In the heart of Boulder’s historic downtown, an exchange is occurring. On the back patio of Boulder’s oldest cafe, people are practicing small-talk in various languages – some are proficient, some beginners, and many find themselves somewhere in between.
Seated away from the lights and the larger crowds is Wei Wu Lu, a mathematics doctorate student at the University of Colorado (CU) Boulder. He is here to practice his Japanese. There is a novel series that has yet to be translated to English. Rather than wait, Wu Lu is learning Japanese to work toward reading the books.
“I still have a long ways to go,” said Wu Lu, but he has faith he will get there eventually.
Language Exchange began in 2022 with one woman sitting with eight cards around her – one for each language she spoke. The weekly gathering at Trident Booksellers and Cafe has since grown to have six administrators and hosted more than 30 different languages, including Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, Russian, Turkish, Arabic, German, and American Sign Language.
Every Monday, the patio space is re-organized and tables are reserved. Name tags and Sharpies are provided, and many tables are dressed with a card holder that tells attendees what language is being practiced at that particular table. Those who are multilingual may move from table to table and jump into the conversation.
“I think people love coming here because there is no pressure. There are no levels. Basically, you're just welcome to come in and sit at any of the tables,” said Kelvin Tavarez, one of the Language Exchange administrators. “If you can only say hi in a language, you're welcome.”
Tavarez has been attending the Language Exchange for about three and a half years now, since its inception.
“Where else in Boulder can you go and see people just talking and just practicing languages and being so cohesive,” said Tavarez. “We're not trying to educate people on how to speak properly in a certain language, or pull out a dictionary, or judge people on how they pronounce something. We just want people to have fun.”
Learning a language can mean being vulnerable to criticism, fumbling pronunciations, mixing up past and present tense, and outright not knowing the words. This makes the need for a welcoming and supportive environment all the more important.
“What we know from second language acquisition research is that mistakes are imperative. You have to make mistakes to get better,” said Rai Farrelly, an associate professor in the linguistics department at CU Boulder.
Farrelly would like to see multilingualism embraced in communities and push back on “monolingual bias.” For those who are scared to make mistakes or speak with an accent, she says to imagine you are speaking to someone with an immigrant background, or someone whose first language is not English. Do you roll your eyes when they make a mistake? Do you pass harsh judgment?
There is another community that Farrelly addresses – heritage speakers. These are people who have learned languages informally at home and while some are fully fluent, others may only be able to understand common conversation.
For those who have been told, “You’re not Mexican enough because you don’t speak Spanish” or “you’re not Korean enough because you don’t speak Korean,” Farrelly knows it can shut you down. Due to expectations that you are proficient in a language, it can be daunting to go into a language exchange space.
She said, “Using language, no matter the proficiency level, we’re using it, is a beautiful thing. And if we can all support each other in the process, it cultivates that community of support and care around language learning.”
Language Exchange Night takes place every Monday from 7-9 p.m. on the back patio of Trident Booksellers and Cafe on Pearl Street.
