I saw a recent post for someone looking to improve their English. Is there anyone else out there interested in the same?

I am looking for someone who would not mind meeting (or phoning) for an hour or two each weekend where we spend 1/2 the time talking in German and the other in English.

Maybe a little background would be useful: American English is my mother tongue and I am probably a level A2 in German though I am stronger in some areas than others. I am a patient person and obviously would be looking for someone who was patient with my comparatively low-level German skills. Finally, I live in Zürich.

Therefore two questions:
1. If anyone is interested, please PM me.
2. If not, is there a better place to find folks that would be?

Hi there,

You may be able to find someone for this on this web page (somehow related to University of Zürich).

http://www.marktplatz.ethz.ch/index.cgi

It's called a "tandem" and there are some offers under "Lerngruppen". Not only students post there, so it's ok to use the webpage.

Wishing you "Viel Spass" in learning German.

Cheers!

Thanks Celine!

I tried this approach once before with Spanish, but after 3 years of US public-school Spanish instruction I could not even carry on a basic conversation so things broke down. Amazing how memorizing lists of nouns and verbs don't prepare you for a conversation. I did know something like 5 words for Bathroom though!

I see what you mean!

On my side, Spanish at school was also a failure until I got myself an "intuitive" course with CDs, and I finally got somewhere.

For German, I'm trying to mix school-style learning (with Migrosklubschule), CDs / (free) Deutsche Welle Podcasts and hands-on, which would be a tandem and occasionnally intruding into my collegue's conversations

I do this with a swiss woman here in the Bern area. It does help a lot. I found her through the school where I take lessons. There are also a lot of posts for this on glocals.com.

Try livemocha.com. It's a lot of fun and people really help. You need to help them too, of course.
It's audio as well as writing and reading.

Hi there
I would like to learn German. I can teach English or Spanish.

Hi, I would appreciate any suggestions of other native Swiss or German speakers I could do an exchange with...thanks!