Ezzat Yaseen
The language partner feature !!! I am totally disappointed about the search for a language partner.Have you ever had a successful partnership?
May 15, 2018 9:49 PM
Comments · 10
4

@Ezzat

The chances that a request gets accepted are in general low when

- you sent it to someone you haven’t interacted before

- the message is only “hi” or “hi, I want to be your language partner”

- you don’t write something to introduce yourself (like what topics you’re interested in, what kind of exchange you’d like to do, why you specifically want to do the exchange with that person)

- you don’t clearly explain what you have to offer

- you send it to someone who isn’t interested in your language at all.

Native English speakers (and especially women) get tons of requests every day. They have to filter the requests somehow. And if they’re not learning the language that the request sender offers, it’s not an “exchange” and they don’t see the benefit of this kind of partnership. 

I’m not a native English speaker and I write very clearly on my profile that I’m not looking for language exchange, not teaching English, not doing random chats nor audio/video calls. Also, my profile doesn’t show up on the language partner search. Still I get a lot of language exchange requests. So, many people find me very rude because I decline their requests. 

Don’t take it personally when your request gets declined. It could be any of the above reasons. Best is really to correct Arabic notebook entries and then you’ll see who is interested in an exchange. Or team up with other English learners. So many English learners are looking for partners. 

May 16, 2018
3
@ Ezzat 

To be honest, Arabic is not a popular language in this community and learning Arabic is hardly requested by language learners, whereas English, your target language is definitely highly demanded. The reality is cruel that the gap between demand and supply has never been amended. Following the thread, Chinese seems in higher demand than Arabic. However, even so I merely received a terribly small number of requests from Chinese learners to learn Chinese with me and most of them were not serious learners who could barely interest me to exchange my native language with them.  

Miriam is right, nobody is interested in knowing you if you have nothing presented to show you are a good language partner on your profile. Your score , past history on this website did not show you are likely to be as good as you claimed. I have received requests from hundreds of language learners who stated how passionate they are in the learning but mostly 99% were none other than a joke. 

Surely you may persist on trying over and over again, but as far as I am concerned, spending more time on reading, writing, listening and speaking on my own with my tips is the way to go. 

I am sorry for my bluntness. 



May 16, 2018
3

No, it’s not just luck. I corrected around 600 notebook entries and found my partners because their notebook entries caught my eye. Also, I found my right Spanish partner after studying Spanish for a year. It takes time to find the right fit.

You’re active in the community but when I scroll through your profile I don’t really see that you did a lot of corrections or answering a lot of questions but so far you have received a lot of help with your notebook entries and your questions. If you actively help Arabic learners it will be much easier for you to find potential language partners. Often people here complain that they don’t find language partners but if they want something, they should give first. 

May 15, 2018
3

Yes. I had a language partnership with a Chinese woman for some time and now I have a very good language partnership with a man from Venezuela.

Why this partnerships worked/work? We speak each other’s languages roughly on the same level (upper intermediate), are roughly the same age (plus/minus 10 years maximum), divide the time really 50/50 (no language is dominating) and we have similar interests.

I get many language exchange requests by people who don’t even bother to read my profile. I’m already helping a couple of German language learners without receiving anything in return. I don’t have the time to additionally teach English. 

It’s easier to find potential language partners via correcting notebook entries, answering questions and taking part in the discussions instead of using the language partner feature.

May 15, 2018
2
@Miriam &Jack
Sure,I will consider your advice to not to be the cause of this issue and I hope to see different results. 
Thanks.
May 16, 2018
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