Hello! My name is Christianna. I’ve been part of Language Exchange at Lifehouse Tokyo for about 5 years now, first as a participant, then becoming a team member, and now even leading one of the Language Exchange meetings.
I joined because I wanted to improve my Japanese speaking abilities, but I stayed because of the people. That’s not to say Language Exchange hasn’t helped me better my Japanese; it has, significantly. But the best part of Language Exchange, and the reason I keep joining week after week, is because of the friends I’ve made through it. Most of my close friends in Tokyo are actually people I first met at a Language Exchange meeting.
When we have a Language Exchange meeting, we can catch up, get to know each other more, meet even more new people, and help each other improve our language abilities with fun and engaging topics, as well as the occasional game. I love practicing Japanese at Language Exchange because it has a fun and relaxed atmosphere and is a safe place for making mistakes and learning new things without any pressure. You can learn as much or as little as you want to.
If you’re feeling a little shy or nervous, you’re welcome to stick to your native language for speaking and just practice listening to the foreign language. But there are native speakers and other learners to help you or to teach you something new, too.
Are you interested in practicing Japanese or English with us? We’d love to meet you! Come for the language practice, and stay for the people. See you at Language Exchange!