Tinder is known as an app that allows users to look for hookups. However, with Tinder Plus, the app can be used for educational purposes such as learning a new language.
Using Tinder Plus as a tool for language learning is supported by LC Haughey, who launched the website Fluent in 3 Months.
Haughey suggests using the app to meet people who are living in other countries where the language that users want to learn is being spoken. To do so, users can set the location of the app to the country of choice and strike up conversations with other Tinder Plus users.
Users could also state in their bio that they are looking to learn a new language. This way, users may reach out and help out through chatting. Some users could even be in need to learn English, which would make conversations helpful to both parties.
To use Tinder as a language learning tool, a Tinder Plus account is needed as this unlocks the ability to change the user's location.
Haughey lists the steps that users interested in using Tinder as a language learning tool should follow.
1. Download Tinder
For those that do not have the app installed on their smartphone yet, it can be downloaded on Apple's App Store or the Google Play Store for free. Upon launching the app for the first time, users are asked to create an account for the service, which can be done by linking the user's Facebook account or creating an account specifically for Tinder.
You will then have to choose pictures that will be displayed on the account. This is also the stage where the bio is written, and it would be a good idea to state the intention of learning a new language.
2. Sign Up For Tinder Plus
A Tinder Plus account will cost $19.99 a month for users in the United States over the age of 30 years old but only $9.99 a month for users below that age.
A Tinder Plus account will allow users to change their location to any country so that it would be easier to look for people that are speaking a specific language. While it is possible to match with other users within the country that are fluent in the language being learned, it might take a while before such a match is made.
3. Choose The Location
Choosing the location where you should set your Tinder account depends not just on the country where the target language is being spoken, but also if you are looking to learn a certain dialect or accent.
This setting can be changed at any time, so it would be fine to try out different locations.
4. Look For A Match
On Tinder, swiping left on the profiles of users will remove them from your list, while swiping right adds them. Reading through the bios could give you a good idea on who could be a good partner for language learning.
5. Reveal Your Intention
Once a match is made, that is, the user that you swiped right for did the same thing the channel to communicate is opened. It would be good to state your intention to learn a new language right away, so that the person on the other end of the line will not be hoping for anything else aside from being a language learning partner.
6. Moving To Skype
It is then up to you if you would want to launch conversations on Skype after connecting on Tinder. It would be a good idea to strike up a few conversations on Tinder to see if you would be comfortable in giving out your Skype handle to other users.
The Benefit of Tinder Plus As A Language Learning Tool
Haughey writes that the benefit of using Tinder Plus to learn a new language is the fact that you would be talking to real people in actual conversations, and not merely studying words and sentences in a classroom or from a textbook. Learning a new language through Tinder Plus will allow users to study the language in its actual conversational form, along with the slang and dialects that go along with it.
