ASTORIA — You walk into a room with bright lights and people all around. Looking around, you’re directed to table where someone is ready to ask you what languages you speak. As the music plays they look for the flag that correlates with your answer and you place them on your chest. Making your way through the crowd you notice people with matching stickers and there’s the ice breaker, you’re now friends. Mundo Lingo is a weekly meet-up that takes place in Astoria, Queens that revolves around different cultures and language.
The venue this multicultural event takes place is La Basurero, a spacious bar that serves Columbian inspired food in a quirky atmosphere.
From people who live in the city and want to learn a new language to visitors from afar that want to meet the locals, New York City’s latest mixer is growing more every week.
“This event is fairly recent and yet it’s been growing consistently.” William Li, 28 describes. He’s the one behind the NYC event. It’s a language exchange. A place like New York City, you would think had something like this for years but it’s only 2 months old. It’s an event that is fairly new to New York but has been in various countries for years. It started in Buenos Aires, Argentina where a UK born Benji Moreira was having a difficult time adjusting to his new surroundings. Attempting to befriend the locals because of the language barrier. He noticed he was not the only one having difficulties and felt that a social bridge was needed to be built. The first ever event was held on July 7th 2011 where he originally planned the event to be for Argentineans and international residents to practice Spanish. Soon the event grew and went for a couple of people at a bar to fifty-plus.
As the crowd grew, a new system would be put in place. It couldn’t just be Moreira introducing people and their language so a flag system was put in place. This flag system involves stickers of flags that you wear on your chest to show the languages you speak. In 2014 new cities introduced this method of exchanging language to Cologne, London, Montreal, and Melbourne. Today Mundo Lingo has spread to 13 countries in 5 continents. New York City is the most recent addition.
Just as Moreira, I too was traveling when he encountered a similar problem “I was studying in Peru this past Spring. I had always had an interest in Spanish especially after growing up in a neighborhood with that language around me but it never stuck.” He goes on to explain that one the people he befriended mentioned the event “I was open to the idea and went. I went every week after that until the day I left.” He landed back in the U.S and the first night back he emailed Moreira to discuss starting a Mundo lingo branch in New York City, “I was wondering why in a place so diverse like New York City there wasn’t any event like this.” The event organizer got back to Li and the work started.
William Li is the main reason this event can happen every week; marketing the event and working the administration staff. He was on his own until the event started to expand. When asking how he chose who would help him in this journey of making this language exchange a part of NYC culture he answered rather quickly, “I chose people who had been coming for weeks at a time, they were just as passionate as me starting this and wanted to be a part of it. I couldn’t help but feel it was perfect.”
Stunned, attending is actually free. An event as established around the world as this and in New York City, you would expect a house payment but no. The way William is able to provide the stickers, pay it’s staff, and come back every week is with what you eat or drink while attending. “It’s encouraged that you purchase from the venue, if it’s a drink or food. He way it works is the venue gets a percentage from the earnings of the event. It’s no way forced but it’s very much appreciated.”
You can come and make new friends but not exactly a dating event as posted on the Mundo Lingo NYC Facebook page,
“We want to give a friendly reminder to our guests that Mundo Lingo is a place to practice languages and make friends. This is not a dating event!”
Mundo Lingo has guests from all different backgrounds that either want to share their culture with people, practice a language they’re passionate about, or just want to discover a new world.