Welcome to learn languages at the Language Centre!

Students at the Language Centre

You can study several languages at the University of Helsinki Language Centre!

The Language Centre offers a wide variety of courses at different levels in 13 languages. You can read more information on course offerings at the Language Centre website. All these language courses are free of charge. Please note that the English courses are intended for degree students only. Regretfully, exchange students do not have a permission to participate in the English language courses.

The Language Centre also offers ALICE (Academic Language and Intercultural Exchange) courses. These tandem language courses provide two language learners who speak different native languages (Finnish/Swedish – Finnish/Spanish/Italian/French/Swedish/German/Russian) an opportunity to learn about each other’s language and culture in an interactive way. Read more about ALICE here.

In addition to language courses, the Language Centre organises language activities that bring local and international students together. These activities are a good way to learn languages, integrate into the University community and meet new people:

  • Language clubs are a forum for all students and staff of the University of Helsinki. The club meetings are informal gatherings planned by the participants, and they offer a nice opportunity to talk in relaxed surroundings with others who have studied the same language or are its native speakers. The idea of the clubs is to help activate, develop and keep up your language skills – a beginner level is enough to get by! The language clubs are usually hosted by native speakers of the group language and the meetings take place once a week at the Language Centre.
  • The Language Centre Course Assistant Programme is for all University of Helsinki international students who are native speakers of certain languages. The idea of the programme is to invite international students to assist in Language Centre language courses and act as native peers for the local students learning their native language. The idea of the programme is to give international students the opportunity to meet Finnish students and bring new aspects to language learning and teaching. Finnish students in turn get to know international students and learn more about their languages and cultures. International students can gain 1-3 ECTS credits for their work as an assistant and a certificate of completion. You can read more about this option on the UH intranet Flamma. (requires a UH username) after your arrival.

If you are interested in learning languages independently you can visit our language teacher tutors. They can help you with various aspects of language study. Language Centre also offers a Language Buddy activity where you have the role of both a teacher and a learner. The buddy activity is for all students and staff at the University of Helsinki and its idea is that two speakers of different native languages exchange knowledge about their languages and cultures. A Language Buddy partnership is based on informal meetings and yields no academic credits.

Welcome to the Language Centre & see you at the Welcome Fair!

Language Centre

 

Photo: Nina Dannert / Language Centre