How to practice speaking a language online for free, with real people

Why speaking practice is the part most learners skip

Reading and listening can be done alone, at your own pace. Speaking needs someone on the other side, and that's where most learners stall: tutors cost money, friends who speak the language are rare, and talking to a stranger for the first time is scary. The fix is a place where conversation is the whole point, where everyone there is practicing too, and where you can leave a table as easily as you sat down.

How Purrla works

Purrla is a small 3D campus you walk around as your cat. The cafés stand in a ring around a plaza with a fountain of letters, each with a sign saying hello in its language. There's a library to the north and an exchange garden to the south.

Language cafés

• A table that's always open for each language: the usual nine, plus any language someone in Purrla speaks or is learning.
• Up to eight people a table, so there's room to listen before you jump in.
• Voice, text chat and screen sharing. Type a word you can't say yet, or share a page to read together.
• Something to talk about on every table, so nobody has to think up a topic.

Exchange partners

Purrla also finds people who speak what you're learning and are learning what you speak. Invite one to an exchange and you get a table of your own: fifteen minutes in one language, then fifteen in the other. Both of you get a patient listener, and both of you get to help.

A simple routine that works

1. 1Set your languages once: what you speak and what you're learning, with your level. It's the same profile as your name tag in Meowtopia.
2. 2Start by listening. Sit at a café table and follow the conversation for a few minutes. Join in when you're ready.
3. 3Talk for 15 minutes, three times a week. Short and regular beats long and rare.
4. 4Keep a word list. Write down the words you had to type instead of say, and use them next time.
5. 5Do one exchange a week with a partner, so you also hear the language at a native pace.

Safe by default

• Your age is asked once. Teens can use the cafés; one-to-one exchanges are for adults only.
• Anyone at a table can be reported to the KittyHome team, along with what was said.
• Blocks and mutes apply in Purrla and in every other KittyHome world.

What Purrla isn't (yet)

Purrla is for people helping each other. There are no paid tutors, bookings or payments. If you want lessons with a teacher, use Purrla alongside them, for the extra conversation time a class can't give you.