It depends on what skills you had focussed on. I would say for a language exchange it would be rather painful for both of you. You could certainly use parts of your HSK knowledge in China to get some things done. I would say get to a good HSK 3 level first before trying to work with native-speakers. Others may disagree with me though. This is just my experience.

Hi Alex,

In my opinion, since you're at HSK2, I recommend still having a structured lesson to learn about grammar, because learning grammar can help you understand the basic sentence structures and the usage of words/phrases. Understanding the "why" is very important, which may also make it easier for you to learn Chinese. Along with structured lessons, conversation practices are also essential, because this allows you to apply what you learn. Talking with native Chinese speakers is a great way for you to improve your Chinese, because it forces you to communicate only in Chinese (maybe it'll also be beneficial if the native Chinese speaker can also speak English or your language, so he/she can translate for you when necessary). Hope this helps!

It depends. From my experience of learning English, I found that some of my classmates who have very good social skills can benefit a lot from communicating with native speakers because they know how to keep the comversation going even if they can only use very simple words and sentences. However, some people may prefer to have a good vocabulary and some knowledge of gramma before they starting to talk with native speakers. You can have a try and then find out which way suits you best.

I am a native speaker of Chinese and is looking for a language partner to learn English. If you are interested please send me a message.

Absolutely not. I learned Chinese in precisely this way. After a few months of conversation I made the HSK3 straightaway, skipping HSK1,HSK2. Conversation is THE KEY to learning a language. Memorize a few common phrases and start having a conversation JUST RIGHT NOW. Thats the best thing You can possibly do for Your chinese.