Language exchange resource page

Firstly, for anyone who isn’t familiar with the concept, a language tandem or language exchange is a way for you to improve your language skills with a native speaker. You also help them to learn your language. If done well, both people benefit from the partnership because they are both able to develop their language skills. Unlike paid tuition, you don’t pay for the other person’s help because you are helping them too.

I’ve had a lot of success with language tandems and I have a number of resources about them on my site. If you’re looking for a language tandem partner, or you want to know what you can do to get the best out of the exchange, these resources are for you.

1. How to get the best out of language exchanges – some things to try and things to avoid so that your language exchange will be a good experience for both people.
2. What lessons can we learn from school language exchanges? – Perhaps the best known type of language exchanges are the ones that we take part in at school. I talk about some things that I learned through my school exchange in Germany.
3. 10 mistakes to avoid with language exchanges – Most people have good intentions when they get involved with language exchanges, but here are a few things that people do, which make it harder for the other person to learn.
4. 6 language exchanges and what I learned from them – I tell you about 6 of my language exchange partners (online and face-to face), what we did, and how the experience helped me to learn German or Turkish.
5. Sprachenaustausch London – Berlin – A german article about my trip to Berlin to visit my language exchange partner Sarah.
6. Christine’s story – in episode 62 of the podcast, Christine Konstantinides tells us about some of her language exchange partners, how their language exchanges work, and what happened when they met for the first time.

Where can I find a language tandem partner?

There are loads of places, but here are a couple that I think are useful:

Conversation Exchange – a website on which you fill out a form to say what you’re looking for in terms of an exchange, or where you can read other people’s profiles to find someone with whom you’d like to start a conversation.
Language exchange – a Facebook group for discussion language exchanges and finding new exchange partners.
Language exchange on Xing – if you use the business network called Xing, this is where you will find a language exchange group on that site.

If you have any links to resources or sites that you find useful, you are welcome to add them in the comments.

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