I did this yesterday, it has been on my list for a while and yesterday I finally did it.
I used www.conversationexchange.com I found a lovely young woman who is learning English, she was willing to swap her Spanish for my English and it went really well!
I’d always been a bit sceptical about these kind of things I know everyone goes on about how easy it is to meet people on the internet. But I am not looking for new friends and I’m certainly not looking for a new partner! I just want someone to practice with.
I was nervous at first and didn’t know what to say but after we started chatting it came a lot easier and I went away feeling a lot more confident with my language skills.
So if anyone is considering doing this I really would recommend it. It is a lot easier than you would imagine!
When I came back from Japan after living there for a while I tried the language exchange thing and had a couple bad experiences. Not that the people were bad, just that it sometimes felt like I was competing for my turn to practice Japanese.
ReplyDeleteThe experience became a good one when we implemented well defined times for, "Now we only speak English" or "Now we only speak ______." Otherwise I felt it became one-sided.
But that was just my experience and probably varies person to person. I too would recommend giving it a try.
It was really easy we switched between languages at different times normally when one of us coudln't think of the right word.
ReplyDeleteI think you are right it does depend on the peopple and setting ground rules is probably a good idea at first.
Nice to know you're not looking for a new partner!;-)
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing, Charlee. I have been wanting to brush up on my French and this sounds like a great way to do it.
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