DePaul graduate Ranran Qi flew from China last September to reach the United States for a better education. The culture shock, however, she experienced made it feel like she had entered another world, often being the only international student in most of her classes.

“My English is not so good,” she said.

While she was previously trained in vocabulary and grammar, she considered her Chinese English lessons mechanical.

“Its very boring,” Qi said.

“In America I talk more, speak more. I imitate,” she said making use of her phone translator as needed.   

Qi is one of the 1,300 international students currently enrolled at DePaul at both the undergraduate and graduate level. But for her to practice her English in a more conversational tone, Qi attends the Language Café, a place for students like Qi and those who learned English as a second language. 

“I think it is good for us because I think I can speak more English and make more friends. It helped me alot,” Qi said. “At first I was very not… I speak little English last quarter but now is ok for me to hear and to speak,” she said.

The program was founded in 2010 by the Collaborative for Multilingual Writing and Research Center (CMWR) through DePaul’s writing center, CMWR program coordinator Mark Lazio said.

“Originally it seemed like we were only working with the ELA, the English Language Academy, which is the intensive English program here at DePaul,” said Lazio.

Language Café has seen a lot of expansion since its early weekly events, it now has a wider selection including the Language Café, which was implemented by Lazio himself and encourages participants to practice their conversational English.

“Some of the people who seem shy or not as well spoken in the beginning towards the end are more comfortable talking in a casual group setting,” said facilitator Alex Anderl.

Typically filling a room with 10 to 12 people, the Language Café welcomes all students to practice their conversational English.

Facilitators organize a topic for the day and let the attendees take it away.

For this week, the topic was social media. Qi disclosed that she had never heard of Facebook or Twitter prior to coming to the U.S., since it is banned in her home country.

Not meant to be as structured and corrective as the Writing Center, facilitators are not too picky about the method of speaking.

“We like to be like that ‘90s ‘hey cool’ dad,” facilitator Monisa Ahmed said.

“Part of what adds on to the CMWR is that we emphasize that our events are supposed to be very casual and a chance for them to have fun, so we’d be glad to correct English, especially if they ask but we don’t want to make a huge deal out of making sure they’re saying every word correctly,” Ahmed said.

“They are supposed to be more fun events, and I feel as so long as you’re able to understand the other person, I think that’s how you know that they’re progressing in their conversational English,” Ahmed said

The Language Café is just one of the weekly activities meant to create a safe space for students who speak English as a second language.

The CMWR also hosts a game club, and a conversation and culture night where people share their cultural experiences with one another at the writing center located in the Loop. In addition, they also schedule Walk and Talks, which take students to different neighborhoods to explore the Chicago area.

Returning attendee Shikha Kothari said she loves coming to these events.

“Everything is available on Internet, everything is there, but when you talk with people, when you interact with someone it goes directly in your head and you directly understand the thing,” Kothari said.

“You have the opportunity to put up a question on that moment but, when you’re searching and reading it’s boring for me. That’s the thing, “I come over” here try to understand things, learn about this culture, try to improve my English, learn some new words.”