Portugal
participants
This Language Café was organized with two main goals in mind: first, because it was set up at the beginning of the semester, it allowed International Students in Coimbra to get to know each other in an informal setting, where they could talk to each other freely and make friends. Secondly, it was set up as a speed-dating activity, where participants talked to one another about whatever they wanted, as the main goal was to help them learn a new language or pratice a language they wanted to be fluent in.
This activity was set up as a speed-dating activity at one of ESN Coimbra's partners, O Reitor. It is a friendly bar/café where a lot of students enjoy grabbing a quick bite to eat or something refreshing to drink. This was done in collaboration with SPEAK, which is an organization which allows people to have language classes in an informal, fun setting. International students arrived at the bar/café and were tagged with the languages they knew and/or wanted to learn. Each was then assigned another student with two or more languages in common, and the pairs would speak to each other for 10 minutes in total - 5 minutes in one language, and 5 minutes in another. After the alotted time, participants were paired with other people. Pairs were free to talk about whatever they wanted, or they could ask for questions to help them break the ice.
Disclaimer: Because of Covid-19, everyone wore a mask and respected social distancing, during the entire activity. Everyone got their temperature checked, at the beginning of the event.
After this successful Language Café, a lot of the participants felt more at ease with each other and in the city, as this allowed them to meet fellow International Students who were most likely going through similar experiences: moving to a new country, trying to speak a new language and making friends. Furthermore, they had the opportunity to practice their language skills with native speakers or with other learners in an informal, relaxed setting, which allowed them to build up more confidence in their communication skills.