2007-2008 ANNUAL REPORT

The 2007-2008 academic year has been a year of changes for the Language Voluntariate. On one hand, we have welcomed new foreign students as a result of the agreement signed between UPF and some of the most prestigious universities in the States by means of the CASB (Consortium for Advanced Studies in Barcelona) programme, which include, for one thing, Harvard, Princeton and Chicago University.   

The number of those taking part in the LV's Language Exchange Programme has also increased thanks to UPF's bilateral agreement with the Escola Superior de Comerç Internacional (International Trade College), also called ESCI. From this year on, both foreign and Catalan students attending courses at ESCI are able to have a language partner and to join in the activities ran by the Language Voluntariate. Moreover, the system used by UPF to edit and publish webpages has also changed this year and, as a result, the LV's website has been migrated from Dreamweaver to OpenCMS.   

As usual, the Language Voluntariate has kept up with its dynamics. On one hand, it has contributed with its language exchange programme to raising awareness among cultures of different people and nations of the world and, on the other hand, it has facilitated the integration of exchange incoming students within our society thanks to its leisure and cultural activities programme. 

During this academic year the Language Voluntariate has carried on taking part in activities aimed at the welcome of international students and the promotion of the Catalan language that were organised by other institutions such as the Plataforma per la Llengua, the Barcelona Centre Universitari and other universities. This has made it possible for the LV to offer within the framework of its leisure and cultural programme two Catalan cooking workshops; free tickets for a Spanish Premier League football match; the Festa Means Party (featuring Catalan food, music and several shows); the Primavera per la Llengua festival, the  "El català, llengua comuna" event (with language, dance and cultural workshops from all over the world), on occassion of Sant Jordi's Day; as well as some guided tours around emblematic institutions or places of Catalonia, among which the TV3 Studios, the Avui newspaper facilities and the city of Girona stand out.

The Language Voluntariate has carried out the following activities within the framework of its leisure and cultural activities programme:

• Regarding the city of Barcelona, we have scheduled guided tours around the Catalan Parliament, the Institut d'Estudis Catalans (IEC) and its historical, cultural exhibit on the Països Catalans (Catalan speaking territories) on occasion of the hundreth anniversary of this institution, the Casa Llotja de Mar of Barcelona and Sant Jordi's Royal Fine Arts Institute of Catalonia, the Raval Quarter, the History of Catalonia Museum, Collserola Park and Vil·la Joana, the Roman and Medieval Barcelona, and the Jujol Route in Sant Joan Despí. We have also run a Tapas tour around Old Barcelona, a night festive tour around Sant Gervasi and an International Cooking Day, where each student brought a dish typical of their country, as well as the traditional end-of-year LV farewell dinner. 
• Regarding the rest of Catalonia goes, the LV has scheduled tours around the Loyolan Manresa on occasion of the Medieval Fair and the Mysterious Light Festival, the city of Figueres and the Dalí Museum, the Modernist village of Cardedeu, the Roman baths of Sant Boi de Llobregat and the Güell Colony, Badalona on occasion of the Roman Festa Magna, the Modernist Reus and the Roman Tarragona, Montserrat, Sitges on occasion of the Carnival, the Codorniu Cellars (UNESCO World Heritage Site) by Catalan architect Puig i Cadafalch in Sant Sadurní d'Anoia, Vic, the monastery of Ripoll and a Scriptorium workshop of medieval writing used by monks, and Núria Valley. We have also organised a ski weekend trip to Andorra with a massive turnout which also offered students the chance to visit the National Parliament of Andorra, the Casa de la Vall. 

In order to encourage the internationalization of local students at UPF and their learning languages,the Language Voluntariate has carried on managing the Language Exchange Programme. This programme offers international students the opportunity to informally meet up with a Catalan student (their language partner) each week so as to speak their mother tongue in exchange of Catalan and/or Spanish. 

The Language Voluntariate has allocated 528 language partners this year. A total of 319 language partners were allocated during the first term, 139 during the second one, and 70 during the 3rd term.

As far as language data go, the analysis of the language partner's allocation results shows that 89 Catalan students were able to practise their English with their language partner, 56 did so in the second one, and 35 did the same thing in the third term. Regarding international students' choices, 68% of them requested to exchange their mother tongue for Spanish, 24% requested to exchange their mother tongue for Spanish, 24% requested to learn both Catalan and Spanish, and 8% offered their mother tongue in exchange of Catalan only.

The most popular languages among Catalan students were -after English- German, Italian and French. There was also a demandf or other languages -though very minor-, such as Portuguese, Romanian, Czech, Polish, Swedish, Norwegian, Chinese, Danish, Japanese, Turkish and Hebrew, in decreasing order of importance.