How easy it is for you to find a committed language exchange partner on italki? Can you share your experience?

Hi everyone I'm Shawn from China. I haven't been using this website actively for a almost  year. I used to be able to find active members quite easily but now not any more. What's your experience of that? Look forward to hearing from you soon.

My frustration of learning English It's been a while since I had my last language exchange session. There are many reasons. Sometimes people can get busy and it's getting difficult to find really committed language exchange partners as well. For me, I always prefer a language exchange session to a paid lesson because I enjoy sharing and exchanging stories with others. My biggest frustration now is that I don't know what I should do to progress my English to the next level. Maybe learning more new words or trying to be more fluent? I hope I can have exchange sessions with you guys soon. Regards,

What's going on in my life? Long time no see hello talk friends~ Hello everyone, it's been a long time since I posted my last article here. Many things have happened. Work: I came back to Guangzhou and started my new job back home last October. At first, it was a big challenge for me because I didn't have much knowledge of project management. Now things are going on well for me. Life: I have given three speeches so far since I came back with two on stereotypes and the one on my language exchange story. Now I have become the core member of two speech sharing organization in Guangzhou. One is calld idea exchange which is similar to Ted Talk and the other one is Dream Union. By involving myself in event planning, speaker communication, I find that I have found a huge passion of my life, which is getting myself connected to cross-culture communication and friendship. I have met so many nice people during different events. Lanaguge exchange: I wasn't as active as before in terms of language exchange mainly because some of my language partners are getting busier now and they move on to new milestones in life and have more important things to do which I feel proud of. A I used to talk to now has become a language teacher on italki and has so many students. B I met in Beijing now started a new job and is busy working on it. For me, I start to focus on efforts on real life interaction now but I'm very excited about meeting a new friend in the near future. I also like using wechat to help each other learn the language.

In memory of my language exchange partner Alex Please rest in peace When I woke up in the morning, I logged in on facebook as usual and I saw a shocking news. Your mother posted a msg on facebook saying that we got a msg from China telling us that you died yesterday. When I saw this, all I could feel at that moment was just shocking. I didn't know what I should say. We met each other on italki. I was impressed by your self-introduction. You said I believe there's something to learn from every culture, that's why I love travelling. Currently interested in Chinese culture and history. Learning Mandarin in my spare time and find it a very unique and exciting language to learn. We became friends later on skype and wechat. You told me stories about how you studied in a lot of different countries and shared with me your cross-culture experience. Then you told me that you found your girl friend in China when you visited China for the first time, which I was really happy for you about. News came that you were coming to China this February and that you would be staying in the same city with your girlfriend. And in our last skype conversation, you told me that we would not be able to skype for a while because you would be busy working soon. After you came to China, we still msged with each other from time to time. As of today, I still haven't got the chance to meet you in person but I will never be able to do that again. You are the most hard-working one among all my language exchange partners. You sent me documents you wrote yourself and asked me to review them with you together. I will never forget your smile, your positive attitudes and your caring for people. Your forever friend, Shawn

My new life in Guangzhou Hi everyone It's so glad to be back home and start working in a new job. It's challenging to me to learn things quickly but I'm glad that now I'm close to family and homes again.

A culture exchange trip in Beijing for one day I went to Beijing a week ago on a business trip. Although how much I wanted to join any kind of events held in Beijing, I was not able to do that because the place where I worked was very far away from the city center. However, I still decided to reserve a hotel in the downtown area on Friday. On the subway, I encoutered a stranger from Egypt and then we started talking. He told me about the previous culture exchange events he had joined in Beijing and recommend a wechat public account to me. I followed the account and then signed up for the event for the next day. It was a trip to Gubei Water town. On the bus, we had people from many different countries. I started chatting with people in Chinese and English but the sad thing was that for some people, they kept speaking in their own languages which I couldn't understand at all. The most amazing part was that we went to see the music fountain considered to be the most attractive place of interest there. I really had a tiring but meaningful day there.

My travelling experience with italki friends in Beijing Part Two I would really appreciate it if you could review my essay. How time flied! It's my pleasure to spend the past few days with you in Beijing exploring the city together, which for me is also a brand-new experience. The people — I really enjoy talking to so many interesting people in the journey and everyone has their own unique stories that I will always remember. I strongly believe that people are not that different just because we are from different countries which proves self-evident after this journey. The Culture — As Chinese, there are still many things in our culture I haven't fully understood or appreciated yet. It's with other people's perspective on traditional culture that I am able to get to know and even love it in the end. Thank you for allowing me to view Chinese culture from a new way. The experience —After four days of journey, I keep thinking about what is left in my mind. Among all the things, I figure out that experience accumulated is the most valuable thing. What could have been better than a cross-culture conversation between young generations from different countries? Now I am proud to tell people that I know what Americans are like based on my experience but not how the media describes them about in China.

My travelling experience with italki friends in Beijing Part One I had a trip to Beijing to meet a friend that I got to know from italki. Although it's not the first time for me to meet someone I have only talked to online before, the whole experience was amazing. I was told by my friend that he was planning to come to visit China because he was invited by one of his language exchange partners. As I happened to have a holiday around 1st May, I decided to come meet him in Beijing. The first evening: I was supposed to meet him at the airport but then I was told that his flight was delayed. I had to get back to the hostel myself and waited until he came. We didn't talk much and just went to sleep. On the first morning, we went to see the Palance museum and the Tian an Square. Everywhere we went, there were so many people. I kind of regretted a little bit that I decided to visit Beijing at such a bad timing. In the afternoon, we went to see the Nan luo gu Alley and the bar street at Hou Sea. One thing that surprised me was that the local people there didn't like the commercialism of the residencial area and they hated it so much that their life has been bothered by so many visitors. On the second day, we went to the Summer Palace. After that, we went to meet another language exchange partner at the restaurant. During the meal, we talked about many interesting stories about italki language exchange. I didn't anticipate that she would insisit on paying the bill altough how much we strongly disagree. Later on, we went to an Alley and pre celebrated my friend's birthday. We just drank some beer and shared some personal stories. On the third day, the wind started hauling at 5 am in the morning and I had a feeling that it would be a tough day for us to climb the Great Wall and I was right. I brought a camera with me but it was not water proof. I had a hard time carrying my camera climbing the Great Wall on a rainy day and there were many times when I almost fell down. It did surprise me that I had to rest by lying against the wall after walking for a while. On the last day, we went to see the campus and then we went to the airport together. The sad moment finally came when we had to say goodbye. I sort of felt that magical moment because last time I visited my friend in Beijing, the metro station was the place where we met each other and said goodbye to each other. I feel that this journey is not an end but actually has opened a new way for me. I was not good at planning things myself but now I am getting used to it.

My future journey with languag exchange partners on italki for May Day Holiday Hi everyone I haven't written any essays on italki for a while. I want to share something with you that I am going to be on a journey with a language exchange partner that I have met here on italki. I have been using this website for about two years and I have talked to so many people on skype but only very few of them would keep in contact with each other while most of the other people stopped talking after one or two conversations. I know this kind of friendship requires efforts from two parties. Only if both sides consider each other important, will the friendship be more sustainable. Yes, I do appreciate the friends that I have got to know because of italki. For me, it's gonna be super exciting because I don't have experience of being a tour guide for a foreign friend for more than a day. I hope that with my efforts and homework, I will be able to be a good tour guide then. Before the end of this essay, I also want to ask everyone a question. Have you ever met someone who you have only talked to online? How was that experience in general for you?