Get corrections from native speakers
Nothing in Yalango can tell you whether a sentence you wrote sounds natural. For that you need a person, which is what correction requests are for.
Asking for a correction
- Go to the forum board for the language you're learning.
- Start a post and choose the correction request topic.
- Put the text you want corrected in the post.
Your text appears in a quoted block labelled Text to be corrected, so it's clear what you want looked at rather than discussed.
Correction requests need a language board - they aren't available on General or Yalango News.
Giving a correction
On a correction request, use Submit a correction:
- Original text - the part you're correcting.
- Corrected text - your version.
- Explanation - optional, but it's the bit that teaches.
Your correction is shown as an inline difference, so the learner can see exactly what changed instead of having to compare two blocks of text themselves.
Stars for helping
A correction earns 3 stars on top of the usual star for posting, and corrections count toward your position on the contributors leaderboard. Corrections are also exempt from the daily cap that applies to ordinary posts.
Getting better corrections
- Keep it short. Three sentences get thorough corrections; three paragraphs get skimmed.
- Say what you were trying to express, in your own language if necessary. Otherwise a corrector can only fix grammar, not tell you that a natural speaker would phrase it completely differently.
- Mention your level. It tells people whether to correct everything or just the things that would confuse a listener.
- Return the favour. Correct someone in a language you speak natively - the boards only work if the corrections flow both ways.