Practice by Meeting and Connecting with Native Speakers

[tangerine]

Hello Everyone!

I am working on making a mobile phone application that helps people learn a new language through conversations. The application will connect students with nearby native speakers so they can meetup, chat and help people pick up the language in a more authentic environment. You can search people based on the languages you speak or are learning, and can plan your meetups through creating invitations.

My team is trying to change the traditional way of how people practice a newly learnt language. A comprehensive command of language requires more than a disparate list of words in your vocabulary bank. It requires that you have the skill to discern the nuances, and the ability to use words in their right context and setting and even knowing the history and roots behind those words. We believe that only a native speaker can help someone understand these intricacies. Therefore, we aim to help learners by pairing them up with native speakers so that they are able to practice their spoken skills and become confident speakers.

So I am looking for some insights as to how generally people would like to learn in this kind of scenario, and gather some feedback.

Please leave a comment below if you'd like to volunteer to contribute and share your thoughts and I'll reach out to you with some follow up questions. If you have ever traveled to a different country and tried to learn their language, I'd love to talk to you!

Hit me up below.

[garyb]

There are already a million and one sites for finding language exchange partners and it's a bit of a pet peeve of mine when a new one appears every month since they keep dividing the user base. That said, I do think that the idea of an app that finds people nearby is a great one and would set it aside from the others. It could be handy especially for one-off or short-term exchanges, for example if somebody is in town for a week and wants to meet up for language practice. I'm going to travel around Spain soon and I'd certainly be willing to give something like this a try!

[rdearman]

This already exists and was a crowdfunded app. I think Judith Meyer of Polyglot Gathering fame started it.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/17 ... eople-near