Would you like to travel more than your bank account allows you to? Do you enjoy talking to people and experiencing different cultures with locals? Then this platform may be just the thing for you. TalkTalkBnb allows you to see the world for free and mingle with the locals, all while using your language skills. So, where would you like to go?
Somewhere in between Airbnb and Couchsurfing, TalkTalkBnb is a French free social network connecting anyone wanting to learn a language, with travellers anywhere in the world who can help them. Travellers get free accommodation and a meal a day, in exchange for speaking their native language with their host. And hosts get a chance to experience full-immersion in the language of their choice without having to leave their country, or even their home!
Whether you are business person needing to brush up on your languages skills in time for that important meeting abroad, or a student preparing for a dreaded language exam, or if you just want to pick up a new language or refresh a long lost one, TalkTalkBnb can help you bring your language skills back up to speed.
As a traveller, the platform allows you to find free accommodation anywhere in the world, but also to experience authentic culture by living with the locals. Although you commit to spend a minimum amount of time with your host each day, you are not not expected to be with them 24/7, so you’ll have the flexibility and time to explore on your own. Indeed a happy balance between time together and time for independent activities (if so desired) is encouraged, to ensure that both travellers and hosts can get the most out of their experience.
Fostering Tolerance Through Understanding
As important as learning and practising languages is per se, through its connecting platform, TalkTalkBnb aims to bring people from different cultures together, and to help foster a more tolerant, cohesive and peaceful world in the process. The initiative is indeed a great example of how the internet can facilitate collaboration, sharing and exchange between people who would not otherwise ever come into contact.
And through the Youth 4 Global Goals initiative, carried out in partnership with AIESEC, the platform also supports youth involvement towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), through 6-12 week volunteering placements within local projects abroad.
As we witness growing hate discourse within politics, extremism and radicalisation, as well as the plea of millions of refugees fleeing conflict or poverty, a platform that seeks to build bridges and to nurture intercultural understanding can only be applauded.
Whether as a host or as a traveller, all you need to do to register is create your own profile on the website, and start searching for your perfect destination or language match. And don’t forget to send us a postcard!
Here’s a video about the initiative: