Best Places to Find German Language Exchange Partners
1. italki – German tutors
German teachers available: 200+
italki is an online language learning service that helps you find teachers from around the world. You can study one-on-one with native speakers who are either professionals or language enthusiasts. The platform enables you to take classes from the convenience of your home, cafe, or wherever you have an internet connection.
Signing up to italki is free, while the lessons, however, are not. Teachers are compensated in ITC, italki credits, 10 of which equal $1. Prices vary from teacher to teacher and can range from $5 to $35 per hour. Language tutors post their schedule online and the service makes it easy to sign up for classes.
2. Couchsurfing
Members: 2 million+
Many people who use Couchsurfing are searching for a place to sleep in a foreign city. However, what’s lesser known is that the website can also be helpful in finding language partners.
The majority of Couchsurfing members don’t actually host, but rather have their status set to “Coffee or a drink“. In the advanced search function you can find potential language partners simply by selecting your current city and setting “language” to your target language (in this case German). With over two million members on Couchsurfing, success is very likely. Plus, it’s free!
3. My Language Exchange
Native German speaking members: 1,090
MyLanguageExchange.com is a free service that helps connect like-minded language learners from all over the world. The platform has over 1 million members from more than 133 countries and features 115 languages that are being practiced, including German.
The main idea behind MLE is to find penpals to practice with via email. Besides that, the site also offers inbuilt text chat. Although voice and video chat is not part of the site itself, meeting native speakers to hang out with on Skype shouldn’t pose much of a problem.
4. The Mixxer
Members who speak German: ca. 2700
The Mixxer is a free educational site for language learners hosted by Dickinson College in Pennsylvania. Their service is designed to connect people around the globe for one-on-one language meetups via Skype.
The design of the website is very basic and puts functionality before decor. The plain look, however, should not distract from the fact that it hosts a large and active community of people eager to improve and practice their language skills.
5. Polyglot Club
Members who teach German: ca. 500
As the name suggests, this site is a gathering of people who can speak several languages each. The Polyglot Club has over 400,000 members, is completely free, and allows you to find other language enthusiasts in your city and attend regular club meetings.
It also makes it easy to find people nearby who teach your desired language and/or want to learn what you are offering. The site goes so far as to let you search for the type of chat software others are available on to make getting in contact with them even easier.
6. Tandempartner.net
Members offering German: 1,400+
The Germany-based service Tandempartner.net is actually part of a bigger network that helps users look for private tutors. However, it also comes with a search function for language partners. You can find partners for all sorts of language combinations and filter them based on location, age, gender, experience and availability.
Although the website is aimed at finding people on-site in Germany, it also has an “online tandem” check box for location-independent language exchanges. The basic usage of the service is free, but to contact potential language partners, users need a paid premium membership.
7. Tandem Partners
Members offering German: 5,600+
Despite the similarity in name, TandemPartners.org is not related to the previous resource. It is another free service that connects language learners with each other, and is quite substantial with over 30,000 members.
The usage of the site is straightforward: sign up, select source and target language, post an ad, browse for other members, meet and talk. A special feature of Tandempartners.org is that it offers its own integrated video chat instead of relying on Skype, as many of the other services do. At the moment the service is free of charge, but it looks like it might be monetized some time in the future – so get on it now!
8. Meetup
Members offering German: Unknown
Meetup.com is best known as a networking service to help people with similar interests form local communities. Luckily that includes language learning. Almost all major cities have language exchange groups available.
Many of these groups organize regular meetings, which you can join easily. It’s a good way not only to find language partners, but to get to know new people in general. You can also contact individual members to see if they are interested in partnering up for language classes.
9. InterNations
German-speaking members: Unknown
If you want to learn German but have no way of actually traveling to a German-speaking country, InterNations can help you find German speakers who decided to come to you instead. It is a networking platform for expats active in 190 countries and almost 400 cities.
People who choose to go abroad are usually open and happy to meet locals, make connections and share a bit of their own culture, so establishing contacts should be easy enough. The service is free, however, new members have to be approved. Besides InterNations, other local expat organizations are also a good place to look.
10. Craigslist
Craigslist is not just for selling furniture or finding roommates. With its international presence, the site is a great way to find language partners. The “Community” section is a good place to look for existing German conversation tables or language exchange ads. Craislist is also a great place to look for German tutors if you want lessons, but don’t want to teach one yourself in exchange.
Good keywords to use in your ad are “language exchange” or “language partner” in both English and German. Don’t forget to mention which languages you are offering, as that is what others will be searching for. Apart from that, keep your eyes peeled for the classifieds section in local magazines or online directories, as these are usually good addresses too.
Resources for Practicing German Conversation
If you’re nervous to start meeting with your language exchange partner, don’t worry! Your partner will probably be nervous as well — everyone’s still learning, after all!
If you’d like to make sure you’re a little extra prepared for your first meeting, you should brush up on your German grammar and some key vocabulary. Getting some listening practice is also a good way to make you feel more confident about understanding your partner.
You can use resources like podcasts, vlogs and other content featuring dialogues. Make sure you aim for content that uses realistic speech. Try to see if you could pick up some good ideas for conversation as well, especially topics relevant to German culture.
You could also use the language learning program FluentU. It features video clips from authentic German media along with effective learning tools like interactive subtitles, downloadable transcripts, flashcards and personalized vocabulary quizzes.
So, now you know how to make German friends online, and how to prepare for your conversations. Practice as much as needed so that you can set off a good first impression. But remember that you don’t have to cram everything and anything German into your head.
Just learn enough so that you can flow through an easy conversation–your efforts will be appreciated, just as you would appreciate your language partner’s.
Once you feel ready to talk to a real native German speaker, language exchange resources like those above will be there to get you started!
