While we wait to re-start our Intercambio – Language exchange events in Playa Honda on Wed 7th September… there´s a website worth having a look at. We have just learnt
from an article published in El País newspaper how the website called Verbling.com was created to allow users to converse in English/Spanish with native speakers – basically to enjoy an “Intercambio” online.
The idea for Verbling.com came from two young Swedes, Jacob Jolis, 20, and Mikael Bernstein, 24, students at Stanford University in California. They convinced the same investors who launched Facebook to provide funding for their project.
As we know, traditional classes in which you learn the grammar (“skeleton” of the language) and vocabulary are unavoidable. But the website is a friendly, inexpensive complement to that work. All that is necessary is a computer and broadband internet access.
You can read the article in full here:
http://www.elpais.com/articulo/english/The/canny/Swedish/linguists/taking/language/intercambios/online/elpepueng/20110727elpeng_13/Ten