It’s time to start practicing your foreign language skills with native speakers or more proficient peers! The Online Language Cafés and the Tandem Language Buddy Program are back for the 2023 autumn.
The two programmes, run by The Department of Language Education (Språkstudion) of Stockholm University, are free and open to all students and staff from CIVIS universities. Through weekly online sessions via Zoom, the participants get the opportunity to practice language skills and cultural awareness in an informal setting, over coffee or tea, together with other students and native speakers. You are welcome to participate on a regular basis or drop in spontaneously.
Moreover, if you register for the Tandem Language Buddy Program, you can be matched with a language partner from your own or another CIVIS member university to practice each other’s language. Tandems are regular meetings in pairs in which you speak your own language half the time and half the time you practice the foreign language. Thus you get to know your language buddy and their culture in a relaxed environment.
If you register and receive a tandem partner, you commit to meeting them at least 5 times. Each session usually lasts one hour, but that is up to you to decide.
20 languages are currently offered and one can participate in as many sessions as wanted. All you have to do is to register using the university email address.
The cafes are run by student native speakers on a voluntary basis. No credits are given and no teachers are present, unless they are learners, too. Therefore, if you would like to help others practice your language and get to know other students around the world, you can become a language supporter at Språkstudion’s Language Cafes.
All students interested in volunteering as Online Language Cafe Coordinators in their native language during September to December 2023 are invited to learn more about it here and then send an email to info@sprakstudion.su.se announcing their intention.