Since fall 2025 there has been bustle and activity every second Wednesday in the Teachers’ lounge when students and personnel at Hanken get together to practice their Finnish and Swedish.
Mirjam Granström who works with integration at Hanken is one of the persons behind the language café together with her colleague Sonja Antell.
“Hanken’s Swedish and Finnish language café was launched with the aim of providing a relaxed space where it feels natural and safe to practise and speak languages at one’s own pace. It has been wonderful to see how the café has brought together students, doctoral researchers and staff from different countries and cultures through language, cultural exchange and socialising. Over time, the language café has also become a place where new connections are made and the Hanken community can grow”, says Granström.
The café is open for both students and personnel. Simona Ciccarini is a PhD researcher at Hanken and one of the people who has actively participated in the language café to practice both her Swedish and Finnish.
“My PhD supervisor suggested me to study Swedish since it is the administrative language at Hanken, as there might be a possibility to hire me in the future. So, I thought that, beyond the Swedish language course, the café is a nice plus! Furthermore I still want to practice Finnish, so there I was able to do both”, says Ciccarrini.
Simona Ciccarini to the far right in the picture.
Conversations both in Finnish and in Swedish are going on simultaneously at the café. Since it is the end of April, the Finnish tradition of Vappu is a hot topic for the last language café of the term. The atmosphere is relaxed which makes a good atmosphere for learning, something that Ciccarini also comments on.
“I would recommend the language café to people that maybe have not a lot of time to follow a full language course, this is a good option, and it also helps socialising”, she says.
Read more about the language café here and here.
