How to SpeaQ With Me – Find a conversation partner

In the last blog post you learned about how the text and video chat works. In this post, we want to show you how to find a chat partner, so that you can take advantage of all the learning tools we built into the chat. If you are curious and maybe a little bit hesitant about how you can get to know other people, read on to see all the possibilities you have for meeting interesting chat partners on the platform.

The main page of the SpeaQ With Me app is designed to show you everyone who can help you learn your target language(s). Ideally this would be a native speaker, but there are also plenty of (we call them) expert speakers, who have already learned a language to a point where they are fluent and can share their knowledge with you.

When you log into the platform, your starting page is always the people page. This page gives you a quick overview over your possible chat partners. Maybe you already see somebody who seems interesting? If you speak more than one foreign language, you will see a mix of users that have at least one language in common. In this case, you might want to narrow down your choices. Of course, you could read through all the profile cards, but it might be easier for you to use the search tool to find the language and nationality you are looking for.

You can find the search on the top of the people page and when you go there you see the Basic Search. Here you are able to enter the language your desired chat partner should speak, and if you wish, you can also search based on his/her nationality. This could be helpful if you are learning a language that is spoken in a number of countries (like Spanish, English or German) and you want to learn a specific accent, or talk to someone about a specific culture.

Find who you are looking for

There is also the option to search a user by name. This is handy if you had a nice conversation with someone and remember their name, but forgot to add them as a friend the last time you talked.

Coming soon on the search tool, you will also be able to use the advanced search filters. We plan on adding filters such as ability level, age and gender, as well as profession and interests. These will help you find very specific chat partners if you want to talk about a specific topic.

If you regularly use SpeaQ With Me, you may have also noticed a new box at the top of the people page encouraging you to talk about one of your interests. This box works by randomly picking one of your interests and finding three users that share you interest who you can speak to. This is a great tool to find new conversation partners and start talking about the interests you share in common.

The recommended chat partners in this pop-up might not be online when you open it, but don’t let that stop you from getting in touch! If you send them a text message, they will be notified by e-mail saying they have a new message in their inbox. The same applies when other users try to contact you when you are offline. Think of it this way, maybe your perfect language exchange partner isn’t online right now but you can use a text message to suggest a time to chat later.

But if instant conversation is more your style, just keep an eye on the online users and talk to them first.

Starting a conversation

Let’s say you found an interesting user. Now comes the scary part: Talking to them!

We know this is not the easiest step for everyone and unfortunately, we can’t take that first step for you. But we promise you, it will be really rewarding once you get to know some users and start having conversations on a regular basis.

To make it a little bit easier for you, we have some suggestions on what you can write someone the first time:

-          Shortly introduce you:

o    “Hey, I’m _________.”,

o    “Hello __________, I am ___________”

-          Ask how they are doing:

o    “What’s up?”

o    “How are you?”

-          Explain which language you want to learn, or why:

o    “I would like to improve my English.”

o    “I don’t want to lose my Spanish knowledge.”

o    “I need to get better in French for my work.”

o    “I would like to spend a year in Australia and would like to practice English before.”

-          Address their interests:

o    “On your profile, you say you are interested in music. What kind of music do you like?”

o    “I saw you like traveling. Where have you been on your last vacation?”

o    “You like pets. That’s awesome, me too. I have a _____________.”

We could go on and on and you probably know what you like to talk about anyway. Just give yourself that little push and start.

And if you are still worried that you might end up having some small talk and then the conversation slowly fades, have another look at their interests or use the conversation topics you find in the chat section. Maybe you’ll find questions you haven’t thought about and end up having a great discussion. By the way, it is also much easier to keep a conversation going if you can see the other person. So, give it a try!

I hope I could give you some inspiration and motivation to go ahead and speak with a native on SpeaQ With Me. If you have any further questions, feel free to contact any of us directly on the platform or write us an e-mail to support@speaqwith.me.

I wish you all the best for your language learning adventure.

Let’s start speaQing!

Kerstin