“When I arrived in rural Swabia, I didn’t know a word of German. I felt so isolated from the world,” recalls Jennifer Lynn Eldreth, coordinator of the library’s language cafés. After finishing high school, the now 30-year-old was keen to get out of the USA to see more of the world and came to Germany. She attended integration courses to learn German at her own initiative and looked for opportunities to connect with others. It is her own experience as a newcomer to the country that motivates her to get people together and talking to each other.
Each language café meet-up is an opportunity for people to talk to each other for an hour in the Gasteig HP8. It’s free to take part, there’s no need to book a place and you don’t commit to anything by taking part. That’s why the groups are always made up of all sorts of different people. Some don’t know a single word of the language yet, while others want to brush up on their language skills or are simply looking for conversation so as not to feel lost and lonely in the big city. Perfect grammar is not what matters; what’s important is to gain the confidence to speak at all.
“Together we help each other find the right words!”
The one-hour meet-ups are led by volunteer facilitators, some of whom arrived in Germany during the refugee crisis in 2015 and know what it means to start from scratch in an unfamiliar country. The conversation topics include trends, food and drink, poetry, music and more – with the sounds coming from the Isarphilharmonie next door providing constant inspiration. Eldreth remembers an intense exchange that began with one participant talking about the ban on music in his home country, while others felt that music was as important as breathing. “By talking, you begin to understand different points of view and the cultural shocks people can experience.” Often, people stay in touch afterwards and do things together outside of the language cafés.
The library aims to be a meeting place for all of society. Free, open programmes such as the language cafés help make this vision a reality: “One evening, we had participants from 22 different nations. I can’t even begin to describe how wonderful that is,” says Eldreth. “In the media, we often find only negative reporting, but in the language cafés, we all treat each other with respect. That gives us hope that the world can also communicate peacefully.”
Text: Maria Zimmerer
