Portugal
participants
This Language Café was organized with two main goals in mind: first, because it was set up during Social Impact Days, it allowed International Students to counter stereotypes and embrace cultural differences. 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 practice a language they wanted to be fluent in.
This activity was set up as a speed-dating activity in 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. ESN Coimbra also partnered with Speak Coimbra, an organization which allows people to have language classes in an informal and 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. When the activity was over, most participants stayed in the bar/café having coffee or a drink with each other and with ESN Coimbra's members.
