate, to understand the culture. So if you think like you're going to be able to have conversations with uh with people in that country, uh you're going to be able to, well, we have a big community on on Italki, uh where where people can ask for questions, can have discussions, can maybe make me people from from other different countries. So that gives like an additional goal for our uh for our users, an additional motivation. Yeah, because you see that the uh you can you can see what progress you are making in uh in a real situation. Uh and not just uh again, like focus on, okay, I've completed this lesson, I've completed the next lesson, and the next lesson.

** Mm. Yeah, that's that's super important as well. Have those have those goals. And if you're feeling like you're part of something bigger than the language schools, it will definitely be easier to uh achieve. And it's also like a back and forth kind of thing because you can help people with your native language and then you can get help from their native language. So it's kind of like a, you know, you do that, I do this kind of thing. And it's doesn't cost anything to ask a question. And if people see that you answer another question, then they're happy to help you also.

** Right. You can feel that that that that connection, that that belonging to the to the community and, yeah, not only are you learning as I say, but but you can also be very useful to to other people. And uh yeah, it's funny, we we sometimes see some some type of users that really like that part of helping other other users uh that have uh responded to thousands of of questions that have given thousands of corrections in a in a year, and they don't ask for for anything in return. So they just offer their their knowledge of the of the language to help people from different cultures. And they, well, they they feel the the the reward is to that feeling of being able to to help all those learners to know more about their about the country, about the language, about the culture. So I think that that's something very positive that that we can see in the community.

** Yeah, that definitely. Have you seen a big explosion in in people interested in learning English in the last year or two? Is that a big thing?

** English specifically, no, I think that I mean, English is the uh the number one uh language, an interest for for most of the people in the in the world. So they there's like a steady interest in in learning English. Uh so I don't think that we have really seen a big variation where people want to learn more or less English.

** Oh really? Okay. So it's always been big on Italki.

** Yeah, I would say in Italki and in nearly every language learning learning company. Of course, well, the difference in Italki is that we have uh more than 130 different languages. Yeah, we don't focus just Of course. in English. Uh so, yeah, but but even if if there are a lot of people learning uh different languages, dialects, uh still English is the the main one.

** Yeah. But I I was just asking because I was curious uh because I know that there's been But again, it could could just be a big interest throughout, but I just remember reading something about uh especially Russia and Brazil and some in the Middle East, that the demand for English is just going through the roof. Uh I was just wondering if you'd seen anything from the inside, but it sounds like you've had a a large demand for a while.

** Yeah, I think we definitely see some interest from from the countries that you have that you have mentioned. But yeah, we have seen that interest for a while. I think it is maybe not necessarily about the interest in those countries, but also about uh how they are opening to different ways of of learning. So you think about Russia, for example, the the offline market of language learning in Russia is still very big compared to the online part. So, many of those countries are maybe transitioning from the uh offline learning style to the online one. So that's why for a lot of companies, they have seen that increase in the last few years. But uh yeah, I don't know if it's necessarily about the the the interest for English learning or that transition in the way that people are learning.

** Right, they're getting they're finding out about online learning. Yeah. And maybe the internet is getting more reliable, so in some of the areas. Right. I know how good internet is in Siberia and stuff. Probably good, but I don't know.

** Yeah, I I think that uh we really want to be able to facilitate those connections for people who want to learn a language and people who are open to teach that language. So for that, we have two different type of of teachers on Italki. So one is the professional teachers, and uh and these people, they they do have uh certificate for for teaching languages uh that we verify and that we approve. And then there's the community teachers that you have mentioned that don't necessarily have uh a degree on on teaching. Maybe some of them have experience, uh some of them have less experience, but the important thing is that they are they are native speakers that can help you, can help you with conversation, can help you with informal tutoring, can help you to know a little bit more of the culture. And in many cases also, they might be experts in in other fields that you are interested in. So, I mentioned things like human resources before, but we also have people who want to uh learn medical English, or they want to learn about law or in a in a different language, or they are interested in a specific part of the of the culture of a country, and they want to learn about cooking, or they want to learn about literature, or they want to learn about video games. And in the community tutors, they can find uh these people with that profile. So, it gives us like a much wider uh, how do you say, more gets the learner, the student, much wider range of of choices.

** Yeah, and I think like I said, you could definitely build a career out of it. Uh I've seen people go from being a a tutor to running their own online business in in the language. So, you can go far with it. Uh but the important thing is just getting started. And I think for the the person interested in learning languages, it's extremely important to try different teachers. And I would say that professional doesn't necessarily mean good. I guess it's that that doesn't relate in my opinion. Like, yeah, you have a degree, which makes the knowledge might be better, like the uh theoretical knowledge, but it doesn't mean that you're going to relate to that person or or enjoy that teacher. So don't don't look only at the professional teachers. I would say there are some fantastic community tutors out there. And try a few, and if there's some you don't like, well, just try another one. Uh there's like you said earlier, there's a teacher for everyone, for sure.

** Yeah. And I I don't think it's necessarily good or or bad, but more about uh is the right one for you, the kind of like the style, maybe yeah. you need. Yeah. Because in some cases, you can even have like an excellent teacher uh that uh many other people have recommended, but you find a different one that for whatever reason is much more more relevant to to you. And then just go just go for it. Don't, uh, yeah, don't feel like obliged to have to choose the teacher with the higher number of lessons or the teacher that other people say is the is the right one. Because in the end, if you want to have that motivation, that consistency, that continuity, you have to find someone that you are comfortable with, even if it's not the way that other people learn.

** Yeah, exactly. It's all it's all subjective. It's all to each learner what they respond to the best. And sometimes it's a different teacher, sometimes it's a different method, uh different materials, but I think more often than not, the people that I talk to, the goals that they have are mainly communication. Uh like just go to the country and and and speak and then and be part of it in a different way. Uh so for that, I would probably more often than not recommend tutors because they're more into conversational practice. Not that a professional teacher cannot do that, but it just seems like a bit of an overkill. But if you want to go into more formal study, let's say you want to pass a degree, or you want to pass one of the official tests, or read, write, that kind of stuff, then I would definitely probably look to the professional. Just as a rule of thumb, you know, obviously this can be uh both can be uh flexible and in both ways.

** Yeah, definitely. I think you have the option to go for a more structured learning or for something more informal. And in the end, yeah, you also have the option to try different ones. Uh, and I guess like even sometimes the the reason for trying could be to experiment different accents or uh different dialects, uh in the language that you are that you are learning. Because otherwise, uh, even if the teachers always try to push you out from push you from your uh comfort zone and and try to give some pressure to accelerate the the learning, it gets to a point where maybe you are feeling like too comfortable or you don't have that that kind of like shock of, hey, this is a person that I don't know, I'm talking to them for the for the first time, I need to make an effort to to understand them, to make them understand me. And that's something that you that you can experience with the with the community tutors, like trying different different people, yeah, like replicate that uh to a sense that that immersion, that experience that you don't feel when you go to to another country.

** Yeah. Yeah.

** And then they realize, well, maybe I need to change the the way I I learn. It's not necessarily because uh the the learning method that I have were completely ineffective. I'm sure that they learn the vocabulary, they learn grammar, whatever. But but they were not in that situation where like, okay, now I need to speak. Now I need to have like a real conversation. And that's something that you can do with the with the teacher, tutor, professional teacher, uh that that experience is something that, I think you have to go through, no matter what, when you are learning a language at some point. And uh you can debate whether you want to have it earlier or you have to have it later. Of course, from our side, we think like it's better to have it earlier. But but what you cannot deny is that you have to go through that process if you want to become fluent in a language.

** Yeah, of course. It takes work, and there's going to be frustration, and you're going to spend some time finding your teacher and your your personal method that works for you. But if you think about it, that's not really that different because when you're in school, you just get you just get someone. You know, you don't have a choice. So, yeah, it's easier, but it's also much worse because you you don't get to do it in your way and with the person that you want to do it with. Uh so, it it's much better this way, and I I'm really happy that it's getting, well, it's it's getting more and more popular, but more and more people know about it as well, and and obviously, that's a big part of what you do as a as a marketing director is to try and uh increase the the outreach.

** Yeah, we're we are really working on on a lot of new ideas, on improving our website, improving our apps, improving our community. And uh I think that for the for the Italki users, they will they will see all those things uh rolling out in the uh during during 2019. Uh if you haven't tried Italki, it's a it's a good time to to go and have a look at our our website and and our apps, because we have a lot of exciting things uh coming up.

** Cool. And any travel plans? Are you going to be in Bratislava or uh Fukuoka or Montreal? Are we going to see Italki represented?

** We saw there's a certain polyglot cruise that is going to happen next year, yeah.

** Oh, yeah. Well, let's talk about that. For sure. That's great. I'm looking like, wow, the polyglot events are getting better and better, yeah.

** Yeah, and it's uh it's in the Mediterranean, so uh you could be you could be our guide for many of those places. Well, yeah, I mean, we really love like going to to polyglot events. I think that uh a big part of our of our audience, of our users are uh people who love languages, polyglots, language enthusiasts. So that's why we have that that close connection. That's why we we want to uh to help some of those uh language polyglots, uh sponsor some podcasts, uh videos, events, because I think that there's there's a a very great correlation between the the values from the polyglot community and what we want to do at Italki. So, so definitely we are going to be present and try to be more and more present on on on some of those events, being like the polyglot conference or uh Langfest, uh polyglot gathering. We have collaborating with uh with a lot of those events and we will continue to do that in the in the future. And yeah, we're definitely interested in knowing more about the the polyglot cruise.

** Fantastic. Well, details to be announced later, but uh thanks so much for coming on and and sharing some uh some extra secret tips from Italki on how to obviously use the platform better, which is is what we're all about. And maybe if some people still haven't tried it, I don't understand why they haven't, but for some reason they haven't tried, hopefully they've been inspired by you today to to go give it a try. And uh I will uh you know, if you go if you go do a lesson on Italki, uh the first lesson, you'll you'll get a $10 credit afterwards. So, it's essentially for free if you do a a lesson that's cheaper than 10. So, that's a pretty good deal.

** Yeah, definitely. Uh just to say to the listeners, if you have made this far, uh given that you're probably interested in Italki. So the best advice that I can that I can give you is don't wait until tomorrow to sign up. Uh,

** Do you want to give, do you want to give away five free lessons to the people who made it this far? Five free lessons?

** Well, I think there's no need for free lessons. We have so many uh community tutors that you can try. I think that what we try to do is offer trial lessons. So that's something that you can see if you go to Italki that the the teachers have maybe a certain price for their full-time lesson, but then they also offer like a 30-minute trial that you can have from starting to one for some teachers.

** Sure.

** So you can have an idea of of what is the teaching method, how comfortable do you feel uh talking to them. And you can try, yeah, a few people for a couple of dollars, and then when you have the the one that you really click with, you really feel like, okay, that's the uh the person that's going to help me in my in my journey learning that language. Then you can uh book more lessons with with them. But I definitely recommend going there, just spending $5 to to try a couple of uh a couple of teachers, and then if you feel like, okay, this this is something that that's going to help me, this is something that I feel like doing for two to three months, then then continue on Italki. But just give it a try.

** Yeah, that's that's a really good advice. And I I've used those trial lessons in the beginning myself, and yeah, they cost almost nothing. And obviously you don't get the full like hour or hour and a half lesson, but that's not the point. You you just there to just test out the teacher, and also give the teacher a chance to show off a bit. Yeah, give the because the teacher knows that you're there to test them kind of. So they they're putting on their best show as well. So it it's a it's a win-win for both really.

** Right. Yeah, I think if you go for our teachers, they have uh a lot of experience teaching online. Uh many of them have hundreds of of different students, thousands of of of lessons. So they're going to to be able to help you during that that trial lesson, during that first 30 minutes to to understand what do you need in your uh in your language learning and how can they can they help. So it's definitely uh definitely worth worth trying.

** Right. Yeah, it's definitely cool. And uh I still want to I still want to reward one person for taking action. What do you think? Can we do anything? If somebody takes that trial lesson, and they they email me, Yeah. the first one to do it, what can we Is there any, can we give them a little swag? Any Italki swag we can give them or something? Because this is the Italki episode. So if there ever was a chance for someone to take action and get a little reward, I think we should we should reward it if we can. Otherwise, we'll cut this from the episode and nobody will ever know.

** We can probably, but I don't think that it's good to just give one uh one reward. So maybe we can do is like uh choose three people who who have been listening today and uh who try Italki for the first time. And yeah, we can give them like uh $10 in in free credits for the for the next lessons.

** Very nice. Let's do that. The first three to report back. Well, at least that's up to you. So you are the

** Yeah, yeah, I'll take I'll take care of the admin. I'll I'll send you their usernames when I when I get them.

** Right. Right. So for anyone listening, it is, honestly, this is an achievement to make it this far. Unless you're driving and you can't change the track or you're out running or something, you can't change the the you know, change away. But if you've been listening this far, I think this is a good reward. If you go on Italki, have that first lesson. give you a extra extra $10 credit. The first three email me Chris@actualfluency.com and I'll set up the contact.

** Definitely, thank you for having me in the in the podcast. It's been a pleasure. And uh yeah, I I hope that we can continue collaborating and and maybe you're around in some of the polyglot events or maybe in the polyglot cruise.

** Fantastic. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Actual Fluency podcast. I really appreciate having you here today. Just before you leave, I just want to give a quick shout-out to today's sponsor, which is Italki. Italki is a tutoring platform where you can find affordable tutors for every language in the world, pretty much. So, get started today and get a free $10 credit when you book your first lesson. If you go to actualfluency.com/italki, that's spelled I T A L K I. So give it a go and feel how tutoring can really boost and enhance your language learning.