How to Structure a Language Tandem
The German verb ‘austauschen’ really sums it up. ‘Tauschen’ is an exchange where I get what you had and you get what I had, ‘austauschen’ is where we both get something but don’t lose anything. Nothing is given up. It’s win/win.
So how do you improve the chances of getting a real ‘Austausch’?
If you’re going to go into it in an unstructured way, it’ll probably fail. The fact is that your partner is not (yet, and may never be) your friend. If you think you are just going to sit down and hit it off and start chatting it’s not going to work. You run the risk of death by small talk.
Let’s imagine you want to learn German and the other person wants to practice their English. You have different objectives. Unless both objectives are satisfied, the tandem won’t last because one side is getting more out of it than the other side, therefore it needs a structure.
Let’s say you agree to meet for 90 minutes. Where are you going to meet? How about a café?
It’s all about telling stories. A story is not a discussion. You talk until you have finished. No interruptions. Clarifications perhaps, but not questions. Save these for the end. To start with, my partner tells me a story in German (his mother tongue) and when he is finished (and not before) I ask him questions in German.
If I needed a clarification, I’d repeat a word that I did not know. He’d do his best to explain it by finding another word that I did know or acting the word out.
When the story is finished, I ask him questions in German. (It helps if the story is interesting.) It’s OK to make notes while you are listening, to remind yourself of the questions you want to ask.
Then it was my turn. I’d tell him a story in English (my mother tongue) and he’d as me to clarify words and then he’d ask me questions at the end.
The advantage of this is that we were just getting going so it was more important to listen than to speak.
Now maybe you want to know what makes a good story. Everybody can tell a story. Some people are out of practice. The easiest stories to come up with are travel stories. And the best travel stories are where something goes wrong (but it’s alright in the end…). i.e. a kind of adventure. Now I’ve met a few people who have never had a bad trip — but I honestly find it hard to believe.
It’s important to follow some simple rules about storytelling. Just tell the damn story. Just say what happened. Don’t analyse it. Don’t make a summary of it. You’ve got something like 45 minutes before you have to switch over. That’s definitely enough time. Your partner is not going to cut you off. He/she is not going to start telling you their story. They are there to listen. (A bit like being in Alcoholics Anonymous) It’s good if the story has a beginning, a middle and an end — and something goes wrong, but then there is some kind of resolution. That’s all you need. You should figure out which story you’re going to tell before you get to the meeting.
This is a lot of fun. It won’t work with everybody, but you’ll soon find out.
So that’s stage 1.
Stage 2 is you tell a story in the language you are learning. Encourage the listener (for whom this is their native language) to correct you (kindly) by saying the right word, or the right phrase when you screw it up. If you don’t exactly know how to say something, then find a way around it and describe what you want to say the best you can. Your listener will tell you. Then you repeat the correction. This is mega important. Say the thing back again incorporating the correction.
Using this approach, the time is evenly divided. You can practice listening and questions, or you can practice speaking; all using stories. You will be amazed at how fast 90 minutes slips by.
Peter Merrick PhD
I run Language Pool where I offer the courses ‘Hammer the Grammar’ and ‘Scenario Learning’ for learners of German. Check it out.
