All Language Centre courses

A series of one-to-one appointments (6 in total, spaced over the academic year) to help organise your self-study and achieve the proficiency you need to get the most from your fieldwork.

You will be in the driving seat and you will determine the focus of the appointments.

A 30 minute appointment with a Language Adviser to explore opportunities and resources to help you with your plans and aims for your language learning. We advise on learning strategies across a range of 180+ languages in our learning centre. Click here to view our current index of languages.

These appointments are for advice on learning languages other than English. Should you want support for language skills in English, please do not book into one of these appointments but send your request to adtis@langcen.cam.ac.uk instead.

(Please note that if you are seeking advice about our taught courses, you are encouraged to visit our website for information about online courses to be offered this term).

Advising appointments can be used to:

• Decide on your short term and longer term goals
• Discuss learning strategies for independent language study
• Formulate a personal learning plan
• Evaluate your progress so far and identify your next steps
• Tackle more challenging aspects of your language learning, e.g., strategies for developing listening
• Talk about ways of shaping a self-study session
• Explore resources in specialist areas
• Consider how taught course options in Cambridge can fit in to a longer term plan
• Find out more about intensive language courses abroad

Please note; This advising appointment will be offered face to face with an advisor in the John Trim Centre.

If you would prefer this appointment to be offered online, please state this in the language advising form.

Please note that the Conversation Hours will be delivered online

This conversation hour offers learners with an independent conversational ability (B2/C1 level upwards) a chance to practice speaking Portuguese with others in a relaxed and informal group led by a native-speaker facilitator. The content of the sessions is decided by the participants, with members taking turns to propose a topic and source materials (newspaper articles, web links, videos etc.) to use as a basis for discussion. The groups are ideal for those who wish to retain or improve upon the language skills they already have or for those studying for a language degree who would like another forum for interaction at advanced level.

Participants from Portuguese Advanced CULP are warmly invited to attend the Portuguese Conversation Hour.

If the course is already 'in progress' please click on 'register your interest' in order to book a place.

This conversation hour offers learners with an independent conversational ability (A2-B1 level) a chance to practice speaking Japanese with others in a relaxed and informal group led by a native-speaker facilitator. The content of the sessions is decided by the participants, with members taking turns to propose a topic and source materials (newspaper articles, web-links, videos etc.) to use as a basis for discussion. The groups are ideal for those who wish to retain or improve upon the language skills they already have or for those studying for a language degree who would like another forum for interaction at advanced level.

If the course is already 'in progress' please click on 'register your interest' in order to book a place.

This conversation hour offers learners with an independent conversational ability (B2/C1 level upwards) a chance to practice speaking Chinese with others in a relaxed and informal group led by a native-speaker facilitator. The content of the sessions is decided by the participants, with members taking turns to propose a topic and source materials (newspaper articles, web links, videos etc.) to use as a basis for discussion. The groups are ideal for those who wish to retain or improve upon the language skills they already have or for those studying for a language degree who would like another forum for interaction at upper-intermediate to advanced level.

If the course is already 'in progress' please click on 'register your interest' in order to book a place.

A lunch meet for all of our 'Friends without Frontiers' volunteers

These are informal conversation practice sessions where learners take it in turns to choose a topic for the session and prepare some relevant questions. Whether you are learning from a resource or a class, you could use it as a chance to repeat your practice of a topic you have learned, such as an everyday conversation about where you are all from. Alternatively, you could take it as an opportunity to branch out and experiment with discussing a new idea or issue that interests you. A native speaker facilitator is there to provide support in sustaining conversation and to give you feedback on your language.

These sessions will allow you to practise Egyptian Arabic while finding topics written in Modern Standard Arabic.

Friendly and informal conversation practice sessions for those working towards a B2 level or for those who have completed an Elementary level Japanese CULP course. Learners will take turns to choose a topic for the session and prepare some discussion questions. Whether you are learning from a resource or a class, you could use it as a chance to practice talking about a topic you have learned or alternatively, you could take it as an opportunity to branch out and experiment with discussing a new idea or issue that interests you.

A native speaker facilitator is there to provide support in sustaining conversation and to give you feedback on your language.

If you are an intermediate level learner and would like the chance to improve your speaking skills in a relaxed and informal setting, then this opportunity might interest you.

Come along and take it in turns to choose a conversation topic of personal interest each week. This could be one that's familiar to you but you want to practise more. Devise 4-5 questions to get the conversation started. Example topics could be holidays, food, traditions or hobbies. **If you are at the stage where you would like to discuss newspaper articles/current affairs, please attend the Advanced Conversation Hour.**

Receive feedback on your pronunciation and accuracy, and try stretching yourself further.

Suitable for those who have completed an intermediate 1 Portuguese CULP course or those who have a B1 level in the CEFR.

If the course is already 'in progress' please click on 'register your interest' in order to book a place.

Please note that the Conversation Hours will be delivered online

If you are an intermediate level learner and would like the chance to improve your speaking skills in a relaxed and informal setting, then this opportunity might interest you.

Come along and take it in turns to choose a conversation topic of personal interest each week. This could be one that's familiar to you but you want to practise more. Devise 4-5 questions to get the conversation started. Example topics could be holidays, food, traditions or hobbies.

Receive feedback on your pronunciation and accuracy, and try stretching yourself further.

Suitable for those who have completed an intermediate 1 Russian CULP course or those who have a B1 level in the CEFR.

If the course is already 'in progress' please click on 'register your interest' in order to book a place.

Friendly and informal conversation practice sessions for basic level learners who would like to extend their speaking skills in Japanese. Learners will have a chance to practice talking about a variety of topics so whether you are learning from a resource or a class, you could use it as a chance to practice talking about a topic you have learned or alternatively, you could take it as an opportunity to branch out and experiment with discussing a new idea or issue that interests you.

A native speaker facilitator is there to encourage learners and give you feedback.

Do you need a date in your diary to keep your language study ticking over?

Many language learners are in the same boat. We need to fill a hungry gap between courses, begin tackling an academic article in another language, prepare to speak to friends or family abroad, or maybe study a lesser-known language for fieldwork... Whatever your goal for your language learning, you will need to execute your plan.

A weekly commitment can help focus the mind! If this applies to you, join this informal, supportive and adventurous study group. Make yourself at home in our learning centre and press on with what you need to do, alongside other learners and with support from Emma, a language learning adviser, interested in talking to you about your learning strategies. Receive weekly reminders to keep you on track.

This is a little melting pot: open to learners of any language, in a learning centre with resources for 170.

Tea and quality biscuits are on hand for whenever you want to take a break!

If the course is in progress, registering your interest equals booking a place.

If you don't wish to join at this stage but would like to be added to the mailing list to be kept up to date with the study group, please follow this link and search for 'Langcen-studygroup.

Please note that the Conversation Hours will be delivered online

This conversation hour offers learners with a lower-intermediate conversational ability (A2/B1 level upwards) a chance to improve their speaking skills with others in a relaxed and informal setting led by a native-speaker facilitator. Come along and take it in turns to choose a conversation topic of personal interest each week. This could be one that's familiar to you but you want to practise more. Devise 4-5 questions to get the conversation started. Example topics could be holidays, food, traditions or hobbies. Receive feedback on your pronunciation and accuracy, and try stretching yourself further.

Suitable for those who completed Arabic Elementary 1 and 2 Culp courses or those who have a B1 level in the CEFR.

If the course is already 'in progress' please click on 'register your interest' in order to book a place.

In this workshop we will practise reading techniques that will support you in understanding and interpreting your key texts. The beginning of Der Kleine Herr Friedemann will be the text we practise with, but it is not necessary to have read this in advance.

The strategies will help build your reading towards extracting key points/moments from a text for commentary, and reading for translation.

We'll break reading down into manageable steps and look at how you can develop your technique for both the personal stage that you feel you have reached with your reading and for the text that you have in hand. The session is entirely flexible, depending on what you would like to discuss and to work on.

Come to this session if you would like to explore developing your personal method for practising listening to French, particularly for progressing with challenging audio-visual clips from documentaries and films. Different listening strategies work for different people, and improvement is all about diversifying your own practice. We will try out practical strategies and evaluate their helpfulness against the questions that you are asked in the FRAV exam.

Please note this workshop will take place in LB 11 on the Sidgwick site.

Administered by the Language Centre, the AJ Pressland Fund offers bursaries of up to £1,000 to support language study abroad for students within the Schools of Biological Science, Clinical Medicine, Physical Science and Technology.

The aim of this optional advising appointment is to support with choosing a short language course abroad. Come along to find out more about other language learner experiences and get ready to explore course providers and programmes for your language.

Students should be planning to study a language overseas for up to 4 weeks during the Long Vacation and funds awarded may be used to support course fees, accommodation and travel as required.

Please note that we have a maximum of two students per appointment so you may share your appointment with another student.

Bring: a typical text in your target language that you need to read.

This one-off session is for learner readers of any languages.

Do you need to diversify your strategies for academic reading in your target language? Maybe for areas such as reading with speed or identifying which are significant moments in a text and which aren't? Come and evaluate your method, then experiment with practical steps for all kinds of texts.

This is a change of concept: of course we will consider your target language, but giving greater emphasis to how you read and learning strategies to make it manageable and satisfying. Learners at all levels welcome.

Speaking practice with an Arabic native-speaker volunteer

A relaxed and informal speaking practice session with a volunteer native Basque speaker.

Speaking practice with a Bengali native-speaker volunteer

A 20-minute session providing a chance to practice Chinese pronunciation, tones and general conversation.

A chance to practice French conversation/pronunciation with a volunteer native speaker.

A chance to practise Greek conversation/pronunciation with a volunteer native speaker. Suitable for any level of learner.

Speaking practice with a Hebrew native-speaker volunteer

speaking practice with a Hindi native-speaker volunteer