Jan
31
5 Questions to ask your Intercambio
I’ve been doing intercambios, off and on, for about three years, and in that time I’ve come across a lot of situations and spoken with a lot of people. While I consider all of these encounters learning experiences, there were some intercambios where I wish I had asked more questions from the outset.
Here are 5 key questions you should ask before the first meeting:
Question 1: Why do you want an intercambio? (Dating? Job? Help dealing with the future in-laws? Preparing for an exam? Just for fun?)
This question is so basic and obvious most people don’t bother to ask because many assume that the other person wants what they want — conversational practice. While this is true, often there are other underlying motivating factors, and if what’s motivating you (preparing for a test, let’s say) conflicts with the expectations of the other person (looking for a new girlfriend), it may be a short-lived partnership.
That’s not to say that divergent motivations can’t find a happy medium. But it’s better to know upfront the agenda of your prospective language partner.
Question 2: Have you ever done an intercambio before? What did you like or dislike about the experience?
The answer to these questions tells you whether or not there will be a likely fit or misfit between you and the other person. If you are an old hand at intercambios but the other person is not, be prepared for a little bit of handholding at the outset. Also, if the person tells you that their previous intercambio hogged the conversation or never came prepared with a topic, that also gives you useful information.
Question 3: How frequently can you meet and where?
Some people may want to meet twice a week while others only bi-weekly. While getting together with an intercambio can be a very enjoyable and social experience, meeting in a loud, dark and noisy venue is distracting and inevitably the conversation winds up being conducted primarily in just one language. My advice? Meet in a relatively quiet, well-lit environment first like a cafe or coffeeshop and save the drinks and bar hopping for later.
And if you are meeting online, via MSN Messenger, Skype or some other online service, be sure that you are clear on the time zone as well as the frequency with which you will meet. I’ve had intercambios assume that they could chat with me at length whenever they saw me online.
Question 4: Are you currently taking language classes?
Asking this question is a must, particularly when dealing with language partners who have a beginner to low-intermediate level, because some people are looking for free lessons. Obviously an intercambio is a perfect opportunity to clear up doubts or questions one may have about the language. But an intercambio should not be a class. It is a language exchange between two people willing and able to help one another with their respective native languages.
If it turns out that you or your partner needs more grammar knowledge or either one of you have a very limited vocabulary, be honest. Work on that aspect of your language skills before committing to an intercambio. It’s not fair to expect the other person to carry the burden of instructing you and vice versa.
Question 5: Do you want to be corrected?
Again, this is another obvious question but you’d be surprised at the number of people who don’t want to be corrected. They just want an opportunity to speak. If you’re OK with that, fine. Personally, I think that an intercambio without corrections is partially a waste of time, but to each his (or her) own. But there is a right way and a wrong way to correct someone. I’ll cover that in another entry in this blog.
What other questions would you add to this list?
Excellent posts on intercambios. I have been taking advantage of this opportunity for about five weeks, and it has been a tremendous boost in helping me to improve my overall comprehension of the language. I expect within the next month or two to have made as much progress via exchanges as I did during a five-week trip to Spain late last year, a trip that included several weeks of formal and informal instruction.
One of the reasons I decided to try exchanges is because all of my instructors in Spain told me that my major weakness was a clear lack of consistent conversational practice with native Spanish speakers. A friend in Spain recommended that I try exchanges, and it may be the best advice on improving my Spanish that I have received to date.
I have made several connections with language learners via The Mixxer and other sites, and with few exceptions I have had great experiences. Some of my language partners are strictly interested in conversational practice, some in receiving help with certain grammatical structures and expressions, and a few have been conducted completely via chat (text).
I have been fortunate enough to establish a partnership of sorts with a South American who has recently moved to an English speaking country. She is highly motivated to improve her English skills so that she can find an suitable job in her very technical field. We meet several times a week via Skype, occasionally just for conversation, and at times with specific objectives. For example, she may send me a YouTube clip of someone from her country speaking at a forum or on a news program, and my assignment will be to transcribe the first two minutes of the speech. Of course, this requires (at least for me!) repeated listenings, so I complete the exercise between meetings, send her my transcription, and then we go through it at the next meeting. I have also helped her with a cover letter for her resume which was how we managed the English portion of the exchange a couple of times. So with the right partner, an exchange can be very helpful. Neither one of us could afford five hours a week of private tutoring, but that is what we are accomplishing. And though I have to spend a total of two hours online in order to receive an hour of Spanish, I consider this a small price to pay. If I was meeting with someone in a physical location, I would like spend more than an hour preparing for and completing the round-trip.
One of my strangest experiences has been an exchange with someone who refused to speak to me in English. The reason she gave was that her English was very limited, but since she was unwilling to make the effort, I had no way of knowing if I could have helped or not. This obviously flies in the face of the very idea of an exchange, and I felt that it would be selfish of me to continue if she did not come around. She may have been intimidated because she thought my Spanish was somewhat stronger than her English. So as your blog suggests, a few questions up front can make it easier on both parties.
Since I prefer to practice during the day, I have frequently contacted people in Spain, including the Canary Islands. The time difference is six hours, and it is still late morning or early afternoon here (Philadelphia) by the time someone living there gets home from work. And vice versa for me with Mexico and some other countries that are several time zones behind ET. If I have some free time very late in the evening and wish to practice, I can log on to certain sites to see if an English learner is interested in an exchange at what may be a reasonable hour for that person.
Well, I’ve rambled on long enough. I highly recommend it, and only wish I had started sooner!
Hi Kedrick!
That situation with the lady who didn’t want to speak English, while odd, is actually rather typical. I’ve had that happen to me more than once and it can be extremely awkward. On one hand you think “Oh, goody!! More time spent talking in Spanish!” but then after a while it becomes really lopsided and seems very unfair. But as you noted, (and I’m so glad you emphasized this), there are plenty of good matches out there. If we don’t find the right fit the first time out, we just have to keep checking because we’re bound to find someone who we’ll have the right chemistry with.
Thank you for your detailed commentary and for sharing your experiences with us!
[...] 5 Questions to Ask Your Intercambio [...]
[...] Don’t know what an intercambio is or how to do one? Read this. [...]