Fluent in 3 Months: How Anyone at Any Age Can Learn to Speak Any Language from Anywhere in the World

particular language and inviting that person out for coffee or lunch.

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The great thing about the site is that the nature of its members, being
world travelers, means they are quite open-minded and much more likely to
meet up with an interesting new stranger than other communities might.
Then again, you can use the site for the purpose it was designed for and
host people traveling through your town. This way everyone wins: the
travelers get free accommodation and you get to practice a language. Over
the span of a few years I’ve hosted almost two thousand people. Each
profile has references, so you know you can trust the person, and nothing in
my house has ever gone mysteriously missing. Plus, I have had only
positive experiences due to being selective about whom I choose to host.
As well as inviting people to coffee or lunch and hosting people, I have
gone to Couchsurfing.org’s many meet-ups, where I always find an
international crowd, many of whom speak the language I want to practice.
In international cities, there are even meet-ups and parties specifically for
practicing particular languages.
Other Social Searches
Similarly, InterNations.org hosts social events in major cities, which draw a
very good mixture of people from many different countries. You can see in
advance which nationalities will be attending, with a per-country count in
the meet-up summary, to be sure you have a good chance of meeting
someone to practice your target language with.
Another great site is Meetup.com, which may not have as international a
crowd, but does have specific meet-ups aimed at practicing particular
languages. Other sites are suggested in the online chapter summary page.
Of course, each of these sites is much more potent when used in an
international city that is likely to have visitors, but I’ve been surprised at
finding unlikely languages even in small towns.
Keep in mind that even if you don’t find a premade meet-up on
Meetup.com or Couchsurfing.org for the language you want to practice, you
can create one yourself. At first, just a couple of people may show up, but it
could grow and become a regular event for those who want to speak some
Spanish or Mandarin or Japanese.
Any social networking site may have a way to set up language meet-
ups. Even Facebook has groups for particular cities (search “[your city

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name] + [language name]” to see if you can find one), and if it doesn’t, set
one up yourself to connect with other learners. If you don’t find native
speakers, working with other learners can be beneficial too.
In the past I even went so far as to use dating sites to get language
practice, although this is obviously one approach you want to use carefully.
These sites also let you search its users by language.