Our work connects language learning, community listening, and useful public knowledge. Some projects help people practice a conversation. Others invite people to share lived experience or explore an issue together.
Across this work, we listen in English and other languages, with attention to local cultures and the different ways people participate.
Language & Connection
Language learning can make everyday interactions more comfortable and open opportunities to connect. We develop practical materials that support listening, speaking, and understanding in real situations.
Our Chinese as a Second Language resources include conversation activities, pronunciation practice, useful phrases, and materials learners can return to at their own pace.
Explore Chinese as a Second Language
Community Listening & Learning
People carry knowledge about their homes, neighborhoods, workplaces, and the services they use. Listening sessions create space to bring that knowledge into a shared conversation.
We use clear questions and thoughtful facilitation to help people contribute. Depending on the project, participation may include discussion, written responses, or other ways of sharing experience. We pay attention to the differences as well as the common themes.
Explore the Extreme Heat project
Help shape upcoming conversations
Shared Knowledge & Public Resources
The value of a project can continue after a class or conversation ends. Reports, guides, learning tools, and other public materials help people revisit what was explored and share it with others.
We aim to make these resources understandable, useful, and clear about where their information comes from. Interactive formats can help readers explore a question in more depth, while readable summaries and downloadable materials support other ways of learning.
From a question to something useful
Begin with a purpose. Identify the question, who it matters to, and what participants can expect from taking part.
Make room to contribute. Consider language, culture, accessibility, timing, and the different ways people communicate.
Listen and examine carefully. Attend to what people share, clarify meaning, and keep differences and uncertainty visible.
Share and learn further. Develop appropriate public materials, invite questions, and identify where further conversation would be useful.
What listening can—and cannot—tell us
A conversation can reveal experiences, questions, and possibilities that deserve attention. Its findings describe the people and context involved. They should not automatically be treated as the views of everyone in a neighborhood or language community.
We distinguish personal accounts, other source information, and our interpretation. Project resources explain their own methods and limitations.
Have a question worth exploring together?
Tell us about the community, the issue, and what a useful next step might look like.