Starting out
Initial Steps in an eTandem partnership

Do you have a new eTandem partner? Here you can find out how to start out.

Initial contact

It is best to make contact - by e-mail in your native language - with your eTandem partner as soon as possible to let him know that you have received his address.

• Something like this: "Hello Carmen , I have just received your address and am looking forward to our eTandem work together - I will write more the day after tomorrow. Take care, Carol"

First letter

As soon as you can, write a more extensive message by e-mail:

• Write something about yourself, what you do, where you live, etc.
• Mention what you are hoping to get out of your eTandem partnership and how much time you can and want to invest (once a week, more often, less often ...).
• If you want to work together by telephone or other media, give your partner the necessary technical information (telephone number, fax number, address …), let him know when you can be reached, etc.
  

Important

Write at least half of every message in your native language!

• Your eTandem partner learns from this - and you learn from what he writes in his language.
• This way your exchanges will be even more fun: in your native language you can both express more interesting topics in a more complex way, thereby keeping your correspondence at a higher level.

If you are a beginner, you can start out by writing everything in your native language and then gradually move into the foreign language - but never more than 50%.

The same of course also applies to oral tandem: half of your time for each language.

You may find the first telephone conversations somewhat strenuous - in this case, they should only last several minutes. If you switch languages regularly, then each of you can rest a bit while using your native language.

If your partner doesn't answer ...

... then don't wait longer than a week before you request a new eTandem partner.

Changing partners ...

... after working together for a while as well as working with more than one partner is not only allowed - it can make a lot of sense, for you can learn something new from every eTandem partner. However, it is not always easy to find partners …