On Friday, February 2, 2024, Pitt’s Less Commonly Taught Language Center (LCTL) held its annual Language Coffeehouse. Every year, students and staff from the various languages within the department, as well as other language departments, offer snacks and beverages from the cultures that speak those languages. Pitt students and faculty outside of the departments (like me) have the opportunity to learn phrases and words related to these snacks and drinks, and then order in the language.
There are nearly 30 languages offered at Pitt, most of whom had tables at the event. I knew Pitt had classes for many languages, but I wasn’t aware of quite how many there were, and I think that’s one of the great strengths of the Coffeehouse. As students, we get to see all of the different languages on offer and learn a little bit about them in a fun and friendly environment. Most of the time, the only languages I feel like I hear about people studying are Spanish and French, and sometimes Arabic, ASL, Chinese and Portuguese. However, there are classes in such a wide array of languages, including ones that I (as someone who studies two languages at Pitt and has been in classes with people who study a variety of languages) didn’t know were available. Irish, Akan/Twi, Wolof, Amharic, Swahili, Persian/Farsi, Hungarian and more.
I first learned about the Language Coffeehouse last year, but I unfortunately wasn’t able to attend. This year, however, I was lucky enough to be able to go, and I had so much fun. As someone who absolutely loves to cook and try new foods and who is also a total language nerd, it’s pretty much my ideal event. When I arrived, it was absolutely bustling. There were tables set up in two loops, inner and outer—at the outer loop, you learned what the snack and drink were called and how to ask for them, and at the inner loop, you got to order. A lot of the tables offered local variations on coffee and tea, but some had juices and soda as well. I’m not a big coffee drinker, but I got gazoz (a sparkling lemonade drink) from the Turkish table, sobolo (hibiscus/roselle juice) from the Akan/Twi table, sour cherry juice from the Modern Greek table and coconut water from the Vietnamese table. There was a huge variety of snacks as well, for every flavor profile. Crunchy, savory, and slightly spicy chakli form the Urdu/Hindi table, perfectly spiced maamdazi from the Swahili table, and salty feta and olives from the Ancient Greek table, in addition to lots of sweets like brigadeiros from the Portuguese table, keks from the Slovak table, and yugwa from the Korean table. And those are just a few of the things that I tried! There were so many tables that I didn’t get the chance to visit, but I’m already looking forward to going again next year.
Pitt has so many students and events that it can be difficult to know when, where, and what things are happening, but I recommend keeping an eye out for this one in the coming years! It always happens during the Spring semester, and you can find updates and teasers for the Language Coffeehouse and lots of other events held by the LCTL center on their Instagram, at @pittlctl
For more, make sure to follow the other global and language study centers! Here are a few of their accounts: