About Us

Long Established, Very Active

My Language Exchange was launched over 24 years ago by its co-founders Dan Yuen and Helene Cormier to help people all over the world learn, practice and become fluent in a foreign language. Today, it is still going strong with 4 million members from around the world, hundreds of new members and thousands of messages exchanged each day.

Language Exchange Goes Mainstream

Back when we launched in 2000, few people even knew what a language exchange was. Google was a relative newcomer to search. It is fair to say that My Language Exchange helped usher in our present mindset that language exchange goes hand in hand with any language learning endeavour. Language Exchange has come mainstream! Indeed, MLE was the first popular language exchange site, reaching 1 million members in 2008.

Method Fosters Confidence and Fun, Effective Practice

Success was owed to credible structure and Lesson plans and how-to guidelines - all provided by a language teacher co-founder, Helene Cormier who developed her method of language exchange practice called the Cormier method at a language school in Montreal, Canada. Back then, "language exchange" websites were often mere dating websites that simply had a search field for languages. MLE's tips and structure gave it's users confidence and motivation to try this new way of practice on their own, relying on their partner and themselves instead of on a teacher.

Early Accolades

MyLanguageExchange.com was mentioned in the January 2001 issue of Yahoo! Internet Life magazine as a "trail blazer".

In August 2003, PC World magazine named MyLanguageExchange.com among the "Top 101" Internet sites of the world.

Word Games for Fun Learning of Expressions and Slang

In 2002, MLE added hangman games where members can share common expressions and slang by creating and playing the classic word game. Feedback for each game provides equally fun and valuable learning opportunities, as members share the equivalent slang in their native language. Today, there are over 40K games that, together with their feedback, share over 150K popular expressions and slang phrases across 158 languages.

Presented to Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages, Canada

In 2013, MLE partnered with an established global homestay culture exchange site Friendship Force International. Co-founder Dan Yuen was invited to speak at the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages who is mandated to protect the language rights of the two official languages of Canada and directly to the prime minister's office. You can read a transcript of Dan's presentation here.

AI Featured Voice Chat

In 2023, MLE added modern voice chat with AI features like speech recognition, inline translation and voice-activated audio recording and corrections highlighting. Unlike the competitors' apps that are mobile downloads and only work on mobile devices, MLE's voice chat works right in the browser, on - and across - ALL devices, giving users a true "practice anywhere" experience. Voice-activated audio recording ensures the user won't miss a word and won't be distracted.

New Modern User Interface

Also in 2023, MLE overhauled its design. With a clean, modern appearance, MLE no longer looks "dated", "ancient" or neglected.

About Helene Cormier

Helene was educated at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. She earned her B.A. First Class Honours in French translations in 1993 and is an M.A. candidate in Creative writing. Helene is passionate about helping people learn and communicate in a foreign language. She has taught ESL at the YBM Sisa language school in Korea and has co-founded the Club d’échange linguistique (CELM) language school in Montreal in 1998. Helene is not involved in MyLanguageExchange.com anymore, having decided to dedicate herself to her teaching career.

About Dan Yuen

Dan was educated as a chemical engineer at the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, where he earned his B.A.Sc. and M.A.Sc. degrees. In his engineering career, Dan has specialized in applying new technologies in the area of automatic process control. As an employee or as a consultant, Dan has helped companies such as Honeywell, Petro-Canada, Dow Chemicals, Imperial Oil, Invensys, Aspen Technologies and Millenium Chemicals. In 2000, Dan took a leave of absence to learn web page programming and to launch My Language Exchange. He offers web programming and process control engineering services as an independent contractor. Dan is passionate about helping others achieve and finding innovative uses of new technologies to solve existing problems and improving his French.

Dan encourages responsible use of air conditioning.