If you are looking to practice your Spanish-speaking skills, then www.verbling.com is a site you must visit!

Verbling is a free (for now) site which pairs you up with a native Spanish speaker who is looking to practice English. For five minutes, English must be spoken between the two, then for five minutes, Spanish is spoken.

I visited Verbling for the first time recently, and needless to say, me quedé muy impresionada (I was left impressed)! Since the service is new, there are a few wrinkles that I´m sure the technical team will iron them out eventually. But overall, this service is great, as it provides an excellent way to put to practice the Spanish you've learned.

To understand more about this program, and/or to know what to look out for, then I suggest you read on:

1. English proficiency required. You must be able to speak English proficiently to use this site; after all, the other person wants to hone his/her English skills.

2. Required equipment: Microphone and speaker, or a headset. A camera is optional, but it seems only fair to have one so that the other person can see you. Almost all of the people with whom I spoke did have camera capabilities.

3. Discussion topics are provided . You can choose your Spanish level, which in turn gives you suggested conversation topics. The Spanish level you choose does NOT determine the English level of the person you're paired up with.

4. Dialogue box. There is a box at the bottom of the screen where you can write a message while speaking with your partner. I find this very useful when the person cannot understand a certain word or sentence that I say in English. Likewise, this would be helpful if you're not understanding a certain Spanish word or sentence.

5. Quality of connection . For the most part the connection quality is good, although sometimes technical difficulties may interfere--or crash--the session. If this happens, the site may or may not reconnect with you with the same person. With that said..................

6. Breaking up is hard to do! When time is up, you're totally cut off from the person, and there's no guarantee that you can reconnect during a later session. This can actually be a bit painful, as you're forced to part ways with someone with whom you may start kindling a friendship! To combat this, some of the regular users quickly exchange Skype or email addresses before the session ends.

7. Beware of the echo ! It isn't a good idea to speak or comment while the other person is speaking because of the echo effect. There is a slight delay before the other person hears what you say; likewise, there is a delay between what they say and what you hear, which makes for awkward situations. On several occasions I ended up making comments that they'd hear after they had already moved on to the next topic.

8. Extending the conversation . As the 10 minute-end approaches, a message appears telling you that you have the option of extending the conversation another 10 minutes. Although for most sessions I wanted to continue speaking, there were a few sessions I didn't want to prolong. The "problemilla" (slight problem) is I didn't know how to find a polite way to end it. And since Spanish is the language you're speaking when you have to decide whether to end the conversation, it might be a good idea to brush up on some polite Spanish expressions. Here's some:

"Pues fue un placer hablar contigo. Cuídate."

o

"Fue un gusto hablar contigo."

9. Non Spanish speakers using Verbling. On a few occasions I was paired up with a non Spanish language speaker who found his/her way to the site. It seems that some French speakers make their way to Verbling. Call me a pushover, but I just couldn't "darles calabazas" (turn them down), so I ended up speaking English for five minutes, then did my best to practice my French. Next time I'll just politely say that I have to go.

By the way, there is a dialogue box that you can fill out to alert the Verbling staff that the person with whom you've just spoke doesn't speak Spanish.

Remember that you must first register before you can use Verbling. They don't ask for much information, which is a relief.

As I have already mentioned, the wrinkles will probably be ironed out in time.

Overall, this service is great and highly recommended. Check out www.verbling.com!

Déborah Martínez
www.spanishahora.com
deborah@spanishahora.com