Lithuanian language lessons in London?

October 4, 2010 6:14 AM

Does anyone know of a provider of Lithuanian language lessons for adult beginners in London, UK?

I'm looking for a crash course, 101, foundation course in Lithuanian language - in London, UK, and preferably affordable!

I've already checked out City Lit and UCL SSEES - for various reasons these are not working out.

Are there any more informal places to learn this language?

posted by KMH to education (7 answers total)

Learn Lithuanian at UCL - starts October 14th.

"University of London SSEES Evening Course Programme 2010/2011 in response to increased demand, now offers a Beginners Lithuanian language course this year. The course will take place thursday evenings, starting from 14 October 2010. If you are keen to learn Lithuanian, please find out about the course on the university's website and use the opportunity to learn Lithuanian!"
posted by MuffinMan at 6:30 AM on October 4, 2010

Sorry - missed what you had checked out already.

Then your next bet is to go to a Lithuanian conversational class - ask at the Embassy if they know of any conversation exchanges (i.e. a face to face version of something like this)
posted by MuffinMan at 6:33 AM on October 4, 2010

Or ask the Embassy if you can put an advert up via them, if they have a noticeboard or online newsletter.

Before I went to Estonia 14 years ago I put an advert in the community columns of the local paper for any Estonian speakers who would be willing to help me and got a couple of replies. One was about my age, lived in the same city and was really happy to help, because it was pretty unusual to find someone in Edinburgh keen on learning Estonian, especially in 1996. We're still good friends (and now when people ask how we met she likes to tell people that I was advertising for friends in the newspaper).
posted by penguin pie at 6:40 AM on October 4, 2010

Google also brings up this place - scroll down for the Lithuanian course - it started a couple of weeks ago but might be worth a try.
posted by penguin pie at 6:52 AM on October 4, 2010

Try Gumtree's Skills and Language Swap section, or try putting a card up in a local Lithuanian/Eastern European/Polski sklep, or in a newsagent in an area with lots of Lithuanians.
posted by Helga-woo at 7:22 AM on October 4, 2010

"increased demand in learning Lithuanian"? is there any reason for this? I'm not challenging anyone's interest in learning Lithuanian, just being curious - this is a honest question.

I speak Lithuanian, it is my first language. I am quite proud of speaking it, and enjoy it very much. I'm just curious why learning the language would be of interest to people at this time. This is a language that is spoken by few people, in a very small country - and is quite unlike the languages of surrounding neighbors. I suspect there are more of us Lithuanian speakers who live outside of the country, than inside of it.
posted by seawallrunner at 7:34 PM on October 4, 2010

seawallrunner, I would guess that they're just talking about a somewhat increased demand from what was a very low base line.

In 1996 when I was first interested in Estonia, no one here knew anything much at all about the Baltics - there were hardly any links, tourist, trade or personal, and that has definitely changed. For example:
The first time I went, there were no direct flights at all from the UK to Estonia, I had to fly via Helsinki - now there are loads of budget flights from the UK to lots of Baltic destinations; There was only one other English person in Tartu when I studied there, and very few in Tallinn - now it's a popular holiday/weekend destination (well, Tallinn is at least, maybe not Tartu); When I advertised in Edinburgh to find a language tutor, I only found two Estonians in a city of 400,000 people, and neither of them knew of any others. Now the doors are open for people from the Baltic States to work here, I think there are many more.

So I would imagine that with closer economic links and cheap flights, there are many more friendships, students, trade links and tourists than there were 10 or 15 years ago. Maybe not a huge number compared to other, larger countries, but even a handful of people wanting to learn linguistic basics for holidays/business would be more than there were.
posted by penguin pie at 1:11 PM on October 6, 2010