The Language Centre 2nd semester classes kick off today Monday 15th and wish all the learners a great start!
Tandem Language Exchange activities restart from this Wednesday 17th January. All Queen’s students and staff members are welcome to attend TLE events throughout the academic year, whether they sign up for the language courses or not.
For those who sign up for both, it can be complementary way to develop your language skills with a potential language partner, with whom you can work with a buddy from another culture for mutual support. For those who are unable to attend a language class, perhaps joining our TLE will be a viable option for you to keep your flame of enthusiasm burn.
Calling all students and staff members who are keen to boost language exchanges!
Following the initial Tandem Language Exchange (TLE) meeting last Friday (13/10), the second TLE meeting is set for this Friday (20/10) from 1 pm to 3 pm, at the Auditorium, McClay Library.
All welcome and bring your friends/colleagues along! If you have not registered for the TLE programme yet, please remember to sign up for it before coming to attend, which will facilitate your access onsite.
“The International Day of Friendship was proclaimed in 2011 by the UN General Assembly with the idea that friendship between peoples, countries, cultures and individuals can inspire peace efforts and build bridges between communities.
The resolution places emphasis on involving young people, as future leaders, in community activities that include different cultures and promote international understanding and respect for diversity.”
At Queen’s, we have seen friendship developing in many ways, one of which is through joining our Tandem Language Exchange (TLE) programme. As Luisa, a German student in exchange of her language for Mandarin Chinese with Lingzhu, said, “What started off as a language partnership soon turned into a real friendship and apart from learning German and Chinese we also go running together and spend time as friends.”
While it is quiet on campus during the summer break, those who are keen to develop their language skills through TLE can still maintain their language partnership onsite or online. The new round of TLE events will begin after the new academic year starts, so enjoy your summer time (and with old friends) and be prepared to look for new language partners starting from October 2023.
Bonjour! Did you know today, the 20th March, is the UN French Language Day? Joyeuse journée de la langue Française !
On this special day, Manon Merle, a French student doing Politics at Queen’s School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics, shared with us her experience of coming to study at Queen’s with her language exchange needs.
I am Manon, a French native speaker studying at Queen’s as an Erasmus student. And there are quite a few Erasmus students from France like me studying on campus! We are very eager to get to know you!
In my home university in France I study political science and am going to apply for a master in the ecological transition. I have decided to study abroad in Belfast mostly to improve my skills in English, to discover new people, a new city, a new culture and a new educational system. Many other French students have the same idea as I have, and we hope to contribute to Queen’s as a vibrant French-speaking community. As I hope this experience here to help me with my English, I recently signed up for the Tandem Language Exchange programme. So, I’ll be happy to promote my native language as well as to learn other languages from you!
To learn French (or the other languages) with us Language Centre, visit www.qub.ac.uk/lc (or scan the QR code) and sign up for the classes which will commence week beginning Monday 24 April 2023.
To find a language partner for language exchange, visit Tandem Language Exchange (TLE) programme. The coming TLE session is scheduled on Wed 22 March between 11:00 and 12:00 at the Training Room 2, McClay Library.
Observed on the 21st February every year since 2000 it was created by UNESCO to address the importance of cultural and linguistic diversity for sustainable societies.
The Language Centre at Queen’s is committed to promoting language learning and use in different contexts of education for a variety of purposes. We also value the richness of languages and cultures brought in by staff and students to Queen’s as the main part of the assets of our multicultural campus. We believe that linguistic diversity is a key feature of university campus life, and part of our Equality Policy.
To celebrate the International Mother Language Day we would like to invite you to join us in our Tandem Language Exchange (TLE) programme, via which you may find language partners to swap with each other’s native language in a mutually supportive and respectful way.
For more details and registration information, please check the TLE page or scan the QR code below for a quick access. The coming TLE session is scheduled on Wednesday 22nd February 2023.
We are pleased to have met quite a number of our international students, including the new cohort of Erasmus/Study Abroad students today at the Tandem Language Exchange event and the SU Welcome event at the Graduate School Social Space today! All seemed very keen and enthusiastic about starting their journey of language learning and intercultural exchange at Queen’s and elsewhere.
We look forward to the language course and academic programme start from the next week onward and welcome more students, as well as staff members, to join us in the coming round of enrolment and related events.
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.
Happy Friday and we hope you all have enjoyed the first week of language classes.
The Tandem Language Exchange (TLE) programme is a platform to help you pair up with native speakers of the language you would like to develop in order to support you to further develop your language skills and cultural knowledge in a friendly, flexible and informal way. It complements the language classes and operates in its own – you don’t have to sign up for a class in order to join TLE.
The first group meeting will take place from 1-2:30 pm, on Wednesday 19th October, at TR2, The McClay Library. If you would like to join, sign up now via http://go.qub.ac.uk/TLEsignup or scan the QR code.
For upcoming sessions, please check the TLE page for updates.
