Association for Language and Culture 'Linguists' isn’t just a language school. We are a collective of people who uphold the same values in their life and work: we believe in the power of friendship and solidarity, in the healing power of laughter and understanding, but most of all - in compassion. Compassion is one of the two cornerstones of our teaching philosophy and vision. Whenever we step into a classroom we are fully aware that we are encountering not clients, but human beings, with rich and complicated lives, with their own desires and fears, human beings who feel vulnerable and insecure when trying to acquire a foreign language. The learning process starts by recognising the humanity in each of our students.

Then the fun begins! We start to learn a new language, but not in the traditional way, with a teacher bestowing her/his hard-won knowledge upon the confused and petrified beginners. We firmly believe knowledge is an exchange. We learn with each other and from each other, delving together into the depths of language, talking, probing, exploring. Actually, we learn how to learn. Everything and anything can be used to acquire knowledge: books, newspapers, audio and video materials, films, music, poetry… Since no language exists in a vacuum, our linguistic expeditions are coupled with explorations of the political, social and cultural context. Learning grammar and acquiring new vocabulary isn’t our only goal. We are there to help each other fully enagage our intellectual and emotional capacities, develop critical thinking skills and revisit our own attitudes and views.

Learning a foreign language is no easy task and it doesn’t happen overnight. It requires time and effort. Precisely for that reason, the second cornerstone of our teaching philosophy and vision is: passion. We passionately love what we do and we’re not causal about it. We never go into a classroom distracted, moody or tired. You have the right to feel despondent, we don’t. You have the right to feel frustrated, we don’t. Our job is to provide boundless patience and support.

What you can expect from us:

• dedicated, motivated, creative, selfless and approachable teachers
• unfaltering enthusiasm
• a sense of humor
• working in small groups (up to 8 people)
• lots of tea and coffee (and maybe various snacks of the chocolate kind, if a certain person by the name of Sandra is nice enough to spare some)
• textbooks and workbooks in pdf available to print or use on an electronic device. BCS students receive their textbooks/workbooks on the first day of classes.
• a library stocked with books in English and BCS for all levels, dictionaries, children’s books encyclopedias, etc. Everything we own is at your disposal.

What we expect from you:

• to be open-minded and cooperative
• to respect our values. This means that we have zero tolerance for anyone who tries to promote fascist, nationalist, racist, sexist, homophobic or any other discriminatory ideas in our classroom.
• to fill out the application on our website and bring a receipt on the first day of classes that proves you have paid the first installment - this is our way of making sure you will show up and give us and yourself a chance.

The courses are held in two semesters: September-January and February-June. We offer 6 levels, each of them comprising 32 sessions (90 minutes long). In July we organise a conversational English language course, and BCS students have the opportunity of attending two intensive courses in January and July, when we organise our Winter and Summer School of BCS.

Oh, and one more thing: we actually do all of this in practice!