In the beginning...
Before Language Spaces became the multinational meeting space it is today, it was a single conversation club held every week in a small city in Colombia.
The founder, a former English teacher from the United States named James, was looking for a way to connect with the local community while he was living in Colombia. He partnered with a local restaurant to create a space where anyone in the city could come to practice English in a safe, judgement-free space.
The first free English Conversation Club was in August of 2019. The space soon became a popular place to meet and practice English for locals and travelers from all over Colombia and beyond.
Those early days established the values that are practiced in our groups today. The groups were created as a space where everyone wants to support each other. Participants are encouraged to arrive with curiosity and desire not only to learn but also to encourage others to learn and improve as well.
Above all, those early groups established the safe space that Language Spaces always tries to be. A space where people can share their personal experiences and beliefs without fear of judgement.
In 2020, the physical space was forced to end, but it opened up opportunities to become something else entirely.
Moving online
When the pandemic started, the group stopped…for a few weeks. It was April 2020 when the first online group was hosted. At first, regular participants from the original group in Colombia attended.
However, after a short time, participants started to join from Mexico, Uruguay, Brazil and other Latin American nations. Shortly after that, people from all over started to join. It quickly became clear that one club every week was not enough!
With such interest in our unique, free space. James decided to invite other members of the group to volunteer and become hosts!
Going global
At the beginning of 2022, more volunteers started to join the project. Language Spaces became something bigger than a single weekly conversation group. It became an international community where people from anywhere could meet and talk about complex and insightful topics.
Now, our volunteer hosts span the globe representing Brazil, India, Austria, Peru, Indonesia, Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela, and United States. Language Spaces offers more than 6 free groups to practice speaking in English every week and more are being added all the time.
Thanks to this amazing team, you can practice English speaking on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday! In the future, we plan to offer more groups for English practice and more groups to practice speaking other languages as well!