Spanish German Language Exchanges
Join an international community of language learners where online gatherings feel like real-life interaction
Meet the new era of language practice
Your community of language partners
Forget about the time-consuming task of looking for language partners. Meetlang gives you instant access to a community of trustworthy Spanish / German natives.
¿Hablas español? Sprechen Sie Deutsch?
Or maybe you speak both? Then you are in the right place. We arrange several exchanges per week between Spanish / German natives with intermediate levels (B1+) of their language target.
Organic interaction in an online setting
With Meetlang, you’ll discover a different and more enjoyable way to experience online language exchanges.
Move around to
meet people
Just like in a real-life venue, you have several conversations going on and you’re free to join the one that you want.
You define your own experience just by moving around with your mouse. To join a conversation, move closer to a circle. To leave it, move away. Simple as that.
With the technology of
In order to speak well,
you have to speak
Let me guess: you’ve been taking Spanish / German lessons for years now. You’ve been one or more times in the country. Duolingo is not a challenge for you anymore. You understand more than 50% of what you listen. You can even recite some grammar rules with your eyes closed.
But, somehow, after all this effort, you’re not able to speak with confidence. Sounds familiar?
Stop thinking that learning languages is not for you. That is not true! It’s just that, to get different results, you need to start doing things differently. And let’s be honest, how on earth are you supposed to improve your speaking if you don’t actually speak?
Meetlang exists to provide you with a supportive environment that encourages you to practice the language on a regular basis, while having fun and meeting like-minded people at the same time.
cancel whenever you want
Not sure? Join 1 meetup for free
24€ BILLED EVERY 3 MONTHS
36€ billed every 6 months
FAQs
Why is this a paid subscription?
There are already tons of free platforms to practice and study languages, with millions of users online. Meetlang’s approach is different from these.
For one, Meetlang’s end goal is not to have millions of users, but build an engaged community of a few thousand. Other platforms require chatting for days with several strangers that usually don’t respond. And when they do, it takes time until there’s enough trust to set up a call with one of them. And even if you get along, it usually gets boring after a few of them. Which means you have to start the process all over again, and that negatively affects your motivation to learn the language.
For another, Meetlang exists to bring people closer with the excuse of language learning. To that end, it’s essential to trust the other members. Doing that would be impossible if there was no filter as to who gets in. It’s very common to have users (mostly men) taking advantage of free platforms to cyber-harassing other users (mostly women). In this sense, money serves as a great filter: the minute they have to pay, they’ll go somewhere else. Just like in real-life, flirting is cool, harassing is not.
Lastly, Meetlang is a bootstrapped project by Javier Deblas (me). If it was free, it would be impossible for me to devote my time to develop this project, pay for all the tools necessary, set up the events, onboard new members, grow or look after the community.
What is the role of English in Meetlang?
Isn’t this geared toward Spanish / Germans?, you might ask. Then, why is all this content in English?
For one, since our members are avid language learners, in most cases they already know English pretty well before they undertake Spanish / German.
For another, there are hundreds of times when direct translations between Spanish and German don’t make any sense. In this cases, English is incredibly useful to bridge the gap.
In the future I’ll build a multilingual version of this website, but at this point unfortunately I don’t have the resources for it.
What level of proficiency should I have to join?
Meetlang is particularly geared toward those intermediate levels where most language learners get stuck with, namely B1, B2 & C1. From this level onward, conversations are fluid, productive, and really fun.
Although there are no particular restrictions in this sense, Meetlang is not meant for learners below B1 in their target language. If you happen to be a beginner, you’re better off studying other material first.
Once you’ve gotten the basics down, we’ll welcome you with open arms ????
Will Meetlang expand to other languages?
Meetlang’s goal is to become the go-to community for Spanish / German language practice. That said, if you are native in a different language but speak some degree of both Spanish & German, we are happy to have you in.
For you, adding other languages might be as simple as letting everybody in. But it would add a lot of complexity that might put the project in risk, like an unbalanced ratio of learners / native speakers, different time zones, connectivity problems, unsustainable growth… We might consider adding more languages later on, but definitely not in the short term.
Is there a balanced number of Spanish & German natives?
Yes. For now, there’s a manual control to prevent that there are too many people of one language and too few of the other. In the case there’s a clear unbalance, registrations would close temporarily for the one with the surplus.
What I won’t find in Meetlang?
Meetlang is not the place to get private Spanish or German lessons from professional teachers. You won’t find any course or learning materials inside. There is no forum to ask questions either.
All these things already exist and you probably know where you can find them. Think of Meetlang as something complementary to all of this. Here you’ll be able to practice your speaking through weekly online language exchanges with an engaged community of Spanish & German natives.
How it works
Sync the events to your calendar
Once you’ve set up your profile, make sure to sync the upcoming language exchanges to your personal calendar. That way you won’t need to register for every single event, or rely on annoying email reminders.
Grab the password
Every event has a different password to prevent non-members altering the events. The password is revealed ten minutes before the time of the event. At the time of the event, go to the home page, copy the password and clic the Take me to the room! button.
Enter the room
You’ll enter a room with dozens of avatars floating around. Those are people. Just move closer to a group, introduce yourself and see what they’re talking about. If you feel a bit intimidated, move to an area with a topic you like or start with the ice-breaker question.
A simple framework for crushing
language exchanges
Leave grammar aside
Have you ever thought about grammar when speaking your native language? Probably not. Words just happen to flow out of your mouth. Why would it be different for another language?
Correct sparingly
Try to refrain from correcting other’s mistakes, unless you spot the same mistake repeatedly. It’s an interruption for everybody and it kills the flow of the conversation. Instead, use the chat to suggest a better way to say it.
Avoid groups bigger than 6 people
Start a conversation from scratch or look for groups between 2 and 5 people. Ideally with equal number of natives with similar levels. That way, everyone feels engaged and takes an active role in the conversation.
Use the icebreaker question
Running out of ideas? Need an excuse to start a new conversation? The icebreaker question is always different in every event, and will help you, well, break the ice.
Stay within the areas
It’s natural to run into somebody “in the corridors”. This will help keep the room more tidy and will help new arrivers scan the room and join a conversation more easily.
Promote balanced conversations
Circles should be between 2 and 6 people, with 4 being the sweet spot. Ideally equal number of natives and with similar levels. That way, everyone feels engaged and has a chance to participate in the conversation.