Language Fortnight

This page is one of a suite of pages to support families learning at home during Covid-19.
We hope this page helps you to celebrate languages.

Mother Language / Multi-Language Fortnight

This fortnight, we are celebrating our first ever virtual Mother Language / Multi-Language fortnight! We have such amazing linguistic diversity in our school and we want to celebrate the many languages spoken by our pupils, staff, families and wider school community.

There are approximately 7,000 languages in the world today. Some families speak 1 or 2 languages... some speak more! Some children speak English in school and a different language(s) at home.

Our vision for the fortnight is simple. We are encouraging pupils, along with their families, to engage in the following:

For those of you that speak English as an additional language, spend 10-15 minutes a day communicating in your mother tongue.
For those where English is your first language, spend 10 – 15 minutes a day learning a new language.
Engage in one (or more if your like) of the activities below. Submit your creations to us using the form below so that we can showcase our wide use of language here on our school multi-language page!

We also have a daily outline of some activities you can try, so take a look below.

Please get involved, we’d love to hear from you!

Getting started with a new language is easy. There are many websites and apps out there for language learning.
One that we recommend for all the
family is Duolingo.
Click on the owl to get started.
Have fun!

You might also decide to learn some sign language - check out this page on our website to see if you can learn some signs from Caitríona!

It's Week 2 of Language Fortnight!
Enjoy this week's activities below.

Play our quiz below...How many did you guess right?

Language activities from our wonderful students & families:

Check out some of the language activities our students and families have been getting up to. You can send us your activity, using the form below.

Vihaan sent us a poem in Bengali last week. This week, he is sending us some of his learning in Hindi! Thank you, Vihaan!

Hi,
Last week I was working on learning Bengali and this week I have been learning Hindi, here in this video I will count from 1-20 in Hindi - the national language of India.
Vihaan.

Liher speaks Basque at home and wanted to teach us how to count from 1-10 - thank you, Liher! He also added a message for us:

Basque (euskera) is the oldest language in Europe, it's completely different to the other European languages and it's a mystery for the historians as nobody knows where it comes from.

Well done to Bhavya, performing a rhyme for us in Tamil. This rhyme comes from Thirukkural and was originally written 2000 years ago!

WOW - check this out! Pranav is teaching us the difference between Western music notes and Indian music notes - thank you Pranav, this is just wonderful!

Thank you to Aadarsh, who sent us this lullaby in Tamil, which his mom used to sing to help his sister to fall asleep. We love it, Aadarsh, thank you!

Bhavesh sent us another lovely lullaby in Tamil - it is just lovely! Thank you, Bhavesh!

Check out Fiachra, one of our super Junior Infant pupils, singing Frère Jacques - a nursery rhyme in French! You might know it and be able to join in!

Anuvarsha is one of our Senior Infant pupils and she sent us this wonderful tongue twister in Tamil. Thank you, Anuvarsha, super job!

Shiv, who is in Stephanie's 5th class, is learning Sanskrit at home and sent us this video to listen to the language. Thanks, Shiv!

Bhavya sent us this tongue twister to try in Tamil - give it a go! Thanks, Bhavya!

Bhavesh also sent us a tongue twister in Tamil - thank you, Bhavesh!

David sent us this lovely video, where he recites a poem for us in Polish. Excellent job, David and thank you for sharing this with us!

Sophia decided to read a story in Portuguese for us today! It is from a popular children's magazine in Brazil. Well done, Sophia!

Well done to Richard, who is teaching us how to count to 10 in Portuguese! Thank you, Richard, you did a super job!

Check out this beautiful poem in Bengali! Vihaan, one of our 1st class pupils, took the time to recite it for us! Thank you, Vihaan, it is super! He also sent us a message to explain:
Hi All,
My mother tongue is Bengali and I have been learning the same from my mommy.
I am trying to speak to her in Bengali, the video I uploaded is a small poem for kids which talk about the moon shining flowers blooming, elephants and horses dancing for the wedding of their princess.
Hope you all will like it.
Vihaan

Oh my goodness, this is wonderful! Daniel, who is in 1st class, sent us this brilliant video to teach us some Russian! Thank you so much, Daniel!

Héctor, one of our 6th class pupils, has created this video to teach us some Spanish! Gracias, Héctor, we love it!

David, one of our 3rd class pupils decided to teach us some Polish! Dziękuję, David - this is really helpful!

Thank you to one of our 6th class pupils for sending us this short story to listen to, in Chinese! In the video, you can also see the story written out. Thank you for sharing this with us!

Bhavya and Bhavesh both speak Tamil at home and decided to teach us some words and phrases! Click here to listen to Bhavya and click here to listen to Bhavesh! Thank you both so much!

Rachel sent us this phrase to learn in Yoruba! Thanks, Rachel!

Thanks to Fiachra and his family for sending us some French words and phrases to learn!

A big thank-you to Eesha in 3rd class for sending us this poster, all about the Hindi language. She included some information too:
Hindi is the National and preferred official language of India. Hindi is spoken as a 1st language by approx 425 million people and as a 2nd language by approx. 120 million people.

Thanks to Natalia, in Amy's 2nd class, who sent us this wonderful picture of Poland, complete with the colours of the flag. Well done, Natalia!

Ana-Julia, one of our 5th Class pupils sent us this picture, with the beautiful message in Portuguese "Together we are stronger". Thank you for sharing, Ana-Julia!

David also sent us this poster, teaching us how to say "Good morning" in Polish, with the Polish colours in the background - thanks, David!

Ben and his family speak Spanish - the language spoken in lots of country, including Argentina. The picture reads "With enthusiam everything is possible". Thank you, Ben, how lovely!

Bhayva and Bhavesh speak Tamil at home; a language which is spoken in India. They have done some writing in their native language and we are very impressed!

Rachel sent us a message to tell us a little bit about Yoruba - the language she speaks at home. She tells us that Yoruba is one of many languages spoken in Nigeria. It is mainly spoken in the South West of the country.
She says that Yoruba is quite difficult to grasp but when telling jokes they are really funny in Yoruba! Rachel and her family all speak Yoruba fluently - thanks for sharing, Rachel!

Thanks to Noah for sending us this picture of the USA and Irish flags, with a lovely message wishing us a great week. Thanks, Noah!

Send us one of your language activities!
This form will be for you to submit anything you would like to share with us during this fortnight. We would really love to celebrate the many languages which our families and students speak.

* Indicates required field

Child's name *

First

Last

Child's class *

Here you can upload a video of you speaking in any language, send us an activity you are doing, a song in a language you know... or whatever you like! *

Max file size: 20MB

This activity is based on *

A language I speak at home. A language I am learning.

What language are you using in this activity? *

Tell us a little more about your language activity, if you wish! *

This activity can be shared on the school website: *

Yes No

If sharing, please *

Include the child's name. Don't include the child's name.

Submit

Citywest ETNS Flag Collage

We would love to celebrate all of the nationalities, which together, form our wonderful school community.
Please use the form below to let us know what your mother language is, where you speak that language and the flag of that country. We will put all of the flags together, to represent the various nationalities and languages of our families. Can you see if your flag is there already?

Watch this space for more flags!