Today a friend told me about an app he’s developing that shows you where other language learners are in your vicinity and enables you to contact them to suggest a language exchange. You enter your details, including your native language(s) and the language(s) you’re learning, and it shows you if there’s anybody around who speaks the language you’re learning and is learning the language you speak.
It sounds like a great idea to me, and I thought something similar might be useful for speakers and learners of minority languages to find others who speak the same language. My friend, who is based in Zurich, is planning to develop such an app for Romansh speakers, and we might develop one for other languages like Welsh as well.
Does anybody know if any such apps already exist?
You might want to check out an app called HelloTalk
It’s for language learning and exchange.
http://www.hellotalk.com
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hellotalk/id557130558?l=zh&mt=8
(off topic)
Simon, have you tried language hunting?
http://languagehunters.org/
Oh my god, this is uncanny! I’ve been thinking about the same idea. Since I’ve found that learning an L2 from a friend who speaks that language is perhaps the most effective method for me, I’ve thought about how I might optimise linguistic fieldwork methods for language learning. I’m considering writing out some advice based on my new knowledge of field methods (I’ve just done my first course in it) on what you should do to learn from someone.
Also, did the Language Hunters just rip off Where Are Your Keys without acknowledgement?
Seems that hellotalk is a bit underused (seems that there are only 3 users in all of Australia, including me) and for some reason limits itself to a small selection of languages.