Rome in Babelan

At the very beginning, Babelan was a languages site for people who lived only in Barcelona. As we realise that lots of people were interested in practicing and teaching languages, we added new Spanish cities on Babelan such as Madrid and Valencia.

Soon later, the site greew up and new cities came out from several different countries such as the UK, Germany, France, Canada or the USA.

Now, we have included a new country (Italy) and a new city: Rome. Currently, there are several messages, on the section of Global language exchange, from people who live in Italy.

However, if you do not know Babelan, here's what you can find in every city on the site. Each city offers four different section where you can publish your message or read someone's else:

1. Language exchange. Here, you can contact other students of languages in your city and practice foreign languages. You can arrange a meeting in a bar, in a library and so on. In addition, you can set up a languages group and join together and have fun.

2. Global language exchange [check it out]. This section is common for all the cities. Here, you can contact with students of languages from around the world and practice online thanks to the internet tools such as chats, Skype, emails, etc.

3. Private lessons. Teachers can publish adverts offering their private classes. You can contact a teacher from your city, although nowadays, several teachers offer their classes through Skype. This way is really suitable to save time as you learn from home at the time you arrange with the teacher. This sort of virtual lesson are becoming so popular.

4. Translations. On this section, translators publish adverts offering their translation services, so, companies interested can contact them.

How to choose the right book

There are several tips and tricks to improve your language skills. There are different techniques to improve your listening, speaking, reading  and writing skills. Whatever skill you want to improve, it's always necessary to broaden your vocabulary. And, I strongly believe that the best way to broaden your vocabulary is reading books in the target language.

When learning a foreign language is not easy to read real books in the target language. Fortunately, there are books written in a simplified way, using proper vocabulary and sentence structures for learners of that language.

Although, some students find difficult to choose the right books. Every editor classifies their books in diverse ways. For instance, some books come from level 1 to level 6, others from A to C, and so on.

The best way to know the book that suits you is the following. Take a book from the bookshop (find bookshops in Barcelona). Then open it and read a randon page. At this point, it may happen:

• that you understand everything: this means that the book is easy and not the right one
• that you don't understand almost anything: this means tha it is too difficult for you
• that you don't aunderstand everything but you can follow the story: this is the right book.

The third option is the right one because you can read and understand what they talk about, altghough you don't get everything. So this new stuff is what you will be studying and learning from the book. If you take the book that cannot follow and understand, it will be like a wall. You will stuck and depressed. And if you take the one you understand everything, it will be fun but you won't learn almost anything.

I hope this tip will help you to chose the right book and broaden your vocabulary.

Links

If you want to meet people and practice languages with native spakers visit Babelan.