App Review: Tandem
Written on: 19.10.2025
Main Body
I have experimented with the mobile app Tandem over the past few months. I was researching possible apps that I could use to engage in immersion and interaction with natives of my target language. I started by setting up my profile with me specifying which languages I know, which language(s) I wish to learn and about me. Important: Assuming that your priority is to learn languages instead of wasting time with creeps or misguided people on the app, consider stipulating outright that you will block or ignore people using the app solely for dating.
I would contact people I found serious and interesting with the following introduction: Hola, soy Cedric, de Mauricio, y me gustaría dominar el español. Veo que estás intentando aprender el inglés/francés/alemán, así que creo que podríamos practicar juntos. Yo hablaré en español y tú puedes hablar en inglés/francés/alemán. ¿Qué te parece?
With a straightforward and no nonsense introduction, it was then easy to get to know people. Many would respond back, often with dry "hi"'s and expect me to fill in the blanks. However, the ones with whom I am still communicating to this day were communicative and friendly from the get-go. We would talk about hobbies, work, studies, politics at times, travels, family, etc. My strategy on the app was simple: write in my target language, and in the rarest of cases talk. Starting with a barebone A1 and my knowledge of French, I would translate what I wanted to say (and rarely what they said thanks to French being close enough) and write based on the translator's response. Note: Copy-pasting from the translator makes the conversation easy, but instead writing it directly from memory after closing the translator is what will allow you to incorporate the new words and grammar. Doing so over 2-3 months, I took my Spanish from an A1 to a B1 with some B2 vocabulary due to the similarity between Romance languages.
The most popular languages as of 2 months ago are English, Spanish and French (even though the demographics learning French is more casual and less likely to pursue more than basic fluency). German, Indonesian, Icelandic and other less spoken languages (by total number of speakers or even native speakers) were basically absent from the app. People would have German as a goal, but not be as serious with it as with English for instance.
As of today, I am still communicating on Whatsapp with language partners who I met on Tandem and thanks to them, am reaching a level of fluency and higher in Spanish. My next goal would be to have conversations on a regular basis with Latin American and Spanish friends in their native languages.
Special thanks to Tupy, Gab, Dani, Rick and Maka! Without you guys and some others, learning Spanish would have been way more difficult.
Note: Others would message me with just a "hi" and expects it to be a conversation starter, but as far as I've heard and seen, this is dry and will not encourage others to communicate.
TLDR
The app has been a great platform for meeting new people and getting reliable language partners to practice Spanish with. Say that you're not dating, only learning, write entire paragraphs as introductions and focus on writing and reading since those are the easiest at beginner levels.