Speak! Language Center

Birding in Panama 🦜🌿
Join us for our next Speak! Salon Vault with expert birder Allen Hale, who will share stories and insights from more than 30 years of birding in Panama. Featuring photographs by professional photographer (and our Spanish student) Stephanie Gross, this lunchtime conversation will appeal to experienced birders, curious beginners, and anyone who loves the beauty of the natural world and cares about saving it. 🌎

📍 Speak! at the Vault
🕛 Noon
🎟️ Free and open to the community

One of the best parts of getting a degree in Charlottesville is discovering everything beyond the classroom.

Today, our wonderful B-Speak! English coach, Carol Del Vitto, brought together several of the incoming international UVA Darden School of Business MBA students she’s been coaching before they begin their journey at University of Virginia

What a joy it was to finally meet these bright students from Peru 🇵🇪, Argentina 🇦🇷, and Brazil 🇧🇷, hear their stories, and welcome them to Charlottesville with lots of recommendations. We enjoyed a long Turkish lunch Sultan Kebab Restaurant

The afternoon continued a few feet away at the bardo, where artist and entrepreneur Beatrix Ost and curator Syris shared the vision behind this remarkable space dedicated to art, conversation, creativity, and self discovery.

Whether we’re teaching language or creating spaces for art and conversation, the goal is the same: helping people connect.

✨ Connection through Conversation.

🎉 We've been nominated in TWO categories in Best of C-Ville 2026!

⭐ SERVICES → Best Continuing Education (this is WHERE WE SHINE!)
⭐ KIDS + FAMILIES → Best Tutoring/Learning Center (2025 Winner!!)

For 21 years, Speak! has helped people connect through language, culture, travel, and conversation. We're proud to be a locally owned Charlottesville business with an incredible team of teachers and students.

If Speak! has been part of your journey or you simply believe in our mission, we'd be honored by your vote.

🗳️ Voting closes June 30. Anyone can vote, from anywhere in the world!

Vote here:
https://bestof.c-ville.com/2026

Thank you for supporting local education and community! ❤️

🎉 We’re honored to be nominated once again in Best of C-Ville!

This year, Speak! Language Center has been nominated in TWO categories:

⭐ Continuing Education
⭐ Learning Center

For more than 20 years, we’ve helped people connect through language, culture, travel, and conversation. From first words to lifelong friendships, every class, conversation hour, cultural event, and travel course has been made possible by this incredible community.

We’re especially grateful to our students, teachers, partners, and supporters who have been part of the journey.

If Speak! has helped you learn, connect, travel more confidently, or see the world a little differently, we’d be honored to have your vote.

🗳️ Vote through June 30
🔗 Link in bio

Thank you, Charlottesville! ❤️

Join us for a special Speak! SALON event:
1,000 Cranes for Hiroshima

With Speak! Japanese teacher Yukari Leiser, we’ll explore the meaning behind the thousand cranes tradition, reflect on peace and remembrance, and share a cultural conversation rooted in Japanese history and community. We’ll also make paper cranes, which Yukari will bring to Hiroshima’s Children’s Peace Monument in July.

Japanese learners, native speakers, and all curious adults and kids welcome 🇯🇵

📍 Vault Virginia
📅 Wed, June 17 | 12–1 PM
FREE with RSVP

# Charlottesville

Origami • Peace • Community 🕊️🇯🇵

Join us June 17 for a special Speak! Salon workshop with Japanese teacher Yukari Leiser. Learn the tradition of *senbazuru* (1,000 paper cranes), practice a few Japanese words, and help create cranes that Yukari will personally bring to Hiroshima this summer.

Adults, kids, Japanese students, native speakers, and curious beginners all welcome.

Details via link below.

https://www.speaklanguagecenter.com/events

A very Speak! encounter. 🇮🇹❤️

After nearly two years of working together, our director and Italianist and our online Italian teacher, Raffaella, finally met in person today… in Florence!!! Their paths crossed coincidentally, and they took advantage to enjoy a long chat at one of Florence’s most historic cafés.

Speak! may be rooted in Charlottesville, but its community of teachers spans the U.S. and beyond. Raffaella is based in Washington State and Sicilia. Christina is based in Virginia.

Today it was the historic Caffè Paszkowski - who knows where the next Speak! encounter will be. 🌎 😍

Naples, pizza, and a room full of curious minds 🇮🇹🍕

Our first Speak! Salon at Vault Virginia kicked off today with a lunchtime journey into Naples and the story of pizza—from its humble beginnings to its place on the world stage ✨

So grateful to Annamaria for co-leading this with me, and to Chef Mike (Michele) at The Bradbury for sharing his authentic Pizza Marinata and Margherita with guests (which made the history deliciously real) 👨‍🍳🔥

We loved the thoughtful questions, the lively dialogue, and the shared curiosity in the room 💛

This is what Speak! is all about:
language, culture, and connection… shared together. And coworkers got to learn something during their lunch break!

Stay tuned—Speak! Salons are just getting started. Monthly events ahead!

Japanese 🇯🇵 Student Spotlight: Mark

Two years into learning Japanese, Mark’s lessons have become more than language practice—they’ve become conversations that travel.

What starts with everyday topics often unfolds into discussions about culture, history, and perspectives across the world… all in Japanese.

As a UVA professor, Mark was also able to take advantage of UVA’s education benefits to support his learning—making it easier to stay consistent and invest in real progress.

Here’s something he shared about his approach:

“I told Yukari I wanted our lessons to be as close to 100% in Japanese as possible so I could really build my listening and speaking. When I don’t know a word, she explains it in Japanese using words I do know—which has been incredibly helpful.”

And about the Speak! experience:

“It’s not just learning vocabulary—it’s real conversation, real connection, and a way of learning that apps simply can’t replicate.”

That willingness to lean in, stay curious, and keep speaking? That’s where the magic happens.

➡️ Read more about Mark’s journey on our blog (link in bio)



Photos by