Have the same conversations you normally would with your language parent, but now exclusively in the target language (if your language parent is a tutor, talk to them as to a friend, in fact it’s a great idea to become friends with them!).
Describe your day, the weather, your surroundings, or summarize a fun video you saw or article you read.
Even if your vocabulary is still very limited, start mixing to get creative. If you’ve got ten verbs, ten nouns and ten adjectives you can say one thousand different things.
It’s extremely recommended to record the conversations, for three reasons:
you can create flashcards for new words and phrases you learned (including your language parent’s audio)
you can write out the recordings to practice your writing (see [[ACTION] Write](https://dominiczijlstra.notion.site/ACTION-Write-c92c09d76595456fb3c31fcde1ceeecf))
you can use the recordings later to practice shadowing on your own (see Pronunciation: shadowing)
[ ] 👉 Have a 15 minute chat with your language parent and describe your day. Record it. Afterwards, create a flashcard deck (see [EXAMPLE] Chat day 1). Insert the recording, listen to it and create flashcards for new words and phrases.
Have your language parent lead the conversation to make it easier. They can start asking: ‘How was your day?’ and then ask follow up questions and check their understanding of what you’re trying to communicate.
[ ] 👉 Repeat this step as often as possible. Start with talking about daily life, but feel free to go into any topics that interest you. If you run out of topics, you can always talk about the weather ;)