Language Exchange Subforum

[linguaholic]

I was wondering if someone would be interested in having a language exchange subforum for every language? In this forum, people that are interested in the language could ask for a language exchange in language X and then exchange e-mail address, Skype, MSN and so on.

Let me know what you think about it.

regards

Linguaholic

[pcgamer]

Excuse my ignorance, but I don't quite understand what you mean here. Can you please elaborate it a bit? I would like to know more about what you have in mind

[linguaholic]

Sure wowtgp! I am sorry that I did not make myself clear here!

So what I have in mind is to create a place where one could ask for a language buddy. So, for instance, someone who is studying Korean probably would like to make some korean friends. So this kind of forum would enable them to ask (and hopefully find) some language exchange partners (people who speak korean in this case here)

In this forum, members who are searching a language exchange partner could just write something like this:

"Hey, my name is Marcel, I am 28 years old and I am currently studying Korean. I would love to make some Korean friends in order to practice speaking some more Korean. My skype name is: xxx and my msn address is xxxxx. Please add me if you have some interest in language exchange. I can teach you German and French in return!"

You got me now wowtgp??? :wacky: Hopefully yes

regards

Marcel

[pcgamer]

I got it now. It's an amazing idea. I for one would like to make some French buddies who can hopefully help me out with this language

[kitkat0124]

That's a great idea. I think the only problem will be the time difference because of the location. But if you really want to learn then you'll find ways or time. right? This is good.

[deyvion]

It sounds like a very good idea! Hopefully more members with more diversity in languages will join, and this can become a very great thing

[Dieselfit]

It's a great idea. Maybe there could be some sort of chatting service here instead of going outside to MSN or skype?

[linguaholic]

Of course it would be possible to integrate a chat. I have been thinking about this for quite a long time and I decided against it. Why? The main focus and aim of this forum are language learning and all kind of questions and thoughts about languages. All the members benefit from each other as everybody can see all the posts in all the forums. If I would integrate a chat function, people would be most likely just talk about different things and even if they would talk about linguistics and such, the majority of people here could not benefit from it. By integrating a language exchange forum, it will still be very easy for members to make friends and exchange skype/msn/telephone number etc./ and then they can get to know each other better using PM's on linguaholic.com or maybe talk to each other in Skype or so. I do encourage people to make friends here but all the conversations that are not about languages should be led somewhere else or in PM's.

Moreover, a chat service Eats tons of resources. Now we are counting 200 members here and that would still be ok. However, in a year or two, the community will most likely count 1000-3000 members or even more and it would cost a fortune to get all the chat conversations going (would need several servers to maintain it).

Hopefully you can all understand why a chat is not a good option for this place here!

regards

Marcel

[limon]

Much as I hate to say it, I agree that chat is not a great idea. It requires a lot of moderation or it can turn into a cesspool almost instantly with one or two obnoxious users.

[bonniea]

What a great idea. That would really help forum members a lot. I think it would be widely used.

[Victor Leigh]

Good idea. Except for the name. Perhaps if you call it Study Buddy, then it's meaning would be all the more obvious. Myself, I can do with a Study Buddy for Arabic. Anyone?

[jodig]

That would be really cool. A language exchange subforum would take this forum to a next level, in my opinion. I'd like to see that!

[linguaholic]

I did not forget about implementing this kind of thing. It's definitely "in the pipeline" and will be added soon.

[caparica007]

Only now I saw this, I think it's a great idea, I don't know if it will be a success or not. The forums for practicing languages are not very busy and also I've exchanged a FB contact with a member here to practice Spanish at her request, but then she didn't wanted to practice much lol.

The chat would be easier maybe, let's see how it goes, good ideas! 

[hoodoowytch]

GREAT IDEA! A language exchange buddy! Actually, this is often how people who want to learn ASL, (or any form of sign language for that matter), is they look for a deaf friend(s) to sign with. Sort of the same idea of immersing yourself in a culture enough to learn the language. Very cool idea. Looking forward to it.

[Verba]

This is really a brilliant idea since my colleagues and I who are from different countries agreed that for one to effectively learn a language, practice is very important. We think that talking to a native speaker of a certain language will hone one's speaking and comprehension ability. It will speed up the learning process. So a language exchange buddy will serve this objective.

[Hexahedron]

Good idea! This would be a major help for anyone learning any language! Even more so for languages like French, which has a difficult and specific accent. It would also be a helpful and valuable resource for anyone learning any language. It would be really, really, great if you are able to do this OP! Hopefully we'll see this implemented this soon.

[linguaholic]

The language exchange subforum is already up and running. Please check the forum index again:=)

[Victor Leigh]

Just wondering. Is it possible to have a subforum where the exchanges actually take place on this forum? Like we can have, say, a Thai-English subforum where people who are good in English and want to learn Thai can have conversations with people who are good in Thai and want to learn English.

If this happens, I can volunteer for the Thai-English sub-forum because I know both Thai and English. How about that?

[languagelearner]

This is probably one of the best ideas ever. Can't wait to utilize this opportunity!