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A Christmas gift - practise your TL free | ||
Tags: Tandem/Language Exchange | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5339 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes  Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 1 of 8 30 December 2010 at 1:02pm | IP Logged | |||||
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One of the revolutionary things that happened to me this year was finding this forum. It has become my virtual home. I was therefore thinking about how I could give something back to the community, and decided that my fairest chance was using my creative imagination (too creative for my family sometimes :)
We all want to practise our target languages, but we do not always have the means or the time to go to the country where the language is spoken. So as a Christmas gift from me to you, and hopefully from a number of others with equally creative imagination come a number of suggestions on how to practise your language - without paying for it. Not all suggestions are of use to everyone. A 13 year old cannot work, and not always invite people to their homes, some are impossible because you live at a place with few foreigners, some are impractical because you have an exotic TL and some suggestions may be too outrageous for the more shy ones, but I hope that with all the joint suggestions we can come up with, there will be something of use to all of you. Some will be conventional methods, and well known - some may be new and set off your own imagination. Here goes: - Put up a notice in the local shop/library/newspaper etc. and offer exchange (you teach your native language/they teach theirs - available even for beginners) - Offer your help to "lost tourists with a map on the street" that look or sound like they may speak your TL - Spend your holiday at a place whith a lot of tourists (this one is widely used by my mother in law, who taught English and German, but had 4 boys and could not easily travel to foreign countries. They therefore let the foreign tourists come to them, and offered to take them around and show them places, and became friends for life with people who were overwhelmed of how generous she was with her time). - Invite foreigners you meet to your home (I have done that loads of times - and have had Australians that we had met on the train living with us for a week, English people we met at the Norwegian folk museum to spend the day with us and a Brazilian woman we met at the train station to come and have dinner with us) You must of course be careful about who you invite. - Invite foreign friends to come and stay with you - Become a receiver of couch surfers - Get a boyfriend/girlfriend in the target language - Offer to be the contact person of a family of immigrants (Red Cross asylum guide) - Contact the embassy and ask if they know of people who would like new friends in a new country - Visit people with other native languages at retirement homes - Get free practise and do a good deed at the same time - it doesn't get much better than that - Visit prisoners of your target language (with caution - and you also need to have a high level in your language, as they are in a vulnerable position. The Red Cross have programs to set this up, it is not something you just do) - Become a member of "friendship organisations" I am for instance a member of the Norwegian-Ukrainian friendship association - Visit churches where sermons are held in your TL - at the coffe afterwoods you are bound to meet someone who would love to talk to you - Visit the cultural centres - they may have free conferences, and lend films and music, and you will meet people of your target language - Visit the library - the larger ones will have sections with literature in your target language, and while you borrow some of those you may find native speakers who are there for the same purpose. Ask for their help in finding the right sort of book for you. Many foreigners have a high cultural level, but find themselves in menial jobs where they are considered uneducated, because of their lack of knowledge of the local language. Being able to help somone out with something they may be experts in, may boost their self esteem no end. Just go gently. It may be a doctor of literature you are dealing with, and it may be someone without any formal education. - Ask your friends to introduce you to foreigners they know who speak your TL. When I was a student I had an international party. I invited 80 people, thankfully only 50 turned up, since I lived in a flat of only 70 square meters. I asked all my friends to bring any foreign friends they wanted to, and I asked everyone to bring something to eat which was typical of their home country. It was a smashing succes. In the end I had 11 people sitting in my bed, which was the only place left where you could sit. Noone felt lonely, cause there were people everywhere. These ones you will actually get payed for - but your language will need to be of a high level: - Work as a local guide in your city (I used to do that - it pays well and is fun) - Take foreign tourist on bus tours around the country (a great way to practise over a prolonged period of time) - Be a guide on bus trips to foreign countries (also enjoyable and well paid) - Work as a guide on a museum where a lot of foreigners come by - Work in the reception of a hotel or youth hostel - Disneyworld/ Eurodisney - Tourist information office - Offer to babysit for families with children with your TL Personally my two most succesfull exchanges was due to coincidences. The first one was when I had done a German course at Berlitz, and I would like to continue learning German, but the company budget for tuition was empty, and I could not afford to pay Berlitz prizes. I asked my teacher whether he would be willing to give me lessons outside the school for a reduced price, but being German he was genetically unable to break the rule. Being Norwegian, I am also genetically unable to break rules, but I am pretty good at bending rules :). We therefore came up with a model where we met up once a week, one week he would cook me dinner, the next week I cooked him dinner, and every time we would speak German for one hour and Spanish for one hour. Worked like a charm. My next encounter was at a flee market of all places. My daughter plays the flute in the school band, wich means I am obliged to participate in the band flee market twice a year. Selling lamps, I met a lady whose accent was Spanish, and when I talked to her in Spanish she was so happy, that she gave me her telephone number. We became great friends, and I am now guardian to her children, and call her my sister. If you would like to travel to the TL country, remember that you may be able to go as an au pair, or find other sorts of jobs there. There is also a number of grants you can get, if you only take the time to apply for them. I have gotten grants to Spain (twice), Italy, France (twice) the USA and Poland. Make sure that you get someone with a little clout (a teacher eg.) to write you a glowing recommendation (I usually write a draft myself, and give it to them to make any changes they want. They very rarely do, so remember that this is not the moment to be humble - but you must of course be accurate and not pretend to know or be more than you are). And then in the application I make sure that they feel that they would not be doing me a favour, but that I would do them a favour if they chose me. I have received every single grant I have applied for. Okay! I hope this will be useful to some of you, and I wish you the best of language learning years in 2011, and an extra greeting to all those who participate in the TACs in teams or individually. Kind regards Cristina Edited by Solfrid Cristin on 30 December 2010 at 1:08pm 15 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| wv girl Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5244 days ago 174 posts - 330 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish | Message 2 of 8 31 December 2010 at 12:50pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I've used your mother-in-law's idea to practice French ... in Florida! Everyone associates Florida with Spanish, and
it certainly is there, but when I visit Fort Lauderdale, I always find tourists from Quebec who have fled the frigid north and are happy to speak French. As I go there on an annual basis, I've come to know the other "regulars" at our small hotel and seeing them again is something else to look forward to, in addition to escaping the cold. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5339 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 3 of 8 07 January 2011 at 1:07pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I was counting on more people coming in with useful suggestions as to how we can practise our language for free. There must be more good ideas out there!
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Romanist Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5287 days ago 261 posts - 366 votes Studies: Italian | Message 4 of 8 07 January 2011 at 1:49pm | IP Logged | |||||
I don't know whether this is really such a great idea? In the past I myself have been on the receiving end of this tactic. When I used to live in Germany, there was more than one local girl who was very sweet to me...until she figured out that I wanted to speak German, not English. At that point romantic ardour seemed to fade rather quickly... One has to be cool about these things, I suppose. But I can remember that it left me with a slightly bitter taste in the mouth. Nobody likes to feel that they have been cynically used. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| magictom123 Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5598 days ago 272 posts - 365 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French | Message 5 of 8 07 January 2011 at 1:50pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Sorry I didn't see it above but one of the easiest methods with which to practise
languages is to do so online - either via skype or a language exchange site such as sharedtalk.com I use the latter a lot and it has a wide variety of language learners, with specific language chat rooms and the ability to hold private voice and text chats. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| CheeseInsider Bilingual Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5127 days ago 193 posts - 238 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin* Studies: French, German | Message 6 of 8 07 January 2011 at 2:36pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Excellent post Solfrid :D
One can try also: -Joining language clubs, like "Alliance française" for example. -Writing a blog (or use lang8, language logs), one great thing though about writing a blog in your target language in addition to lang8 or whatever else is that there is no added pressure of having to say things perfectly (making mistakes is a part of the learning process no?) or talk specifically about just one subject. -Of course if you are in public school there is the possibility of becoming friends with students with the native language that you're studying. -Write really really awful, sappy, over the top plays (In the target language of course^_^) and submit them online, and see what kind of replies show up. For extra fun, act them out and smile knowing that you're going crazy, but while speaking the coolest language ever. -If you're studying Chinese, go to a Chinatown and barter with the Chinese people about what the price of a chicken head should really be. -Change the interface of your computer and sites you visit frequently to that of your target language. -Be a tourist ;) Go downtown (if there is one where you live), make sure you have a camera, a map, and walk around taking pictures of garbage cans, stop signs, mailboxes, anything not worth taking a picture of. Surely then you'll seem like a tourist and nobody will be surprised when you suddenly ask where the hot dog stand is in Ukrainian or Japanese :P Make sure you look really lost. If you're feeling devious, approach random people and talk to them in your target language, see what happens :D -Craigslist ;) Edited by CheeseInsider on 07 January 2011 at 2:39pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 budonoseito Pro Member United States budobeyondtechnRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5810 days ago 261 posts - 344 votes Studies: French, Japanese Personal Language Map | Message 7 of 8 07 January 2011 at 2:59pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Meetup.com, at least in the USA, is useful for finding local language groups. Or you can
start one. I see regulars at coffee shops studying languages. spend some study time there and you may have a chance to practice. Several language volunteer jobs found near me by using http://www.volunteermatch.org 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5339 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 8 of 8 07 January 2011 at 8:37pm | IP Logged | |||||
I wouldn't dream of suggesting getting a girlfriend or a boyfriend just for linguistic purposes. However, when you are really into a language, it often comes naturally to fall for someone who speaks the language as well. You are interested in their culture - which often will make you particularly interested in them, and at the same time, the very fact that you are interested in their culture will make them find you interesting. A perfect match. :) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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