Would you meet a language learning partner in real life?

11 comments

1. No.

2. Yeah why not, I’ve made a few good friends that way over the years. If you’re unsure, you can always try doing a language exchange over the phone first in order to get to know them better!

3. I have one (male) friend who always used to go visit the (male) friends he made on HelloTalk. They lived in other parts of Japan so he’d take a whole plane ride down to go see them and stay with them and tourist around their city.

   I had another (female) friend who made a (male) language partner while studying abroad in Brazil. He wanted to meet up, but she was (rightfully) nervous, so they just texted for a few weeks, then moved on to voice calls, then video calls. Eventually she felt comfortable enough to meet up in person right before she left and they had a nice time. When she went to study abroad in Europe a few months later, he came to visit her. When he arrived they claimed they were “just friends,” but were officially dating by the end of his (month long) trip. They dated long distance for 5 years. They just got married and she just moved to Brazil to be with him.

   So plenty of stories exist of meeting up with language partners where the other person is perfectly nice. I would definitely take the approach of my Portuguese speaking friend though and very cautious and do lots of vetting first. I think dinner is fine, it’s arguably no more sketch than online dating, but personally I would have to be talking to someone for a *long* time before I’d be ok traveling to see them and even then I wouldn’t stay with them (unlike my friend)

4. I’ve done it a few times with people on Tandem. It was fine.

5. Go for it, it’s fun making new friends

6. I always do it, I really liked meeting up with the people I talked to, always a good time

7. I always have a few video calls before meeting in person. This is the time it takes me to judge whether the person is legitimately studying a language or they are there just for hooking up. I am a male and have met many guys and girls this way. No issues so far. But if you live in Japan, I would definitely avoid ladies around their 50s whose husband is away working “abroad”. I was born and raised in the big cities so I am good with judging sketchy situations. But if you consider your self naive with your judgments take extra care! If you are just looking for language exchange, I see no reason for the other side to push a meeting in person, right?

8. sure why not, i met at a book store weekly for a few years with one partner. i miss him now that he moved back to japan, we don’t zoom nearly as often as we used to meet in person.

9. Go for it. If your afraid for your safety then let others know where you are going and get them to check up on your after the meetup

10. I would totally do it, if it were not that I’m super shy.

11. It’s the best way. Real life language exchange can’t be beat. Just be aware that 10-20% of people use HelloTalk as a hookup app, of both genders. Which is fine. But you might accidentally land yourself in a date which can be uncomfortable