Hi, I'm Jess Ames Pappalardo, the founder of INT’L Cafe, which is a local language cafe here in Chicago.
The language community in Chicago is incredibly vast and diverse. At our events alone, we've had over 70 languages represented. We try to make it so that everyone who shows up to our events can represent themselves through their language lives.
The thing that really is so cool about these events is that it's the simplicity. It's literally people coming in identifying their languages, whether they're just learning or at expert level fluency (or anything in between). And then they get to go to the table with the language that they would like to practice. That's the model, really. Everybody gets to sit at these tables and share a very casual moment together.
All humans have some way of communicating with each other through language, whether it be sign language or spoken language. It's something that's just universal, it's how we connect with each other.
I really think it's the simplicity that makes it work so fluidly. So I may go to the Spanish table where I sort of bumble my way through an intermediate level conversation on my end. And somebody helps me along with maybe some vocabulary or some idioms or some cool slang or whatever. And then I can go to the English table and I can help somebody who's practicing their English get through a conversation comfortably. So it creates these in an environment where it's very reciprocal. You give help and you receive help. You leave feeling good about humanity, and you feel like you've been able to do something that's difficult together. Practicing a language that you're not fluent in is a challenge. It can be tiring, but that can be a unique experience. People come to realize their capabilities and they get to have these deep connections in new languages, and just feel good about humanity.
The language community in Chicago is incredibly vast and diverse. At our events alone, we've had over 70 languages represented. We try to make it so that everyone who shows up to our events can represent themselves through their language lives.
The thing that really is so cool about these events is that it's the simplicity. It's literally people coming in identifying their languages, whether they're just learning or at expert level fluency (or anything in between). And then they get to go to the table with the language that they would like to practice. That's the model, really. Everybody gets to sit at these tables and share a very casual moment together.
All humans have some way of communicating with each other through language, whether it be sign language or spoken language. It's something that's just universal, it's how we connect with each other.
I really think it's the simplicity that makes it work so fluidly. So I may go to the Spanish table where I sort of bumble my way through an intermediate level conversation on my end. And somebody helps me along with maybe some vocabulary or some idioms or some cool slang or whatever. And then I can go to the English table and I can help somebody who's practicing their English get through a conversation comfortably. So it creates these in an environment where it's very reciprocal. You give help and you receive help. You leave feeling good about humanity, and you feel like you've been able to do something that's difficult together. Practicing a language that you're not fluent in is a challenge. It can be tiring, but that can be a unique experience. People come to realize their capabilities and they get to have these deep connections in new languages, and just feel good about humanity.