Who drives the Online Språkcafé project?
My name is Ivana. I come from Croatia and live in Sweden. I am a doctor by education, but my real profession was teaching in high school and adult medical education. I am currently on my way to start working as a doctor again.
Why did I start it?
Because I love språkcafés. I like interacting with people from different backgrounds while discussing various topics. Språkcafés helped me develop my communication skills, learn new things and generally changed me into a better person.
Also, while I was learning Swedish and visiting various språkcafés, the teacher in me dreamed of a perfectly organized språkcafé.
So, have I succeeded - is our språkcafé perfect?
No, I've tried various things and over time I've come to realize that there is no such thing as a perfect språkcafé, just a good enough one, because what works for one person may not work for another.
However, the Online Språkcafé is a motivating and enjoyable environment for many who practice Swedish with us, and that makes my efforts worthwhile.
DEC 2023 - THE FIRST SPRÅKCAFÉ
No official email address, no website, no logo. Just Zoom. I wrote some discussion questions and sent them to some friends. I think there were three of us in the first session. But it kept going. Every Wednesday at 19:00. I invited people I met at other språkcafés and they invited others. But there was rarely more than 7-8 of us. I knew I needed a website. It took me a year to work up the courage to start making one. It's not easy to get started.
From the beginning...
JAN 2025 - THE WEBSITE
I finally made a website. It had just one page and only text on it. Soon I was able to make four pages and I started posting discussion questions every week, at first only about 10 per topic. Now our discussion topics contain over 40 questions. I write them every week.
APR 2025 - LANGUAGE WORKSHOPS
I attended a språkcafé where the moderator read us some quiz questions from a book. Some of those were grammar questions. I liked the idea of offering the participants at my språkcafé a chance to learn something new. So I started creating and posting language workshops on the website every week.
JUN 2025 - KAHOOT!
But how do I motivate participants to actually use my language workshops...? Kahoot! was the answer, the Norwegian platform designed to make educational games. I first saw it at Online Swedish's språkcafé, and I liked playing it. It was fun and one could always learn something. Why not make my own? So I started creating my Kahoot!s by rewriting the exercises from my weekly language workshops. Since then, every Wednesday at the beginning of our Swedish språkcafé we play grammar quiz.
JUL 2025 - SPRÅKCAFÉ FOR ADVANCED SPEAKERS
One day in June, I was talking to a friend who needed a place to practice high-level conversations. That motivated me to start a group for advanced speakers. It took place on Sundays at 6:00 PM and was called the B2+ group (participants were at B2 level or higher).
DEC 2025 - SUNDAY SPRÅKCAFÉ & VOCABULARY KAHOOT!
I always wanted to have two general lspråkcafés per week so that those who need språkcafés the most – those at lower levels – would have the opportunity to speak more. But 3 Swedish språkcafés per week is too much for my schedule at this time. So I decided to open the B2+ group to everyone. I already adjust groups by level, so I think the advanced speakers didn’t lose much. I moved the språkcafé to 19:00 and started creating a new type of Kahoot! for it – a vocabulary quiz based on the colored words from the discussion questions of the week.