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On Thursday 20 November, the School of Modern Languages and Applied Linguistics welcomed 165 Transition Year students and their teachers to the UL campus to take part in #ThinkLanguages: The ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵ Experience. This is an event funded by Languages Connect as part of a national #Think Languages Week which promotes language learning among TY students. The four local schools who visited UL are: - Villiers School - Hazelwood College - Coláiste Iósaef - Castletroy College The event, organised by Erika Marcet and Stéphanie O'Riordan (MLAL), opened with The Big Quiz, where students were tested on their general knowledge about languages and cultures, language skills, and geography. This was followed by a range of culture- and language-related workshops to raise students’ intercultural awareness, foster mutual understanding and empathy, and have fun learning new skills. Despite the cold, TY students also got to experience our beautiful and sunny campus with a short, guided tour led by our language ambassadors. Feedback from students and teachers was highly positive and we hope their experience will encourage more of them to consider studying languages, particularly ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵ. This is ²Ñ³¢´¡³¢â€™s biggest outreach event, and it could not have happened without help from all directions. These include: 1. Colleagues in MLAL who facilitated workshops on the day. Escape Room: Marta Giralt, Garazi Beaumont, Mariano Paz, Annie Girardin-Halpin, Ana Martín Sánchez, Emma Minchon, Florian Fuhr, Lena Neumeyer; German Hip Hop: Anita Barmettler and Stephanie Brence; Japanese language/culture taster: Akie Nagahashi and Kaori Frizelle; Arabic language/culture taster: Lujayn Anan; Spanish music and dance: Alba Perez; Culture shock: Florence Le Baron-Earle, Michael Kelly and Clíona Hensey. 2. Student ambassadors who guided our young participants and helped out during the workshops: Eoghan Birchall, Amélie O'Riordan, Matteo Jeanneau-Zoncada, Rebecca Doyle, Amy O’Regan, Declan Chan, Vivienne O’Donovan, Ciarán Kelly, Diane Corcoran, Meg Waters, Raoul Murphy, Jakub Zlotek, Emma Nolan. 3. Language Learning Hub Team: Catherine Jeanneau, Ilaria Biello, Claudia Buttaccio Tardio, Marie Hartwig and Emma Casanova 4. Campus tour guides: Francesca Finessi and Anna Loftus 5. The Stables, and especially Patrick, for his help organising lunch for 190 participants. 6. Traffic and health & safety planning: Maggie Hayes, Gerald Hallinan and Kieran Tuite, and Bidvest Noonan Security officers 7. The Pavilion and CTL for the use of some of their spaces 8. The portering staff, in particular James McDonnell and Tom Flaherty, for delivering material, ensuring venues were open and ready, and being on call throughout the day 9. Jane Haynes, AHSS Faculty Marketing and Communications Officer (Marketing & Communications Division), for helping us with the promotion of this event 10. Brian Arthur, for snapping fantastic group photos. 11. Languages Connect for their ongoing funding of promotional events and this #ThinkLanguages event in particular In addition, Erika Marcet, Stéphanie O'Riordan, Catherine Jeanneau, Anita Barmettler and Florence Le Baron-Earle will have managed to visit 10 schools in 5 counties to talk to TY students and their teachers about the importance and value of learning languages.