MyLanguageExchange is an old-school resource for finding someone to practice your target language with. The program guides you through finding a language partner and having a productive exchange.
Though it’s free to join, the database doesn’t become useful unless you subscribe to the Gold membership. This gives you thousands of potential language partners to chat with.
MyLanguageExchange claims to be the world’s largest language exchange community, with over three million members. Founded in 2000, it’s also one of the oldest—something that’s quite apparent from the 2000s era website design and the proud claim of “as seen in Yahoo! Internet Life magazine, January 2001.”
The program is a database goldmine of interested language learners in nearly every language you can imagine. Exchanges are supported by a proven language exchange method (more on this in a bit), a powerful search engine and helpful features to ensure that your exchange sessions go well.
The website’s goal is to connect language learners and teach them how to have an exchange that benefits everyone. So they offer a how-to guide, exchange session ideas and more that you can use.
How to Find a Language Exchange Partner on MyLanguageExchange
The member search lets you look for a partner by native language and the language they’re learning. There are also filters for age, gender, city, country and more. If you prefer one contact method over another, you can search for partners based on whether they’re interested in text, email, voice or in-person exchanges.
You can even sort the results by login date, to make it easier to find someone who’s been recently active on the website.
I did a few searches for a Japanese speaker looking to learn English and got almost 12,000 pages of results. Narrowing it down to people who live in NYC still turned up three pages of options if I were interested in an in-person exchange. I also had no problems finding Japanese speakers who live in the area that I’ll be visiting on a trip to Japan this year.
But all these features are just out of reach unless you have a Gold membership. The only contact you can have with other free members is an exchange of “Hi!”s.
You have a daily limit of 40 free “Hi!”s to show that you’re interested in starting a conversation with someone. Only Gold members can start conversations with other users. But if a Gold member contacts you, you’re able to respond.
There’s no way to tell if someone is a Gold member from their profile. So as a free user, you’re limited to sending out some hellos and hoping that someone will respond—or waiting for a Gold member to reach out to you.
But the good news is that waiting shouldn’t take too long. In the time that I was logged in to gather screenshots for this review, I had three people reach out to me.
MyLanguageExchange Features and How to Have a Successful Session
Their proven method of language exchange
MyLanguageExchange doesn’t just throw you into the deep end of language exchange and hope for the best. They have a how-to guide to successful language exchange using the Cormier method, developed by the website’s founders, Helene Cormier and Dan Yuen.
The guide takes you through how to make the most of your session to benefit everyone taking part, including info on how to prepare, what to do during the exchange and how to review following the exchange.
While all my experiences have been limited to one-on-one interactions, MyLanguageExchange actually recommends that you have groups of between two to four people in each session.
Built-in text and voice chat
There’s a text and voice chat (the latter is for Gold members only) available directly on the website. While you can easily move off the website to have your language exchange sessions—and from my experience, most users prefer to—there are built-in tools that you might find useful.
The text chat has a “Chat Companion,” where you’ll find lesson plans designed specifically for language exchange, a timer to let you know when it’s time to switch languages, a multi-language dictionary and a notepad. There’s also a way to add in accent marks, which is useful for Latin-based alphabets, but not for any languages that use a different form of writing.
Unless I was doing something wrong, there aren’t that many lesson plans. It seems that these lesson plans, activities and questions are meant to get you started and give you an idea of what to do, so you can progress according to what you and your partner(s) need.
Language-learning enhanced voice chat
The voice chat also has a translation option for over 130 languages. Rather than a phone call-style exchange, the voice chat works more like sending voice text messages. This takes some of the pressure off having to talk “in real-time,” giving you the chance to form your responses with more thought.
All that being said, if you choose to move off the website for your exchange, you’re on your own. Whether you use the built-in tools is up to you and your partner, but it’s nice to know that the option exists.
Language games and user-created lessons
Besides browsing user profiles, sending out hopeful “Hi!” pings and using the text and voice chat, MyLanguageExchange has a few other features. They’re far from the main attraction of the site, but they’re still worth a mention since they’re available if you want some variety.
There are a few word games like Hangman and Word Match, which are made by other users (you can make your own, too).
You can also find a number of lessons created by users. These are generally brief and to the point. Users can rate the lessons but the quality and number of available ones vary widely for each language.
There’s the “Club Library,” where you can find public notes taken by other users.
One more noteworthy feature is a listing of teachers and tutors if you want a more formal learning experience. Many of these are the teachers who created the lessons, so if you find one you like, it’s worth checking out who created it. You might be able to book a lesson with them.
There’s also a bulletin board, which looks like it works more like a classic internet forum. While it looks like it was widely used in the heyday of the website, I couldn’t find a single language that had been used within the past week.
Is It Safe to Talk to People on MyLanguageExchange?
For the most part, it seems that MyLanguageExchange is truly full of people who really want to study languages and meet native speakers.
Still, any time an online exchange occurs between people, there’s always the risk of poor behavior or harassment. I personally never had a bad experience with this program, but in my research, I found at least one instance of someone just starting a chat to ask for “pics.”
The website is strict about being only for language exchange. Not only is abuse and harassment not allowed, but neither is advertising or recruiting of any kind. The platform strives to be a safe space for all its users.
While there doesn’t seem to be a way to easily report a user, you can easily block them. If you want to report a disruptive user, you’re encouraged to use the built-in contact form. I personally like this compromise, because people can sometimes get trigger-happy on “report” buttons—reporting users who disagree with them, for instance—instead of having a legitimate issue.
How to Use MyLanguageExchange: My Journey Using It to Learn Japanese
We’ve explored the features of MyLanguageExchange, but how does it feel to actually use it? I’ve used the program several times in the past years, always with great results.
When I first joined, I sent out many “Hi!” messages, as the website suggests. A bit surprisingly, this actually worked! Of course, there were plenty of misses that didn’t go beyond the quick hi, but a large handful of people actually responded or initiated conversation themselves.
Some of the conversations didn’t get off the ground, petering out after a few messages back and forth. But you can’t expect to get along with every person you meet.
The conversations that did flourish were memorable and informative.
I got to chat with a wonderful young lady living in Tokyo, who had just had her first baby. From her, I learned about Japanese culture—like birthing and naming rituals—and we continued to chat for about a year through LINE before eventually falling out of touch.
I also made a connection with an older man from Osaka over email who delighted in telling me about his travels around the country on his beloved bike, checking out onsens and foot baths. He taught me that, unlike what my textbooks taught me, sometimes it’s okay to refer to someone as “-chan” even if they’re three times your age.
There were many other conversations, but the main takeaway was this: MyLanguageExchange is a community of language learners of all ages and from all walks of life.
I found it especially useful to study on my own, and then use what I learned when chatting with my language partners. For instance, every time I learned new words or grammar from other language learning apps, I used them in chat and asked if I was doing it correctly. I also got help when I came across a word I didn’t understand in a book I was reading.
I also took notes from our chats and looked up anything new I learned on FluentU. This allowed me to see my newly learned words and concepts in even more context, from more native speakers.
FluentU takes authentic videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.
You can try FluentU for free for 2 weeks. Check out the website or download the iOS app or Android app.
In short, MyLanguageExchange is most useful when it’s used with your regular learning programs and routines. It’s a great way to reinforce what you learned with actual native speakers.
How Much Does MyLanguageExchange Cost?
MyLanguageExchange is free to use, but you’re limited to sending a few “Hi”s daily unless you subscribe to the Gold membership.
The Gold membership costs $5.99 for one month, $11.99 for three months or $23.99 for one year.
HelloTalk is a language exchange app similar to MyLanguageExchange, but there’s no web version. You can connect with native speakers by using the “Connect” feature, which lets you browse native speakers learning your native language.
There are many filters you can apply to find the right person—an age range, gender, country or region, “Serious” learner (someone who has been online very recently) and much more.
Pro members can also search for learners locally. I’ve used this feature and met one of my best friends in Lima, Peru. If you’ve given HelloTalk access to your location, this option will only show those whose locations match yours within a certain mile radius.
There are also loads of learning features within the app. You can join live discussions with native speakers and other learners—they’re led (normally) by a native speaker who just wants to meet more people, and each person can join with audio or video call to jump in and add their thoughts to the conversation.
You can also send audio messages, video calls and send images and gifts in the chat feature. And if there’s a word you don’t know in a message, you can get an instant translation.
Tandem is an app very similar to HelloTalk. You can set filters to find your ideal language partner and there’s the option to sort by region and city, so if you want to go local, you can.
There are chat and video call options, as well as a translation feature if you don’t understand a message. To help your language partner improve, you can send corrections to their messages by clicking on it and rewriting it the way you would say it as a native speaker. Tandem does the work of showing what you changed for you.
Unlike HelloTalk, Tandem reviews each profile before letting someone join. This can take up to seven days, but I was approved within two when I used it.
The beauty of the huge community on MyLanguageExchange is that if you’re not quite vibing with someone, there are plenty of other people using the website who might fit your learning style and goals better. My own partners provided very different points of view and language styles, and the exposure to native speakers was invaluable.
There are some important drawbacks to the platform.
For instance, some argue that having to pay to actually chat with people detracts from the feeling of community. Also, a number of unnecessary or unused features clutter up the site, and while there are built-in chatting tools, they aren’t a large enough draw to keep your conversations on the platform.
Still, MyLanguageExchange recognizes that someone who’s a native speaker might not necessarily be a good teacher. The guides, lessons and gentle nudges make this a good place to start if you’ve never done this before.
Don’t let the outdated style of the website throw you off. MyLanguageExchange is a great community of language learners looking for someone to learn with. You might find your next language learning buddy on MyLanguageExchange, but you might also find a friend for life.
And One More Thing...
If you dig the idea of learning on your own time from the comfort of your smart device with real-life authentic language content, you'll love using FluentU.
With FluentU, you'll learn real languages—as they're spoken by native speakers. FluentU has a wide variety of videos as you can see here:
FluentU has interactive captions that let you tap on any word to see an image, definition, audio and useful examples. Now native language content is within reach with interactive transcripts.
Didn't catch something? Go back and listen again. Missed a word? Hover your mouse over the subtitles to instantly view definitions.
And FluentU always keeps track of vocabulary that you’re learning. It gives you extra practice with difficult words—and reminds you when it’s time to review what you’ve learned. You get a truly personalized experience.
