Esperanza Education: Language Partners BC Year 3

This is the third year of Language Partners BC, a volunteer-run language organization in Vancouver. The project started with an influx of Syrian refugees in the winter of 2015-2016 and the idea that a partner-based language program might offer connections and solidarity between people in our city. Now, as we go into our third year of operation, it feels like time for a reflection on what’s going well, what ongoing challenges we face, and where the work may lead.

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Link to article: http://www.esperanzaeducation.ca/blog/multilingualism/language-partners-bc-year-3

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CBC's the Early Edition: Community Language Festival

In September we hosted a Community Languages Festival at Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House. Listen from 1:00:23 to hear Mary speak about the festival. 

http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1052708931796/

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Metro News: tandem UBC language program ends with workshop, Syrian feast

In the six years since tandem UBC — a partner-based conversational language program — launched at the University of British Columbia, its directors never expected to see it become the largest “tandem” style program in the world.

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Students at UBC participate in a language exchange offered by tandem UBC, using an innovative learning model in which partners are paired by an online algorithm and converse with each other in their own languages | Photo: UBC tandem Language Learning Program

Link to article: http://www.metronews.ca/news/vancouver/2017/04/18/tandem-ubc-language-program-ends-with-workshop-syrian-feast.html

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CBC: Students teach students at volunteer-run language program

"When you talk about something, about culture, about language.... It made us friends,"

Moving to a new city and making friends can feel like an insurmountable task — especially when you're also trying to get the hang of a new language.

Coordinator of Language Partners BC, Mary, and program facilitator, Mamo, discuss how language exchanges can help with On the Coast at CBC. 

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Language Partners B.C. students participate in the mixed Turkish-English program | Photo: Language Partners B.C.

Link to article: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/language-program-takes-teaching-out-of-classroom-and-into-community-1.3921779

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Metro: Language Partners ‘re-stitches social fabric’ between Vancouverites

Focused on community-building and learning other languages in a small group setting, ‘profound’ new language exchange set to expand in New Year.

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Vancouver language exchange partners Ayla Harker, a Canadian, and Asma Hussein, who is Syrian, took part in Language Partners B.C.'s Arabic-English exchange earlier this year. According to the program's founder Mary Leighton, "neither spoke any of the other language when they started." | Photo by Norma Ibarra

Link to article: http://www.metronews.ca/news/vancouver/2016/12/28/language-partners-restitch-social-fabric-among-vancouverites.html

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