(Daily Illustration by Kyle Frost)

Northwestern students are adding a boost to their foreign language skills at weekly coffee and conversation outings.

“Coloquio y café,” a recurring Spanish meeting to practice conversation skills over coffee, and other out-of-class events offer students opportunities to practice a foreign language in a real-world setting, said Heather Colburn, the Spanish language program director.

“You can certainly learn a lot in the classroom and from a textbook,” Colburn said. “But the whole point of learning another language is so you can communicate with other people. There can be a pretty big challenge.”

The Spanish and Portuguese department offers informal conversation hours to help students master the skill as well as free tutoring, film screenings and writing assistance for students at various levels, Colburn said.

Students living in residential colleges such as the International Studies Residential College may have additional opportunities to practice their language skills, including informal discussions between students, faculty and staff, she said.

Currently there are no additional services specifically for students planning to study abroad, but students can take advantage of the extra services the department already has in place, Colburn said.

“We’ve designed our language courses at the 199 level and higher to fit directly with our most popular study abroad programs in Spanish-speaking countries,” she said. “Our curriculum in each of those courses deals with the countries where we send most students, specifically Spain, Argentina and Chile. They have a lot of opportunities to learn about the culture and history as well as develop their language skills.”

NU’s other language departments offer similar opportunities. Students may practice French at roundtable discussions every week, and the German department offers a similar option called “Kaffeestunde,” or “coffee hour,” in addition to film screenings and various speaker events during the year.

Rebecca Susan, program assistant for the Program of African and Asian Languages, said the department currently offers language hours for Hebrew, Japanese and Arabic. The department also invites students to participate in seasonal events, such as the celebration of Chinese New Year this Friday, she said.

“All the students are performing and doing other activities for the celebration,” Susan said. “It’s primarily for students who are in Chinese classes right now.”

Weinberg senior David Leander said although he did not participate in language practice on campus outside of class, he studied abroad in Mexico, and this weekend he will take practical Spanish application into his own hands.

Leander designed an independent project in which he will research “the linguistic barrier between getting your (medical) prescription instructions in Spanish versus English and how a lot of pharmacies don’t offer that translation,” he said. Leander said he will interview subjects in the Pilsen area of Chicago.

“This is a real application of Spanish,” he said. “I think one of the main attractions to learning a language is to be able to use it in the real world, and in the real world, people don’t talk about different literary movements or different authors’ styles. They talk about day-to-day things.”[email protected]