Think Languages Day 2023

 On the 1st of December all TY students took part in Think Languages Day. This was an event for students to learn about all the different languages and cultures in our school. The day started off with a pre-recorded opening ceremony at 9:10am and each class group had a different workshop for a different culture. There were so many workshops from cultures around the world!

We had a great time at the recorded Arabic and belly dancing workshop where we learnt Arabic and basic belly dancing skills. We learnt about traditional belly dancing clothes and all of the Arabic names for dance moves. Everyone enjoyed trying out some of the beautiful moves!

We had Lana Ilyin come in to give us a Ukrainian Workshop. We learnt about the history of Ukraine, traditional dance and food from Ukraine and we even learnt the Ukrainian alphabet. We were taught simple phrases in Ukrainian and had a Kahoot quiz at the end to test our new knowledge on the amazing language!

Our Spanish students Sofia, Marta, Paula and Maria gave us a wonderful presentation about Spanish culture and the Spanish language. We were told their experiences living in Spain and how there are many differences between Spain and Ireland. We learnt Spanish words, all about Spanish food, Spanish festivals and Spanish songs. We all ended on a good note by singing popular Spanish songs!

Some of our students involved in hosting the Think Languages event organised a workshop where we got to try treats from around the world. We got to try croissants and many other traditional foods from around the world. Our TY students brought in delicious treats that they made from home. We also had a quiz all about languages from around the world and got many freebies throughout the day. Well done everybody!

Allana Cruz gave us a talk about the Philippines and gave us a demo on how to create traditional Filipino paper star crafts. Yusra Madene told us all about the Arabic language and culture. Laoise O’Connor and her mam Yumi had a great workshop about Japanese culture. We were taught Japanese phrases and the types of Japanese characters. At the end we got to create our own origami butterflies out of paper. It was lot’s of fun and everyone enjoyed it!

Finally, we all got to take part in the amazing Portuguese and Capoeira workshop with many students saying this was their favourite by far! We were instructed by Sansao who came in to teach us his Capoeira skills. We all had a great time dancing to the music and having fun. We also learnt many Portuguese words through the beautiful dancing.

Overall the day was a fantastic success with lots of super things to experience. A massive thank you to our facilitators, TY team and the language teachers in the school for organising a great day for our TY students.

Written by Kate Kearney and Emma-Jayne Hughes