1. Listen first, then talk! 

So here you are, on a language exchange website like SharedTalk or Verbling, where some speakers of your favorite foreign language are hanging out, just waiting for you to talk to them. Go ahead, talk! Brrrr, scary… I know.

I find it easier to listen (or read) for a bit first. So on SharedTalk (and other sites with group chat options), you can go to a chat room where people are already speaking French or Spanish or your favorite language, scroll back the chat window and read what they have just said, and then keep reading until you feel confident enough to say something. And on Verbling you can first listen to a few recorded classes and then work up enough chutzpah to talk to someone (that is, click on Community, then scroll  to the bottom page to Find Practice Partners and click Connect).

2. Talk to different people every day

It’s easier, of course, to stick to one or two people that you find first. But do make an effort and talk to one new person every week (at least). You’ll learn a lot more about your chosen language that way. Every language has a number of dialects and varieties that depend on age, profession, gender, and of course, location, so make sure that you are not learning only your friend Anita’s version of Spanish.

3. Use machine translation!

While you are chatting, open a machine translation tool in another window. It can be Google Translate, Babelfish, Paralink or another tool of your choice (see this Wikipedia article for more options). When you are at a loss for words, just type something in your native language, get the machine translation, edit it a little if you can, or simply paste it in and let your partner correct it.

4. Be prepared! Follow a script!

If you come to your chat window with a script in hand, your fear will dis-ap-pear!… well, it’ll take the edge off, anyway. And this way, it will be easier to practice different topics every time, instead of rehashing what you have said to other people before. So write a script for yourself, a “lesson plan”, as it were, at least a basic one. Say, for example, you want to improve your political vocabulary. Then something like this will work (translate it into the language you are studying):

You: Hi! I’d like to learn how to talk about politics better. Can we talk about politics?

Partner: Sure, why not! (If they refuse, suggest another script.)

You: Well, I just read on my favorite news website that Obama will seek a third presidential term. What do you think about that?

……

You can also role play a situation, for example, like this.

You: Hi! I need to learn how to talk to a customs officer. Can we role-play going through customs? Can you play a customs officer? Can you ask me questions?

Partner: Ok. Well, sir, do you have anything to declare today?

…..

If your practice language is English (and even if it isn’t), use sites like ESL Gold or ESL Library for inspiration. Both of those have great collections of lesson plans. MyLanguageExchange.com has lesson plans in several languages that can get you going (Lesson Plans is one of the options on the left of their home page).

5. Build a long-term strategy

Quantity will, no doubt, translate into quality, so it’s great if you can do a lot of listening, chatting, and reading in your favorite language without any particular plan in mind. But if you strategize, you’ll get there a lot faster. So make an online partner study plan for yourself.

A sample French online partner study plan I wrote for myself one day

Find at least 3 French penpals, and write them at least 5 lines every day. Send them machine translation results to edit. Ask them to correct letters I write to them and send me back the corrected versions.

Spend 15 minutes every day chatting to someone in French.

Once a week, prepare a script and meet with a partner for a long scripted session, 30 minutes in French alone.

Ok, stop reading now and make a plan for yourself if you don’t have one yet!

And if you have any questions or any other tips on getting the most out of language exchange websites, can you please share them? Thanks a bunch!