Welcome to The Language Unit...

In March we celebrated Seachtaine na Gaeilge and to promote our teanga the language of the month board was dedicated to Irish. Second Class did a wonderful display based on an t-Earrach (Spring) and the Legend of the Children of Lír- Check out their display. We had great fun that week with kind visitors from the Aran Islands, Irish dancers, Trath na gCeist, cluiche and our very own Céilí, not to mention Lá Fheile Padraig(St. Patricks day) in the middle.

This month, first class will be learning about a very exciting language. Keep an eye on this space,

Slán go foill,

Aoife & Jacqlyn.

Many thanks to the Chinese Embassy who kindly sent down lots of exciting resources for the school to use.

This month (February 2010) Sixth Class will be embarking on an enormous investigation into the Chinese Language.

Mandarin is spoken by more people than any other language: over 1 billion. It is the main language of government, the media and education in China and Taiwan, and one of the four official languages in Singapore.

Mandarin: Nín h¨ao

Now you can say hello to over 1 billion people!

We need as many volunteers to come in and speak about any experiences they may have had with this language. Keep an eye out for the board.

Feliz Anos Nuevos - Happy New Year Everybody (2010)

The Language unit got off to a flying start with Third Class taking charge of the Language of the Month Board. January's language of the month was Spanish and Third Class made a fabulous Flamenco dancer and a ferocious Toro (bull). Mercedes, a parent from Junior Infants, gave third class a masterclass in Spanish. Here are some useful phrases to test out on our multilingual class.

Hola - Hello

Adios - Bye

Como estas? - How are you?

Por Favour - Please

De nada - Your welcome

Me llamo - My name is

Gracias - Thank you

Happy December everyone
or
Nollaig Shona duit or Happy Hanukah!
We have had a very busy November!

Firstly, the language of the month in the school for November was French.
We learnt lots of new phrases and even had a native French visitor in to talk about the French language in every class.
Here is a French Display which Senior Infants created:

For the month of December the language of the month is Portuguese. Here are some phrases to get you started:

English	Portuguese
Welcome	Bem-vindo
Hello	Olá
Goodbye	Chau
Good morning	Bom dia
Good afternoon	Boa tarde
Thank you	Obrigado (by a male) Obrigada (by a female)
Sorry	Desculpa
Please	Por favor
Yes	Sim
No	Não
Come here	Vem cá
Well done	Muito bem

If you speak Portuguese or have any interest in coming into a class to share some past experience related to the language please contact Aoife or Anita in the Language Unit

European Day of Langauges update….

Many children in the school entered the European Day of Languages Poster & Slogan competition. All entries were highly creative and all those that entered received a special certificate from Léargas for their hard work and achievements.
These certificates were presented to the children at a recent school assembly. Check out all our budding artists below!

Congratulations to this 2nd class pupil whose entry received a special mention from the Léargas jury and is now displayed on their website. Go to www.leargas.ie to check out her lovely work :)

We've had a great start to the new school year here at The Language Unit. Many thanks to those parents who attended the coffee morning. This was a great opportunity for parents to get to know one another. If anyone would like to organise another coffee morning please let us know and we can book the parents' room for you.

European Day of Languages took place on the 26th September. We marked this occassion by celebrating the many languages we speak here in our school. Some of the activities that took place to celebrate European Day of Languages included:

Whole School Assembly which included a demonstration of Brazialian Capoeira and Samba.
Poster and video clip competition promoting the importance of language learning - organised by Léargas to celebrate European Day of Languages.
Many of us learned songs and phrases in different languages.
Here's how to say "Hello" in some languages...

Dia duit! (Irish)

Guten Tag! (German)

Jambo! (Swahili)

Bonjour! (French)

Czesc! (Polish)

Hola! (Spainish)

Pree-vyet! (Russian)

Look out for our new project in school....Language of the Month. More details coming soon.

Tóg go bog é!

Anita & Aoife

The Language Unit :)