CONVERSATIONAL

EXCHANGE
Prepared
Prepared By:
By:
RICHEN
RICHEN B.
B. REPOLLES
REPOLLES
KIARA
KIARA CAMILLE
CAMILLE R.
R. BANARES
BANARES
MARIA
MARIA SWEDEN
SWEDEN DAVID
DAVID
 Conversation Exchange:
The Ultimate Guide

The answer to enjoying language

learning

Have you ever noticed that the

easiest way to learn something
effortlessly is to enjoy what you are
learning? The main barrier for people to
learn foreign languages is that they need
to make everyday efforts: practice every
day memorizing new words and various
expressions. This process can seem very
boring at times and requires significant
contribution of concentration and time.
 One of the hardest things about learning a language is that most of the
vocabulary you acquire by reading, writing and practicing other exercises is
passive and does not allow you to automatically speak conversationally. In
order to turn the passive lexics into active knowledge you need a way to
practice all of the words, expressions, and grammar that you’ve learned.
 So, how do you make it fun
and effective at the same
time? The best way is to
practice speaking online with
a native speaker through a
language exchange
conversation, or a
conversation exchange.
 Conversation exchange is a way to
practice the language you would like to learn
with a native speaker of that language, who,
What is in his or her turn, learns the language that you
conversation speak fluently. Let’s say you speak English
exchange? and want to learn French and you want to find
a language partner for your French
conversation exchange. At the same time,
there are many French people who would like
to improve their English skills. They are eager
and happy to practice with you. As you can
see, this is the win-win strategy, when you
both benefit from this French English
conversation.
 You can build the training process in different
ways. First, you can speak the languages you are
learning by order, one after another. For example,
you are speaking English for 20 minutes, and then
you are practicing French also 20 minutes.
Second, everyone can try speaking only the
language he is learning. In this way, you will say
something in French, and your French language
partner will answer in English. Have you ever
tried it? It is really fun!
Why do SOME LANGUAGE LEARNERS

conversation TEND TO AVOID

CONVERSATION EXCHANGE OR
HOWEVER, ONLINE
CONVERSATION EXCHANGE IS
exchange?
DO IT VERY RARELY. THEY CAN
HAVE SOME BARRIERS OR
CONSIDERED TO BE THE MOST
DOUBTS TO START, FOR BENEFICIAL AND INTERESTING
EXAMPLE, THEY ARE AFRAID TO LANGUAGE PRACTICE TO DO. IT IS
LOOK STUPID WHEN THEY ACTUALLY A CORE LANGUAGE
HAVE PROBLEMS WITH
SPEAKING, OR THEY JUST
PRACTICE WHICH IS REALLY TO
DON’T KNOW WHAT TO TALK BOOST ONE’S LANGUAGE
ABOUT. PROGRESS. HERE ARE SOME OF
THE REASONS:
 Practicing with a native speaker
helps you train your listening and
speaking skills at the same time.
Speaking skills include not only
transforming your passive vocabulary
1. Active into active, but also pronunciation
practice. Moreover, you learn new
Language words and expressions from your
language partner. It is much easier to

Practice memorize them through a live

conversation, than through reading,
because usually your brain perfectly
links the new word to the situation
from your real life.
 2. Networking
During the language swap you certainly
make new friends and connections. It can even
be useful for your professional life, as it is
always a big asset to have friends around the
world. Besides this, there is a belief that we
never meet someone without any purpose.
Every person teaches us something in our life.
Two friends are joyfully walking on rails.
Conversation exchange practice makes people
closer.
 Do you like to discuss the things that
you like with your friends? For example,
sharing your thoughts about a book or
movie, discussing the latest sports news or
talking about your favorite cars. Why not
3. Sharing make a little effort and do the same but in
your target language? This will become
your interests much easier with a new smart language
exchange app Bilingua which is going to
provide the possibility to find a language
buddy with similar interests to your own.
The app is now available in its early Beta,
and it is possible to test it and leave your
feedback.
 4. Acquiring New Knowledge

By actively engaging in a linguistic exchange

process with a partner, you will not only enhance
your learning of a new language, but also enrich
your general knowledge and learn new things
about different cultures. For this, you just need to
have in mind several conversation exchange topics
that will interest you both. Also, it is important to
establish good relationships with your partner, in
order to feel free and comfortable during the
conversation. Then you both will be more open
and will be able to share more interesting things.
 Remember that during the
5. Emotional conversation, you are not only giving
Exchange the language for exchange, but also
your emotions. You will always feel
happier especially after speaking with a
positive and energetic person. It is
much more fun than practicing alone!
When you talk to someone, you really
feel connected.
Native Speakers: How to Find
Them?
 Some language learners tend to
avoid conversation exchange or do it
very rarely. They can have some
barriers or doubts to start, for
example, they are afraid to look
stupid when they have problems with
speaking, or they just don’t know
what to talk about.
However, online conversation
exchange is considered to be the most
beneficial and interesting language
practice to do. It is actually a core
language practice which is really to
boost one’s language progress. Here
are some of the reasons:
 One obstacle many beginner
language learners face is the
difficulty in finding native speakers
to practice with: many of them are
not interested in working as
‘language trainers’ for free. So, in
order to engage in free conversation
with native speakers, you need to
intrigue their interest somehow.

Here are the five ways you can try:

 1. Find a
Friend/Lover
If you occasionally meet a
native speaker of your target
language, don’t be shy and show
them what an interesting person
you are! Tell them about your
hobbies and interests and you
might find you have mutual
interests and have many
common topics to talk about.
You may even become friends
or a couple, then the frequent
language
practice is included!
 In any big city, there are always some
foreigners who’ve come to visit a country
2. Meet or have relocated. They usually tend to
find locals who are open to foreigners and
Natives can speak their language. So, they go and
join a local language learning community
Speakers-  to teach the language as volunteers. The
community members really love them
Volunteers and give them so much attention in
return. If you come to the community
meeting, you can be confident that those
people, including the native speakers, will
be glad to talk and become friends with
you!
The easiest and most convenient way is to practice online.
In the past, finding a native speaker was a really huge
challenge, but not anymore. With Bilingua, people will be
able to find language partners and chat with them for free.

3. Use a
Conversation
This app is going to be released soon and will
be easily downloadable for free, for Android and
Exchange App
iOS. It will help you overcome the language barrier
very soon and develop your foreign language
fluency with minimum efforts. Moreover, as an
outcome, you are likely to find new friends there
and learn something interesting about their
countries. Consequently, you will not only improve
your speaking skills, but also expand your
knowledge, broaden your cultural horizons and
make amazing friends! Just don’t forget to 
leave your email to get notified about the app’s
launch.
 One more option to find native speakers is
to host them at your place through 
Couchsurfing. You can also meet, guide or
offer some help to those who are visiting your
city for the first time. You can even be paid for
it, if you use services like Meetngreetme. In
both cases you spend plenty of time with your
guest and therefore have ample time to
converse. He or she will be very grateful for
your assistance and will definitely reward you
with very good language practice!
4. Guide, Host,
Help
 5. Travel & Communicate with Locals
And the last piece of advice for
you. When you are visiting the
country where people speak the
language you are learning, don’t
miss the chance to benefit from
communication with local
salespeople, waiters and other
service personnel. They are willing
to talk to you for ages with the
intention of selling you their goods
or services, no matter which
language level you have!
 OK, What to Talk About?
When you have found your language
buddy in the language exchange app, you
may face the next little problem: how to
start a conversation?
Well, we’ve got the answer. Apply these
conversational topics and you will see how
your language exchange experience will be
improved. First, we are going to tell you
how to start a conversation with your new
partner. Then, we’ll share some magic
conversational topics to get the discussion
flowing!
 3 major tips for the
beginning of a speaking
practice online

Warm Up

First of all, you need

to establish mutual trust and
overcome the initial shyness. For
this step, only simple questions are
appropriate, you just need to get
your buddy talking more.
Find common points of interest
Here are 3 tips to help:
1. Show Your Attention
Tell your conversational
partner what you like in his /
her: appearance, way of
speaking, accent, clothing,
background, voice, picture,
etc. Then ask: ‘Where did you
get this …?’ or ‘How did you
learn this …?’ This should
make your partner delighted
and more open to the further
conversation.
 Ask what he / she did
or is going to do today.
2. Demonstrate Your partner might
mention some activity
Your Interest that is also interesting to
you, and you might
continue talking about it.
 For example, ask what he
Learn /she ate or is going to eat
something today. This question can be
interesting to discuss for
more people from different cultures.
Besides this, you are likely to
specific learn new words.
After you have warmed up, turn to
more serious discussion and
cover topics of your mutual interest:
• hobbies Start to
• latest world news
exchange
• cultural differences
• professional interests
knowledge
• directly language learning issues
(grammar, pronunciation, idioms)
 4 Topics for Regular Conversation Exchange

What to do when you have already talked about

everything, but you both still need to practice regularly?
The following four ideas are not only useful to
continue language practice, but also help you build really
good relationships with your language partner.
1. ‘My daily report’

Present to your partner 10 positive things you have experienced that day
or that week (depending on how often you want to practice). With this
exercise, you are not only sharing the joy and practicing a big range of useful
words. If you do this exercise every day with somebody, your brain develops
a very good habit: to notice and focus on positive things in your daily
activity. Thus, your life will also become happier. Just try this!
 We always like to know our
2. ‘My 3 friends’ news and ‘spy on their life’.
greatest news That is why we have a habit to
scroll social media news feed every
of the day / day. On the other hand, everyone
week’ likes to share good news. So, this
topic usually works well.
 3. ‘My biggest
accomplishment of the
day / week’
Here you can just brag a bit and get some
appraisal from your partner.
 4. ‘What I’ve learnt
today’
Every day we learn new things,
no matter small or big. This is how
our life is going. Why not to pay
attention on this? Your partner
may laugh at you if you tell him,
you’ve learnt something obvious,
or he can be glad to learn
something new from you, too.
 The key to the above
steps and for the best
conversations is to always
ask open-ended follow up
questions! What, When,
How, Why, Who are great,
while closed (yes/no)
questions are to be avoided.
THANK
YOU!