I talk to many people....most of the people are not interested in conversation... I have to start conversation everytime... Males don't reply to the male partner...! They are more interested in female... If a female starts any discussion.. it might be good or poor... But she get lots of response from all over the world... But males does not get such response even they have a solid point.. if I start conversation with female.. most of them thinks that all men are here to make girl freinds... Not all are here to make girl freinds... In University we all have so many male and female friends so why we will join italki to make girl freinds...! I think male should have to show good response to the male partners to learn something...sorry if anybody feel bad from my words..

- Lack of basic language skills ... advanced readers can talk at an intermediate level ... intermediate readers can barely talk ... beginners don't know much after "my name is ..." So, I won't consider a conversation partner until I see a reasonable text in the notebook section.

- Time zone differences were a problem ... after a good text exchange, we couldn't find a suitable time for call

- Lack of priority ... sometimes conversation partners just disappear ... or they cancel three times in a row and I drop them

The biggest red flag for me is when a partner keeps using English after their turn is up. I had a couple partners who kept reverting to English when we were supposed to be speaking in Korean. I immediately cut contact after that. They have no respect for me, so why should I continue helping them?

I had another partner who was great in terms of helping me with Korean, but I soon became uncomfortable with him and dreaded our conversations. He started bringing up weird and gross stories, talking about his personal issues with his ex-girlfriend, etc. He was visiting the US soon and wanted to meet up with me. He assured me that another girl he knew would meet up with us. I said I would have a relative come with me too, but that weird feeling in my gut came up again and I finally decided to listen to it. I canceled my plans to meet and cut contact.

Another language partner two years back insulted my level. She asked what my learning goals were, and after I said I like talking about more challenging topics, she said: "You don't even know basic vocabulary..." She said this in response to our earlier conversation about living expenses, because I didn't know words like "rent" or "salary." It was a huge blow to my confidence, and that was our last language exchange.

On a more positive note, I have two regular and amazing language exchange partners, one of whom I've known since I joined iTalki three years ago. They are incredibly nice, helpful, and fair. So don't be discouraged if you can't find a good language partner right away. They're out there! You just have to keep looking and soon you'll find someone who you'll really connect well with.

Person 4 This person was really quiet and serious. They didn't seem to want to laugh or joke at all. All my attempts to joke fell flat and were greeted with silence. They seemed to be allergic to fun and wanted to approach our exchange as an intellectual exercise. 

Person 5 This person's children were often crying or playing really loudly in the background when we were talking. 

The number 1 thing that gets on my nerves when doing language exchanges is shy people not knowing what to say and leaving it up to me to prompt them and ask them questions. Just TALK!! 

I don't want to have to be the one who leads the conversation and keeps thinking of questions to ask you. Just please TALK to me! Some people are so shy that they can't think of anything to say to me even in their native language. What's the point of doing a language exchange if you don't TALK and if you just mumble "yes / no" to every question I ask you?  /rant

I edited it to add in the yellow word that was missing so English learners don't get confused. Sorry I missed it when I typed my message before.