What Do You Talk To A Language Partner About?

Languages exchanges are great, but if you have never done one before you might not know what to talk about.

This is pretty normal as you will be talking to a complete stranger in a different language, which can be stressful and so it’s understandable if you are feeling nervous and not too sure about what to talk about.

However, there is nothing to worry about. I will go though some topics you can talk about, and touch on some that you really shouldn’t. 

Treat Your Conversations Like Real Life

The easiest way to approach a language exchange is to treat it like a real life conversation … which it is. You are talking to a real person; it’s just that it’s all online.

Just think how you would talk to a stranger you met on the street, it is going to be pretty different to how you talk to your best friend of 20 years.

Be polite and don’t talk about anything too crazy and you will be fine. You can slowly get to know your language exchange partner over time and start to get into more interesting and deeper topics.

You also need to remember that just like in real life, not everyone you talk to on these apps will become your best friend, some you may only speak to a few times, other you may speak to every now and again, and others you may become actually very good friends with.

(You can read more about – How Do You Start Talking To A Language Exchange Partner On An App?)

Talk About Topics Around Learning Languages

It doesn’t matter who you are or what you are interested in, everyone on a language exchange app has the same thing in common …learning a language.

The whole point of you being there is to try and learn a language so talk about this. There are plenty of things you can talk around this topic.

The best part is that every ones experience with language learning is slightly different so no matter what you ask, you will get an interesting answer. You can talk about what they find hard, what they like, how their progress is going and even what got them interested in the first place.

You obviously know why you are learning a language and how you are finding the whole process and it can be really cool to see how that compares to some one else’s experience.

Talk About Them

Everyone loves to talk about themselves, so there is nothing wrong with asking them questions about themselves. This also allows you to then talk about yourself and you can find out about each others.

My only advice here would be to keep it pretty general in the beginning. They are strangers, so you can’t start asking too many personal question questions and they are also on the internet …and you should never share too much personal information on the internet.

However, you can still find out about what they like to do in the spare time or what they do for work and general things like that.

Talk About Your Countries and Culture

Since you are learning each other’s languages, you will probably have some interest in the country they are from and the culture around this.

Culture and language are really closely linked, so asking questions about culture can really helpful for you and of course when you explain your own culture it will be helpful to whoever you are talking to.

Just saying “culture” is a little vague but as you talk about things you may notice small things that seem different, these will usually be cultural and you can pick up on these and ask more questions around this and find out why whatever they said is different and you can explain how that same situation might work in your own country.

Talk About Food

Talking about food might seem a little boring, but the reality is everyone loves food and people eat very different things across the world.

This means your boring lunch may actually be really interesting to whoever you are talking to and vice versa. You can spend hours just talking about food and cooking in general and something most people are really happy to really open up about in the beginning, since its nothing really personal about them. 

Talk About The Past

Talking about the past is always an easy way to keep the conversation going. You can really ask about anything about their life so far. An easy place to start is around travel and you can talk about places they have visited and their experiences there.

As you get friendlier and build trust with your language exchange partner you can discuss more personal things that happened in the past.

Share Your Daily Life

Talking about your daily lives may sound like the most boring thing ever, but a lot of the small boring details of your life will be vastly different to theirs.

Simple things like your weather, your transport system, your local shops …will all be different …or maybe they will be similar. You will be surprised at what may be the same and what is not, so generic chats about daily life can be very interesting.

Do Some Role Plays

If you have been studying a specific area of the language, or you are about to go travelling to somewhere that speaks it, you might want to do some practice and while doing role plays can seem silly, they can actually be helpful.

You could tell your exchange partner that you want to practice some restaurant type language. They can pretend to be a waiter and of course you will be the customer and they can do all the standard restaurant type questions like “Do you want a drink? what do you want to order?” and whatever else they can think of.

It can be a little awkward, but a lot of people are going to accommodate this, most role plays will be pretty simple and they are really just about you getting to practice a certain part of the language in a safe environment …then when you go to an actual restaurant, or whatever you practiced, you will feel a lot more confident.

What You Should NOT Talk About In A Language Exchange

While you can talk about anything, there are some things you should maybe avoid, especially initially. Once you find you are building some rapport with your exchange partner you may find some conversations wonder into these topic areas and that is okay, but always remember to be respectful.

A lot people clash over the following topics and arguments can occur. This is also more likely as you are form different parts of the world, with a different mindset and culture so it has the potential to be polarising.

Also remember that if you are not comfortable with any of these topics you can try and steer the conversation away and talk about something else.   

Politics

Politics is a pretty intense topic and a light debate can quickly escalate into an argument. People have strong views about things and it is just best to just avoid this. You may be interested in their countries current political situation, but its best to not ask about it, there are so many other things you can talk about that are less inflammatory.     

Religion

Religion is very similar to politics, people have very strong views about things and it can quickly become heated if you disagree. While there is a chance you may share the same views and it could be a thing you can connect over, I would avoid these types of conversations early on. As you get to know someone you can start to probe this topic.  

Sex

Anything around sex is a very personal thing and while you may be happy to talk about it, someone else may not. Just avoid it; you don’t need to know about their interests, it doesn’t affect your ability to exchange languages, so just stay away from it.  

Anything Controversial

Really you want to stay away from any thing controversial, which is pretty vague, but you will know if it is or not. If it can upset people, or cause an argument, stay away from it.

There are so many things you can talk about that are fun and enjoyable. Controversial things usually get peoples backs up and you don’t need to cause that sort of reaction. You are trying to just learn a language and have a good time, controversy is not required.

(You can read more about – Why Are There So Many Idiots On Language Exchanges?)

Conclusion

As you can see there is plenty you of things you can talk to a language exchange partner about.

Just try and be respectful, kind and polite and slowly get to know them and find out what they are all about.

Just let the conversation flow and enjoy yourself. You don’t need to take things too seriously; you are just learning a language and meeting some new people, enjoy it and have some cool conversations.  

(You can read more about – How Many Language Exchange Partners Do You Need?)