Does anyone else feel icky when it comes to language exchanges? I'm selfish and just wanted to find Koreans who wanted to speak to me in Korean.

How does one navigate exchanging a language when it feels more efficient to work for money and then exchange the money for language lessons 100% in the target language?

But then, how does one find friends when one is only ever paying for the language and natives' time? How does it ever stop being transactional?

I'm probably just way too jaded and need to take a deep breath. But I'd like people's thoughts.

Posted in: s/Language_Acquisition

🚀 StanStani

Mar 19 · 2 months ago · 👍 stack

8 Comments ↓

🚀 stack [mod] · Mar 19 at 04:38:

In the ideal world I can see dedicating some free time to help fellow humans... But I am surprised there is no barter site where you can accumulate tokens by helping others, which you can spend with a tutor of your choice...

🚀 lykso · Mar 19 at 15:01:

I imagine it'd be hard to detect cheating on that sort of barter style website.

🚀 stack [mod] · Mar 19 at 15:48:

@lykso: Really? I haven't thought it through, but it seems doable. The basic unit is time, say in 10-minute increments. You commit time to the system by spending it helping others, likely within the system using audio, video, or text (as timed by the system). The recipient can confirm and/or rate time received. You then have a credit with the system, to be spent on your favorite tutor's time.

Kind of like airline points. Perhaps you can even buy extra time if you need, or borrow if your credit is good.

In the ideal world you don't need to bother with such accounting. In a somewhat decent world you won't want to cheat. A determined psychopath will beat anything.

🚀 lykso · Mar 22 at 14:06:

Specifically, I'd expect it to become pretty common for people to set up two accounts in order to gain credits from having them "converse" with each other.

🚀 stack [mod] · Mar 22 at 17:44:

Ah, yes. But if it's zero-sum, one account gains only when the other pays. That is, if you want to teach yourself a lesson, you will have to pay yourself for it!

Credit could be extended; such risk management is well understood and can be ramped up as the 'credit rating' goes up. Someone will find ways to abuse it, same as anything, but it can be mitigated to keep the system stable enough.

🚀 algebra · Mar 24 at 05:22:

저도 한국어를 공부하는데요. ㅋㅋ

I've used Tandem to chat with Korean speakers. It's a site/app with a small subscription fee. I just start the conversation in Korean, and often it stays in Korean.

🐙 norayr · Mar 26 at 02:42:

i would just try to find korean forums and chats and blogs and would read those.

that's how i learned english. i had to read, and i had to write. and i wrote with lots of mistakes. but that's okay. more you are in that environment, more you learn.

also getting to know more about perception of the people who communicate in korean is fun.

🚀 lykso · Mar 31 at 01:51:

@stack I see. Credits are initially purchased but can then also be earned. I thought you meant they were created in that way too.