Language Exchanges

Just because I am a native English speaker and I am living in a place where learning the English language is a hot commodity doesn't mean that I have any desire to do meet ups with people to help them improve their English. The catch is always "and I can help you improve your Spanish!" but I get enough of that already. Not every moment of my day has to be spent learning Spanish, that's not the reason I am here (but I think people think that I am here primarily to learn Spanish). I'm frusterated at how many people (relatives and friends of the family) ask me if I want to meet up to do a language exchange. If I said yes to all of them, I would be busy all day every day with helping people improve their English. The only way I would do it is if I were getting paid. My time is valuable. I want to choose how I spend my day, even if it means having a siesta and watching a movie. It's my experience and it doesn't have to revolve around learning a language. I feel guilty when I don't want to do language exchanges, like people perceive it as a positive thing and by saying no I am turning down an experience. Too bad, it's not the experience I want to have.

The only exchange I am doing now is an hour of English a week for free yoga classes in return. I think its a fair trade, especially since yoga tends to be expensive and I like doing it.