Organise a language exchange for yourself and your family group
You can arrange a two-way language exchange between your family group and another family group so that each member of the group can improve their language skills. It means your family stays in the home of a foreign family free of charge for an authentic language immersion experience. Later, you host the foreign family in your own home for a similar experience. You only need to pay travel costs and any pocket money during the stay. You can read more about language exchanges here.
Use the search tool to select your target language and select ”exchange”. Next, narrow down your search by selecting the criteria most important to you through the search filter options.
Your search results appear in a list with the most recently updated profiles at the top. Click ‘View this profile’ to see each profile in detail.
If you are logged on as a Group Member, you can now either contact other members or save their profile in ‘My Selection’ to contact them later. To save the profile to ‘My selection’, click ‘Add to selection’.
You can set up an alert to receive notification when a new profile matching your criteria goes live. Find out how to set up an alert here [LINK to setting up alerts].
Read the details of each profile (particularly any evaluations from previous exchanges) and when you find a profile you like, contact the member to discuss an exchange. Take this opportunity to not just check their availability but also get to know them and agree all the details of the exchange. Offer to share Credentials files. Read more about the Credentials file here.
For your own security, Lingoo advises strongly that all communication should remain within the Lingoo secure messaging system at all times.
You or your exchange partner can now click ‘Confirm a stay’. A Language Exchange Contract is sent to both Group Members (one for each of the two stays). You complete these together online to set the terms of the exchange. The contract also provides a number of safeguards for your exchange.
The contract sets out the terms of the language exchange and the commitments made by each Group Member to each other. It is completed (or modified) online by the two members until they have reached an accord. It includes a list of commitments made by each of the members and acts as security for the language exchange.
Both parties now check and sign the contract, which can also be printed. You can read more about the Lingoo Language Exchange contact here
Please never confirm any travel arrangements until the contract is signed.
Yes, after the contract is signed. You will receive a PDF of the contract and the record of messages on Lingoo’s secure messaging system between both parties.
This contract can be used to prove the stay took place for insurance reasons and is highly important for under-age children or non-EU citizens who may need to present this document to pass through border controls.
Shortly after you complete your stay, we will ask you to leave an evaluation of your experience. Please provide this important feedback as it helps us improve the service. Your evaluation will be published on your exchange partner’s profile.