The Famous "Tandem"

To go to an academy, to watch original version movies, to work with native people, to read the local newspaper... there are many ways to improve and practice a language. One that I find really interesting is what is popularly known as “to do tandem”.

Probably many people already know what it consists of. It's kind of a deal made between two people who want to practice each other's language. It's a Quid Pro Quo situation or a win-win situation, it means, I help you and you help me. For example:

As good a time as any to show my great painting skills. Anyway, the message is clear. The idea is to meet often with the other person in a cafeteria, a park or wherever, and chat. In my opinion, a tandem doesn't work to learn a language from 0. I think it's necessary to have a minimum knowledge of the language that one wants to practice, otherwise it will be impossible for the communication to flow. Of course you can try it, but the effort and difficulty to keep that tandem would be much bigger. It will always be better to have at least a slight idea. I also recommend to follow a few guidelines to take it a little bit more seriously; like for instance to talk 30 minutes in one language and other 30 minutes in the other, to do “the 10 lightning minutes” where you correct each other in every single word or to choose a topic and focus exclusively on the vocabulary of that topic. It's good to structure a bit the tandem, but it's not like a class either, it's much more spontaneous and natural. Something that I used to do with my friends was to have conversations in two languages at the same time. For example, each one speaks only in his/her mother tongue, Spanish in my case; we have to pay attention to see if the conversation makes sense. It's a good way to see if we can understand what the other person is saying. Or also if I speak only in English for example, the other person has to answer me in Spanish and like that we both practice. It seems chaotic, but the truth is that it helps a lot to improve in comprehension.

What is cool about tandems is that they are really easy to get, because there are many people who find them useful and interesting. Therefore if you don't know any native person who can practice with you, but you would like to meet one, it's pretty simple. Naturally it will always depends on where do you live, but there are several means in most of the cities. The easiest is to go to “International bars” or “Erasmus bars”, many of which already organize special days actually to do tandem. There it's easy to get a “language buddy”, so to speak. If not, there is also the typical classified ads website that most of the cities usually have. You just have to post a little ad explaining what is what you are looking for and wait for an answer. With both systems I have always found great tandem buddies, some of whom became my friends. But I have to say that you need to be really clear in what you are looking for in your ad, because even though I had always been VERY clear, I had more than just one “peculiar” answer. We don't want surprises!

Although, no matter what happens, I can't help wondering: will there be as many Pierres in France as Klauses in Germany?

Spanish Post