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Connections in the Workplace People often ask us, who is your most popular kind of student? Why do they want to learn another language? The answer to this question is a hard one to nail down. Many of our students are learning another language to prepare for upcoming travel, connect with family, or join our growing multicultural community. Yet more and more we are seeing another type of student – those looking to connect with others at their workplace. We’ve had small, local business owners jump into our Spanish classes to learn to communicate more effectively with some of their employees. [...]

How Effective are Language Apps? If you’ve been asking yourself this question, you are not alone. This is one of the most common questions I have received in recent months, along with questions about the best language learning apps, limitations of language apps, and how best to use them. In this article I will explore some of these topics with perspectives from researchers, language teachers, and our students. Benefits of Language Apps When a student asks me if they should practice their language skills through a language app, my answer is always YES. But why? It is because learning a language [...]

Join Us for Virtual Happy Hour! Ready to meet some new faces and brush up on your language skills? Join us for virtual happy hours next week! This is a great opportunity to connect with your language community in Central Oregon in a fun and relaxed environment. You can invite your friends, meet native speakers, teachers, and language learners from the comfort of your home. Bring whatever beverage you like and jump on Zoom. This is a drop-in event and open to anyone. Italian Happy Hour will be on Wednesday, December 16th from 5-6pm Spanish Happy Hour will be on Friday, [...]

Ready to help your kids learn a new language? Recently a lot of parents have been interested in language classes for groups of 2-5 students. We've been having them all outside or remotely and it has been really fun! This fall we are organizing more small youth language groups to meet for outdoor learning. We are planning groups of 3-5 students according to their language level and age. If you are  interested in joining a group or forming your own with your child's peers or siblings, please send us an email at bendlanguageinstitute@gmail.com. Please send the grade/language level of your child and [...]

Do you remember being in school and trying to convince your teacher to have class outside? Well now the teachers are coming together to give everyone the opportunity to learn in the open air. We’ve set up an outdoor classroom just around the corner from BLI on a quieter street so we can practice our language skills when the weather is nice – so basically 90% of July and August in Bend. Learning outside is a fun and safer way to take an introductory class in Spanish, Italian, French or Japanese or meet one-on-one with a teacher. And don’t worry, we [...]

Small Group Private Classes Want to learn another language with two of your good friends? We've had a few of these requests for adults as well as kids from the same class and they are a lot of fun. This is a great way to develop your skills and socialize - we can host them digitally so you don't even have to live in the same state! Send an email to bendlanguageinstitute@gmail.com or give us a call at (541) 728-3022 to learn more about this opportunity. Small group rates are below: Adult Prices For two adults sharing an hour we charge $48/hr. [...]

New Environment, New Learning Opportunities! In this rapidly changing environment, the teachers at Bend Language Institute are working together to adjust to our community’s language learning needs. Due to concerns over COVID-19, we will not be holding in-person classes or workshops for the months of March and April. We take social distancing very seriously and want to help protect the health of our community members. However, this doesn’t mean that we have to stop learning! We have developed a few different programs and opportunities to keep both adults and youth mentally and physically active. In addition, we are offering “drop-in” sessions [...]

New Year's Gathering at BendTECH on January 9th at 4pm Come stop by and meet the teachers! At this event you can hear more about our language workshops — Italian winemaking, Arabic cooking, yoga in Spanish, as well as our eight-week courses and new youth immersion program. Join us for snacks and refreshments, as well as some engaging conversation. We would love to see you there! See more about the event and location here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bend-language-institute-new-years-gathering-tickets-88016574945?ref=eios  

Scholarship announcement! We are offering scholarships for winter term to individuals who work with local nonprofits. Scholarships can be used to cover an eight-week course at BLI, or two five-week youth classes for a nonprofit worker’s dependent/child. We want to give back to the people who are supporting our community! You can see a press release about our scholarships on CBN: http://cascadebusnews.com/bend-language-institute-offering…/ If you are interested or know someone who might be - please share and send us an email at bendlanguageinstitute@gmail.com for more information. Happy Holidays!

Wondering what to get your family and friends for the holidays? Try a fun, cultural experience! Our language of food workshops -- such as German baking, French quiche, or Chinese potstickers -- make for a great gift and an enjoyable evening. Or, you can help support your family as they attend a language class to prepare for an upcoming trip! We have gift cards available so you and your loved ones can enjoy any workshop or class that BLI has to offer. Just send us an email at bendlanguageinstitute@gmail.com and we will get you all set up.