#ThinkLanguages: The University of Limerick experience 2024

Despite a snowy day, MLAL welcomed over 80 Transition Year students and their teachers to campus on Thursday, 21 November 2024 to take part in "#ThinkLanguages: The University of Limerick experience".

The event was part of the national #ThinkLanguages Week organised by Languages Connect, an initiative which seeks to link Transition Year students with Irish HEIs and encourage more students to continue with their language learning.

The event opened with a Big Quiz where students were tested on their language skills, geography and general knowledge. Students then took part in a range of workshops including German hip-hop, Spanish dances, language & cultural tasters for Japanese and Arabic and had fun in a multilingual escape room.

The event was organised by Catherine Jeanneau, Rachel McLoughlin and Erika Marcet with the support and participation of many MLAL staff and students, who gave their time to share their passion for languages:

• Workshop facilitators and colleagues: The Big Quiz: Rachel McLoughlin and Erika Marcet; Escape Room: Marta Giralt, Julia Issac, Ana Martin, Maria Palomares, Stéphanie O'Riordan, Andrew Badley, Margarita Esteban; German Hip Hop: Paula Riese and Constanze Parzich (coached by Anita Barmettler); Japanese language/culture taster: Erika Marcet; Arabic language/culture taster: Hadjer Hammadi, Roumaissa Bougherara, Sofia Nemouchi (ISPhD students); Spanish music and dance: Alba Perez
• PME Languages students plus Undergraduate student ambassadors/LLH Interns:  Kerri O’Donoghue, Sarah Browne, Keiko Tanaka, Oliver Clinton, Kieran Murphy, Finn Coleman (PMEs);  Ciaran Kelly, Ciara McIntyre, Kaci Toomey, Fiona Dillon, Kate Nelligan, Ben Sheehan, Leo (Ou Meng), Jack Lawlor (Undergraduate students),  Nelly Bredin, Elsa Meier and Tizian Lacenere  (LLH interns)
• Campus tour guides: Stephen Maloney, Amy Kelly, Sadhbh Reddington, Andrew Doyle-Echeverria, and Jake Buckley.

The event was kindly funded by Languages Connect as part of a wider range of language promotion activities supporting the national strategy document "Languages Connect – Ireland’s Strategy for Foreign Languages in Education 2017–2026".

Throughout #ThinkLanguages Week, MLAL staff members also undertook a number of school visits in Co. Limerick, Co. Clare, Co. Tipperary and Co. Kerry with staff members presenting language-learning opportunities in UL and student ambassadors sharing their experience of learning languages.