Tandem vs. HelloTalk: The ultimate path to fluency?

A Candid Look at Tandem and HelloTalk

Sergej Klementinovski
5 min readMar 21, 2024

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Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

In my last article, I mentioned the importance of submerging in comprehensible input and, if possible, finding native speakers to help you with complete immersion.

The question is: where the hack do I find such people?

Where are my native speaker exchange partners?

Okay, okay! Let’s look at which possibilities are available without starting a one-way journey into hell.

The magical creature

No, I am not talking about the unicorns or hippogriffs. Although they are magical, in our case, I was referring to Language Exchange applications such as Tandem and HelloTalk.

Why do I call them magical creatures, you will ask? Because it provides an illusion of finding a native speaker with whom you can talk all day long in your target language and immerse yourself completely.

Let me destroy your dreams: that will not (in the majority of cases) happen!

*sound of breaking glass*

But first, let’s look at how language exchange platforms work.

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Sergej Klementinovski

Former Game Dev, now Solution Architect & aspiring writer. Exploring fiction, mysticism, and philosophy inspired by Murakami&classic literature. Join my journey