Languages Week Scotland

Every day during Languages Week Scotland a new challenge is set by the Deputy First Minister. Work with your class, your teacher, your family or your friends and join in!

Friday – Multilingual communities

For the final Languages Week Scotland challenge, find 5 examples of languages around your home.

You will have to think about this! They could be:

• a label on a food item
• a card someone has sent with a greeting in another language
• something you have seen on TV
• a word or phrase you have said
• a word or phrase someone has said to you

You will be amazed at how many languages you find!

Once you have found 5 items, can you identify the languages?

Here are some ideas to get you started:

These olives! (Spanish)

These gherkins! (Polish)

This shampoo! (French)

This WhatsApp profile pic!! (Arabic)

This cat food! (LOADS!!!!)

Why not take a photo and upload it Twitter? We would love to see what you come up with. Please tag us in @LangsWeekScot #scotlandloveslanguages.

Thursday: Studying languages beyond school

The fourth Languages Week Scotland challenge is for everyone studying or working at a Scottish FE college or university. Are you multilingual? Are you studying languages as part of your course? Do you teach on a course with a languages element? Have you been on a placement overseas? Share your why! On your own or as a team!

Inspired by the US campaign Lead with Languages (@LeadWLanguages), here’s your opportunity to jump on the #LangMeme bandwagon. Get as creative as you like and create a positive meme that captures why languages are important to you.

Don’t forget to tag @LangsWeekScot #scotlandloveslanguages #LangMeme2021 when you share your meme.

Find out more about #LangMeme2020

Alternative formats could be gif, TikTok, 15sec film clip – ‘transformation’ or ‘pass it on’ style.

Wednesday: Languages spoken at home

Here’s the third Languages Week Scotland challenge and it’s for all of you who speak an additional language – a language you use at home or one you are learning.  What’s your favourite tongue-twister?

We want to flood Twitter with tongue-twisters in as many languages as possible.

Record yourself saying your favourite tongue-twister in another language and share it on Twitter. Don’t forget to tag in @LangsWeekScot and use the hashtag #scotlandloveslanguages.

Can our followers recognise which languages it is?

If you would like to learn a new tongue-twister in another language, here are some sites to visit:

Omniglot – tongue-twisters in many languages

Alphadictionary – tongue-twisters from around the world

Babbel - can you manage these hard tongue-twisters in nine different languages?

Tuesday: Languages for employment

Here’s the second Languages Week Scotland challenge. Do you know how useful languages are for work? Why not take the 3 x 3 x 3 challenge:

• think of 3 jobs you are interested in.
• find out how to say these 3 jobs in 3 different languages
• find 3 ways languages could be used in each of these 3 jobs

If you can share any outcomes on Twitter, please tag us in @LangsWeekScot #scotlandloveslanguages

Take this challenge further

You can hear directly from employers and professionals on how languages are relevant in the workplace through a series of short films on we have produced on our YouTube channel:

Generation Global: Making languages your business

Generation Global: Making space for languages

Monday: Granny went to market

Granny went to market, and she bought…

Here’s the first Languages Week Scotland challenge. Why not try this with your family at home? Or teachers, invite your learners to take part in this challenge online? How long will Granny’s shopping list be?

1.  “Granny went to market, and she bought…”
   Can you say this in the language you are learning at school? Ask your languages teacher if you’re not sure.
2. What could Granny buy at the market?
   If you are working with your class, share some ideas. If you are with your family, speak to them. Discuss what you could buy in a market, here in Scotland, and what you could buy in the countries where the language you are learning is spoken. Perhaps you could look up some pictures of different markets around the world? We have a few below:

    

    

3. What did Granny buy at the market? Start the game. Everyone who is playing should add something to the list, repeating what has been said before.
4. You could play online with your class. Your teacher could start a thread and everyone could contribute their idea in the comments section.  As an additional challenge, why not try to recite the list? You could record yourself and upload it to your shared learning space.

If you can share any outcomes on Twitter, please tag us in @LangsWeekScot #scotlandloveslanguages