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Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Meetup?
    A Meetup is a one-hour meeting between two people with different first languages, for example English and Vietnamese. One is an English person learning Vietnamese, and the other is a Vietnamese person learning English.

    A Vietnamese student who has never been on The Language Chain will be partnered with the most experienced English partner available, so the experienced partner can guide the inexperienced partner and explain how The Language Chain works.

    The more experienced partner will usually conduct the Meetup. For example, the English partner might practice speaking Vietnamese for 15 minutes while the Vietnamese partner corrects. One partner is the student and the other is the teacher. Then they change places, the Vietnamese partner practices speaking English for 15 minutes and the English partner corrects. Afterwards, another 15 minutes of Vietnamese, then another 15 minutes of English. Finish off by each partner giving suggestions of homework to do and a note to pass to the next Meetup.

    It is as simple as that.

    As there are so many people in The Chain, you will probably not meet that partner again (unless you both give each other a 5 star report).

    With each Meetup, you will become more experienced, and eventually you will meet up with people who are on The Language Chain for the first time and it will be your job to explain how it works, but by then you will be so good at the other language that you will be able to explain it all in their language!

How does the Meetup get arranged?
    TLC prepares Meetups up to 24 hours in advance, so today we are arranging Meetups for Monday.

    Throughout the day TLC checks for new requests for Meetups and tries to pair them up for a Meetup. If you are English and studying Vietnamese for example, then TLC will try and pair you up with a native Vietnamese speaker who is learning English

    Once TLC finds a suitable pair, a text message is sent to both mobiles requesting confirmation. If TLC has not received a reply within a few hours, the Meetup will be offered to another student. If you accept the Meetup you will receive on your mobile phone either a confirmation that the Meetup is going ahead or an advice that no partner has accepted.

    You will only receive the full address of the Meetup venue in the confirmation message.
    Your partner will not know your email or mobile phone number.

How do I join The Language Chain?
    To join The Language Chain you need to be sponsored by your school. If your school is not already sponsoring students ask them to contact us via the Schools section on this website.

    Your school may sponsor you for a limited number of Meetups, after which you can pay for Meetups yourself. The cost is £1 per Meetup, a very cheap way to learn a language!

    It is possible to join The Language Chain without being sponsored by a school. You may have to pay a Registration Fee and/or attend an AIM Training session. Please apply and we will then contact you after you have completed the Application Form.

Privacy Policy
    PDAIP will not give your personal information to any third party, and we will only contact you on matters specifically related to The Language Chain.
    PDAIP will not give your personal information to any other student, even if you are both having a Meetup together. It is one of the basic principles of The Language Chain that your anonymity is protected.
    Remember that in a Meetup you can tell your partner as much as you want about yourself, however you cannot ask your partner to give you any personal information.
    If you do not respect the privacy of your partners you will be excluded from The Language Chain.

What contact details are required?
  • Your email address
      Provided by your school if you are sponsored. Used to contact you to register your details initially and provide you with Meetup confirmations.
  • Your mobile phone
      The Language Chain uses 2-way text messaging to arrange meetups.
  • Your postcode
      At present all Meetups are in Central London. TLC may in the future arrange Meetups outside Central London, in which case we will need to know which in part of the country you are based.
  • Your Student ID
      If you are registering for a private chain you may be required to provide your Student or Membership ID.
  • Your languages
      If you have a rare language pair we may not be able to arrange a Meetup straight away. However once we have a partner (which may take several weeks) we will ask you by email to confirm you are still interested.
I have never taught anyone before!
    No problem! You will discover that teaching is not so difficult, we can all teach. The most important thing is to be patient with your partner, be prepared to repeat things many times, and try to understand the difficulties of studying your own native language.
Where are the Meetups?
    If either you or your partner are sponsored by a school it could be at the school, otherwise Meetups are currently arranged in cafés in the London W1 (Oxford Circus) area.
When are the Meetups?
    The frequency of the Meetups varies with each language pair. At present some language chains operate on a weekly basis, other less frequently. For less frequent Meetups we will email you two weeks before so you have plenty of time to get organised.
What if I miss the Meetup?
    TLC takes Meetups seriously, so should you. Your partner may be travelling a long way for the Meetup so it is really annoying if you fail to turn up.
    Arrive early if you are not sure exactly where it is. Do not be late.
What if I do not get on with my partner?
    New students are normally paired up with experienced Language Chain partners, so this should not happen.
    Every Meetup is going to be different, as The Language Chain will provide you over time with the opportunity to meet a wide range of people.
    Being diplomatic with people is part of the challenge. However we do have our Terms and Conditions which everyone agrees to, and we rely on you to report any abuse of these Terms. If anyone is reported as abusing the Terms and Conditions, we remove them from The Language Chain.
    The criteria is straightforward - if your partner upsets you in any way, report them. Click on the report button in the Meetup listings within a week of the Meetup to make a report.
    You can also report those partners you consider exceptionally good (ie so good you would like to meet them again), our Meetup Programme will note such reports and consider arranging another Meetup with that partner.
Is there any homework?
    Your partner can give you homework at the end of the Meetup. Your partner can also give you a note to give to your next partner, suggesting themes for the next Meetup, such as concentrating on pronunciation of certain words or talking about a specific subject. It is entirely up to you whether you do any homework, and entirely up to you or your next partner whether you or they take up the suggestions of the previous partner.
What if I run out of Vouchers?
    For each Meetup one Voucher is used.
    If your school has an automatic top-up arrangement, you will not see the Vouchers option in your account, as vouchers are provided automatically so you will not need to purchase any vouchers yourself.
    If you run out of Vouchers, either ask your school to provide you with more Vouchers, or purchase some yourself by going into your TLC account and clicking on Vouchers.
What if I am learning two languages?
    TLC links your email and mobile phone to a specific language, so if you want to learn yet another language you will need to open a second account, using a different email address and a different mobile phone number.
Is anyone interested in my language pair?
    If your language pair excludes English (such as speaking Cantonese and learning Polish) there may be no-one currently studying your reciprocal language. In this situation you can opt for one-way Meetups (see below), and also we will send you an email as soon as someone is available. Do not despair, there are over 7,500,000 people in London!
What is a one-way Meetup?
    In a one-way Meetup you either teach your language for an hour or learn a language for an hour. For example, if you are teaching German and studying Amharic and you sign up for one-way Meetups, we will first arrange for you to teach German to an English student for one hour. That English student will then teach English to an Amharic student for one hour. And finally the Amharic student will teach Amharic to you, the German student, for one hour. This is a three-link language chain.
Are there any opportunities or resources for me to improve my teaching?
    We may announce training sessions for you to improve your learning and teaching techniques.
    We also encourage our schools to provide training and teaching resources which are specifically related to your two languages. Language resouces are available on the Resources page.
What if I forget my password?How can I unsubscribe from The Language Chain?Feedback
    Please feel free to comment on any aspect on The Language Chain, click on Feedback below.


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