Tips For Making The Most Out Of Your Language Exchanges

Language exchanges can be very beneficial for your language learning, but you can also waste a lot of time if you are not careful.

Ideally you want to be making the most of the time you spend on language exchange apps and I will go through some ways you can make sure this happens.

If you put the effort in, you will get the results from these exchanges, which is the whole point of doing them in the first place.

Don’t Cheat When Having Language Exchanges

If you want to make the most of your language exchanges, actually put the effort in and don’t cheat. It can be very easy to quickly copy and paste the message you have been sent into google translate and equally as easy to write your reply there.

This is makes the whole process totally pointless, but I know I have done it myself. It’s easy to get lazy and instead of trying to decode the message, you just want to quickly translate it.

I know plenty of people who have done this to me. I have complemented their English skills only for them to reply with telling me they have been using a translator.

I get it, it can help you have better conversations and actually talk to someone, but it is cheating and isn’t pushing you to progress your skills. When you meet someone in real life you can’t just use google translate. I mean, you can, but it isn’t as good as being actual able to communicate in the language with them, so put the effort in and struggle through it, it will be worth it.

(You can still use translators to double check things; just don’t be lazy and only use these without even trying first)

Step Outside Of Your Comfort Zone With Language Exchanges To Really See The Benefits

Learning a language is stressful and it becomes even worse when you have to try and actually communicate with someone. You will very quickly feel deeply inadequate and like you have forgotten every single word …but you just have to get over this feeling and fight through.

I know it is scary trying to start a conversation with a stranger in a foreign language, but you just have to do it. Once you get over the initial fear you will realise it’s not too bad, and even if you do mess up a little bit …who cares! You are learning, so a few mistakes are expected.

You will really feel the benefits if you push yourself outside of your comfort zone. This really is where we grow and your language skills will improve from doing this, even if it feels awful at the time, it will be worth it.  

(You can read more about – Why Does My Brain Freeze When Speaking To A Native Speaker?)

Show Up Often To Get The Most Out Of Your Language Exchanges

If you want to actually see some results and actually start to feel comfortable with your new language then you need to practice using it often, which means you need to actually consistently show up and do some exchanges quite regularly.

Just think of anything in life, you need to be consistent to really see the results. Think about going to the gym, you can’t go once and be ripped, you need to go a lot of times and the while the first few months may hurt, after a while you get comfortable and stronger and you start to grow and see results …which is exactly what will happen if you show up often to do language exchanges.

Have Some Topics Prepared Before You Start Your Language Exchanges

While it’s fine to just have some random chats, it can be sensible to prepare some topics. This doesn’t need to be too complex and you can literally ask your partner to talk about a certain topic or you could even ask them to do some role playing.

Perhaps you have been studying some words around a certain topic, let’s say “sport” for example. Tell your exchange partner that you want to talk about this area. This will allow you to practice the new words and phrases that you have learned around the topic of sport, as well let you see how they reply and hopefully it will be with something you can understand.

You could also do more of a role play, where you tell your partner that you are going to pretend to be a fitness teacher and you want them to pretend to be someone who is looking to start exercising …then you can talk about sports and make up all sorts of conversations around this topic.

Doing little things like this is really going to give your exchanges some real intention and really all you are doing is just controlling the conversation to allow you to practice certain things. It can be a little weird at first, but it will help you strengthen the area you are focusing on.

Review Your Language Exchanges To Get The Most Out Of Them

You should really be reviewing your language exchanges to really get the most out of them.

You can very easily read over your messages or listen to old audios. You can do this for your own work, and see what mistakes you have made and think about how you can avoid that in the future.

You can also review what has been said to you, by your partner and study that. You will be exposed to all sorts of new slang and phrases, or even just new words. You can go over these and try and them to your own data bank.

Remember That Your Language Partners Are Not Teachers

While you can ask a lot of questions to your language partner, I think it is important to remember that they are just people. They are not teachers, so don’t treat them like one.

Treating them like an actual other human, or a friend, is going to help you get the most out of them. Actually build a relationship with them and find out about them and their life. This will make the conversations actually flow and it you will not be putting any annoying pressure on them to actually teach you something.

Having this mindset is going to allow your exchanges to be much healthier and in turn, very beneficial.

You Can Ask For Feedback

While your language partner isn’t your teacher, you can still ask them for feedback and so long as they are honest about it, it can be very helpful.

You can certainly use what they have said to point out any weaknesses and then work on these, so you can really get a lot from just asking for a simple bit of feedback.

Be Kind To Everyone You Have A Language Exchange With

If you want to actually get the most of your language exchanges you should be kind to everyone you talk to. This is a good way to generally live your life, but I find it is especially true on language exchanges.

Go out of your way to help the person you are talking with and just try and be a good person and you will usually find that they return the kindness.

You have to remember they are just like you. They are trying to learn a language and they will have all the same fears you are having, so if they are kind of struggling with the language, just be kind and try and build up their confidence.

If we can all be like this to each other, we will all have a good time on these apps.

Be Respectful To Everyone You Have A Language Exchange With

Along with kindness, we also need to be respectful to each other and if we can all do this, we will get the most out of our language exchanges.

Being a creepy weirdo is not very respectful and no one enjoys it, so just don’t. You also need to respect and understand that some people can be busy with life and they can’t reply right away, or be chatting all the time. You need to respect people’s time and let them live their lives.

Again, if we can all treat each other like this, we will all have a good experience on language exchange apps.

Be Helpful To Everyone You Have A Language Exchange With

I think the last thing we can do to get the most out of language exchanges is to be helpful to each other. Actually take the time to help your partner.

Try and ask them things that will challenge them, or answer their questions they have, and just generally give them time in your language so they can have the time to practice and develop their skills.

If we can do this with each other, we will all really have a great experience and it doesn’t take much effort for us to do this …so just do it.

(You can read more about – What Are The Benefits Of Having A Language Exchange Partner?)

Conclusion  

Hopefully you can see that there are quite a number different ways can really maximise your language exchanges and get a lot out of them. If you are not doing these things already, you should give them a try and reap the benefits that you can get.

(You can read more about – Frequently Asked Questions About – Language Exchange Partners)