Newly arrived expats in Cuenca get innovative culture and language meetups

If you’ve rejected the usual European expat hubs and are heading to Cuenca in Ecuador, a new city initiative will be just what you need to fit right in.

Newly-arrived expats often feel isolated and friendless in their new country, especially when a new language needs to be learned and an unfamiliar culture seems strange. The city of Cuenca in Ecuador is perhaps the first local authority to attempt to deal with this issue by starting a programme involving both language exchange and the expansion of cultural awareness in newly arrived expats. The programme is known as the Tandem Method, and the experience is sure to be a lot more fun than it sounds on paper!

Working with the US’s Worcester Institute in Massachusetts and sponsored by the UN Office of International Development, the innovative outreach programme is dedicated to integrating expat residents into Cuenca’s cultural and social life. It works by pairing foreign residents with local people, allowing them to interact in a non-academic space with the aim of improving the language skills of both groups, thus getting around the often off-putting atmosphere of formal Spanish or English classes and the isolation of online language programmes. It

’s a brand new, dynamic set-up with benefits both for locals and for newly-arrived expats, as well as an innovative way to make new friends in an informal space with or without a coordinator. Participants learn about each other and the diverse cultures of those taking part on a personal level as well as by phone, social media and email, absorbing the details of unfamiliar lifestyles and appreciating the difference and diversity of all taking part.

Cuenca is home to around 6,000 English-speaking expatriates as well as 5,000 from other non-English speaking countries including China and several European countries. The programme hits at the heart of the problems of integration into unfamiliar cultures, simply by acknowledging peoples’ needs for friendship and support. With emigration now taking in destinations across continents, similar programmes would make the huge difference to expatriate lives, especially for new arrivals in Asian and Middle Eastern destinations.