Learning a foreign language with a native speaker is much easier
As “Russkaya Germaniya” writes, at 24 years old, Katya Smirnova, who moved to Germany just four years ago, speaks English, German, French, and Spanish fluently and is now learning Portuguese. Moreover, when you talk to Katya, you can't help but get the impression that she has, if not friends, then at least very good acquaintances in every corner of our planet.
Katya does not consider herself a polyglot and even admits that she is quite lazy, so she does not like sitting with textbooks and cramming new topics and words. At first glance, this may seem like false modesty to some, and to others, like veiled boasting. But in reality, everything is much simpler.
While still living at home and studying at the Faculty of Journalism, Katya started working part-time, giving private Russian and English lessons to schoolchildren. She got so into the process that what was a good financial support during her student years became a hobby that brought incredible pleasure. After moving to Germany to study, Katya not only continued teaching Russian and English but also decided to learn new foreign languages in her free time. It turned out that in Germany this is much easier thanks to the practice of language tandems.
Inspired by Katya's example, I decided to test from my own experience how easy it is to find a language tandem and brush up on a foreign language.
What is a language tandem?
A language tandem, or learning a language in tandem, is a method of language learning based on forming a pair of speakers of different languages and subsequent language exchange between them. As a rule, both speakers, also called tandem partners, teach each other their native or foreign languages that they speak at a decent level.
It is worth noting that this method of learning a foreign language is actively used as part of the educational process in many language schools and universities. However, even if you have absolutely no teaching skills and the word “method” is associated with distant school days, this is no reason for disappointment.
How to find a tandem partner
Finding a tandem partner, at first glance, seems like a fairly simple task. Just type “Sprachtandem” or “Language Tandem” plus the name of the city where you live and plan to study the language into Facebook, and you will find many groups (mostly closed) consisting of like-minded people. But this method of selecting a tandem partner has its pitfalls.
I posted a fairly brief ad in two language groups on Facebook. The text was roughly like this: “Looking for a teacher of English and Italian, offering Russian (native speaker) and German.” It seems my fatal mistake was writing that I am a native Russian speaker. In one day, I received forty-two friend requests! No, not at all from Italians and native English speakers, but from Syrians, Pakistanis, Indians living in Germany, who for some reason were eager to learn not German, but Russian.
Sometimes the friend request was accompanied by a message that the person had once dated a Russian girl, but alas, they broke up, and his passion for the language (read: for Russian girls) had not yet faded. And someone was frank and immediately wrote that he was looking for a Russian girl, not a tandem partner.
After filtering out several dozen requests, I finally found a couple of people who really wanted to learn the language, not to improve their communication style with Russian girls. This was clear from the messages in which users indicated that it was important for them to improve their grammar and syntax, and some even specifically named topics they wanted to understand.
In the end, I arranged lessons with one Italian and one Finnish woman. As paradoxical as it may sound, both were interested in German. As for the idea of teaching Russian, nothing came of it.
Can the meeting place be changed?
Agreeing on the time and place of lessons is another, and for some, not entirely simple, stage in forming a language tandem. What is the difficulty of this stage?
If you and your tandem partner live and work close to each other, this greatly simplifies the task of agreeing on the time and place of lessons. However, if after preliminary agreement it turns out that you live an hour or even an hour and a half away from each other, then the tandem is likely doomed to failure. Indeed, who would want to make an extra hour's journey after work, for example, probably not knowing whether the lesson will be successful or not? Even if everything works out at first, the willingness to make such a trip every week, or even twice a week (here it all depends on your agreements and plans), just to study the language for another hour or two, is unlikely to last long.
It is also important to note that if the tandem partner lives in your city permanently, rather than coming for a limited time, the likelihood of successful and regular lessons is much higher. This is understandable. If a person came to Germany, for example, for a four-month internship, then, of course, they want to see as much of the city as possible, attend some cultural events, and visit neighboring cities. It is quite possible that you will arrange a lesson with them, and they will cancel it the day before or even on the same day because they decide to go to some closed screening of a documentary film. However, if this does not scare you and you believe that the key to success is not the regularity of lessons but their quality, then you can become a tandem partner even for such a language expert.
As for personal experience: while lessons with Simone, my Italian tandem partner, worked out right away, with Heidi, a girl from Finland who came to Germany for only six months as part of her project work, I never managed to meet in the two months since we agreed. The main reason was scheduling conflicts. If she couldn't study the language together on weekdays because she spent all evenings working on her project, I couldn't on weekends, which were planned out months in advance.
If you do manage to sort out time and distance, it's equally important to choose the right place for lessons. Obviously, a pub or a noisy bar is hardly suitable for a language tandem. It's better to opt for a quiet café where you can talk calmly and sort out the nuances between "Bären" and "Beeren" so that your language partner doesn't inadvertently get horrified that you ate a bear for dessert instead of berries. Believe me, that happens too – I've experienced it myself.
The atmosphere of the room also plays a significant role. Once we agreed to meet in a quiet café. Few people, friendly waiters, but the walls painted red and black created such a depressing atmosphere that we barely lasted an hour there. It was probably one of our least productive sessions.
If your goal is just conversation and learning new words, phrases, and idioms through that conversation, you don't necessarily have to meet in a café. In good weather, you can take a walk in the park and just chat about a given topic, telling each other more about the language you're studying and the mentality of its speakers. Such conversations are beneficial.
If you and your tandem partner share other common interests besides language learning, why not go together, for example, to a themed exhibition and then discuss it? While learning a language and teaching it to another person through conversation, you can also arrange city walks with historical insights, or self-guided museum tours if you're confident in your abilities. Moreover, games like "What? Where? When?" in different languages have become popular recently. You can attend such games together to fully immerse yourself in the language environment, where not only your teacher explains every unfamiliar word, but also other native speakers.
Tips for beginners
If you've just started learning a foreign language, be bold. You have nothing to fear! When I posted an ad in a Facebook group saying I wanted to learn Italian, I only knew a few stock phrases. I immediately confessed to my tandem partner that at first he wouldn't be able to chat with me easily in Italian, but I would try.
Of course, I should note that I was lucky with my teacher. He used to work with children at a school, teaching not Italian but drawing, but he has excellent teaching skills in general. For our first lesson, Simone brought printouts with colorful pictures, flowers, and the simplest Italian phrases that everything starts with. He showed incredible patience and respect for my terrible pronunciation of Italian phrases with a strong German accent.
If your tandem partner doesn't turn out to be a born teacher, it will probably be more difficult for you. In that case, it's important to clearly set goals at the very first lesson – or even before, during the coordination stage: what purpose you're learning the language for, what level you want to achieve, and within what timeframe.
The same goes for you: ask your potential tandem partner right away why they want to learn Russian, German, or the language you plan to teach. Believe me, it's better to read in a Facebook message that someone is eager to learn Russian because they have a passion for Russian girls, than to actually arrange a lesson and then waste an hour of your time listening to the story of their failed romance with a Russian girl.
It's also important to maintain balance during the lesson: the time devoted to each language should be divided equally. My main mistake was that initially we devoted more attention to German – simply because communication was in German, since my tandem partner already had a decent command of it.
But what if you and your tandem partner have just started learning each other's native languages? No matter how much proponents of the communicative teaching method claim that it's wonderful and you'll be fully immersed in the language environment, I would still advise looking for another teacher.
Imagine: your tandem partner will teach you Chinese, and you'll teach them Russian. Neither of you has studied the other's language before, and you have no third language for communication. I think it's clear.
It's a different story if you both speak, say, English fluently; then it can become the language of communication through which the explanation of Chinese, Russian, or another language will proceed.
Language tandem: pros and cons
Why should you prefer a language tandem over classic foreign language courses or private lessons? We see five reasons for this.
First, no textbook or course will teach you the conversational phrases and words from living speech that a native speaker possesses. Moreover, a native speaker can often explain why a particular word denotes that specific object, and tell its etymology (the history of the word's formation).
Secondly, if you have recently moved to a city or country, a language tandem is also a good way to find friends with similar interests and start exploring the new area together. Moreover, it is quite possible that someday you will visit your tandem partner's country, and they will be your guide or, at the very least, put together a tour plan for you to see the sights and places where you can taste the most delicious traditional dishes.
Thirdly, this kind of language learning doesn't cost a penny. You simply exchange your knowledge and can chat about various topics over a cup of coffee, just like meeting a friend.
Fourthly, in searching for places to study, you can discover interesting spots in the city, be it parks, picturesque streets, or cultural centers with exhibitions.
Fifthly, by learning the language, you automatically learn the culture, meaning traditions, customs, dishes, and find answers to some very simple questions that previously seemed unsolvable to you.
Only after starting to learn Italian with a native speaker did I understand why once in Italy, the hostess with whom I was staying overnight heated hot milk for breakfast, even though I had asked for latte. My tandem partner laughed for a long time, then explained that latte is milk, while caffè latte, which is not that popular in Italy compared to espresso, is what I actually meant. The hostess didn't speak English at all, and I didn't speak Italian at that time, so I ended up drinking a glass of hot milk for breakfast.
A language tandem is not your option for learning a language if:
• you prefer classic group lessons: with textbooks and a set curriculum;
• you are not inclined to self-organization and will often cancel sessions on your own initiative, finding a thousand and one excuses to justify it;
• you cannot force yourself to additionally and independently work on the grammar of the language you are learning;
• you find it difficult to quickly connect with a stranger and need a long time to get used to a tandem partner;
• you can only learn while sitting at a desk, not in cafes or parks;
• you are not ready to come up with new topics for discussion each time, and possibly new reasons for these topics: joint visits to exhibitions, museums, movie nights based on common interests with your language partner;
• you have come to the country for a short period (1-2 months): it will be very difficult to organize your leisure time and fit in everything you had planned.