Hi friends, hope we’re all keeping well.
In this new series, I’d like to talk a bit about my experience using different language learning tools. As a person who worryingly may spend more time trying new apps and tools than on actually learning the language, I feel like I have a fairly good amount of things to say about various ones. So let’s just start and talk about this first one: Tandem.
Tandem is primarily a language exchange app that connects language learners with native speakers. Users of the app can interact with each other via message or voice chat, and can search for other exchange partners by language, interests and age.
The first thing I’ll talk about Tandem is their application process.
Yes, unlike other apps where you simply sign up to use the service, Tandem employs a rather unconventional registration process, where you have to tell them a bit about yourself like your interests and why you are learning your target languages. It usually takes a day or two for them to review your application, approve it, and let you onto the platform. I haven’t actually heard of anyone get rejected in this application stage, but I suppose it is wholly possible. I feel like on paper, this is a very solid idea as it prevents weirdos and perverts from getting onto the platform and using it for more nefarious purposes than language learning. However, for me it really just brought on more inconveniences as changing your profile (what you submitted in your application) seemed to be a difficult and confusing process. More nitpicky-wise, I also couldn’t change profile pictures nor add new target languages I was picking up. I understand the reasons for them doing so, but at the end of the day I just wasn’t fine with it.
That said, I could be the world’ stupidest and most technologically challenged granddad, and not realise I could do these functions this entire time, but I’m just recounting what I remember from trying to use the app a few months/years ago.
But this also brings me to the biggest problem that plagues this app – the rampant dating desire. My god, sometimes I would be confused as to whether this was or was not just a dating app, rather than a language-learning one. In total, I interacted (or rather tried, interacting) with 10+ people on this app, both German and Japanese since they were my target languages, and not once did I get a successful match as I either
a) Got left on read
b) Was not what the other person was looking for, i.e. a dating partner, and promptly ignored
Upon further investigation, nine times out of ten the guys who I tried messaging had a history of exclusively chatting with the opposite gender, so it makes sense. The few girls who I did interact with, were also not at all interesting in practising languages. I read that it helps if you were proactive and messaged people first, but that’s exactly what I did and I still got little to no responses.
Now, I’m not saying a success story isn’t completely impossible on Tandem, as I have seen some people on Reddit find one or two reliable partners. But with the amount of people I’ve encountered who are only looking to flirt/date, it simply became demotivating and exhausting to continue searching and spending effort on finding an exchange partner there, and thus have deleted the app.
Funny enough, when I was closing my account and surveyed on my reason for doing so, one of the available options was ‘It felt too much like a dating site’. Thus, I guess it would seem other people have left for similar reasons too 🫠
The app certainly has potential, I read somewhere that it even won a few awards or something. However, and I guess this is more of a general problem with people as a whole, the app is plagued by those who are just using the platform to flirt. I admit though, this is just an inherent disadvantage with social platforms as a whole, that allow people to customise their profile before allowing them to chat to whoever they want to.
Personal Tool Rating: 2/5
Has the potential to be something great, but it’s just not there for me.
Thanks for reading this far if you did, stay safe !
Rebellious 
Leave a comment