Category Archives: Language exchange

Happy UN French Language Day

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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.

Celebrating International Mother Language Day

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Happy International Mother Language Day!

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.

Have a great start

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Happy return and new start!

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.

  • Tandem Language Exchange at Queen’s
  • Tandem Language Exchange at Queen’s
  • SU Welcome event at The Graduate School

And, happy weekend to you all!

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.

Tandem Language Exchange ready to go

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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.