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 World Arabic Language Day is celebrated every year on 18 December and this year it’s falling on a Sunday. Since 2012 it has been created to mark the day in 1973 that the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted Arabic as the sixth official language of the Organization
About the Arabic Language Day
‘Since its very first celebration in 2012, each year on 18 December UNESCO commemorates World Arabic Language Day, highlighting Arabic’s legacy and immense contribution to humanity.’
‘A pillar of humanity’s shared values, Arabic is a language that brings together people from various cultural, ethnical, religious and social backgrounds. ‘
We would like to invite you to join us in its celebration as part of our Celebrating Cultural Diversity at Queen’s, and don’t forget to say “Happy World Arabic Language Day” to who are speakers of Arabic language and who are learning to speak the language.
If you are considering doing an Arabic language course, you are very welcome to sign up for one of our Arabic courses from beginner to intermediate levels starting in January 2023. For more information and registration, please visit www.qub.ac.uk/lc or scan the QR code on the image.
Did you know that Wednesday 16th November is the International Day for Tolerance? What does tolerance mean for you? Here’s what the UNESCO’s Declaration of Principles on Tolerance in 1995 states:
“Tolerance is respect, acceptance and appreciation of the rich diversity of our world’s cultures, our forms of expression and ways of being human.”
UNESCO
Within our Queen’s community, we are all so fortunate to be a part of such a diverse campus, with students and staff members coming from over 80 countries and regions, representing a range of linguistic and cultural backgrounds. We would like to invite you to join us in appreciating the rich diversity of our multicultural campus, and to show our shared respect for inclusivity today and every day.
One of the most direct ways of experiencing cultural differences is through tasting food. But to what extent can we have tolerance towards food from different cultures? Our QUB student, MA Xiaoxiang (马小翔), who obtained an MA degree in Arts Management (2019) and is completing his second MA degree in Film Study (expected 2022), with School of Arts, English and Languages, has his own thoughts on cultural diversity and tolerance through his recent documentary, as part of the BBC 100 – Make Film History Project.
‘Different foods, countless flavours, diverse cultures, unique connotations. I try to use the traditional Chinese dish called Phoenix Feet [essentially, finely cooked chicken feet] as a clue to explain the relationship between food and culture. I also hope to use food as a metaphor for culture and interpret cultural exchanges in my eyes from different perspectives.’
— MA Xiaoxiang
Xiaoxiang (right) facilitating the Chinese calligraphy stand during the CNY (Year of the Pig) at Queen’s
About the film ‘Taste of Culture’
The original proposal for making this ‘Taste of Culture’ documentary is to weave a line between Chinese and Western cultures with some interesting elements. This is the reason why I chose Chinese food as the trigger. In the depths of its delicious flavour, there are many aspects to underline the cooking method – history, culture, regional variations, and other factors to help decode such a culture of practice, all of which is like a variety of spices and ingredients used in cooking, making the process of cultural interpretation more flavourful and charming and being more conducive to intercultural exchange.
Screenshot from ‘Taste of Culture’ – Shopping for chicken feet
Screenshot from ‘Taste of Culture’ – Preparation for chicken feet cooking
Screenshot from ‘Taste of Culture’ – A finished presentation of chicken feet dish (Cantonese style)
Screenshot from ‘Taste of Culture’ – A finished presentation of chicken feet dish (Xiaoxiang’s style)
As an international student, I have studied and lived in Belfast for a few years, with great interest in discovering other cultures. At the same time, being away from my home country, my culture of origin, also has given me a great chance of observing the traditional Chinese culture that I have a great passion for. This way of distancing myself from my native culture has made me think of the verses of a famous poem written by SU Shi (苏轼), one of the greatest poets to have lived in the Song dynasty over a thousand years ago:
“不识庐山真面目，只缘身在此山中” [Of Mountain Lu we cannot make out the true face, For we are lost in the heart of the very place. — Translated by XU Yuanchong (许渊冲)]
It seems that I also live in a mountain, but I can observe the mountain from different angles. Therefore, when embarking on making this film, I hoped to discuss cultural issues from a relatively objective and diversified perspective.
The making of the film
I felt excited when I saw the email forwarded by our Department of Film. I really felt excited because this was such a precious chance for new filmmakers. Without much hesitation I decided to go for it, and attended four workshops in total, including online and offline workshops, in order to get a better understanding of the project and to find inspiration through discussions with the organisers, my supervisors and peers. As an international student, I felt that I had more challenges in terms of language and cultural barriers, despite the fact that I have a master’s degree with Queen’s already. But I did gather my strength and eventually gain very valuable experience through attending these meetings. The organisers and other participants also gave me great encouragement and help. In fact, some of the anecdotes and questions that came out of the discussions were used in the documentary. This inside-out and outside-in methodology has become the guidance for making this film.
Xiaoxiang (central) at the screening panel discussion in the Strand CinemaXiaoxiang (central) at the screening panel discussion in the Strand Cinema
I was able to finish the scriptwriting and postediting of the documentary myself, thanks to my friend HU Chenrui (胡宸瑞), an undergraduate student also from our Film Department, who provided me with great assistance for my shooting. We enjoyed working together to get the shooting done. In the process of making this short film, I not only gained rich practical skills in documentary-making, but also achieved a deeper understanding of Chinese and British cultures through cooking chicken feet. Overall, the filming and creation process was a ‘delicious’ experience.
That’s one small step for delivering Chinese culture through my film, but it is one giant leap for myself as a novice filmmaker. Interestingly, this step was not made by my foot, but by the “chicken feet” in the documentary. In the future, I hope to continue to create more films about intercultural exchange and exploration, to convey the spicy flavour of cultures from a unique perspective.
‘I see it coming – the excitement starts to build up not only in my body, but in my family, in my whole nation, among my people, whether they live or not, in Mexico... The Day of the Dead is expected with illusion everywhere and this festivity is a distinctive feature of our culture.‘
– Ingrid Briano (QUB alumna)
For many of us, the most special period (between the last day of October until the second of November) of the year, when the smells of mandarins and cempazuchitl flowers float in the air preparing the way to receive our ancestors, it is the time of festive peace, of joyful nostalgic that is hard to understand for many foreigners who are equally fascinated and confused when they are in the boiling atmosphere of the Mexican celebration of the Day of the Dead.
Death is perceived in a very particular way in my country since the pre-Hispanic times, and this is especially shocking for cultures for whom the concept of the death is fearful, dark, painful. For our ancestors like the Mayas and Aztecs, death was in synchrony with life.
Death was needed to sustain life, human blood and sacrifices were needed so their Gods could continue blessing humans with life, crops, prosperity… death was only a stage in the cycle of life.
This is a time for family bonding and gathering, we get together to celebrate the lives of our ancestors, to be grateful for their legacy and to honour their memories. At home, this is one of the few times of the year when all my family sits around the table, sometimes the door rings and suddenly we have uncles, aunties and cousins showing up to eat “un panecito”. This is also a time to discover things about our family, like the time I knew that my great grandparents had to get married in a cave because during that time the government closed the churches and prosecuted priests and Catholics.
If we keep talking about the essential components of this celebration, we cannot forget the “altar de Muertos”, present equally at home, in public buildings and plazas, or in schools, where since we were kids we made them to join in contests against other groups. The altar must contain some elements, like water, salt, the orange cempazuchilt flowers distinctive of this festivity, the portraits of our beloved ones who already departed, their favourite food, and candles to guide them, to show them the way home.
Altar de Muertos
The altar and the elements may vary depending on the region and group. Some indigenous communities put their favourite saints instead of the portraits of their relatives, and in many families we include an arch of flowers that some believe, symbolizes the division between the world of the death and the alive, a species of portal between the two worlds. Because for a couple of days they are among us, they come to taste the food we prepared for them, they come to comfort us for the pain of their loss. It is said that if you try the food later, you won’t find any taste because your hungry relatives already “ate” it.
Although it often takes a few days to design it – buying all the elements and preparing the food – it is a moment of unity not only with the family, but with the community. I always buy the flowers to a man who knows much of my deceased relatives, and I always pull a story out of him of one of my relatives, because “once he saw my abuelito when he was buying some cows bla bla bla….”.
Furthermore, millions of people dress up as the icon of this festivity: the “Catrina”, the fashioned – bony creation of Mexican lithographer Jose Guadalupe Posada, who used to portray skulls and skeletons in his illustrations to protest and criticize the Mexican society of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These dancing and colourful skeletons invade the streets during the parades held in cities and towns along the country.
And also, you can find the minion version knocking at your door, screaming “el muertito, el muertito” and demanding treats in our Mexican version of trick or treat. This tradition has been changing and getting stronger during the last decades, taking some distance from the similar Halloween, to become a very proud and intrinsic Mexican tradition. You will see fewer and fewer witches, zombies, mummies, and pumpkins, and more and more catrinas and catrines, and characters of the Mexican popular culture like “el chavo del ocho”, Cantinflas or heroes of the Mexican revolution returned from the underworld with a beautiful childish face and some creepy scar and blood on the forehead. I especially wait for this moment, because the kids know that my mom is always prepared with bags and bags of sweets to receive them. When they knock, they are always welcome by an Ingrid – Catrina who gives them sweets, and well, she keeps some to herself, because that day she turns into a little girl herself.
And what about the cemeteries? You would be surprised… don’t expect a chorus of cries and rivers of tears… but to see people cleaning the graves, painting and decorating them, putting fresh flowers and even new toys for a child grave. Pay attention to the families having picnics and laughing around the graves, listen to the mariachis playing ranchera (a genre of traditional music of Mexico) and singing with all their heart… join the party, and above all, don’t be sad. Join our most beautiful tradition, join us to welcome our beloved ones because they never left; join us to celebrate their lives instead of feeling sorry for their passing because they only die when we forget them, and that will never happen, as they will always be alive in our hearts and memory, and they are always loved.
Feliz dia de Muertos!!
About the author
Ingrid Briano Jasso
Ingrid, from Mexico, obtained her MSc in Leadership for Sustainable Development at Queen’s in 2018.
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.
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
If you are an Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences student, then our Cultural Awareness Workshop is for you! Next Wednesday, 23rd March, the Language Centre will be facilitating an interactive session on cultural awareness and sensitivity – we hope to see you there! You can register by using the following link:
