Language Exchange User Posts

What opportunities and positions exist for an experienced Danish teacher at international language schools today? Teaching opportunities have expanded as more individuals have taken to living, working and studying in countries other than their country of origin. As the ability and desire to travel has become more attainable, so have jobs for those who know various languages. If you’re an experienced Danish teacher, not only do you have opportunities for employment in Denmark, you’ll find that the opportunities expand across the globe. Those who are non-native Danish speakers seeking teaching positions in Denmark should be aware that a proficiency in Danish is a requirement in order to communicate and teach fully.

Whether you’re a native speaker or are in the process of learning Danish, there are opportunities worldwide for you to put your skills and knowledge to work.

A native Danish teacher is oftentimes the best tutor, so take a look at teaching and tutoring opportunities abroad. For those Danes seeking overseas employment outside of Denmark, Danish teaching positions are available in Asia, the USA, UK, EU, and other Scandinavian countries. LRNGO allows you to post your information to offer tutoring and class sessions both in person or to any interested student across the globe via video chat.

Denmark attracts thousands of international visitors each year to its scenic and historic capital of Copenhagen. In addition, numerous expatriates from around the world live and work there, giving the city ample opportunity for providing translation and teaching jobs.

If you’re a native English speaker who is familiar with Danish, consider teaching ESL in Denmark! Teaching ESL abroad gives you an opportunity to improve your own language skills, travel, have an income, and help others. Blog About ESL has provided excellent, detailed information on the benefits of teaching ESL in Denmark and the ways to make this dream a reality. They recommend looking to international schools and language school for job openings and providing private tutoring services to supplement.

Whatever your native language, you can find a variety of jobs right in Denmark by making use of online job listings. Take a look at websites such as ProfilJob, JobBank, and Eures and search for local opportunities to teach, translate, or do other types of work. Local newspapers and professional magazines are also good places to take a look at.

If you feel like you’d be interested in working in Denmark in the future but need more foundational Danish skills, start working on strengthening your Danish by connecting with a language exchange partner and making use of online resources, and before you know it, you’ll have the foundational skills necessary to teach ESL abroad and communicate with Danish speakers.


Photo Credit: Dennis Jarvis

As a Filipino-American with two Visayan speaking parents, I have always spoke a little bit of Visaya, the Filipino dialect of the Central Visayas and Mindanao regions of the Philippines. Growing up in the United States, however, has made it difficult for me to practice Visaya and become fluent in the language. Having family and friends of my generation in the same predicament made me realize that I am not alone.

Though I can speak Visaya words and phrases, putting them together to form complete sentences is what continues to stump me. While I am inspired to learn and practice speaking the language, finding lessons can be tricky and costly, and I’m starting to think that without formal teaching or actually living in the Philippines, I will be stuck in this limbo of only understanding Visaya and not being able to speak it.

After learning about concept of "language exchange", I realized that my problem could also be easily solved. Language exchange is the process of learning another language from a partner in exchange for teaching that person a language you already know. For example, a native speaker of Visaya can help me improve my Visayan speaking skills if, in return, I help that person improve on their English speaking skills.

After I learned about the concept of "language exchange", I began searching the web for relevant websites. Although I found a few relevant websites, I only found one that facilitates free learning of other subjects as well as language exchange with others. And that website was Lrngo.com. By typing in your zip code, city, or country of residence, you can find hundreds of people who are willing to teach certain subjects and who want to learn other subjects. By sending a person a message, you can agree to have a free learning exchange lesson. For example, if I see a profile of a person who can teach Visaya and wants to learn English, I could send that person a quick message saying I can teach English and want to learn Visaya. From here, we can agree to have an hour lesson of each language for free. You can meet people around your area for a language exchange lesson like at the public library, park, or university. A person who lives too far is not a problem either because lessons can be easily given through online face-to-face video chats such as Skype, Oovoo, or Google Hangouts. With this convenience, a person can always be guaranteed to find a teacher or student anywhere whether locally in person or halfway around the world online.

I wrote this article not only to encourage other Filipino-Americans to learn Visaya or for Visayan speakers to learn English, but to encourage people of all races to learn new languages. Language is the means of communication that opens doors to new opportunities and allows for connections to a variety of people. Learning something new, like a different language, does not always have to come with a price. Free language exchange is the best way to meet new people, learn about new cultures, teach what you know to others, and in my case, learn the language and culture of the people.


Photo Credit: Reuel Mark Delez

Learning languages is essential for travelling to new places. You must be able to understand at least the basics of the national language of the country you are visiting in order to communicate with others and to express your feelings and needs. Some languages, however may need more time to learn and study than others.

The Foreign Service Institute of the U.S. Department of State categorized a number of languages from easiest to hardest to learn for native English speakers. The most difficult languages to learn included Arabic, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese. It was estimated that people require at least 88 weeks or 2200 class hours to be able to speak and read these languages proficiently.

1. Arabic
   Arabic is an Afro-Asiatic Semitic language that has about 221 million native speakers. Arabic is most commonly spoken in Egypt but is also spoken in countries such as Algeria, Morocco, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. Arabic requires more time to learn because it has very few words that relate to European or English languages. Arabic also has a very a unique and challenging writing script. Letters in the Arabic writing system have four different forms and vowels are disregarded when writing. As opposed to English, Arabic is a VSO language; this means that verbs come before the subject and object. Arabic also has thirteen present tense verbs, three noun cases, and two genders.


2. Chinese
   Chinese is a Sino-Tibetan language that has around 1.2 billion native speakers. Chinese is predominantly spoken in China and in places where large Chinese communities are present. Chinese is one of the more difficult language to learn because it is a tonal language meaning that different tones need to be learned in order to speak words correctly. For example, the sound “ma” can represent five different words depending on how the sound of the tone is created. In addition, Chinese has a very unique and seemingly complex writing system that contains over thousands of characters that need to be memorized in order to write out words, phrases, and texts.


3. Korean
   Korean is an East Asian language most commonly spoken in North and South Korea. Korean has about 66.3 million speakers world-wide. What makes Korean a difficult language to learn is its sentence structure, syntax, and verb conjugation. Unlike Chinese, Korean is a phonetic language meaning that a word can be easily pronounced by examining how it is written. The challenge in learning Korean lies in learning how to read and write with their writing system, Hangul. The Korean writing system was heavily influenced from the difficult Chinese writing system and therefore is dependent among many Chinese characters.


4. Japanese
   Japanese, the national language of Japan, is an East Asian language that has about 122 million native speakers world-wide. Like Chinese and Korean, Japanese is a language that requires a lot of time to learn because of its heavily complex writing system. Japanese has three different writing systems: kanji, katakana, and hiragana. The Kanji system, influenced by the Chinese writing system, has over 2000 to 3000 characters that needs to be memorized. The Katakana system is used for loan words and emphasis and the Hiragana system is used for spelling suffixes and grammatical particles. Knowledge of all three system is required in order to efficiently write Japanese.

Though these four languages are difficult to learn and require more studying time than other languages, getting a grip on these languages is not impossible. Before you travel, utilize free learning tools and resources online. For travelling, you are going to want to learn basic pronunciations and how common words and phrases look in each language’s specific writing system. This way you will be able to find your way around, communicate with locals, and get the best out of your travelling experience.


Photo Credit: Quinn Dombrowski