The efficacy of language exchange partners

[channamasala]

Sooooo...

I find myself temporarily (like, two years) stuck in the USA getting myself together again, financially and also career-wise, since I need to figure out exactly what I want to do with my life and all I've really figured out so far is that what I want does *not* include teaching English in China until I'm 65 (I'm 23).

I'm planning to keep up with my Chinese with self-study and by signing up for some sort of course or tutorial, but for the first six months or so of my relocation (happening: tomorrow!) to the Washington DC area, I'm going to be, uh, shall we say, somewhat impoverished. Financially challenged. I'm more than likely going to be offered a PR/marketing job by the end of the week, but nothing is definite and even if it were, I've still got a lot to catch up on.

So, since I can't run to my nearest university offering Chinese classes and sign up, I was wondering what sorts of experience any of you may have had with language exchange partners. You know, the kind where you find a native Mandarin speaker who wants an English tutor and is willing to help you practice your Mandarin as compensation, rather than either of you paying in cash.

Before you say "But any old Mandarin speaker won't be qualified to teach you, just like any old English speaker can't necessarily teach English!", I spent a year in China basically teaching myself and doing pretty well when I had to tell a temporary tutor what I wanted to be taught - so I can design my own lesson plans. What I really want is just someone who is willing to talk to me ONLY in Mandarin for speaking practice, no matter HOW MUCH I screw up or how badly I want to switch to English...someone who can stand up to the terror that is Channa Masala, in other words, and make me work harder.

I've heard that these arrangements, since they're generally informal, tend to be disasters - either one end does all the teaching while the other doesn't try very hard, or meetings are always cancelled or whatever...

...any opinions?

[Green Pea]

I have found language exchange to be of little use. There is no responsibility on either side. The first or second time might be fine, but then interest wanes or scheduling becomes difficult. I have also found that although they start off being an "exchange" too often my Chinese partner simply stops speaking Chinese and just speaks English. This is quite annoying. Although you are cash strapped, the best way is still to probably pay for it. This puts some responsibility on the other side to show up and only speak Mandarin with you.

I also understand the frustration with trying to only speak Mandarin. Even in my advanced class, the teacher loves to throw in English words when people are stuck. This is quite funny because out of 10 students, I am the only native English speaker. I realise it can be a time-saver, but I believe a very important skill is using Chinese to explain/understand Chinese.

I do have one suggestion for you. You might try to find someone around who is not a native speaker, but more advanced than you. They too are probably keen to speak only Mandarin with you to keep their own level up. You both might make errors, but getting practice expressing yourself might be helpful. They will also more likely be willing to correct your errors.

[chris.]

I've found language exchanging to be an effective and cheap way of helping myself learn chinese. I have a chinese school which I pay but also I have 3 people who teach me chinese and in return I help them with their english.

My exchange partners are all friends so they feel obliged to help me and don't get lazy. This may differ if you get 'stuck' with a partner, just watch out (green pea tells about this).

[confucius]

Make friends at the Embassy of China who can not speak any English.

Inform them of your desire to be constantly corrected.

This will improve your Mandarin immensely and also get you invited to many banquet buffet parties. Chinese New Year is coming up soon; that's the biggest bash of all at the China embassy. You have two weeks to make an embassy friend, starting tomorrow.

[PollyWaffle]

Like anything, it depends on the situation. If you find the right person, a language exchange may work, though I have had not had this experience. The language exchange partner I had spoke to me in dongbei slang & then when I didn't understand, just used english all the time.

However, I have also paid tutors to learn chinese, which has been a waste of time & money & ended up in me teaching them more english.

These were probably my fault.

The best experience I have had is with a guy who doesn't really care about learning english. He speaks to me in mandarin only as if I understand everything he is saying. He also has an incredible knack of being able to phrase things in ways that he thinks I will understand, & in most cases I do.

Good luck!

[pazu]

For me, a Hong Kong Chinese, I didn't have much problems to find a partner to talk in Mandarin or English, but then it was when I started learning Japanese, problems aroused.

When I first studied Japanese, and if I couldn't find a partner, I just talked to myself, I hope it wouldn't look too insane to talk to yourself, but it DID WORK!

Think a topic, like something in daily life, or something in a movie/fiction happened to you (the latter is better), and think of a word to say, and use your very limited vocabulary to make a response.

Think yourself as Frodo, and what would you say to Gandalf? Or think yourself was lost in Japan, without money, and how would you convince a taxi driver to take you home and pay him money later?

I have used this method for about a year (though I stopped it now) and it worked quite well, whenever I found something I couldn't express clearly, I asked it on the internet, or my Japanese friends. Yes it may be very difficult to practice your listening skill, but believe me, if you can express yourself well, it's making you better at listening skill too.

[pazu]

And what's more, I hate to be a language exchange partner too... I mean I don't like people talking to me and their main purpose is to learn my language. I like efficient communication, because I can speak good English and fluent Mandarin, when I was in China I was invited to be a language exchange partner by some foreigners or Chinese mainlanders (not really a "fair" exchange though ;P ), and some people insisted to talk to me in Chinese/English only, I wouldn't mind if they spoke good or fair Chinese/English, but most were just beginners and seemed that they were just trying a new language on me, to see a response or what, I hate this and I found this extremely boring.

Good luck!

THough I would like to find a language partner to learn Persian now. ;)

[confucius]

You can practice your Farsi in Bam by volunteering as an aid worker.

I'm sure those earthquake survivors won't mind being your language exchange partner.

[ChouDoufu]

it's best to find a language partner with some common interests, or someone who you find interesting. Otherwise, it'll be boring. Very, very boring.

Also, I've noticed that most mandarin speakers tend to cluster in the Rockville, MD area (access to a car might be good there). As a bonus, that's where you'll find most of the good chinese restaurants in the dc area. you can find some authentic stuff there..

you can always find a partner by going to a chemistry department of a univ and putting up a notice in chinese or something.. they usually have plenty of people who want to practice oral english...

good luck.

[channamasala]

Well, I got the job I thought I would get, but now I'm not sure I want it...the training for it lasts 10 months and I'm basically a slave through all of it, and the real kick in the pants is that I adore DC, but if I do well, they say, they may want to transfer me OUT of DC. I don't want to transfer out of DC! So we'll see.

Then again, their suggestion for a transfer is being a part of the team opening up their proposed Shanghai or Hong Kong offices when they expand to Asia. And they liked me enough to put that on the table despite my lack of a marketing degree or much experience. So that's good...

Basically this means that I won't be having time to take an actual Mandarin class, unless I get fed up and quit. Language exchange partners are a different story since they are more flexible.

I'm worried about the responsibility of a potential L.E. partner too...fortunately I am quite good at keeping people in line and designing my own course of study, so I don't need someone who actually knows how to teach.

Just wrapping up this thread, unless you've all got more to say...thanks for the responses...I am so tired...

[tara]

congrats....looks like your worries are all wrapped under your little finger already.....well, at least for the moment.

as for LE partners, well i would just like to add, if you find a friend who speaks none other than Mandarin, then i think you would be on the right track bcoz that's how both my sis picked up the language....the slang very much alike too.

good luck!

[channamasala]

Trying to find a LE partner in the DC area with truly no English ability would be very difficult, indeed. They exist, but are generally older generation immigrants. Their kids were all born in the USA - kids that are often about my age. Then again, I could always seek out and older Chinese woman to be my partner. Who ever said it had to be someone near me in age?

Problems not solved - I didn't take the job I was offered because about halfway through the all-day interview, I started getting the impression that before I got a real job, I'd have to spend 6-10 months as a commission saleslady working roughly 50 hours a week for $250-$500 a week. Absolutely not. Instead, since I've got bills to pay, I will be doing some admin work and filling in the rest with waitressing at the TGI Friday's at Reagan National Airport. If you ever fly into DC through National, be sure to stop at Friday's and say hi to the chubby blue-eyed waitress! This is, of course, a temporary solution to my financial problems and I will be continuing my search for a salaried position.

So...LE partner it is...

[Guest jjcox]

My experience is that it is just down to pot luck whether you are able to find a good language partner or not.

I agree with some of the comments posted regarding language partners wanting to practice English all the time and being quite selfish in the relationship. However, I have recently made friends with a Taiwanese student studying in London who seems fine to chat in Chinese with me all the time providing I correct some of her essays!

I would just advise being prepared to "close down" a relationship that isn't working and keep plugging away until you find someone decent! I recommend http://www.mylanguageexchange.com as a website for finding language partners in your city.

Having said that I don't think language partners totally replace the need for formal study. I certainly need the pressure of classes and homework to make me study, and the language partners are just useful for practice of classwork.

[channamasala]

I agree with you on most of that, last poster guy - except I've never once had any formal study in Chinese and I've done alright. I don't need the pressures of classes and HW to study - I do it because I want to. The advantage to this is that my successes are my own (Chinese teachers from China proper seem to have this attitude, in my opinion, that a students' success is their success, and not the students') and if I fail, I have no one to blame (a bad or uncaring teacher, for example) but myself.

Thanks for the website though, I'll look into it, and I'll also be posting a notice in my alma mater's Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures once I get around to it.