Language exchange is a great way to improve your Spanish language skills while you are in Spain.
How does it work?
Person A is Spanish from Seville and would like to learn Russian.
Person B is Russian from Moscow and is currently studying Spanish in Spain – at a school in Seville!
Well, the two people decide to meet and engage in discussions. They speak for a half hour in Russian and then for the next half hour in Spanish, or however they decide.
All in the spirit of exchanging their languages and helping each other improve their language skills.
Brilliant no?
More and more Spanish locals study a second language and often would love the opportunity to practice with native speakers of that language i.e. international students who are in Spain. In many Spanish cities, you find more and more social groups, clubs, events and hangouts specifically dedicated to language exchange.
These events provide a great opportunity to mingle with locals and improve your Spanish all while discovering the Spanish culture and sharing your own.
However, if you would like to start slowly and gain some confidence before attending one of these gatherings, you could try to find a single language exchange partner in Spain to practice your Spanish one-on-one .
To get you started, here are a few language exchange websites that are generally popular in Spain and used by many Spanish locals:
1. Conversation Exchange – A great no-frills site that is to the point. It focuses only on language exchange and provides a simple and straightforward platform to use in order for you to find the ideal language exchange partner that suits your needs and level in Spanish.
2. Interpals.net – A visually dynamic site with elaborate profile options and settings. The search engine can be programmed to search by country and city so it makes it easier and quicker to find a language partner in your specific city in Spain.
3. The Mixxer – This site has a quirky blogging concept. Users can write blog posts in the language that they are studying to be openly corrected by native speakers of the language. It is a great way to get interactive feedback from a native Spanish speaker.
4. Polyglotclub – An extremely social and highly interactive website with the option of creating language exchange and cultural events in your city in Spain. You can also engage in open and collective conversations about culture, language and life, in the language that you are studying (Spanish) – with native speakers and others like you who are also studying the language.
All the above websites are free for you to register and create a profile.
To sign up all you need is a valid email address and the motivation to start exchanging your native language for Spanish with a Spanish person living in your city in Spain!
And once you gain more confidence, you could take a deeper plunge into the grander world of language exchange events in your local Spanish city.
