An Expanded Partnership at National Democratic Institute – Now Featuring African Languages and Widely Taught Languages in Africa
After generously hosting several semesters of Russian classes with The Global Language Network, the National Democratic Institute has amplified the partnership between our organizations to increase global impact and to continue our fulfilling our mission of, “Using language as a tool to help fix our world.” We do this by allowing native speakers to share their languages and cultures. Expanding our partnership into NDI’s African Division, we will now be offering language courses in the African Division at their site in Chinatown. This will allow us the ability to offer more African languages and languages that are widely spoken in Africa.
The National Democratic Institute is a non-partisan, non-profit, non-governmental organization ensuring the integrity of democratic institutions around the world. Fighting for democratic representation in each continent, NDI spurs citizen participation and advocates for marginalized identity groups in government. The Global Language Network is proud to continue supporting their employees and their mission. We help to equip them and the public with the language skills that help to directly facilitate the completion of projects, research and fieldwork.
We started with offering Russian classes at their Chinatown location, attended by both NDI employees and GLN students, which we continue to do each semester, thanks to their generosity. These classes are so successful and significantly aided NDI employees in their global efforts, that we are now growing our African Language partnership to offer Portuguese, Swahili, and Amharic. We hope to offer more in the future as well.
Mwasi Madahili, the Swahili Foreigner instructor with GLN, is excited to play music from Swahili culture so people “get to hear how it really is”. Mwasi picked up this method of learning through music during her time as a Spanish student with GLN. She immediately wanted to apply it to her own class and continues brainstorming creative ways to engage her students. Her high-energy Swahili class will encourage classroom comradery as students explore the food, music, and culture of Tanzania, Mwasi’s native home. Her class will concentrate on building focus and community, and she will remind students that their favorite Disney quote, “Hakuna Matata”, is actually a Swahili phrase!
Cyntia Silva will teach the Portuguese Tourist course hosted by NDI this spring. With years of experience teaching Portuguese, Silva will begin her lessons with a lecture and supplement the information with as many games and activities as possible. She incorporates cultural components based on students’ learning objectives, and is excited to discover the learning needs of NDI employees and GLN students.
Both teachers look forward to supporting NDI’s efforts towards democratic representation. They hope to equip its employees with a sufficient understanding of language and culture required for their policy and advocacy work in African regions, while helping their local DC community as well.
GLN understands partnerships should benefit each party involved, and our work with NDI demonstrates two organizations channeling their strengths to serve their respective communities. Organizations that partner with GLN also have access to unique perks, including priority registration and tax deductions.
GLN will continue to collaborate with NDI and looks forward to establishing more exciting partnerships to help people to learn the world’s many languages.