I remember the first time that I had a language exchange…
I was so nervous! I had no idea what to expect or how the people would be that I was going to be talking with.
About 6 months ago I realized that there are actually fun ways to study a language and I just wanted to share my experience and emotions. After many months of doing activities that were not very fun ways to study, I decided I was ready to start talking with real people, native speakers. I found a free site called conversationexchange.com and created a profile. To my surprise, I received over 50 messages within 3 days from various countries. These people wanted to speak English with me! I added a dozen or so people to my Skype account and started to receive greetings from everyone.
I was quite content to just try chatting with people, text chatting I mean. Although I had committed to this idea of talking to real people, I was definitely putting it off (delaying) as long as I could. For the first few days, I was working quite a bit, so it was easy to tell people I was not available to talk. One night, I was off work early in the evening and I received a message asking if I could practice talking. I didn’t have a good excuse to say no… so I said yes I could talk!
My ability to speak in a foreign language was not very good at that time. I remember being very content to speak English with this Colombian guy on the other end of the call and only saying with a few words of Spanish here and there. Despite the language barrier, I couldn’t believe how interesting the conversation was! This was one of the most fun ways to study a language. I had met a really interesting person, that was very kind, extremely patient and really funny.
I remember the feeling of speaking and listening to the language I was learning. It was so bizarre. It felt like I was testing every word to make sure they were understood by the person I was speaking to. Until now it was only a theory that these words were used and would be understood but I had never tried. So really, I still had a bit of doubt in this way and it actually took a few weeks to gain some confidence.
A few days after my first phone call, I decided to try talking to a different language partner. It was another interesting person who was smart, friendly and easy to talk to. After talking with 4 or 5 different people, I started to realize that most people that are learning languages are really cool people, ambitious and often very well educated. Just the type of people I like to talk to!
Now I recognize that it is absolutely critical that I feel comfortable talking with the person on the other end of the phone, testing out this new language. It is a very delicate thing working with other people that want to learn, having to teach and also being taught. You have to put yourself in a vulnerable situation where you could be emotionally hurt if you are laughed at or made to feel like an idiot.
If you take the time to find the right person to practice learning a language with it will truly become a natural motivator and be a very fun way to learn English. I find myself wanting to learn the language better to be able to communicate my thoughts clearly to my new friends.
I am really grateful to have found a language exchange partner that I feel is a good friend. We help each other so much every day. There are no stupid questions, ever. Some questions are just funnier than others and are more fun to answer with entertaining examples for the answers.
I think your site is a huge step forward relative to other materials available on the web, but still… The one thing I have kept on looking for again and again with no use is an Idea-Table. It goes like this.
If I want to say that, for example:
“X is a totally different thing than Y”
American English will say:
“X has got nothing to do with Y”.
If a foreign language speaker wants to say that same idea in his own language he will probably use some totally different words and words combinations.
I, for example, talk French and Hebrew. So I, for example in Hebrew, will use the following:
“There is no connection between X and Y”.
You see? It’s not enough having a huge vocabulary if you had not been teached how to use it.
According to this idea, a row in an Idea-Table will look lit that:
Idea Name: “Logical Connection”
Situations Used: “Argumentation”
Source Sentence: “X has got nothing to do with Y”
Example: “Our teacher’s suggestion regarding excellence in math tests has got nothing to do with your future career.
Hebrew Example: “Our teacher’s suggestion on excellence in math has no connection to your future career”
advantages of my suggestion:
No need to learn words when you have a specific sentence for a specific idea.
No need for grammer practice when you have a specific sentence for a specific idea in all tenses.
It looks and feels easier to the student.
‘Supporting’ another language needs a single additional sentence.
Isn’t that the natural way a baby learn’s his own mother tongue language?
I’d like to hear your opinion
Hi Ken,
This is a really great idea and something I have been thinking about myself. I think it would be pretty difficult to put it into a table or a list for every situation plus there are dozens of ways a native speaker can say the same concept or idea; however, I think you could practice this with a language exchange partner, through private lessons or by submitting things you have written to be corrected but also, to be re-written in a way a native speaker would say it .
We are actually considering offering this type of service. I would call it “How would you say this?”
I think a person can learn a lot from seeing what they have written or said and compare it to how a native speaker would deliver the same message.
Let me give you an example: (your sentence) If a foreign language speaker wants to say that same idea in his own language he will probably use some totally different words and words combinations.
(Grammatically correct version) If a foreign language speaker wants to translate an idea from his own language, he will probably use totally different words and word combinations than a native speaker.
(My version) When a foreign speaker tries to express an idea from their native language to a foreign language they will likely use a different combination or words than a native would.
I understood what you were saying originally it was very clear but is even a more direct way of delivering the same message.
(Most direct) When a foreign speakers translates an idea, they tend to use different words and different sentence structures than a native speaker.
What do you think Ken? Or anyone else that would like to join the conversation.
well…..i would like to try that website also…wanna learn Japanese as well..thx a lot!!!
Hi Yang! Are you talking about the language exchange website? languageexchange.com?