How to find a good language partner?

Most of you probably learn a language without a teacher, right? Anyway, with or without a teacher, you cannot learn a language alone. So, if you have no teacher, you must find at least a language partner. Do you know how to do it?

1 – Best tools:

First of all, my favorite app in the world. You definitely should check it out! I am talking about HelloTalk. I have no financial interests here, I just recommend it because I really believe in this app and it changed my life.

In case you have tried and you want some more, try the communities on Facebook, in fact you can try general ones, like Polyglots (The community) or something more specific, with focus on the language you are learning.

2 – Time to talk! Jump-start!

Ok, now you have HelloTalk but you are too shy to try it. Well, this app has a lot of options, you can try audios or you can send written messages, it is up to you. Just remember one thing. We are all here to make mistakes and learn with them. So, don’t worry and if someone doesn’t answer you, just ignore it and try someone different.

You can always start with basic stuff, like good morning, I am XXX, could we talk? But sometimes it can be a little bit boring. Try to be yourself, ask about musics, movies, try to find some common interests. Please, do not see it like a website to date . Forget about say stupid things for girls/boys in there, it is rude and you can be banned, we are here to learn languages, ok?

3 – Building a relationship

It is pretty boring when you just say: Hi, I am from Brazil, I speak your language, I like to read. and then, the person says, oh, I am XXX and I am from Egypt, I speak your language and I like to travel. This is the end, so you start to talk with someone else and use the same sentences.

You need to feel empathy for him/her. Try to talk with the same person, again and again, expose yourself, show who you are, face it like you were friends. It is.. fake it until you make it, and it is true! With time, you will be friends, you will share cultural background, you will expose yourselves to each other, and then, poof! Like magic! Now you are friends!

4 – My example:

For each language I speak or learn, I have a language partner ( I don’t like these words). Why don’t I like these words? Because we are friends. Sometimes I have more than one for the same language. All of them have my Facebook, most part of them have my Whatsapp or my Skype, we are always in contact. I make all my effort to keep the friendship alive. Is it selfish? No! it is good. In fact, we care about each other and this is the point! Languages are just tools! The key is communication! If I could put one sentence inside your head, it would be:

Do you want to learn languages? Simply make some friends!

Can you efficiently quit?

Would you like to learn all the languages of the world? I hope so! Me too, but, let me share a secret with you… We are not super humans! We all have limits. We can expand our minds, but in some point we will find the limit.So Patrick, are you saying that we have a certain number of languages that you believe impossible to go ahead and learn some more?

No! I saw Luca Lampariello and 13 sounds too much, then Tim Doner and 20 sounds too much, than Ioannis Ikonomou and.. c’mon! 32 languages? It is amazing, but let me tell you one thing.. this is not the goal.

Recently I saw some people saying… I speak X languages, and then, another one saying… really? I speak more than you! So, third person saying.. I speak more than both of you! Let me say… this is useless. It is not a competition.

A few considerations here. First, if you learn the language but don’t respect the culture, you lost the point. If you fix in this description bellow, think again.

“My native language is XXX and I speak a little YYY, a little ZZZ, a little WWW, a little QQQ, a little RRR, a little TTT, a couple of sentences in FFF and I am very begginer in DDD. I know nothing about any cultural background of these languages and I cannot hold a conversation in any language (Just my native one). ”

It is a joke, but it is sad too. That’s why you need to know how to quit! Let me share my example first.

I started to learn Japanese, Hebrew, and then, Greek, Arabic, after this, Romanian, could I speak these languages? Just a little! So… I gave up Romanian, I stopped with Japanese, and I postponed Arabic. Now my Hebrew is better, so, I came back with Arabic and Greek.

It is not a reason to feel bad! There is a concept in business named lean startup, and let me keep it simple. you need to cut things to be efficient, adapt yourself, and another point.. Romanian is a beautiful language and it doesn’t deserve to be studied like this, we need time to deal with each language.

Now, I just keep my old languages and I am spending time with my 3 loves (Arabic, Hebrew and Greek. New videos coming soon). I don’t feel bad about it! I feel that now I am more efficient and that is the point!

You need to speak the language not to play with it! Cut to build!

 

Studying a language to learn another one!

Hey ! Here we go again. Do you know the best way to spend your time while practicing the languages you already know? Well, let me tell you something. It is totally OK if you are learning a new language and you need to practice an old one, so you can combine both of them to improve your routine.

Let me explain you a little trick right now. I bet you had the experience of learning a new language and create all the kind of connections with your native one, that is normal and predictable, once this is your anchor. What do I mean? The structures of your native language work like your foundation, it is an automatic move for your brain, now.

Did you get what I mean? Yes, now, let me say something to you. You can and you should change this Anchor! Let’s think about this metaphor. Imagine you are a Jiu-Jitsu fighter, cool, isn’t it? Ok, so you are familiar with the techniques about this sport, and them, you decide to learn Judo. I bet you will use the first sport as a foundation and you will learn by the differences.

Let’s imagine now that you decide to learn how to run, I mean, as an athlete, so, it is a very new experience, you can use some points of Jiu-jitsu, but it is all new to you. Ok, now, our athlete and fighter wants to learn how to be a professional cyclist. There are two ways here. you can use Jiu-jitsu as a foundation, but the smarter choice is not this one. It is better if you adopt running as your foundation now!

Bringing the concept to language learning

Do you know the origin of the language you want to learn? You should. The point here is, the smarter choice is to change the anchor and use one language to learn another, that is the key point. If your native language is not english and you are reading this, so you could try to learn another Germanic language using English as your Anchor, try German for example.

There are two great benefits here. First of them, you will make things easier to you, once you are picking the smarter way, you will use running to learn how to become a cyclist and not Judo, so you will have more chances to reach your goal in a shorter period of time.

Benefit number two, you will be improving the language number one, or, your anchor. Once your Anchor is not your native language, you need to improve it. Doing this, you will reach double results with the same time and effort.

Just be careful, if you want to chose a foreign language as your anchor, sou you must manage this language very well, you need to be comfortable with this language! otherwise you will face a dangerous trouble. You will mix the structures and make your way harder and that is not the smarter choice.

A personal example. I have been studying Spanish since I was a child, so it is a very comfortable language to me, then, when I started to learn French I simply used Spanish as my Anchor, and this is not the first time. English was my Anchor to learn German. When I teach German to Brazilian students I use English (instead of Portuguese) as the Anchor too (when it is possible, of course).

Now, let me give an example that you should avoid. I studied Romanian a few months ago, but I quit, anyway, something about this language still remains inside my mind, now, imagine that I want to learn Italian (Language that I don’t speak), so, if I use Romanian as an Anchor, I will make a bad choice. I will mix structures, vocabulary and it will be a bad experience. Your anchor needs to make you feel comfortable.

Good luck!