The UoP Languages Café: by Margaret Russell
The Languages Café is one of the cultural flagships of the University of Plymouth, and began in 2008. Once a week university students, staff, and people from the wider community of Plymouth come together for an hour to converse in a language of their choice over a cup of coffee, tea and biscuits. Friendships are formed, languages are practised, and interesting conversations are had.
Communication across languages and cultures
Conversations are often so much about people’s stories. Today I sat on the English-speaking table. There were the 2 students from Sudan who recounted their story of escaping the civil war to a student from Taiwan, while an Engineering student from Korea described how he had travelled to oil rigs all through Africa and the North Sea. At the same time, Shirley, who was born in Kenya 83 years ago (!) talked to us about the course of the Blue Nile and the White Nile and taught us how to count to 10 in Swahili. There was also the lovely Marine Science student from Yorkshire, who had wanted to be a zookeeper, and told us that flamingos are pink because of the pink algae they eat.
All the while I could hear similarly interesting conversations on other tables in other languages – French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Italian. What a vibrant cultural mix. What a pleasant hour sharing stories with such varied and interesting people!
Come along…
Join us at the Languages Café to immerse yourself in different worlds. 1-2pm every Wednesday in Robbins foyer.