Hi, I want to share a thought about maximizing benefits and mutual learning experience with our language partners. Text or audio chatting with our partners in personal issues or daily activities can be good, but the overall learning outcomes may be useless or not clear. I think some of us need a planned and well-structured chat that enriches the learning experience and knowledge. We can share articles, videos, and audios, that are designed mainly for language learning, thus we can share an organized serious discussion, and highlight a lot of benefits and outcomes from the organized and well-structured content, instead of having chats without clear planning. Also we need to choose our partners from the appropriate levels comparing to us, especially who have common objectives, as we can proceed in a strong and serious learning experience. We can find on the internet a lot of articles, videos and audios that are professionally designed for a good language learning experience.
You make a very good point. I think I'll have to find some games, dialogues, videos, and other things to optimize the learning process. Thanks for the great idea.
It can work out with just no-plan-let's see what we'll talk about today.
But this is from my experience only working with people who really have the potential to become your best friend or at least a really good "buddy".
Then you can talk about everything and anything, and learn grammar structures/words you would have never ever encountered with another person.
However, it is not that easy to find such a person.
That's why it is in fact a good idea to have a plan or programme for every meeting.
I am still not very convinced of the fact whether the language level between both partners really matters.
I have tried either way in the past. Accepted everyone as an exchange and excluding those whose level was too far from mine.
I really do not know what to think about it because sometimes you will meet people who expect you to explain you everything from scratch which is quite hard and sometimes annoying. But on the other hand beginners can be fun because they do not make complex mistakes. I sometimes get a midlife crises with practically fluent speakers who speak really well, and you get a feeling that they are doing something wrong and you need hours to detect where the problem is hiding xD.
Viceversa it can be interesting for a beginner to practice with someone who already knows the language quite well because this person can help you out and lead the discussion in a way that there will be no gaps. People mostly say this leads to an badly balanced exchange because one person will speak more than the other person, but I have had exchanges when I was a beginner when it was completely ok and we survived to stick to the foreign language.
Thank you for your advice. I agree with you
