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 Language Learning Forum : Links & Internet Resources |  | |
| tommus Senior Member CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5867 days ago 979 posts - 1688 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Dutch, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish | Message 17 of 45 15 December 2008 at 5:08pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I have used MyLanguageExchange off and on for several years, and have had only positive results. I have found several excellent language partners. You have to read the personal descriptions carefully to see if the potential partners are actually serious about language learning. I can highly recommend MyLanguageExchange. They are also very helpful if you need to contact the side administrators. And although there is a small membership fee, it is very small compared to the excellent results.
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| Alkeides Senior Member Bhutan Joined 6149 days ago 636 posts - 644 votes | Message 18 of 45 19 December 2008 at 10:22am | IP Logged | |||||
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After a week, I've still received no replies from anyone I contacted on MyLanguageExchange save that Japanese woman I mentioned previously. Many of them have logged on at least once since my message was sent, I saw that and even sent another message asking them if they just weren't interested and I'd be completely fine with that if they'd just reply me with a simple refusal and still no one replied!
Maybe my messages were a bit terse; they went directly to the point and simply asked the recepients if they were interested in being friends. Still, I would have expected them to refuse me at the very least! I wonder if they are able to or even whether they know how to send messages on the site. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| slucido Bilingual Diglot Senior Member Spain https://goo.gl/126Yv Joined 6676 days ago 1296 posts - 1781 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Spanish*, Catalan* Studies: English | Message 19 of 45 19 December 2008 at 11:28am | IP Logged | |||||
Use the advanced search and sort results by profile date. Look for the more recent profile registrations. When people begin, they usually don't have any language exchange partner yet. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Alkeides Senior Member Bhutan Joined 6149 days ago 636 posts - 644 votes | Message 20 of 45 19 December 2008 at 12:37pm | IP Logged | |||||
I did exactly that! As I mentioned before, a few of those I sent messages to even logged in after I sent them messages (I sent them on 12 Dec, they logged in on 18 Dec) and it seems that they just don't want to reply! I'm going to send them a new message, just to ask them to reply regardless of whether they are interested or not. In case they really just don't know how to use the interface, I'll add in my email. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| tommus Senior Member CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5867 days ago 979 posts - 1688 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Dutch, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish | Message 21 of 45 19 December 2008 at 1:08pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Alkeides, couple more suggestions: For all the initial messages I have sent to potential language partners, I have always written a short paragraph (about three sentences) in my language, plus another three different sentences in their language. Try your best to show that you genuinely want to help them with your language, in exchange for their help. Also make it clear what kind of exchange you are looking for (text chat, audio chat). Probably men are more comfortable chatting with men, and women with women. You said you asked them if they wanted to be friends. That might make them uncomfortable. Probably better to just say you are interested in language learning.
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| Alkeides Senior Member Bhutan Joined 6149 days ago 636 posts - 644 votes | Message 22 of 45 19 December 2008 at 1:27pm | IP Logged | |||||
Thanks for the suggestions. I've written completely in Japanese in all my messages, but my initial messages were all one-sentence long. My follow-up messages to prod them for a form of reply - ANY REPLY - were necessarily longer though. The sole woman who replied me to tell me she already had a partner and was planning to go to language school in a short paragraph ;p. I guess I should be slightly more verbose. I sent messages to both men and women, some of them stated that they wanted to "make friends" on their profiles actually. Oh, I only messaged people living around my area so I think both parties implicitly know or assume that the exchange is to be in person. Edited by Alkeides on 19 December 2008 at 1:29pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Britomartis Groupie United States Joined 5810 days ago 67 posts - 74 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin | Message 23 of 45 05 January 2009 at 5:41pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I've only tried one language exchange site, so I don't know how it compares to other websites. The website is MyHappyPlanet. The users can post their own lessons and videos (which other users can rate) and it does have its own chat system. The users there tend to be in their twenties from what I've seen, but there are people of all ages. The best way to get language partners is to write lessons (because if someone's learning English, new English lessons will show up on their home page) and enabling the chat system.
Also, on your own homepage, it shows new members who are native speakers of your target language which I found useful. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| johnL Newbie United States Joined 6684 days ago 29 posts - 32 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, French | Message 24 of 45 17 January 2009 at 11:17pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I've been using lang-8 and Babbel for a month now, so I thought I'd re-post with my impressions. But first, I'd like to point out something that I really hadn't thought about before: Native speakers don't always know their own language very well!!! It's been sort of a given that by getting your language information from a native speaker, you're getting valid information. So you go to forums like lang-8 and Babbel to have native speakers correct your writing or help you in other ways, and sometimes the people you're writing with have no business telling someone else how to speak their language. On lang-8, I've seen some of the worst English ever written, and it was done by native English speakers, who thought they were "helping" someone learn English. And just yesterday, on Babbel, I was given wrong French corrections by 2 French people. (For a total of 3 that I know of.) I'm not criticizing the sites, just posting a caveat about learning from other people who may or may not know what they're talking about. Now, the sites:
1) lang-8. I have indeed had some French writing corrected by 2 native speakers there; I wrote back to both of them, and one responded and one did not. When I've posted something, the corrections came in just a day or so. Mostly I go there to help people learning English; I can't really say that I've made any connections, I'm just correcting others' writing. 2) Babbel. I've made contact with several people there that have resulted in multiple exchanges. Right now I'm exchanging with 4 people. The French language exercises are, for the most part, pretty good. (And they do have the French tutorials working now.) I sent a question to the support people on my first visit and never got a response, but when I report problems with the exercises, they respond to that. It's obvious that Babbel is new, but I go there every day, so that tells you something. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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