I don't think language exchange works out for me in Korea. The people I was doing language exchange were much better English speakers than I was a Korean speaker. You have to be at the same level for it to work out. These people weren't that motivated either. I remember saying countless times for them to speak in Korean. They would speak in Korean for a few minutes, forget and switch to English. As a consequence it was 95% English and 5% Korean. None of these people I really found that interesting to talk to so I didn't keep it up with them. Partly, it's because their English was better than mine, partly their motivation to learn English conversation wasn't that high, and partly it was because they didn't understand the concept of language exchange.
I think it's also because they are a bit lazy. They expected me to talk to them in English and listen to their boring conversation in English but they weren't willing to make the same sort of sacrifices on my behalf. I also remember that I was the one initiating topics to talk about. They didn't really try and start a subject. So it fell on my shoulders to find some interesting topic - one that I thought would be interesting for me and for them.
So in the end it wasn't worth it for me. In fact I wish I hadn't done it. I was really enthused about it at the start and then was really disappointed by the outcome.
I don't think I will do this again for a long time. In fact I don't think I should start with the Turkish guy. I spent more time speaking in English than he did speaking in Korean.
I will only attempt this again perhaps when my Korean is much improved. And then I won't really need language partners. I can just communicate with people around me in Korean.
I might try some sites on free websites for language exchange for fun but I don't really like communicating with people I don't know online.
I think I really wanted to talk to the guy in the kebab shop about how he learned the language and how long it took him to learn it and that's why I went there. Actually he didn't tell me very much. He said it took him one year and he learned Korean by working as a small business owner. That was about it. He didn't go into much more detail than this. He didn't give me any helpful tips. He said he didn't have many Korean friends but I don't really believe him. He might have had a Korean girlfriend in the past but doesn't want to talk about it so doesn't mention that he learned Korean from her. I am just speculating of course and it might be that he learned 100% on the job running the business. He might have learned Korean by watching his colleagues speak with Koreans but he didn't specifically state this. His replies to how he learned Korean weren't clear. It's still a mystery how he came to be fluent. I know that it can be done under the right circumstances though. One year still though is pretty quick.
