Ever had a language partner?

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

(Copied from a very old thread of mine on another site, because I really liked the wording XD).

A couple of years ago I joined a site (which I annoyingly can't remember the name of) that allowed you to learn basic words and phrases from a number of languages, and also to seek out the help of native speakers who were willing to devote their time to help you.

It worked sorta like a big flea market of the mind, and it's an idea I have been enamored of ever since I first saw it in action.

Upon registering, you were asked to fill in a couple of profile fields, some of which were the kind of thing we see on every site that allows for a profile (like a picture of yourself and a little bit of bio) but you were also required to tell what language you spoke natively, which one you had any kind of level at and which one you were seeking to learn. Once that was taken care of, you were then presented with the task of finding someone who was native on the language you wanted to learn and that was interested on learning one of yours.

That part was also fun, as you got to scroll through pages upon pages on people from all walks of life that were also eager to gain knowledge by also providing it. Thankfully, I struck gold immediately, with a beautiful Finnish soul that was trying to get better with her English.

It was kinda odd at first, because we had no middle ground (you know, a language we both spoke) so we had to resort to using English, but that allowed me to help her faster while also learning Finnish, so it was all good.

She taught me some 300 Finnish words and phrases and became one of the people I'm the most fond of. And I'm very proud to say that her English has improved immensely as well.

I wanted to learn, she wanted to learn and I think it's safe to say none of us would have found the other without that burning desire of bettering ourselves. I adore that.

So, what about you? Ever had a language partner? How did it go? Did ya learn a lot?

 

[Elwiwi]

Erm no

 

[thumbsdown]

the closest thing I ever had to a language partner were acquainted twitch streamers, if it counts... but even so, that's a completely different approach on language learning (it kinda lacks a method, but feels way more organic)

 

[SolemnlyDoc]

Unfortunately not, but that sounds awesome. I took a couple years of French once upon a time, but the closest I could say I had to a language partner was this friend who taught me ASL. In exchange, I "taught" her art (as much as art can be taught anyway, basic techniques and principles). Thanks for reminding me of those days, if you ever find that website again, I'd be interested <3

 

[Lokgamer]

Not at all. I've tried to get a partner several times, but it was useless.

 

[strawberry29]

no cause most of the people i speak to is either arabic or english but i hope i meet someone who can speak spanish to teach me some pharses and words but also hope they don't teach me words that has the wrong meaning which some of us arabs do at times to get a laugh (yeah like someone told cardi b that alsalam alikum means something else and not a greeting)

 

[Graw]

One time I worked with an old Chinese guy and the only English he knew was 'This side', 'OK', 'good', 'no', 2x4', 'island', 'What the fuck' and 'Holy shit'. Although, I guess it wasn't much of a language barrier because we managed to understand eachother well enough to get the jobs done.

I remember too I worked with some other Chinese people at that same job. They could speak English mostly but some of them spoke Mandarin and some of them spoke Cantonese and only one of them spoke both and I remember the mandarin speakers had trouble understanding the Cantonese speakers, and vice versa, and the guy that spoke both would sometimes have to translate. One of the Mandarin speaking dudes told me that they call Cantonese the language of the birds or something like that because it sounds like a bunch of birds chirping to them. They would also use random English words when speaking Chinese together which I learned was because there was no equivalent way of saying what they wanted to say in Chinese because of the way the language worked.

Edit: Oops. I misread the thread title as language barrier.' Whatever I'll leave the post but it probably doesn't make much sense.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

if you ever find that website again, I'd be interested <3

There were mainly two: one remains missing, the other one was speaklanguages.com but, uh, something happened to it in the years since -- all language partner options have been removed, as was the messenger. The conversations with my partner are gone U.U!