Zoe FordSPEAK is a project with aims to connect migrants, refugees and locals through a language and culture exchange programme. Through our sessions and through our events, we encourage our members to integrate and become part of our community, helping those without friends or family in Portugal to feel a sense of belonging in their new city. We have thousands of kind and generous members in our community!
At SPEAK, you can apply to help others to learn your language and culture. This is great for people from different countries as it allows them to share their nationalities with the people that they meet in their cities. We are very grateful to have lots of amazing people from different parts of the world who enjoy being a part of SPEAK, like Naky.
Naky is a volunteer teacher with SPEAK who has helped SPEAKers in 7 courses to learn his language. He has also been a student in 4 different SPEAK courses, and is a fantastic member of our community. He even organised a SPEAK event with us, an African Tour of Lisbon where he showed a few of our members around the city, teaching them about the African influences that you can find all over Lisbon. He is a loyal member of the SPEAK community, and we are very lucky to be able to call him a friend! Here is his story:
“3 years ago, I landed in Lisbon without any previous contact with the language and culture. A few months later, a simple post in order to find a language exchange partner definitely changed my situation. The opportunity to teach my language and have a free Portuguese class: AWESOME!!!
I seized the opportunity given to me by SPEAK through Hugo, co-founder of SPEAK, and since October 2014, I have been enjoying this great adventure.
Being part of the this team has allowed me to be part of Lisbon and feel comfortable with the city and its people.
SPEAK’s philosophy definitely rhymes with mine: Language, Integration, Friendships, Exchange, Sharing.
– Language: Learn as much as possible
– Integration in the new society in order to understand people and their mentalities
– Friendships with people from different nationalities
– Exchange different points of view about any kind of topic
– Share our experiences.
I am really happy to contribute and hope I can do so for as long as possible.
Thanks SPEAK.”
Remember you can sign up to a SPEAK course here, and you can apply to teach with us here. We want to welcome more of you into our community to SHARE YOUR WORLD!
Em parceria com o Alto Comissariado das Migrações (ACM), e com financiamento do Fundo para o Asilo, a Migração e a Integração (FAMI), o SPEAK está a apoiar a integração de migrantes e refugiados nos cursos de Português e eventos interculturais. No caso específico dos refugiados acolhidos em Portugal, para além da integração em cursos nas cidades SPEAK, têm sido ainda criados grupos específicos noutras áreas geográficas, com o apoio de voluntários locais capacitados com a metodologia SPEAK.
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