My Language Learning Experience: A Reflection (II)
© freepik
For me, having one or several language exchange partners means to get emotionally invested in the learning process. This can help you to stay on track with your language learning journey. You want to create human connections that substitute the connections and friendships you’d make in Japan if you stayed there for a longer time. Up to now, I’ve had 5 different language exchange partners. Some of them for a shorter time period, others for around 6 years. One element of all my language exchanges is that we are always tandem partners. This means that while I want to become better at Japanese, my partner, whose native language is Japanese, wants to become fluent in my native language, which is German. No money is involved in this give-and-take-situation. As for connections with partners which didn’t last long, the problem was often that one took more than gave. It isn’t particularly motivating when you realize that you’re not both invested to the same extent – be it in the language learning process itself or in the whole process of getting to know each other.
In the beginning, conversations often felt a bit like a prepared presentation – I spoke for both parties. I was afraid to make mistakes, so I was happy to be at my or my partner’s home initially. A quiet home helped me to listen better and to prepare a response in my head. Eventually, the conversations started to become more natural, less stiff. We’d rather just talk about random things that happened to us in the past week or so, for example. Then we started to explore new environments like cafes, restaurants or we just talked while strolling around.
I found all of my tandem partners through the platform My Language Exchange. You can choose in what form you’d like to meet (in person, via video call or e-mail, etc.). Moreover, an app called tandem helps you find your future language exchange partner. And with the app called italki, you can find your own personal teacher for a good price. While italki hosts a great variety of teachers, be aware that it isn’t a tandem-based platform but represents the classic teacher-student relationship.
Written by Jannick Scherrer