Ted Davis, a 24-year-old prison education worker, recently moved to Gainesville after spending a year in Poland on a fellowship.
Davis found it hard to learn Polish despite the full immersion. For him, the language carries memories and connections, often reminding him of the people he once spoke Polish with. It serves as a strong motivation for him to dive back into language learning, he said.
Davis lives near Depot Park, where The Language Party is held and came across a flyer while walking around, he said. The event caught his attention, and because it was nearby, attending made sense to him.
“I finally got to meet one individual, a more elderly gentleman who grew up in Bulgaria, but he's actually a scholar of Slavic languages,” Davis said. “So he speaks Polish and some Russian and several languages, Czech, Slovak. So we got to speak in Polish. It was really nice to hear it.”
The Language Party creates a space for people to practice languages through conversation and meets on the first and third Friday of each month at Boxcar Beer & Wine in Gainesville. These free, in-person gatherings are open to all language levels and backgrounds, giving attendees a chance to practice a new language or help others with their native one. They have additional meetings in Jacksonville on the second and fourth Friday of the month.
Davis was able to get to know the man from Bulgaria and his wife a little better, hearing about their lives, their family, and how they moved to Florida from Bulgaria, which he found very interesting, he said.
“I think it's rare to find spaces that are so interlingual and intergenerational,” Davis said. “I just shared a great example of how it's people coming together across countries and decades of backgrounds, but with a shared interest in exploring new cultures and that kind of thing. I think, for me, part of what drew me.”
Leon Icaza, a 48-year-old electrical engineer and language enthusiast, founded The Language Party.
Icaza said when the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, many people involved in language exchanges in Gainesville were participating in multiple in-person groups, including the popular Gainesville Language Exchange.
When the pandemic began, all in-person language exchange meetings in Gainesville and Jacksonville stopped, leading to the creation of an online group: The Language Party.
After two years, the group initially hosted a mix of online and in-person events, but eventually transitioned fully back to in-person meetings. Events first restarted in Jacksonville and later returned to Gainesville.
Today, the group hosts events in Gainesville and Jacksonville, while also continuing to offer some online options.
Icaza said the secret to success for social events like these is consistency.
“Just like anything in life, to be successful, you have to be consistent and keep going,” Icaza said. “On the good days, bad days, but in the end, it keeps going because people are extremely passionate about it.”
Many people appreciate the experience is both social and positive, Icaza said.
Rather than being just a casual gathering, it is productive, allowing individuals to actively practice their target language. In addition to language practice, participants often share and learn about different learning resources.
“It's something free that, I mean, anyone can come to no matter what your background, what your social status, what your profession, what your language interest is,” Icaza said.
During The Language Party journey, Icaza said he’s seen participants initially arrive knowing only a few words, but over time they begin forming sentences and paragraphs. Eventually, they gain enough confidence and ability to hold full conversations, showing clear progress through consistent practice and exposure.
“When you see people getting empowered like that, it really motivates you a lot to even do it more, to keep going,” Icaza said.
Natalia Mouton, a 19-year-old UF biology pre-med freshman from Long Island, recently attended The Language Party for the first time.
Mouton said the event sounded like a fun opportunity to practice Spanish with different speakers and connect with people from different ages and cultures.
“It turned out to be way better than I expected. The ambiance is super welcoming, very cute out here, and I've met some very interesting and kind people,” Mouton said.
Jackie Palmer, 19, is a UF graphic design freshman from Northern Virginia and said she loves how everyone comes to the meetings from different cultures but with a shared ambition for learning.
“I can't take any classes in school right now for languages,” Palmer said. “Just being able to have these type of opportunities to go and still practice and learn something I wasn't even expecting going into, I feel like it's just really cool.”
Nathaniel Smith, 50, a science and math middle school teacher in Micanopy, attended The Language Party for two years and recently covered for Icaza when he couldn’t be there.
Smith explained they use a system with name tags and stickers that show which languages a person speaks and which languages they want to learn. This setup allows people to approach each other more comfortably, he said.
“It's like a conversation starter piece,” Smith said. “And then everybody can, you know, you can start comfortably talking with people in other languages, so it takes all the pressure off.”
Smith majored in Russian at UF and gets to practice when he attends The Language Party.
“There's one Russian speaker tonight, but there's usually a couple,” Smith said. “I teach them a bit of English if they need it. And then my Russian has gotten better because I have extra practice.”
