“Language Tandem” will be held at The Woodville. It is a good opportunity to practice a new foreign language there.
Cardiff-based Non-Profit Organisation will coordinate an event for meeting different languages for students at a pub tonight.
Volunteering NPO UNA Exchange will start events “Language Tandem” at The Woodville in Woodville Road, Cathays, every Thursdays until 28th Jan.
Marilu Solas Obra, one of the organizers, said: “If you are from UK, and you want to practice a foreign language, it is hard. And it is a nice way to help people who want to practice.”
UNA organised the first Language Tandem events in autumn. In the beginning the languages of participants were five, Czech, Russian, German, Spanish and French. But in the end nearly 100 people attended.
“We started to promote, make poster, make Facebook events. I was in touch with the university, with a lot of community centres, with a lot of language schools,” Obra said.
Members who attended the party put stickers writing their name and country so that they could find a partner easily. The pub staffs also put stickers cooperatively. They had a map on the wall so that they can put posts and write what they like about their countries.
Obra added: “It was so funny all people with their stickers. We had a lottery for the first day. The winner got a cook book as a prize, with recipes from past volunteers all over the world.”
Once the reason UNA began Language Tandem events was much simpler. As an international student, she felt British students also want an opportunity to meet other languages. In Cardiff, there are a lot of international students from around the world.
“All people can practice English here because you can just go shopping, you can practice English everywhere,” Obra said.
“I was a studying volunteer in this organization, and I have to make events, to be more close to the people, so I thought why not make an event like this.”
The events grew as a multinational one as a place multinational and multicultural people gathered. UNA is going to keep organising this event constantly.
