Language exchange partners are my favorite way for practicing Czech when not in the Czech Republic. You can read textbooks and do workbooks until you are blue in the face, but it's practicing speaking Czech that will drill it into your brain. A language isn't just so many scribbles on a piece of paper with consonants and vowels to be sounded out and formed into a sentence. It has intonation, rhythm, gestures, facial expressions, and cultural attitudes. The best way to pick all of these up is by practicing face to face with a native speaker.
What is a language exchange?
A language exchange is meeting up with a native speaker of another language to help each other learn your respective languages. Unlike tutoring, a language exchange partner is not necessarily a teacher, just a native speaker that you can practice speaking with. Best of all, language exchanges are free since they're equal give and take.
The way I like to setup a language exchange relationship is to meet once a week at a coffee shop for a two hour time block. You spend one hour speaking English and one hour speaking Czech. You can practice whatever you like during this time, but I prefer to put away the textbooks and just speak with the person as if I were meeting a regular friend for coffee.
Don't worry if your language skills aren't advanced enough to carry on fluent conversations. Part of the fun is learning how to phrase things in Czech and learning new sayings and expressions that may not have exact counterparts in English. Just keep going, and don't worry if you have to break down into English at times to get your point across.
So then, where to find yourself a native Czech speaker if you're not in the Czech Republic?
I have been successful at finding language exchange partners through local universities. Most universities have international student centers, which often maintain programs for international students or their spouses to obtain help with English. The students themselves may be busy with coursework, but their spouses often are often very bored--especially if they lack sufficient English skills to get a job or take classes.
Either way, the international student center at your local university may be the perfect place to find yourself a native Czech speaker to set up a language exchange partnership with. I especially love going through universities because you often find better educated people to speak with.
As great a resource as local universities can be, depending on where you live you might contact them all and still strike out on finding a Czech speaker. Other places to look are local Czech cultural associations. The Czech Center maintains a list of links for Czechs in the U.S. You can also check sites like Meetup.com for Czech meetups in your area.
Get your Czech language exchange started today.
Here is your homework:
- Contact the international student center at nearby universities or search local Czech groups to find a native Czech speaker who you can setup a language exchange with.
- Schedule a weekly two-hour meeting (1 hour speaking English/1 hour speaking Czech) at a coffee shop or some place where the volume is low enough to converse comfortably.
Lastly, don't forget your English-Czech dictionary and notepad at your language exchange. You'll want to write down and remember new words and phrases you learn.
At the beginning, you want to focus most of your time on hearing natural language by native Czech speakers. Czech contains different sounds from English and pronounces letters differently than in English, so it's important that you get a feel for what the language sounds like before you spend much time reading it (how can you make the sounds in your head if you don't know what they sound like?).
