Language Cafés

Language Cafés are informal language classes taught by students for students in an informal and friendly environment. The Cafés are based on volunteer work and they give students an opportunity to learn a language they are interested in. It is possible to earn ECTS credits by being a participant (1 ECTS) or a leader (2 ECTS) by completing some assignments, attending the Cafés and writing a learning diary. However, please note that you can earn the credit points only once as with any other course at the univeristy. You can also be a participant or a leader in a Language Café without earning ECTS points - just for fun! You can teach your own Language Café, participate in one or do both at the same time.

How does it work? 

Decide first whether you wish to be a teacher or a participant. As a teacher you can teach your mother tongue or another language you are competent in. As a participant, you can join as many Cafés as you wish. You can decide to learn a completely new language or you can freshen up your skills of a language you have already learnt. Sometimes there are two cafés for the same language and one of them is aimed at beginners and the other one at more advanced learners. However, this depends on the availability of teachers. 

The teachers decide together with their students what the participants want to learn during the Language Cafés and create lessons based on that. Usually, a teacher organises meetings once per week. The participants and the teacher can freely decide when and where they will have the lessons. There are separate Moodle platforms for leaders and participants and the required assignments are submitted there. You will get the course keys for the Moodle courses on the first introductory Language Café meeting or you can later ask them from ISYY’s Coordinators of International Affairs.

Language Café in a nutshell:

1. Attend the Language Café info session hosted by ISYY.
2. Leave your contact information at the end of the introductory meeting if you would like to become a leader.
3. Leaders will then attend a mandatory leader training organised by the Coordinators of International Affairs. 
4. If there is a teacher and interested participants for a certain language, there will be an available Language Café for that language. However, if there is no match, there will not be a Language Café. 
5. Leaders will send an email to the Coordinator of International Affairs that includes the info of their Café (language and level). The coordinators will then create a Google Forms that will be linked on this webpage and students can sign up to the Cafés they want via the form. After the sign-up period, the coordinators will forward the participants' email addresses to the leaders so that the first meetings can be organised.
6. Leaders and participants have separate Moodle platforms to which they can submit assignments. 
7. The leader will organise a first meeting for their own Language Café, in which the leader and participants discuss the contents of the Café. After this, the Language Café will kick off!

Leader (2 ECTS)

All Language Café leaders should first attend a leader training organised by ISYY. The time and date for the leader training will be announced in the Language Café info session.

The aim for leaders is to learn about

• Peer learning and teaching
• How to take responsibility for leading, planning and coordinating Language Café activities
• Developing multicultural group work skills

Time estimate for the 2 credit points

• 20 hours for planning the meetings, preparing content and communications 
• 20 hours of leading language cafe meetings
• 14 hours for completing assignments

The scale used in the evaluation is pass-fail.

Participant (1 ECTS)

The aim for participants is to learn about

• develop their language skills together with other participants
• learn about different cultures and customs
• acquire skills in performing within a multicultural group

Time estimate for the 1 credit point

• 20 hours of attending Language Café meetings
• 7 hours of independent study and assignments

The scale used in the evaluation is pass-fail.

Language Café info session in autumn 2023

NB! The info schedule was updated on 12.9.2023.

Language Café info session was held on 19 September 2023 at 9 am in Google Meet. You can find the slides of the info from the link below. The recording of the info is available on both the eLearn Moodle course for participants as well as for leaders. The leader's course also has a recording of the leader training that was held on 19 September. You can find the course names and course keys from the presentation linked below.

Isyy.fi, opens in a new tab: Language Cafe info (pdf)

Available Language Cafés in autumn 2023

Please sign up via the Google Forms linked below to each Language Café. You have until 29 September 12 pm (noon) to sign up. After this, the form will close and the email addresses of the participants are forwarded to the leaders of the Cafés so that the first meeting can be arranged.

Google Forms, opens in a new window: Language Cafés in autumn 2023

Joensuu (3 Cafés)

• Chinese
• Japanese
• Japanese

Kuopio (1 Café)

The leader in Kuopio would like to organise one of the following Language Cafés based on which language is the most popular among students:

• Finnish
• French
• Russian
• English