Category Archives: Cultural Awareness

Happy Diwali

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Happy Diwali to all who celebrate it at Queen’s and elsewhere!

Diwali (Deepavali or Divali), also known as the Festival of Lights, is a Hindu religious festival and one of the most important festivals within Hinduism. Falling on 24th October this year, it generally lasts five days, and is celebrated during the Hindu lunisolar month Kartika.

“Hindus, Sikhs and Jains both in India and across the world usually take part by decorating houses and public spaces with thousands of lights, candles and colourful designs. As well as the bright colours and glittering lights, there’s music, dancing, delicious food and a cresting wave of community feeling.”

Nimmy john
Lecturer, School of Nursing & midwifery; co-chair of bame & International staff network

Thanks to the Graduate School’s organisation, on Monday 24th October Queen’s students and staff have joined in the celebration of Diwali at the 1st Floor Social Space of the grand ‘Ruskinesque’ Gothic building, with a taste of Indian tea and sweets.

‘Happy Diwali!’ is the most common festival greeting that people use to send their best wishes to each other.

TLE kicking a start

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The first TLE session has kicked a start on Wed 19/10 at the Training Room 2 (TR2), McClay Library, despite the bad weather. From a diverse background of both language and disciplines, a dozen of enthusiastic language learners gathered to exchange their linguistic experiences and language demands and supplies. Some were even successfully paired up on site.

To support more participants to get started as soon as possible, we have decided to add two more sessions:

  • Friday 21/10, 11:00-12:30, online (Teams > Tandem Language Exchange at Queen’s)
  • Monday 24/10, 10:30-12:00, in person (Language Teaching Lab, McClay)

More sessions will be added to the TLE page and slots will be made visible on the TLE Canvas (free for teacher) calendar. Please save the dates to your calendar. The TLE platform is an ongoing support that you may join at any time you like.

International Day of Sign Languages

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Did you know that there are approximately 72 million deaf people in the global population? These people collectively use over 300 different sign languages! Alongside all the national languages, there is a shared international sign language used by the deaf community to communicate socially, on trips abroad, and in international business settings.

This International Day of Sign Languages, celebrated on 23rd September each year, to coincide with the creation of the World Federation of the Deaf in 1951, sits within International Week of Deaf People (19th-25th September 2022). The theme for this year is Building Inclusive Communities for All. Learning basic communication in sign language, whether national or international, can really help to make the global community of deaf people feel more included in society. As actress Rose Ayling-Ellis so aptly puts it, “There’s nothing wrong with being deaf – it’s society that’s the problem”.

The Language Centre offers British Sign Language courses in Levels 1 and 2 and registration for these is open now, via our website: www.qub.ac.uk/lc

Cultural awareness workshop for QUB Accommodation RA training

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Goodbye, August, and hello, September!

We are very pleased that today, Dr Liang WANG, from the Language Centre, provided a Chinese cultural awareness workshop for the Queen’s Residential Assistant Team who have kicked off their training to welcome international and home students to Queen’s.

While the session had its focus on an understanding of Chinese students, the largest international student body on campus, and the cultures they bring along, the principles of enhancing one’s intercultural awareness and developing intercultural communication skills are essentially applicable to the approach to interacting with all international students, as well as home students from the non-essentialist perspective – embracing cultural diversity, breaking down stereotypes, showing respect, and developing critical cultural awareness.

We hope that our Cultural Awareness training will be helpful to all students, home and abroad, to enhance their life experience while studying at Queen’s. We would like to send our best wishes to the upcoming international students for a successful year ahead.

We are also happy to be contacted for consultation and tailored workshops to suit particular needs relating to language learning and cultural awareness training. For any enquiries, please email us at language@qub.ac.uk.

A tour of the Irish Craft Heroes

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Did you know that August is the Craft Month in Northern Ireland?

While we hope you are still enjoying the summer days, we would like to recommend the Irish Craft Heroes – 50 Makers X 50 Years outdoor exhibition, as part of the Belfast International Arts Festival, at the Ulster Museum just next to Queen’s. It is such a great opportunity not only to explore the local craft culture but also to taste the Irish language through the exhibition displays.

Outdoor exhibition of Irish Craft Heroes | Image@LiangWANG

What’s the exhibition about?

Irish Craft Heroes is a highly-visual, outdoor panel trail celebrating Ireland’s inspirational craftspeople and makers whose work has contributed to the rich tapestry of craft and design practice in Ireland.

The exhibition charts the evolution of the craft and design sector on the island of Ireland over the last 50 years, and pays homage to the many makers whose work has significant legacy.

Craft NI

Below is our selected photo collection of the exhibits for you to view online but with our great passion we encourage you to take a tour of the outdoor exhibition on a great day out with friends and families.

More to read

Cultural Awareness for EPS 2022 Summer School

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Congratulations to the launch of the 2022 EPS Summer School at Queen’s! On Monday morning 25th July, we welcomed some 120 international students from China, India and Malaysia via MS Teams.

We hope that the students find our Cultural Awareness session useful and interesting, and get a taste of the local cultures, although they cannot fly to Belfast in person. We look forward to welcoming many of them, if not all, to study at Queen’s in the near future.

About the EPS Summer School

Since 2014, the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences (EPS) has welcomed over 500 students from China and across the globe to the annual summer school. In spite of restrictions on travel in 2021, the faculty of EPS successfully launched a virtual summer school. Almost 200 students were welcomed and joined the online programmes.

EPS SUMMER SCHOOL

In 2022, students can pursue their interests in one of six tailored EPS summer school programmes:

  • PSYCHOLOGY
  • CIVIL ENGINEERING
  • ELECTRONICS, ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING AND COMPUTER SCIENCE
  • MATHEMATICS AND PHYSICS
  • MECHANICAL AND AEROSPACE ENGINEERING
  • CHEMISTRY AND CHEMICAL ENGINEERING