Weekly Language Exchanges at Berkeley

This page is an attempt to collect information about all of the different language conversation groups at Berkeley and to encourage people to create similar groups for other languages. This is inspired in part by the Language Table system at Princeton and the Language Conversation Exchange at MIT. The creation of this page was partially motivated by the discovery that many Berkeley students are interested in these groups but unaware of their existence.

Given the strength of Berkeley's language programs and the diversity of the student body, one would hope that Berkeley could grow to support a selection of language conversation groups as diverse as that found in the above link from Princeton. Some natural candidate languages include Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and Farsi.

Berkeley also has a Language Exchange Program (LEP) that pairs language partners and holds weekly language events. However, the latter vary from semester to semester and are sometimes more like student-taught classes than conversation groups.

Please let me know if you have suggestions or additions!

Due to the COVID-19-related campus closure, groups are generally not meeting. Some of them may begin online meetings, so please contact your favorite group to ask if that's happening!

Dutch

Het Nederlandse Koffieuurtje, Fridays 4-5pm in Hearst Museum Patio, Information here

French

Le Cercle Francais, Fridays 4-5pm in Free Speech Movement Cafe, Facebook Page

German

Kaffeeklatsch, Awaiting Spring 2020 info, in German Department Library (Dwinelle 5337), Website, updates also on the German department mailing list. Contact German department for more info.

Hebrew

Cafe Ivrit, Wednesdays 5-6pm, in Berkeley Hillel second floor lounge, check the Hillel events page for updates. Contact Hillel for more info.

Italian

Tavola Italiana, Every other Wednesday 5-7pm, contact Italian studies department for details and updates

Japanese

Cal Japan Club events are a great chance to meet other Japanese speakers and practice Japanese (although they are not specifically conversation groups)

Portuguese

Pizza & Papo, 1:30-2:30pm, Sept 27, Oct 25, Nov 22, Dec 6, in 5125 Dwinelle, contact Spanish and Portuguese Department for updates

Russian

Weekly Conversation Hour, every other Friday 12-1pm, 6321 Dwinelle, contact Slavic department for updates.

Scandinavian

First meeting February 7 from 1-2pm. Updates on berkeleyscandinavian@lists.berkeley.edu and the Facebook group.

Spanish

Amig@s, Thursdays 5-6pm, Memorial Glade, see the callink page.

Yiddish

Yidisher Shmueskrayz, roughly once a month 12-1pm on Monday, see website in Yiddish, contact Isaac Bleaman to be added to the e-mail list

Off-Campus Groups

Chinese: Berkeley Mandarin Language Meetup Group, Saturdays, see the Meetup.com page.

French: Alameda / Contra Costa Co. Rendez-vous français, see the Meetup.com page.

German: German Speakers Meetup Group, see the Meetup.com page.

Irish: Tuesdays 5:30-7pm, Becket's Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave, contact tadx4@aol.com for more info.

Italian: Berkeley Italian Language Meetup Group, see the Meetup.com page.

Japanese: Nihongo Moriagarii, every other Wednesday 6:30-8:30pm, Paris Baguette, see the Meetup.com page.