What is a language exchange?
A language exchange is where two (or more) people with different native languages speak in each other’s language. The most common format is you both speak in one language for half an hour and then switch to the other for half an hour.
Why are language exchanges important?
If you want to be able to speak another language, the best way to do it, is to do it!
The really great thing about this day and age with the internet is you don’t even have to walk out of your front door to do a language exchange. This is because with free software like Skype where, providing you have a webcam, you can talk to people online from anywhere and at any time. It truly is a valuable application for anyone with internet access.
Online language exchange resources
There are a small number of online language exchange resources.
One free site I have found particularly useful has been SharedTalk. Once signed up, the way this popular site works is actually quite clever. Firstly, you have the option of visiting a text chat or a voice chat room. From there, you can select any available native speaker of your target language you would like to text or chat with. Secondly, and I personally prefer this functionality, is that you can also look through the profiles of all native speakers who hold your target language. From these profiles, you can then send them a message explaining that you are learning their native language whilst providing them with your direct email address and your Skype address. If they are interested, they can get back to you to do a language exchange.
However, for all its pluses, there are a few disadvantages with SharedTalk. Firstly, if your native or your target language are not so popular or you can only chat at unpopular times, then visiting a text or chat room is probably a waste of time. Secondly, although SharedTalk does come with its own facility to chat to someone online, this doesn’t work well and I have often had to move our language exchanges to Skype instead. Not the end of the world perhaps but this is probably SharedTalk’s greatest weakness.
Another downside to these types of language exchanges online is the human factor. I want to firstly emphasise that the vast majority of people I have met on sites like SharedTalk have been absolutely fantastic and I have made some amazing friends. But when I first started to use SharedTalk, I found that there are some people who are not particularly interested in having regular contact which means you need to keep trying to find new people to converse with. A tiny minority can sadly be afflicted with a shyness where they can hardly say anything at all and then at the other end of the spectrum, people who will want to talk for the whole time so you can’t get a word in edgeways! However, there is a way to avoid all of this. If you want to find immediate great people to converse with on a regular basis, then pay for it!
Paying to converse in a foreign language online
The best way to chat to someone online on a regular basis without having to spend time trying to find such people, is to actually just pay a qualified tutor who is a native speaker of your target language. Language tutors are reasonably easy to find at online language tutoring sites such as English Online.
There are numerous advantages for paying to converse with someone on a regular basis. You are able to pass your whole time only speaking in your target language, you have access to a tutor who can help you with your mistakes and is able to explain or focus on anything you are personally having problems with.
The disadvantage of having an on-line tutor to converse with is, of course, you have to pay!
Whichever approach you take to speaking your target language, just be sure to enjoy it!
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