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Meetup to learn a language? | ||
Tags: Study Group | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| edwin Triglot Senior Member Canada towerofconfusi&Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6456 days ago 160 posts - 183 votes  9 sounds Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French, Spanish, Portuguese | Message 1 of 5 14 January 2011 at 5:19am | IP Logged |
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I have heard negative things about language meetups. The meetings often turn into some kind of date-seeking events.
I have attended my first meetup tonight. The group was small (about 8 people). The environment was friendly. Everybody tried to practice the language. But I found it quite intimidating when one person spoke, everybody was listening. This may not be a good setting for beginners or even intermediate learners. Anyone has any experience with language meetups to share? Thanks. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| tomsawyer Senior Member Aruba Joined 5279 days ago 103 posts - 141 votes Speaks: English* Studies: GermanB1, French, Russian | Message 2 of 5 14 January 2011 at 6:22am | IP Logged |
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We used to have a German meetup once every fortnight at a local club. Attendees ranged from complete beginners to native speakers of the language. There were usually around 10 people there, and we all spoke in turn.
Although people came and went, there were always two kinds - the ones who were self-conscious, got intimidated by the whole thing and said the bare minimum (or even nothing at all), and the ones who embraced the opportunity for what it was, knew their German was flawed, but spoke out for as long as people cared to listen, accepting corrections as they came. Sure, it might have been intimidating at first, but honestly, who cared? Everybody knew your German wasn't perfect, that's why you were there. Nobody ever judged you for having a bad accent, or using an incorrect word or phrase - rather, they corrected you, and everybody at the table learned something from it. These meetups were always a fantastic learning experience for all that came consistently. We had a lot of fun and talked about all sorts of interesting things, it was very social. I'd recommend it for people of any language ability, it's a small investment of time for (often) great results. Edited by tomsawyer on 14 January 2011 at 6:23am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5199 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 3 of 5 14 January 2011 at 1:08pm | IP Logged |
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I've been to quite a few French meetups. They can definitely be very useful, but to get the most out of them you often need to be quite assertive, if not outright rude, in order to get a word in edgeways. If you think people are going to be helpful and come up to you and give you a chance to talk, then think again (at least at the ones in my city; maybe it's different elsewhere). Often it becomes a case of a few fluent speakers / natives doing all the talking and the learners who need the practice most not having a chance to join in, or worse, speaking to each other in English. And don't even get me started on the "language exchange" meetups, at which all the French people speak to each other in French and all the English speakers speak to each other in English.
They used to do a "speed meeting" event as well as the "French conversation" and "English/French exchange" events, where you'd talk to one person for a few minutes then change partners. That was excellent as you'd get loads of chance to talk, but for some reason they've now abandoned that idea in favour of the usual group-sitting-around-a-table format. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| tracker465 Senior Member United States Joined 5344 days ago 355 posts - 496 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch | Message 4 of 5 14 January 2011 at 8:28pm | IP Logged |
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I took my brother to one of these, once, for German before I ever went to Germany for a visit. Back in those days, I had a knowledge of the German grammar and knew many words, but because I never had anyone to practice with outside of the classroom, my speaking and listening comprehension was not so good. At this time, my brother's German was only slightly worse than mine, these were the days before he left his German go to the dogs.
Anyway, this meetup was very small as there were about 10 people. There were a few older people from Germany and the Netherlands, who had been displaced by the war. There was also a Slavic man who had business ties in Germany, and thus went to Germany several times a year. Finally, there were some middle-aged males who were American yet spoke a mean German. At this time, I was not very assertive and felt nervous about my German speaking skills, and my brother was even more nervous than I. When the founder of the club decided to play an icebreaker where everyone took a card from a hat, and then had to describe the person on the card in German, my brother and I realized that this was a bit rich for our blood and we never went back. The problem was that most of the people on the cards were American movie stars, and I just don't watch enough American movies to make this a comfortable experience. That said, if you are a bit more assertive than I was at the time, maybe you might fit in better. Edited by tracker465 on 15 January 2011 at 5:18pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| psy88 Senior Member United States Joined 5583 days ago 469 posts - 882 votes Studies: Spanish*, Japanese, Latin, French | Message 5 of 5 15 January 2011 at 4:13am | IP Logged |
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My experience was that the person running the group used it as an opportunity to market tutoring and private lessons. The group was heavy on the sales pitch for the tutoring/lessons business and light on the speaking practice. One time was enough to turn me off to it.
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