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Winter Classes Are Open! A chill is in the air and winter is near. What better way to spend the winter than cozying up with some fun conversational practice in another language? Check out our late fall and winter classes below! November Workshops German German Cognates (November 5) German "The" (November 12) German Pigs (November 21) Winter Classes American Sign Language Introductory American Sign Language I American Sign Language II English Everyday English for Beginners French Introductory French I Grammar's Greatest Hits in French (Remote) German German Grammar I German Grammar II Italian Introductory Italian I Intermediate Italian Conversation Advanced Italian Spanish Spanish Travel Essentials [...]

Multilingual Mondays at Broken Top Bottle Shop This Winter Winter is near and we're moving indoors for Multilingual Monday for the next several months! Join us at Broken Top Bottle Shop on Monday, November 4 from 5:30-7:30pm to speak Spanish, Italian, French, German, Russian, Mandarin, and more. We can use the side room to the left to practice all of our languages. This is a free event for anyone to stop by and converse in another language of their choice. We often have 15-25 people join -- Native speakers and beginners alike. We often have a number of Bend locals, as [...]

Sign Up For Fall Classes Today! Fall is just around the corner and our classes are starting to fill up! We have a range of offerings in Spanish, Japanese, German, French, English, American Sign Language and Italian starting late September. Our classes offer a fun way to meet new people, work on your professional development skills, prepare for travel, exercise your brain, and more. Check out our offering below. We look forward to seeing you next month! American Sign Language Introductory American Sign Language I American Sign Language II English Everyday English for Beginners French French Travel Essentials French II French III [...]

Featured Student of the Week: Beth Mazza Robertson By Sarah Eckert | 2-minute read Beth Mazza Robertson radiates gratitude and excitement as she tells me about her journey of connecting with her family’s Italian heritage. Her great grandparents emigrated from Italy to the United States in 1903 and 1905. It was Christina Cappy, BLI’s founder, who first told Beth that she may be eligible for dual citizenship. Since that conversation two and a half years ago, she has delved deeply into her family tree, met with the Italian consulate in San Francisco, and is now waiting to be officially recognized and [...]

Featured Student of the Week: David Wahl By Sarah Eckert | 2-minute read For David Wahl, deciding to start learning German at age 73 is part of a much larger journey. When I asked him what had led to that decision, he smiled and asked how much time we had. What followed was a story that took me out of myself, a story about the power of human connection, pain that reaches through generations, and how meaningful language learning can truly be. I am so grateful to have the honor of sharing a piece of David’s story with you all. Throughout [...]

Register today for fun, interactive summer classes in French, Italian, Spanish, and Japanese! Summer Courses Italian Italian Travel Essentials Italian III Italian IV Italian Food by Region (NEW beginner session!) French French Travel Essentials Workshop (June 22) Introductory French I French III Conversation  French IV Spanish Spanish III Spanish IV Spanish Thursday Conversation Group (June) Japanese Introductory Japanese I German Playing Games in German (May 22)

Featured Student of the Week: Neil Marchington By Sarah Eckert | 2-minute read Neil Marchington is an explorer, and venturing through the depths of the Spanish language is only part of the story. In the rural mountains of Mexico, he participates in regular caving expeditions as part of a non-profit group, helping to discover what is there and acting as one of the group’s translators. “We’ve found some really awesome new caves down there, some of them very deep and complicated,” Neil says. On caving expeditions, roads are limited and the local ranching communities are like family. Hardly anyone speaks English, [...]

Sally Pressler: A Local Bendite on the Go Sally Pressler has lived in Bend for 34 years and like many Bendites, enjoys the great outdoors including cross-country skiing, mountain biking and swimming. She is a petite and lively person who also loves to travel and learning. You can see her on the right in the photo. Sally first learned French when she moved to Ontario as a child and had to learn French in school as a second language. From there she was off to Michigan and then college at Montana State University. In Montana she did an exchange program in [...]

Featured Student of the Week: Frank Ammirata By Charlie Miller | 2-minute read Frank Ammirata wears a lot of hats: husband, traveler, gravel biker, and most recently, a student of the Italian language. He moved to Bend four years ago from Santa Rosa, California. And while Frank didn’t originally have becoming a polyglot on his bucket list, he stresses how lucky he felt when he stumbled upon Bend Language Institute. “It’s a gift that we have [BLI] right here in the Central Oregon High Desert. You can learn so many languages all here in Bend.” Frank is a fan of outdoor recreation, [...]