I've just started dipping my toe into the world of crosstalk, as I straddle the beginner - intermediate gap and am just off level 3. Some thoughts and questions below.

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I'll start off by saying I was quite sceptical of the necessity of crosstalk, in that I didn't really see what it offered over and above having someone speak to you in a video. I still think I'm a way off having the kinds of rich crosstalk conversations Pablo describes, but I do see value in the method as a way of engaging more with the language / culture / native speakers at a point where my comprehension is too low for native material, and I'm not outputting.

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• Pablo's advice for finding crosstalk partners is broadly true.

Using Tandem (specifically), I've found that the "dating app" analogy works quite well. Not that I'm trying to use it like a dating app, but more that it takes a bit of effort messaging people (similar to swiping), and people often drop away when you mention crosstalk / before anything can be set up.

However, I have been lucky enough to find a few conversational partners. Including one who was specifically trying to do crosstalk - a bit of a win.

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• ... but, his experience is likely coloured by, well, being Pablo. And being based overseas.

Someone with more knowledge of the intricacies of Pablo's language learning journey can probably step in to correct me here, but my understanding is that Pablo has used crosstalk extensively to learn both Thai and Mandarin(?).

As a result, I'm assuming Pablo has done the majority of his crosstalk whilst based overseas (again, an assumption). I think this is relevant because it means Pablo would offer native Spanish (and fluent Japanese / English / French) in-country, where those languages are likely high demand, low supply.

My (admittedly, very limited) experience is that face-to-face crosstalk is difficult to arrange if you're not in the country of the target language. Mostly because those who already live in the country of their TL (i.e. native Spanish speakers here in the UK) generally have their English at a level where they want to practice speaking. This isn't universally true, ofc - with one of the people I've done crosstalk with US-based but a proponent of crosstalk!

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• Time does go a lot quicker!

I've done conversations of an hour / hour and a half / two hours doing crosstalk, and it's absolutely flown in comparison to even watching 30 minutes of videos. Definitely recommend it for that

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• Cost and benefits

In addition to the above benefit, it is quite motivating to see how much you understand in a crosstalk conversation. The pace of speech is similar to intermediate videos, but I can - broadly - follow the gist. There are points where I'm following less.

Even when you explain the process to people on Tandem (using Pablo's videos), there is often some confusion on the process. Or the other person wants to speak English / get you to speak Spanish / doesn't really slow down their speech.

Learning about people via crosstalk is overall more interesting than most of the guides' self-description videos as there's room to tailor to each other's interests, but it's been very difficult to bring in drawings and DS-style guides/prompts. Does anyone have suggestions of videoconferencing apps that allow the use of whiteboards? I think Zoom offers this functionality for paid members, but grateful for any advice on other apps.

I'd say the juice seems worth the squeeze in terms of the time / faff of setting up crosstalk partners / conversations for the pay-off of those conversations, but I have had conversations where it's been harder to find a level of mutual comprehensibility.

I'll be trying (recommended in this sub and Refold's Discord server) recommended tutors on Italki, who know about / have tried crosstalk, to see how a paid experience compares. I think there's probably a sweet spot of a paid tutor being more inclined to come with pre-prepared materials, vs a cheaper community teacher who could have the process explained to them and adapt to your level, whilst costing significantly less.

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• Closing thoughts

I'll continue on with crosstalk. The US-based individual specifically wanting to try crosstalk will likely turn into a once-per-week chat, and there's a number of people lined up; which, if nothing else, will offer a perspective from multiple different countries.

I'd be minded to focus more on a good Italki tutor in that I'm not of the belief a language can or should be learned for free, but I can't really justify (very) regular lessons to myself when options like Tandem exist, and crosstalk isn't so different to what I'm getting by selecting DS videos based on interest.

I think it would be very difficult to accrue the amount of hours in crosstalk Pablo references without either spending a small fortune on an Italki tutor (even at £5 an hour, that's a good few hundred £ for even 100h of lessons); or without that being spread over a long enough timescale (e.g. whether regular or changing partners, a few hours a week over a year adds up), unless you have friends / partners / family you could do this with regularly, or you're already in a Spanish-speaking country... but let me know if people disagree with this and have found regular, consistent, crosstalk partners for face-to-face conversations without being in a Spanish-speaking country!