Has anyone tried meeting with Mandarin speakers and/or learners to practice speaking with?

I threw an ad on Kijiji to meet a 'language partner', so to speak. :) Basically phone pals with the added benefit of both of us practicing our respective language choices. She wants to learn better English and I want to learn Mandarin period (I know over three hundred characters but really that's not enough to carry on any kind of conversation).

Has anyone tried this before? Did it help with the learning process?

I meet with a "language exchange partner" at least once per week. Usually we speak in an English for an hour, and then Chinese for an hour. Extremely helpful, and you get to make (a) new friend(s)! I use it as a way to help practice what I learn in class in a natural setting.

Have you checked out http://www.mylanguageexchange.com/ ?
You do have to pay a small fee to subscribe, but in my experience it is well worth it. There are many people there looking for language exchange partners. Myself I made a good friend from Shanghai who I have actually gone on to meet in person.

If you do 'lessons' in person and you are a beginner, I recommend you have a look at trying Total Physical Response. http://www.tpr-world.com/japan-article.html
A good way to get playful input from your partner when you are still not good enough to have conversations.

I also recommend looking at antimoon, especially this article in relation to speaking. http://www.antimoon.com/other/myths-speaking.htm

Language-exchanges can be great, but it's important to realise their limitations.

What great advice! Thanks guys. I wasn't expecting that but I appreciate it. :)

I think I'm overly optimistic when it comes to language learning. My lessons consist of Chinesepod and Skritter. There isn't really anyone in my area who can do tutoring so that's what I have to rely on.

I'm just looking forward to the opportunity to speak to a native speaker of the language to get some feedback and I intend to do the same for her. Hopefully we'll both benefit. Although she's got the upper hand since she's living in an English speaking country. Silly me... I don't live in a Chinese speaking country! Haha.

If you have a good conversation partner, someone who will correct you and help you learn to say lots of useful things, intensive conversation practice is amazingly useful and will stretch you in unexpected ways.

Some people are not experienced teachers, or not very interesting, so try different people until you find someone you click with.

James

Optimism is certainly important for an independent language learner! ^^

Nothing wrong with studying by yourself either. Heck, I think it's the most effective and fun way myself. Have a look at www.ajatt.com if you haven't already. Helped me get fluent in Japanese.

By the way, have you considered trying other SRS programs, like anki?
www.ankisrs.net

Straight foward to use, and very powerful. I've enjoyed using skritter because it has enabled me to jump right into simplified character practice, but when it comes to actually learning sentences and doing dictation I prefer to make my own cards using this software. Good news is that it is free!

You guys are an amazing source of info. :) Thank you.

When I was a kid I taught myself how to play piano using nothing more then one child's piano book and countless hours of practice. I went on to teach piano for 7 years (and yes I passed exams to prove I could!).

I figure learning alone does work best for me because I know how my brain processes information so I know what I need to do to get that info in there. Besides which, language learning reminds me of music. Ken mentioned this in a lesson on Chinesepod and it's so true. Every word is it's own little melody and sentences are like songs to me.

However, I'm not a singer. I'm a pianist! Haha. So I'm picking up how to hear things but I'm not having an easy time making the same sounds. From what I gather this is normal for language learners.

I could go on forever and ever because learning is fun. :D

Thank you again for all the great site suggestions!

On several occasions, the US and Chinese governments have asked me to go on road trips with visiting Chinese colleagues to show them habitats, etc. in south Florida. These multi-day trips have been great opportunities for us to discuss and practice our respective languages, as well as our professions as scientists.

When colleagues are in the country, but not local, on extended study visits, regular phone calls have been beneficial. The key is to have these discussions between people who are comfortable correcting the other person. Over the past year, I've had a number of these language discussion calls with a Chinese friend visiting another state. She would ask about words and phrases she had seen in the U.S., like "allergy," "dinosaur," "tea party," etc., and I would ask her about Chinese words I had seen. In order to explain the things she was asking about, I often had to learn the chinese words for my explanations.

Practicing pronunciations with Chinese friends is much better than practicing from recordings, but regional differences among my north and south China friends can be a little confusing.

Was doing that here (Sydney) last year. It helped me a lot.

Helping some chinese nurses with their English in exchange for help with my chinese. Unfortunately the ones I knew all got full time positions in country hospitals (3 years contracts)
Australian country hospitals are full of chinese nurses

mental case is a SRS for mac and iphone/ipad -make the slides on flashcardexchange.com

Anki is a wonderful program! I should have used it sooner.

And I signed up for mylanguageexchange.com and have already met two very nice people who are very patient with my limited Mandarin. :) I'm not ready for full out conversations yet but it's nice to have patient people who are willing to tolerate fragmented conversations. ;)

Thanks again guys!