The Camoes institute of Cluj and the Japanese cultural center have announced language classes for the fall term through their social media pages. (It isn’t always easy to see these things on the actual websites. So many websites are out of date. Please put this information on your websites too, hint hint.)
So has the Korean centre.
Japanese
Japanese classes begin in the week beginning on the fifth of October.
The brochure is in Romanian, which may mean that the classes are held in Romanian. However, our experiences with other institutes are some hold classes in Romanian (like the Polish) and some in English (like the Chinese Confucius institute.) I haven’t found anyone who has taken classes with the Institut Japonez yet, so I can’t tell you for sure, but I have found that the Japanese Cultural institutes in many towns do train their staff to speak good Romanian. So, there is a good chance the courses are delivered through Romanian. But you can always email and ask.
Here is some of the information from the image (translated from the Romanian).
Most Courses begin the week of 5 to 11 of October
Beginners (start from zero)
Wednesday, 6pm to 9.30pm
(There is a beginners course that begins in November. Is it this one? Unclear, we might email to ask.)
Intermediate
Monday, 6pm to 7.30 pm
(the next level from beginners, module II)
Conversational
Saturday 10-11.30 am
Speak Japanese with a native speaking teacher.
Children and teenagers.
Saturday, 12 to 1.30 pm
Learn Japanese through activities.
japanese.centre@ubbcluj.ro with your full name, the course you would like to enroll in, and your phone number. The deadline to sign up is the 4th of October.
500 lei for twelve sessions, and a discount price of 250 lei for UBB students and UBB staff. (so, 500 lei.)
There leaflet also mentions the Japanese cultural centre’s website. Well, we’ve been checking the website, and so we missed the recent events, like the Japanese music concert, and music workshop, and even the Bonzai workshop at the botanical gardens.
Portuguese
The Portuguese classes leaflet includes far fewer details. The sign up deadline is the 27 September, and the contact is Drd. Andrei Scridon. andrei.scridon@ubbcluj.ro
We assume that leaving your name and contact details is part of the process, and I would also recommend to say your level. You can take a level test online with the Instituto Camoes website in Portugal. I took the level test recently (more recently than most Cluj websites have been updated, anyway), but I forgot the page. (I will put it here if I remember.)
The Camoes institute website is not as out of date as the Japanese Institute is, but it’s still far behind the social media page.
At least they both have websites. There is still hope.
Korean Institute
They have the best advert of all. Instead of an image, they just put some text on their social media.
It sounds like everyone who is interested is invited to the first lesson, where you can sign up.
“Marti 29.09.2026
Grupa incepatori ora 19:00
Grupa pre-intermediari ora 19:30
Locatie: Centrul Cultural Coreean, Strada Calea Motilor, Nr. 11, etaj 4, sala 403.”
So, Tuesday, the 29th.
Beginners at 7pm
Pre-intermediates and 7.30
at the Korean Cultural Centre (Centrul Cultural Coreean Cluj-Napoca), Strada Calea Motilor, nr. 11, fourth floor, room 403.
(editor’s note. It previously said Strada Moților. Explaination here.)
Again, all of their communication is in Romanian, so perhaps their staff teaches through Romanian.
They ask for students of UBB and non UBB students to come to the same session, to sign up in person.
I think the in person sign up is a great idea. It forces you to know where the class is before the first day, so if you actually succeed in signing up, then you can’t claim that you couldn’t find it.
They don’t even have a website. It just forwards to their facebook page. Which is okay, as their Facebook page doesn’t contain as much re-post fluff as other pages do. (But, the downside of this is that you need a Facebook account to see a lot of the content. Some of us use Facebook, others value privacy and sanity.)
If you are going to rely on a Facebook page, look at the Korean Institute’s page. It’s great, just useful information, no like-gaming. Keep it clean, and give the information as plain text, so we can read it. Hint hint to other institutes.
If you are at all intimidated about emailing these institutes, don’t be. We have contacted a few Cultural Institutes through UBB in the past, and the people are very helpful.
German
Oh, German classes are also available. Sorry it’s not in the title, this is an afterthought. Their website is two years out of date, but their social media links to the sign-up form for this year’s course.
French?
The institut Francez apparently also has classes. There is a photo of the front page of their 2026 brochure on their social media. The front page contains no real information, no time, no dates, no prices, no locations, nothing. Their website talks about courses too, but that is dated 2024. Oh well. At least we know some French group won prizes at Jazz in the Park.