1. Who can join Voluntariat Lingüístic activities?
The VL tours and activities are open to all UPF international students: erasmus, master's and doctoral students, in this latter case especially those in their first year.

In contrast, language tandems are open to all UPF students, Catalan, Spanish and international, including UPF former students who are members of Alumni UPF.


2. Can I bring a friend who is not a UPF student to VL tours?
Basically not, because most VL activities have a limited number of spots and the groups are normally full. However, should you exceptionally wish to bring a friend or a relative to a specific activity, because they are visiting you here or whatsoever, please e-mail us at [email protected] and we will do our best to help you.


3. How much do VL activities cost?
In general, activities in Barcelona are free of charge, whereas for the tours in the rest of Catalonia we set a price to cover the travel and food costs, as the case may be. The corresponding amount is generally speaking to be paid on the same day of the activity, before going onboard the bus. In the message corresponding to every trip or activity, which you will normally recieve on Tuesdays morning, we will specify both the cost and all other relevant details about the activity taking place that week.

In any case, our biggest concern on that regard is to keep prices as low as possible, so this is not a problem for anyone.


4. What do I have to do to sign up for VL activities?
If you are an international student at UPF, either erasmus, master's or doctoral, we will add you to our mailing list, so you will regularly be receiving all our e-mail messages and communications. You can unsubscribe from this list at any time, by clicking on the Unsubscribe from this list link, which you will find at the bottom of every message. 

As a general rule, every week (normally on Tuesdays) you will receive an e-mail with the activity proposal for that week. This e-mail will include all the relevant information (activity description, cost, meeting place and time, language or languages of the tour, ending time or arrival time back to Barcelona...), so you are duly informed about that and can then decide if you want to sign up. Should you wish to join, then the only thing you have to do is to answer the corresponding message to confirm your attendance, telling us your name and the studies you are taking at UPF.

Of course, it is very important that if you sign up you are committed to attend, or at least to warn us with sufficient advance should you in the end not be able to attend, becase otherwise you would be leaving without a spot another student who would like to attend and who maybe could not get a spot. 


5. Is it compulsory to attend all the tours and activities?
Not at all. Attendance is completely voluntary and optional. Every week there is a different activity going on, and you are totally free to choose for which activity or activities you want to sign up. 


6. Do I need to have a language partner in order to sign up for tours and activities, or vice-versa?
No. Langage tandems and tours and outings are two totally different activities, without any relation between them. Therefore, you can choose just to have a language partner, you can choose just to attend the trips and activities you might be interested in, and you can also do both things at the same time!

 

7. I would like to have a language partner, what should I do?
At the beginning of each term there is an application period in which you can apply for a language partner, so you can learn or practise in an informal way the language or languages that you are studying or that you would like to improve.

Catalan students can offer Catalan and/or Spanish in exchange of any other language, whereas international students can offer both their mother tongue and any other language they are fluent enough in, in exchange of Catalan and/or Spanish.

After the application deadline is over we will match the tandems and we will send you an e-mail with your language partner's contact details. Then you will have to contact each other and agree on when, how often and where it is best for you to meet. And from then on, you can start enjoying from the experience!


8. May I apply for a language partner once the application deadine is over?
In principle not, because the fact of concentrating all the applications in three periods throughout the year allows us to manage the programme in a much more efficient way. However, should you for any reason not have been able to submit an application within any of the established deadlines, you can always e-mail us and ask about any possibility of getting a partner anyway. Then, if there a student pending to be matched or we receive any new application that fits you, we will assign this student to you as a language partner.


9. What if I have problemes, of any kind, with my language partner?
Should the student we have matched to you not answer your e-mails, or not show up to the appointments o whatever, please e-mail us and we will do our best to solve these problems or to match you with another partner.

 

10. Why is this programme called 'Voluntariat Lingüístic', when it is rather a linguistic and cultural programme aimed at welcoming international students?
Good question... In fact, at the time when this programme was created at UPF, in 2000, other programmes were also being created in other universities to promote the use of Catalan language. And these programmes were in all cases called this way, that is, 'language volunteering programme'. At UPF we created our own cultural and linguistic welcoming programme aimed at international students, a programme that, then as today, offers both a language tandem programme and a trips and cultural activities programme around Barecelona and the rest of Catalonia.

In spite of the big differences with those other programmes, UPF opted for the name 'Voluntariat Lingüístic' as well, because our programme also involves 'language volunteering', that is, when Catalan students help Spanish-speaking international students to learn Catalan, without language exchange (that is, as 'language volunteers'). So yes, somehow we named the whole of the programme after just a part of it... But well, after all these years, and altough it is true we considered at a certain moment the possibility of changing its name, we never found a better one... And since VL has already gone a long way and is more than twenty years old, over time we have learnt to love this name, so we will keep it forever!