Hello, Bonjour, Ciao, Hola, Namaste, Ni hao, Γεια

A lot of discussions at Café Multilingual. Photo: Jens Hansen.

Arriving at the Språk– och litteraturcentrum, the first thing that anyone notices is the long queue to the main room. However, the wonderful smell of freshly brewed coffee and fika make the waiting worth while. In the next instant you are inside, where the first Café Multilingua of the academic year is taking place. 

The Vice President of the Student Union for the Humanities and Theology, Lukas Olsson, who is currently working full-time at the Union says:
“The first Café Multilingua was organized by the Faculty of Humanities and Theology but since they decided to decrease the frequency of the events, the Student Union took the leading role in 2012 and is now responsible for it”.
What Lukas also explained is that the purpose of the café is for international and Swedish students to practice their second language as well as help other people to do so through socializing and meeting new people in a friendly environment.

Near the main entrance at the Mandarin table Josh, a 22 year-old exchange student in electrical engineering, is sitting. Josh, who is originally from China, speaks Mandarin, English, Cantonese and Malay.
“I want to meet new people and practice my skills”, he says when I ask him about his reasons to come to the café.

At another table Laura Marinica and her friend Michaela are sitting, both study applied cultural analysis. They are Romanian and they are also first-timers in this kind of event. Laura speaks Romanian, “excellent” English (as she told us), Spanish and a bit German and French. Straight from her CV, she informed us that she is currently living in four different countries – Romania, Spain, UK and Sweden.
“Well, in this event, I would like to change my Swedish level” Michaela says.

But there are not only international students at this café. At the Swedish table Adam Bremholm are sitting, a 26 years-old native Swede and his girlfriend Erika from Japan.
“I speak Swedish, English and a bit Japanese”, Adam says though his proud friends informed us:
“He is speaking Japanese more than a little”.
The reason why Adam decided to sit by the Swedish table was to help his girlfriend and other international students practice their Swedish skills so far.