Getting started
1. If it is your first time meeting a person, introduce yourself and get to know the other person! Introducing yourself in the language you are learning never gets old and it is a great way to start a conversation with something you are more confident saying!
When getting to know people for the first time you can use the “FORD” method and ask them about the following topics:
F - family
O - occupation
R - recreation
D - dreams
Explanation and example questions: https://socialpronow.com/blog/ford-method/
2. If you already know the people in your conversation group, catch up! Find out how their week was, and tell them about something interesting that happened to you this past week.
3. After the small talk, you can go on to talk about the meeting topic. First, make sure everyone understands the topic and comes up with a definition together in both languages. Then you can talk about your personal experience, opinions, and ideas relating to the topic.
If you have done all that Try a language game!
Here are some of our top games:
20 Questions - one person in the group thinks of a person, animal, object etc. related to the topic. The other participants ask “yes or no” questions in turn until they can guess what the person is thinking of.
Don’t repeat! - On their turn, each person must write a word related to the topic in the chat. You cannot repeat the same word twice!
*bonus - try also creating a sentence with the word!
Secret agent - One of the participants thinks of two similar words, one is the “secret word” which is sent to the “secret agent” and the other is the word sent to the other participants. After sending the words to each participant via a personal chat message, in turn, each participant needs to describe their word in a sentence. After each round, the participants vote on who they think is the secret agent based on the descriptions. This continues until the agent is eliminated or is left with only one other participant (in which case the agent wins!)
Pictionary - Split into two teams and have one team member share a blank screen that can be drawn on. That team member needs to express a word given to them by a member of the other team by drawing. You can’t write words, only pictures, and symbols! The other members of the drawer's team need to guess the word as fast as possible!
Remember that the point is to practice your target language! Whenever you are writing or speaking during the games you should do your best to do so in your target language!
The key to a successful language exchange is being helpful and attentive. Encourage other participants to experiment and help them if they get stuck!