Breaking language barriers at Uppsalingo

The concept is simple. Every table has a sign with a language written on it. It could for example be French, German or Mandarin. The participants sit down at the table with their desired language, maybe with a beer or some food. When the meeting starts a topic of discussion is announced. During the first hour everybody speaks Swedish, and later on they switch to the other language.

When I step in to Gotland’s nation the meeting has already begun. The topic of discussion is marriage. Among the people I see John Nellfors, one of the organisers of Uppsalingo, at the German table. Olof Fägerstam, who also organises the meetings, already speaks German and Persian. He is now trying to learn Russian a few tables away.

Uppsalingo has been around for a few years and the organizers Olof Fägerstam, John Nellfors and Simon Hössung Awad describe it as a more relaxed forum for language studies.
– It’s not like hanging out in a café, nor like being in a classroom, Simon Hössung Awad says.
– You don’t need to be good to join the meeting, everybody is welcome. I only speak a few words of Russian, but I try anyway, Olof Fägerstam continues.

At Uppsalingo’s web page you can see what languages will be spoken before every meeting, and make suggestions for new ones. All that is needed is someone speaking the language and a counterpart that speaks Swedish. The list of languages that have been spoken at Uppsalingo could go on and on, but most commonly represented are Spanish, Italian, French, German, Japanese, Mandarin and Russian.
– I don’t think we have ever had Esperanto, that would be cool though, says John Nellfors.

International student Yunchen Sun from China has been here three times. His Swedish teacher told him about Uppsalingo.
– I have only studied Swedish for six months in addition to my university studies in information systems. At the moment I’m taking Basic Swedish. Uppsalingo gives me a good opportunity to practice my speaking and hearing comprehension, says Yunchen Sun.

Yunchen Sun says that he probably would have been fine in Uppsala without knowing Swedish because most people speak English very well, but why not learn a new language?
– Swedish is a beautiful language, to me it sounds almost like a song. If I decide to stay in Sweden I need to learn Swedish, says Yunchen Sun.