This semester, I decided to join the CELOP Conversation Partner Program. My initial intention was to improve my language abilities, but I’ve also gained something much more valuable: a close friend.

Sophie Anderson, a junior at Western Washington University, spent five weeks in Beijing this summer. She was frustrated to realize how difficult it was to actually find an immersion experience.

Last fall, lying on my lumpy living room couch in Brooklyn, I did a quick Google search regarding something I've long been interested in learning: "Croatian teachers near me." While very few in-person ...