To Learn Languages, Use Tandem

It happens to everyone, crossing a campus that becomes more international every year, to hear students having a conversation in a foreign language. Not only English, by now practically the official language of the University, but also German, French, Nordic and Eastern Europe languages, and of course Chinese. Recognizing an extraordinary opportunity for interaction, the Language Centre at Bocconi this year jumped to promote the Language Exchange, also known as Tandem, whose second annual edition will start in late February.

It is a computer program, explains the Language Centre's Roberta Gagliotti, "which, alongside the traditional curriculum, enables students to learn languages autonomously by conversing with each other in pairs, in various languages. "In practice, they just sign up (February 6 to 20, via yoU @ B diary or by filling out the registration form on the Language Centre web page), then the Language Centre sets up couples, always pairing two students based the requests and availability. "In general, the number of Italian students is higher than that of foreigners," says Gagliotti, "so we are forced to make a selection. Once the couples are formed, we organize a meeting to introduce the two partners and provide some guidelines. From then on, they organize themselves independently. At the end of the experience we'll ask them to fill out a questionnaire for feedback".

New to this edition is the creation of a Facebook group. It is a closed group accessible only to students selected to participate in the Tandem initiative. The Facebook group will represent an additional channel for students to get in touch with their language partner and become active in the community of Tandem students.