Hello friends today's video is about having a successful online language exchange
[Intro music]
First of all there are multiple websites and apps that you can use to meet
Native speakers of the language you're learning. A few of them are HelloTalk, which is a really cool app which I highly recommend
Uh you can input the language you're learning if you are a free member. You can only learn one language at a time
However, if you pay for the app you can list multiple languages. The app will then connect you with people who are learning
Wait. People who are learning your native language
And you will be connected to people who speak the language you're learning. Another website
You can use is something like interpals.com or pen pal world where you can meet pen pals
And there are options you can select for language exchange another website
which seriously looks like it's from the 90s, which I really like though is called mylanguageexchange.com
Uh you can find pen pals based on the language you are learning and look at this amazing list other places
You can meet people are on Facebook groups for language exchange on Kakao Talk open talk, okay?
So I'm opening up Kakao Talk now. If you go to your chat
There's a little plus button over there. You will tap that and you'll see that it says open chat over here
You click on search by chat rooms let's type in
(Speaks Korean), okay so I've searched for all (Speaks Korean) one here, which means language exchange
And you'll see that there are a bunch of chat rooms listed over here, which you can join
And you can just type in maybe you want to type in the specific language
But remember Kakao Talk is a platform mostly used by Koreans
But you might need to search the hashtag
In Korean and of course if you want to pay for language lessons you can get a teacher through iTalki
But that's not really a language exchange partner. It's more taking lessons
But once you've got a language learning partner here are some things to keep in mind for a successful
language learning exchange
Firstly you need to define your roles
Are you going to teach this person your language? Are they going to teach you their language? Or are you going to really keep it?
As an exchange where you can practice both languages at the same time?
It's good to establish those roles first because often you'll find that a lot of people want to practice your language
And you never get time to practice theirs you can work out a schedule for yourselves if you want to speak one language
One day and one language the other day what you can. Also do is decide to
Type in the language you're learning, and they must reply in the language
They're learning
And you can swap languages like another thing to remember is try to make friends or the person first don't see them as
your tutor or your language exchange partner and
Think about topics you can talk about daily life activities hobbies. Don't just come to them for
Translation work and checking if your homework is correct and asking what the word means they are people, too
and not just machines to help you with your language needs and
The best thing that can come from that is that you grow so close that one day you can meet in person
even though they live in another country
I've met a lot of my language exchange partners in person and we are still friends to this day and
definitely the reason for that is because we started off on a friendship and
While we were talking we would ask each other is this correct or can you help me with that word it wouldn't solely be
Tell me what this word is don't talk to them for five days
Can you help me with a sentence so remember to keep it human and keep it as a friendship?
Another thing you need to remember is to make the best of
your time talking to them you can get carried away with chat and email and just
Use the same language and the same words you're used to and never actively learn something so remember to actively learn
What I mean by that is why you're talking to them
And they mention a new word write it down in your notebook
and be sure to use the word the next time you talk to them or someone of the same language if
If you're just talking to them and you say Oh, what does that word mean and they tell you you say, okay cool?
And you gone you're probably gonna forget that word unless you write it down or use it immediately and continue to use it
Also, remember that languages are interlocked with culture you can ask them about
Cultural activities in their country. What kind of food they eat, what kind of national holidays, they have and
And a nice thing you can also do instead of just chatting to them or sending emails, is send them letters and packages
That's a really nice way to solidify your friendship and to share that with them a bit of your culture. You can send photos
postcards books snacks stickers stationery
Something you painted
and it's also a great way to practice your
handwriting if you want to send them a notes something else you can try with your language partner is talking on the phone or
Arranging Skype calls you need to remember to practice every aspect of learning a language, so you're practicing your reading and writing
But you might be slacking a bit on your speaking
So sometimes if you are too nervous to call you can send voice notes to them back and forth
And they can help you with your pronunciation
Otherwise arrange some time to phone even if it's not a voice
I mean even if it's not a video call you can do a voice call and just practice your speaking as well on
On the same note if you are really shy and really don't want the language learning partner
But you do want to practice your speaking I can suggest to you to use the app HiNative you can type something
In the language you're learning and people will correct your mistakes
But the best thing is that you can also upload a short voice clip the sound clip and people can rate it as unnatural,
Natural, can't understand what you're saying, or you know super excellent pronunciation
So what you do is you go to ask and you say, please show me how to pronounce
And then you can just say please show me how to pronounce that upload it and people will say if it's correct or not
Remember like I said treat them like a friend not a teacher
focus on the friendship and the language will flow from that
I hope these were useful tips for you if you've got any other tips about a
Successful language exchanges, please leave it in the comments, and I'll see you in the next video
Bye bye!
[Outro music]