The history of Institut Culturel Imagine
Our space quickly became too small
The beginning of our story dates back to 2016, in a small space in Brasília, capital of Brazil. French as a foreign language (FLE) courses at all levels were offered, mainly to students from the University of Brasília. Our methodology suited them, as it allowed them to escape the traditional teaching of foreign languages in the region.
In only one year of exercise, it was necessary for us to enlarge our space because we realized that the methodology adopted met with great success. Our students talked about it around them and very quickly our name became famous .
And in 2018, two years later, we had to expand our physical space again and in addition to FLE courses we even started offering English and Portuguese as a foreign language courses.
Our educational goals have never changed
Our main goal was to bring together different people around the world around language exchanges . Another objective was to allow our students to learn to use various tools aimed at their development. We have never considered them as mere passive receivers, but as actors in their own learning process.
Our team is becoming more professional
Therefore, we believe that each new member of our team should contribute to the development and learning of all. From the start, we dissociated ourselves from structuralist ideas and we appropriated the communicative approach and the notion of autonomy.
Also starting from our desire to create a multicultural environment, the team, which already includes several professionals, mainly teachers who have followed a higher education in didactics of French as a foreign language and other foreign languages, is growing and maturing more and more.
Our social actions have already helped more than 100 learners
In short, driven by a passion for various languages and cultures, but mainly aware of the evolution of education, our team has been able to innovate. In 2018, it was possible to offer two scholarships that covered 100% of the French course level A1.1 to students in a situation of socio-economic vulnerability. And in 2019, we were able to offer 5 scholarships of the same type .
In 2020, we moved to France . And due to the pandemic we had to change our structure. The Imagine Cultural Institute was transitioning to a digital existence. But that did not prevent us from continuing our social work, we offered in the same year a 100% free online beginner's French course which counted about fifteen registered.
In 2021, we launched the free mentorship project for DELF B1 and B2. The first session had 40 registrants and the second more than 80.
Finally, in 2022, we made available on our site a free program on the Vocabulary of Tourism . This is the first in a series that aims to help those who cannot afford to pay for a course.
