Thank you for your detailed commentary and for sharing your experiences with us!

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!