3 ms·

Another site, mylanguageexchange.com, has a similar service for connecting native speakers and learners, and it has a large user base. It has crude web-based t

by jgfoot 15y ago

Another site, mylanguageexchange.com, has a similar service for connecting native speakers and learners, and it has a large user base. It has crude web-based text chat built in, but many people just use the site to make connections and then talk to each other via an IM service of their choice.

frew 15y ago
Hey, I'm one of the cofounders. There are definitely a number of preexisting options in the space. We think that having to search profiles and schedule times is unnecessary work that takes up time you could be practicing your language. It's really fun to just jump in and chat, and feedback has been positive from users who have used both us and other language exchange sites.
- jcampbell1 15y ago
  I agree. I have tried various language exchanges, and picking a partner and scheduling things is an unnecessary distraction and time consuming. I am looking forward to when you offer chinese. You should schedule it for the evenings in the US, which is the morning in china. One potential problem you will face is that the time spent on each language needs to be balanced. I don't want to spend all my time teaching English, and then have the person hangup on me.
seanos 15y ago
A better alternative is sharedtalk.com, you can also do voice chat there. I use that a lot, but in general the pattern is just to use this type of site as an introduction at which point you exchange Skype or facebook user names and then switch to that for the long term language exchange. The real competition for this new site in my opinon, is therefore not any of these exchange sites, but Skype since the call quality is so much better than any flash based solution can achieve. They need to offer something special in order to retain long term users and not just be a site used to introduce language learners.

3 ms·

Another site, mylanguageexchange.com, has a similar service for connecting native speakers and learners, and it has a large user base. It has crude web-based t

by jgfoot 15y ago

frew 15y ago
Hey, I'm one of the cofounders. There are definitely a number of preexisting options in the space. We think that having to search profiles and schedule times is unnecessary work that takes up time you could be practicing your language. It's really fun to just jump in and chat, and feedback has been positive from users who have used both us and other language exchange sites.
- jcampbell1 15y ago
  I agree. I have tried various language exchanges, and picking a partner and scheduling things is an unnecessary distraction and time consuming. I am looking forward to when you offer chinese. You should schedule it for the evenings in the US, which is the morning in china. One potential problem you will face is that the time spent on each language needs to be balanced. I don't want to spend all my time teaching English, and then have the person hangup on me.
seanos 15y ago
A better alternative is sharedtalk.com, you can also do voice chat there. I use that a lot, but in general the pattern is just to use this type of site as an introduction at which point you exchange Skype or facebook user names and then switch to that for the long term language exchange. The real competition for this new site in my opinon, is therefore not any of these exchange sites, but Skype since the call quality is so much better than any flash based solution can achieve. They need to offer something special in order to retain long term users and not just be a site used to introduce language learners.