PJs in the city has turned Tuesday nights into a mishmash of multiculturalism, hosting the oh-so-social Language Exchange.
PJs, in the Canberra CBD, is the former PJ O’Briens, which tweaked its brand in early 2021, with the proprietors posting a ‘Funeral Notice for dear Mr O’Reilly’ as it moved away from its Irish pub history and even stopped serving Guinness on tap.
But for six years now it has continued to encourage multilingualism by way of the Language Exchange.
Participants wear a sticker denoting their first language, and beneath it a sticker corresponding to any language(s) they are learning. It’s then up to conversationalists to find others with appropriate stickers for a chat. An area is adorned with global paraphernalia and books of flag stickers.
Many of the regulars, aka polyglots, speak at least three languages. Discussions are common in French, Spanish, Mandarin, Hindi, Japanese, Persian, Arabic and Hungarian, and many at the event are migrants who have come to practise their English.
Language tuition experts suggest there are significant benefits to learning languages outside of the classroom, practising in informal setting and with social groups, which offers opportunity for broader topics and contexts.
In modern multicultural Australia, associate professor of applied linguistics Eleni Petraki says people should engage more in learning languages as it “enriches our lives and our understanding of other cultures”.
Founder of the Language Exchange, Daniel White, had the idea for the initiative whilst struggling to find anywhere in Canberra to practise his French and Arabic, which were his second and third languages.
He now speaks six languages, and suggests the noisy pub environment requires a degree of focus and forces the listener to pay attention to the other person. This has likely helped in the Exchange having led to multiple new friendships, and even some marriages.
“It’s more than just the language. It’s different styles and different cultural interactions. You learn to communicate with different people — and it’s social,” White told the ABC.
