During the 2016-2017 academic year the Voluntariat Lingüístic programme has carried out the following activities:

Tours and cultural activities programme

From Saturday the 1st of October 2016 to Saturday the 3rd of June 2017, the Voluntariat Lingüístic has carried out a total of twenty-nine tours and activities, both in Barcelona and around Catalonia, with an average attendance of about forty-five to fifty students per activity. All these activities have taken place on a Saturday or, in the case of Andorra, during the whole weekend, except for the next four tours, which took place on a week day: the visit to the Parliament of Catalonia (on Thursday 3rd of November), the Catalan Christmas traditions tour (on Friday 2^nd of December), the visit to the Catalan national television (on Thursday 6 April), and the visit to Ateneu Barcelonès and to the National Libray of Catalonia (on Thursday 11 May).

During the first term, a total of eleven tours were carried out, eight of them around Barcelona –Roman and Medieval Barcelona; the Barcelona of 1714; the modernist site of the Hospital de Sant Pau; the Parliament of Catalonia; the Eixample; the monastery of Pedralbes, and Sarrià; the Fabra astronomical observatory and the Carretera de les Aigües, and a Catalan Christmas traditions tour, which included a little end-of-terme pary, in which we could taste cava, neules and torró, at terrace of the Rectoral building, in Plaça de la Mercè– and the other three around the rest of Catalonia: the Greek and Roman ruins of Empúries, Sant Martí d’Empúries, and Girona; Ripoll & ‘pa amb tomàquet’ workshop + ‘castanyada’ and a visit to Croscat volcano, in the Garrotxa area; and a walk through the vineyards and a visit to a cellar in the Penedès area.

During the second term a total of nine tours were carried out, five of them in Barcelona –modernist (Art Nouveau) Barcelona route; discovering of Montjuïc mountain; the Palau de la Generalitat, home of the Catalan Government; Picasso’s and Miró’s Barcelona; and a route in two of the Barcelona hills, which brought us to Turó de la Rovira, Turó del Carmel and Park Güell, and which included an end-of-term international breakfast at Turó de la Rovira–, three around the rest of Catalonia –to Reus, where we visited the Museu del Vermut, and to Tarragona; to Figueres, where we also visited the Sant Ferran castle and the Dalí Museum; and to Montblanc, where we visited a wine cellar of the Conca de Barberà denomination of origin and had a ’calçotada’ in Barberà de la Conca–, as well as a cultural and ski weekend in the Principality of Andorra, which registered a record attendance of 107 students.

During the third term nine tours were scheduled, five of them around the city of Barcelona –visit to Tibidabo, the communications tower of Collserola and the Vallvidrera reservoir; a visit to the facilities of TV3, the Catalan national television; a tour around the Gràcia district, which  included a visit to the Plaça del Diamant air-raid shelter; a visit to Ateneu Barcelonès and to the National Library of Catalonia, and finally the visit ‘Barcelona and the sea’, which included a beautiful sea trip in catamaran from Port Olímpic to Port Vell– and the remaining four around the rest of Catalonia –to Hostalric, where we did a ‘pa amb tomàquet’ workshop; to Banyoles, Besalú and Girona; to Montserrat, a visit that included a climbing to the Sant Jeroni peak, and a visit to Vall de Núria, in the Pyrenees.

Language tandem programme

During the 2016-2017 academic year, a total of 366 language tandems have been matched, out from the 879 applications received: 371 applications from international students and 508 from Catalan students. Per terms, the language partner applications distribution has been as follows: in the first term, 175 applications from international students and 166 from Catalan students were received; in the second term, these figures amounted to 146 applications from international students and 259 from Catalan students; and, finally, in the third term, 50 applications from international students and 83 from Catalan students were received.

Most of applicants were undergraduate students (they account for 78.8% of all the applications submitted this year), followed by postgraduate students (who account for 15.6%), while the remaining 5.6% of applications correspond to lecturers, administration staff and alumni. It should be pointed out, on the other hand, that almost three out of four students (72%) having taken part in the language tandem programme were women. And concerning the applicants’ ages, 68.8% of them were, when submitting the application, between 17 and 22 years old, while 26% of them were between 23 and 29, and the remaining 5.2% were students being 30 or more.

And as far as languages are concerned, Catalan students have applied for 18 different languages, while international students have offered 30. English has been the most requested language –being present in the 80% of the applications by Catalans students–, as well as the most offered –being present in the 73% of the applications by international students. Other languages such as French, German and Italian also had a significant presence in the whole of the applications, but in a much lesser degree.