Barter English?

[Rich7]

Immigrants to USA just get street English or barter English?

Could help me undertand this?

thanks,.----... :roll:

[Torsten]

Most immigrants who come to the US speak very little English and often they can't afford hire qualified language tutors to teach them. That's why they learn English by communicating with shop personnel or other service staff when they purchase groceries or run daily errands. In many US cities those low level jobs are done by people who immigrated to the country a while ago themselves so you can imagine the type of English you can learn from them.
Barter-English might be some kind of training exchange deal: If your mother tongue is Spanish and you move to the US you find an American who wants to learn Spanish from you and in return they try to teach you English.

TOEFL listening lectures: A university lecture on agriculture