Help Topic: Using Livemocha

Sign Up and Login

What happens if I forget my password?

If you forget your password or if your password is not working, reset it here.

A password reset email will be sent to your registered email address. Simply follow the one-time link in the email to log in and reset your password.

If you don’t see it in your inbox within an hour, check your spam and junk mail folders in case the email was filtered. Make sure you don’t have any email settings, firewall or anti-spam software that might prevent you from receiving the email. If necessary, resend the password reset email again.

If you see an “invalid login” error message, there may be a temporary loading problem. If this continues for several days:

Clear your browser’s cache and cookies in case the wrong email/password combination has been stored in the “Remember Me” cookie.
Try resetting your password.

Edit Profile

How do I edit my profile?

You can edit your profile by hovering over the Profile tab in the top right of any Livemocha page and selecting Edit Profile Basic, Contact, and Interests. All other tabs will change your private account settings, not your public profile. Your email address will never be displayed on your public profile.

Account Settings

Do I have control over who can view my profile?

Your profile is visible to all Livemocha members except those whom you have blocked. To block a specific member, visit their profile and click Block User in the bottom left.

Making profiles accessible to all members keeps our community global and makes it possible for you to cross continents. Connecting with new people who can help you pursue your learning goals is essential to effective, fun language learning.

How can I change which email notifications I receive?

Click on Account in the top right of Livemocha. Click on the Privacy sub-tab to edit your Email Notifications.

Make Friends

How can I meet new language partners?

Here are some ways to find friends:
You can find friends on the right side of your home page, under Suggested Language Partners. We match you with users who are learning your native language and who speak the languages that are of interest to you.

You can also make friends by reviewing submissions. Leaving great reviews will not only help other members learn – it will also encourage them to respond to your friend request and help you with your own submissions in return.

Tip for choosing friends: A high % Helpful rating and Teacher Score will indicate that a member is likely to be a supportive language partner.

Practice and Review

How do I chat with other members?

You can invite a member to chat if they are online. Just click Chat at the top of their profile. If you do not see Chat, then the member may have restricted chat settings or a status. You have to type something first for the other member to receive the chat request.

If you see “You must send a message to connect” or “Connecting” for more than 30 seconds and the chat portal never loads a textbox, then there may be a connection problem. Troubleshoot technical difficulties here.

You can use a number of tools while you’re chatting including:

The Virtual Keyboard to type special characters in the text box.
The Phrase Translator to look up vocabulary words.
Conversation Scenarios to practice conversations

You can change your own chat settings in two ways:

Chat privacy settings: You have full control over who can send you a chat invitation. You can restrict incoming chat requests to just friends, open yourself to anyone, or prevent chat invitations entirely. Hover over Profile in the top right of Livemocha and select from the drop-down menu. Then select Privacy from the sub-navigation and scroll down to Chat.
Chat availability: If you are busy studying, you can prevent chat requests. Next to your token balance at the top right of any Livemocha page, you’ll see a green or red circle. Click on it to change your status to Available to chat or Not available to chat.

How do I use my webcam or microphone during chat?

To use your microphone and/or webcam, click send a/v (under Send). Once your microphone and/or webcam are connected, you’ll see “mic off/video off” buttons. Click on those buttons to turn your mic or webcam on or off.

Note: You may experience issues with chat due to security firewalls.

How do I create a flashcard set?

Flashcards are a fun and easy way to review lesson content.
There are two ways to create a flashcard set.

The first is from a lesson in any of our 101 – 202 courses. From your Course Home page, choose a lesson and click on the Learn exercise. Complete all 40 lesson items. You will then be directed to an Exercise Completion page. Scroll to the bottom and you’ll see: Create a Flashcard Set of this Lesson. You can create a new set or add cards to an existing set. Once you’ve created a set, you can add flashcards to it from other lessons as well.

You can also create a flashcard set from your Flashcards page. Hover over the Practice tab and then select Flashcards from the drop-down. On the right side of this page is an orange button Create New Set. This method will allow you to create free-form flashcards with both primary text and alternate text. You can add images and even record or upload audio.

How do I practice with flashcards?

From Flashcards, select either the My Flashcards tab or the Browse tab.
From Browse, you can review flashcard sets created by other members. If you particularly like a set, you can select Add to my favorites. It will then be added to the My Favorite Flashcard Sets section of your My Flashcards tab.
To review your own flashcards, start from the My Flashcards tab. Under My Flashcard Sets, select the set you wish to review and then choose either Review or Quiz.

Help Others

How can I help others learn my language?

You can offer feedback on Speaking and Writing exercises for other language learners in the community.

Hover over the Help Others tab and select Review Submissions or Review Requests.Review Submissions will let you browse all submissions in the language you speak. Review Requests will show you submissions for which your help has been specifically requested.
Choose Write or Speak and select your native language from the language menu. Select without comments to correct submissions that have not yet been reviewed.

To offer feedback, follow the instructions provided to the right of the submission. Rate the submission (1-5 scale) and leave comments based on grammar, word choice, spelling, pronunciation, effort, or anything else you think is important to mention. Focus on real-life language as it’s spoken in your country, so the student learns practical skills.
The member will be able to rate the helpfulness of your review, which will factor into your % Helpful rating.

Troubleshoot

Which browsers work best on Livemocha?

We recommend using the most recent versions of Firefox or Chrome or Internet Explorer 7 or higher. If you are experiencing technical difficulties, please make sure you are using one of our approved browsers before reporting the problem.

What version of Flash do I need?

Please make sure you are using the latest versions of Flash player and Java.

Flash player has frequent updates, so click here for the latest version.
To check for the latest version of Java, go to www.java.com.

Do I need a microphone?

You will need a microphone to record your voice for audio exercises. We highly recommend practicing and recording your speaking skills so you can get feedback from native speakers. This will give you fast results in your speaking skills.

Your computer may have an internal microphone. If not, it will likely have a connection to plug in an external microphone. External microphones are available at many electronics stores, and can also be ordered online. We recommend using a combination headset + microphone as headsets provide the best recording quality.

My microphone is not working

If you have a microphone but it is not working, first check the microphone settings on your computer.

If you are using a Windows computer, the microphone settings can be found in the “Sound” window in your control panel. Using Classic View, simply click on the speaker icon labeled “Sound” in the control panel. Then click on either “Sound” itself or, under the Sound heading, click on “Manage Audio Devices.” On a Mac, your microphone and volume settings can be found under System Preferences, under the Speech icon.

I have technical difficulties when I try to record audio

Audio recording problems can be caused by many different factors. Here are the most common causes and how to fix them.

Browser: Make sure you are using a browser that we support: The most recent version of Firefox, the most recent version of Chrome, or Microsoft Internet Explorer 7+. If you are already using one of these browsers, try switching to another to see if the bug is browser-related.
Javascript: Check your settings to make sure Javascript is enabled. Using Firefox, click tools > options > content and select “enable javascript” and “enable java”. Using Internet Explorer, click tools > internet options > security > custom level > and then under “Scripting”, click “enable”. Then restart your browser. Excellent instructions for all browsers can be found here.
Flash: All of our audio and video is played using Flash, so an outdated or incorrectly installed version of Adobe Flash will cause problems. Check which version of Adobe Flash is installed on your system here. Click here to update to the newest version.
“Connection failed” message: this means your computer is having trouble connecting to our audio server, which can indicate a firewall issue. If you are using Windows, you can find your firewall settings in your Control Panel, under “Windows Firewall”. On a Mac, open your System Preferences and click “Sharing”. Then click “Firewall”. Adjust your firewall settings to allow port 1935 to go out.
Your computer’s sound hardware configuration: Check if the audio on your computer is working by trying the sound on other websites. If you can’t hear audio on other websites, make sure your volume is not muted and the speakers and microphone are both plugged in and turned on. Check your microphone settings too. If you are using a Windows computer, the microphone settings can be found in the “Sound” window in your control panel. Using Classic View, simply click on the speaker icon labeled “Sound” in the control panel.
General connection issues: If your audio or video seems to be working only intermittently, try checking your Internet connection, refreshing your page or visiting the site at another time. Your connection could be experiencing problems.
If you are still having problems and are using Windows XP, try following the instructions on the Windows XP sound support page.

I am experiencing technical difficulties with chat

If you are unable to connect to chat, then there may be a connection problem. Here are some tips:

If you are experiencing intermittent chat problems and you have been able to connect to chat in the past, it may help to try again at another time. You may be experiencing connection problems, or there may be a heavy load on the website.
Is this a permanent issue instead of an intermittent issue? If you always receive a “connection failed” response, your computer is unable to connect to our server. If you have a proxy, disable it. There may be firewalls or proxies set in place by your government or employer that will prevent your computer from accessing the chat server.
Please make sure you are using the latest versions of Flash player and Java.
- Flash player has frequent updates, so click here for the latest version.
- To check for the latest version of Java, go to www.java.com.
Also check to make sure Java and Javascript are enabled on your browser (you can usually check for this by clicking “tools” > “options” in the browser toolbar).
If you have any software blocking Flash (such as FlashBlock), make sure you whitelist ‘livemocha.com’ and ‘userplane.com’.

How do I report a bug or suggestion?

We want to hear from you! To report a bug, please contact us with a detailed description of the problem, and we’ll look into it as soon as possible!

To make a suggestion, add your idea to our Feature Forum.

How do I type the special characters I’m learning?

Click here to configure Windows to use an international keyboard layout. Another way is to use a Virtual Keyboard on the web. Here are few we found useful:

Asian characters display incorrectly on my browser

Many languages do not use the Roman orthography, or system of lettering. To study these languages on Livemocha you will need to enable complex scripts in your browser. To enable complex scripts:

On all Windows machines: go to Start -> Control Panel -> Regional Options -> Languages and check the option ‘Install files for complex script and right-to-left languages.’ Click ‘OK’ to confirm and insert your Windows CD if necessary.
In Firefox: from the Tools menu, select Contents -> Languages -> Choose… and add the language(s) you’re learning from the list which appears.
In Internet Explorer: from the Tools menu, select Internet Options -> General -> Languages and add the language you’re learning from the list which appears.
Restart your browser and/or computer if prompted to do so.