Who has an on-line L2 language partner?

[tommus]

I have reached a milestone with my L2 language partner and I thought that it would be an opportunity to encourage others to get a partner, and to exchange ideas and techniques that work. I have had 6 Skype partners over several years, all in the same language. All my partners spoke English better than I spoke their language, which is not ideal but probably is quite common. All partnerships were very helpful. I probably improved my L2 more than they improved their English. The time period for these chats has generally been a few months, and depended on how much we had in common and how many interesting things we had in common. By far, my most successful Skype has been my current one.

The milestone that my language partner and I have reached is a total of 52 weeks of weekly chats ( a year's worth). In fact, today's chat was number 54. The time period is a year and a half, so we met, on average, two weeks out of every three, for 18 months. And we are still going strong. We meet once a week, usually on the same day of the week, but adjust from time to time to fit our schedules. Nominally, we planned to chat each week for a half-hour in each language, but early on, it increased to 3/4 to 1 hour in each language. In recent months, we have tried to bring it back to a 1/2 hour each, but usually go over. The main reason that we have been doing well at meeting and chatting regularly is because we find each other interesting. Surprisingly, our backgrounds and careers are totally different, but somehow, we like to talk about similar, interesting things.

The languages are Dutch and English. My partner lives in the Netherlands. We always begin in Dutch since my Dutch is weaker than my English so I get the advantage of small talk, news, etc at the beginning when I am fresh and eager to go. He can manage fine in English, even if we go on for a long time, sometimes a total of three hours. We do not mix the languages. During the Dutch part, we only speak Dutch, and only English in the English part. I always do my homework, I come prepared. I usually choose the things that we talk about in Dutch. Normally I pick one or more subjects, or a series of questions. I prepare with background reading, vocabulary, expressions, etc. Sometimes I don't get to what I have prepared because the small talk, or the latest items from the news, fill the whole time. During the English part, we sometimes talk about the Dutch language and its nuances, etc. But usually, the English part is more free-flowing, often discussing the news of the day, and all manner of places, issues, travel, etc around the world. With my partner's consent, I record both sides of the conversations. However, I have not yet really used the recording for much additional benefit.

We don't spend much time correcting each other. From time to time, we do point out obvious "improvements" in vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar (usually verb forms), etc. But we try to work these improvements into the conversation as opposed to specifically pointing them out. My most successful technique is to have a series of questions or issues for which I already know a number of potential answers or positions on the issue. This facilitates interactive conversation and often friendly debating on issues where we may not both have the same opinion.

Am I apprehensive before each week's chat? Yes. It is a bit like having a small exam for which I have to prepare, and during which I have to 'perform", sometimes better or worse than other times. The more I prepare, the less apprehensive I am, and the more anxious I am to begin. And I always ensure I have more than enough material so I don't have to worry about running out of things to discuss. And after the chat, it feels very good. Each week, I have a feeling of achievement for having managed between a half hour and an hour of conversation in my target language, something I used to not be able to do.

We see no end in sight. We both intend to carry on as long as it remains interesting. So I guess my main suggestion is to try to find a situation where each partner finds the other to be interesting to chat with. And do your homework so you get the most out of each chat.

So I'd love to hear about other people's experiences with on-line chats. What has worked for you? What chats are you currently having? What can we do to promote on-line chats, and benefit from them?

[galaxyrocker]

I met a native speaker from my preferred dialect region quite coincidentally when Duolingo released their Irish course. We were both speeding through it and criticizing it, which is how I found out he was a native. We then started chatting on Reddit, which eventually moved to Google Hangouts when I offered to pay (he wouldn't take the money though). So we've been speaking mostly in Irish for going on three years now, about whatever really. I ask him questions, and he asks me questions about other things. We've chatted about soccer, GAA, Star Citizen, and even programming, etc. It's been very beneficial to me, and we actually met in person when I was in Ireland. If you can get a good partner it can make a world of difference.

[Melis]

I'm really not at the conversational point yet and the problem with learning a language like Norwegian is that almost anyone who speaks it already speaks English. I do have some online friends I will be able to talk to once I level up. That is a goal I'm working towards.

However, I do exchange English conversation practice for math tutoring. That has been great.

[tommus]

Where is everyone? Are there very, very few people doing on-line language exchanges?

I often wondered why there was so little talk on this forum about talking with on-line language partners. It appears that there is very little interest. Why? Or are people who are doing it just not into writing about it? Or do people think it is not a productive activity? Too hard to find a partner?

[Xenops]

Where is everyone? Are there very, very few people doing on-line language exchanges?

I often wondered why there was so little talk on this forum about talking with on-line language partners. It appears that there is very little interest. Why? Or are people who are doing it just not into writing about it? Or do people think it is not a productive activity? Too hard to find a partner?

I think people are busy for the holidays. I know Tarvos does some sort of exchange.

I plan on looking into this once I have a reasonable headset, and enough progress in French...Or at least some tutoring.

[lingua]

I have done Italian language exchange in the past (over five years ago) but I found that it was too easy to revert to English so now I prefer to pay italki teachers who will speak to me only in Italian. But if you can find someone who does a fair exchange then consider yourself lucky as it can be beneficial.

[mjfleck2000]

I am very fortunate in that I have 2 language partners. One is a 50 year old software engineer from Santiago Chile. The other partner is a 14 year old student from the Canary Islands. They both speak English at an somewhat advanced level (B2/C1). I met both partners using the website The Mixer (http://www.language-exchanges.org/)... it is a free educational website for language exchanges using Skype.

I speak with each partner once a week for 1 hour; 30 minutes in one language, then 30 minutes in the other language. Sometimes I start in Spanish, sometimes they start in English. Topics will be whatever we want! We have discussed politics (of course!), religion, food, language, travel, music, weather, family, etc.
We do correct each other at times but usually we let the conversation flow. Sometimes, I will ask "how would you say this in Spanish" when what I really want to know is how would a NATIVE say it as opposed to how I am saying it (even if it is grammatically correct). What would be a more natural way to say it? This feedback to very useful.

It was uncomfortable when I first started because I was not confident in my ability to maintain a conversation. Both of my partners have told me that my Spanish has steadily improved over the last 1 1/2 years.
I do try to write down a few topics that I want to discuss before our skype meeting. If I don't write something down, I am a bit nervous so I almost always write down a few items to discuss. Since I have two partners, I can discuss the same topic with both which allows me to improve and reinforce any corrections from the first partner.

During one of my recent conversations (during the Spanish portion), we discussed New Year's Resolutions. We both were talking, laughing, agreeing, asking questions, giving our opinions that the 30 minutes were over very fast. After our Skype call ended, I paused for a moment and then realized that I had just had a 30 minute conversation where I didn't THINK about speaking in Spanish, I just spoke! What a fantastic moment!

[snowflake]

I’ve been talking with an overseas Taiwanese chat partner since the beginning of 2010. He speaks in English, I in Mandarin. We rarely preset topics. I’ve gone to Taiwan several times so we’ve met face-to-face. During my last trip, I spend the greater part of a day with his wife who doesn't speak English....When my Mandarin failed me, we resorted to dictionaries. Anyhow, the language exchanges are more like calling a friend on the phone and chatting for a while. We generally talk with each other 2x a week.