This story is a collaboration between Concordia University’s journalism department and CBC Montreal.
Maria Beltran takes two stickers — a Colombian flag and a Quebec flag — from the high wooden table at the back of Bar Clébard and sticks them to her top.
Beltran, originally from Colombia, is a student at Montreal’s LaSalle College and is among upwards of 200 language learners who gather at the bar in Montreal’s Plateau neighbourhood every Wednesday evening to socialize and practise language.
The flags display the languages attendees speak and those they are learning — a tool that helps others identify people to practise with.
This event is Mundo Lingo, a social language learning night out held in cities across the globe, including Montreal.
Beltran attended her first Mundo Lingo event seven years ago in Melbourne, Australia, after moving from Colombia. She was looking for somewhere to practise her English and meet new people.
“I met a really good friend from Mexico there,” Beltran, a former music teacher, said. “We kept in touch throughout these years.” Now, they both live in Montreal and continue to attend the event.
WATCH | Hundreds come out to learn, socialize every week:
Mundo Lingo works to ease the stress of language learning by replacing desks with a bartop. The event takes place every Wednesday evening at Bar Clébard in Montreal’s Plateau neighbourhood.
At Mundo Lingo, participants drink, socialize, and practise language. There’s no expectation of ability — language learners of all levels and backgrounds are welcome. This, Beltran says, is what makes the space so welcoming.
“Everyone goes there with kind of, like, the thought of helping others,” Beltran said.
“We’re the same. We’re here to learn. So, when everyone comes with that mindset to a place, it makes a union.”
A journey to integration
When Beltran moved to Montreal to study early childhood education, she made it her mission to become part of the city. A self-described social butterfly, Beltran speaks of her integration like a plan executed with intention.
“I came with that mindset. I need to find friends. I need to meet people. I need to practise my English. I need to practise my French. So, I’m going to put myself out there,” she said.
When she first moved, her French was limited, but she thrust herself into work at a mainly francophone daycare, forcing herself to interact with Montrealers outside of her cultural community.
“Meeting people and talking to people, it’s something I love,” she said. “That’s why I think I work in the field I work in. Because I love people.”
On a Wednesday evening in March, Nasri Eric Majdalani hands out small flag stickers to language learners from across Montreal at Bar Clébard.
Majdalani, co-manager of Montreal’s Mundo Lingo, thinks the event provides a low-pressure, social environment where everyone can practise.
Here, he says, Montrealers’ varying language abilities and different cultures are part of what makes the event such a success.
“There’s such a big mix of cultures,” Majdalani said, leaning against the bar-top. “People come with their own culture, their own language, and they just bring it as part of the mix that Montreal is. That’s why Mundo Lingo can work so well here.”
Handing out the flag stickers is Majdalani’s responsibility — and he thinks it’s important that everyone who attends has a flag that represents them.
“I have to gather the flags through whatever means necessary to have every country and every language possible for everybody that shows up,” he said.
“I think people socialize regardless of, ‘that person has my target language,'” Majdalani said, “but it helps to see there are people from different places.”
From Argentina to Montreal
Mundo Lingo was founded in 2012 near Buenos Aires by Benji Moreira, who moved to Argentina as a young adult from the United Kingdom. When he first moved, he knew few locals, had little money and needed to improve his Spanish.
“I realized that local people did want to meet foreigners,” Moreira said, when reached in Vietnam, where he now lives. “But for some reason there was no social convention to bring them together.”
So, Moreira created one.
Through Mundo Lingo, Moreira made local friends and eventually turned a small profit. Now, events are held in big cities across the globe, including in Singapore, Amsterdam, and New York.
Moreira says he credits Mundo Lingo for helping build his confidence.
“I would get quite anxious in social situations,” he said. “Mundo Lingo really helped me to come out of my shell and gave me a safe space where I could talk with anyone very easily.”
This experience, he says, shaped the way he structures Mundo Lingo events.
“It should be an event for introverts,” Moreira said, saying there are team members tasked with coaxing people into the event when they’re nervous upon arrival.
“There are people that turn up and they look inside and then they kind of start to run away,” he said.
A future in Montreal
For Beltran, living in Montreal has come with its challenges.
When she first moved, she worked at the front desk at LaSalle College, where she had to ask students for their ID numbers.
“Numbers is something complicated in French. Sometimes, I got it wrong,” she said. “People at school were like, ‘Well you should not be doing this job if you do not know how to speak French.'”
Still, Beltran says the good far outweighs the bad.
She describes her experience with two elderly women she met at work whom she now visits coffee shops with to practise her French. She says they’re simply happy she’s learning the language.
“They’re just generally really patient and they teach me new words,” said Beltran.
Beltran plans to keep attending Mundo Lingo events to continue improving her French while she calls Montreal home for the next couple of years.
“My experience has been overall pretty good. I’ve met great people. It’s been really welcoming to me.”