Tandem Tales: Europe’s Calling
Meet Anna, our newest Tandem Tale. We first came across Anna, and her rave review of the Tandem app, on TikTok towards the end of 2021. Anna studies German and joined Tandem while looking for a way to complement her language learning in school.
“I first started with Duolingo to get some extra practice but you know to learn a language you really have to immerse yourself in the culture; you need to do things outside of just learning in the classroom. I thought it would be a cool opportunity to talk to somebody who speaks the native language.”
When we first chatted with Anna in June, she was preparing for her summer trip to Europe and eagerly anticipating her beer tasting plans in Berlin - with her Tandem partner, Melissa!
Anna and Melissa met on Tandem shortly after Anna downloaded the app and explains how grateful she is for Melissa’s support in her journey to master German, “She’s awesome like she’s so great. She has a little bit of experience in helping teach German so I was able to get hands-on support from day one.”
Melissa also goes above and beyond helping Anna to practice languages, “She’s also helped me plan so many details of my trip. I feel cool that I have this teacher but I also have a friend who’s willing to teach me about their country and their culture. I have to give her a little bit of praise for that.”
It’s clear that Anna and Melissa clicked from the very beginning and have become great friends - and we love to see it! This is exactly what Tandem is about, meeting people like you and taking language learning to a level way beyond practicing in the classroom.
With Anna’s preparation for her Europe trip in full swing, we asked her how Tandem has helped her feel more comfortable actually speaking German. She thanks Tandem’s audio message feature, “not everyone wants to FaceTime or do the face-to-face thing early on but you know switching it up as opposed to just texting and reading, that feature is super helpful. You’re listening and working on your comprehension skills but then also trying to reply back and match that energy.”
And what’s her favorite thing about Tandem? That’s an easy question for Anna to answer, “I’ve been to Germany before [but] being able to connect with new people and getting to know a language and culture from somebody directly… it’s just unbeatable, you can never do that in a classroom. It’s just a completely different experience and that’s probably my favorite thing.”
We had so much fun getting to know Anna, we couldn’t let her come to Germany without visiting us in Berlin! She popped into the office mid-tour - we lost count of how many cities she managed to squeeze into her trip - with this radiant, positive energy of someone who’s really living in the moment. She’s planning to do an exchange year as part of her studies and came to scout out which university city suited her the best - we hear Freiburg’s officially in the running!
Her tour of Europe was a resounding success (see for yourself in the video she kindly sent us below) and she’ll definitely be back to study and visit Melissa again. We can’t wait to welcome you back next time you visit Berlin, Anna!
@yannayas It’s not everyday you get to meet your language partner from across the world in real life! Thank you for everything, I miss you already! @mrs.mrx91 #TandemMoments @TandemAppHQ ♬ A-O-K - Tai Verdes
Anna is just one of many members who travel across the world to meet their Tandem partners. Want to get in on the Tandem experience, too? We don’t blame you - download the app and make lifelong friends and language partners today!
