In the Language Café (also called Cafe de las Lenguas), which opened in the Horst building on 15 October 2019, around 30 people come together every second and fourth Thursday of the month. In the early days they practiced their English, Dutch or Spanish. Now French and German have been added.
Brigitte Leurink is satisfied with that growth. ‘So far, the Language Café is going well’, she says. ‘We try to organize the initiative well. Anyone can join in, but then there must be a representative from the faculty on the Thursday evening.’
Expats
She has also been in contact with the municipality of Enschede and wellbeing organization Alifa, which organizes a talkhouse for expats and immigrants. ‘Ultimately, these expats can also participate, because they can’t visit the talkhouse in working hours’, says Leurink. ‘But first we want to make the Language Café available to the entire UT community, possibly also to the partners. Guiding the conversations requires attention. We first want to get that right.’
In the end, Leurink visions a Language Café like the one of the University of Groningen. ‘There it started on a small scale fourteen years ago and it grew into a structural weekly meeting. When the weather is nice, they go outside into the park. That could be our aim.’
