This story was written on Oct. 8 by me.
Yesterday, a friend of mine told me that he had an American internet pal and they were discussing the complexity of Chinese grammar. I got curious and asked how they had become friends. It turned out that my friend saw a post seeking language exchange on an Internet forum, he contacted the author and then they started teaching each other their mother language.
I’ve heard a lot of cool stories about internet pals and language exchange, but never thought it as a practical medium for learning languages. “But wouldn’t lose anything if I try!” I thought to myself. I found the forum my friend talked about and submitted a post asking for language exchange. I didn’t get my hopes up and went to bed right away last night.
When I woke up this morning, I was surprised by the number of notifications on my phone. Three people commented under my post and four people messaged me directly—all looking for language exchange. I was thrilled! I was never expecting this many people to come to me! Now I’m busy replying them one by one. But hey, isn’t it great to chat with so many people from all over the world? This is just the beginning of my language exchange journey!
Michael Chuang 