North West

Our Language Enrichment Events will be interactive, exciting events that will encourage school children to continue with their language studies at school and to think about the advantages of learning a new language or gaining a qualification in a language they may speak at home.

Events will be held at all five partner institutions and will include a talk entitled "Why Study Languages," two taster sessions in a new language (in Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Urdu or Italian) and a multi-cultural market where pupils will be able to learn more about different cultures. Student ambassadors from our partner institutions will talk to pupils about life at university and the advantages of studying a foreign language.

Enquiries: 0161-247-6290

Registration: This event is now fully booked.

Our Language Enrichment Events will be interactive, exciting events that will encourage school children to continue with their language studies at school and to think about the advantages of learning a new language or gaining a qualification in a language they may speak at home.

Events will be held at all five partner institutions and will include a talk entitled "Why Study Languages," two taster sessions in a new language (in Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Urdu or Italian) and a multi-cultural market where pupils will be able to learn more about different cultures. Student ambassadors from our partner institutions will talk to pupils about life at university and the advantages of studying a foreign language.

Enquiries: 0161-247-6290

Registration: This event is now fully booked.

Our Language Enrichment Events will be interactive, exciting events that will encourage school children to continue with their language studies at school and to think about the advantages of learning a new language or gaining a qualification in a language they may speak at home.

Events will be held at all five partner institutions and will include a talk entitled "Why Study Languages," two taster sessions in a new language (in Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Urdu or Italian) and a multi-cultural market where pupils will be able to learn more about different cultures. Student ambassadors from our partner institutions will talk to pupils about life at university and the advantages of studying a foreign language.

Enquiries: 0161-247-6290

Registration: This event is now fully booked.

Our Language Enrichment Events will be interactive, exciting events that will encourage school children to continue with their language studies at school and to think about the advantages of learning a new language or gaining a qualification in a language they may speak at home.

Events will be held at all five partner institutions and will include a talk entitled "Why Study Languages," two taster sessions in a new language (in Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Urdu or Italian) and a multi-cultural market where pupils will be able to learn more about different cultures. Student ambassadors from our partner institutions will talk to pupils about life at university and the advantages of studying a foreign language.

Enquiries: 0161-247-6290

Registration: This event is now fully booked.

Our Language Enrichment Events will be interactive, exciting events that will encourage school children to continue with their language studies at school and to think about the advantages of learning a new language or gaining a qualification in a language they may speak at home.

Events will be held at all five partner institutions and will include a talk entitled "Why Study Languages," two taster sessions in a new language (in Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Urdu or Italian) and a multi-cultural market where pupils will be able to learn more about different cultures. Student ambassadors from our partner institutions will talk to pupils about life at university and the advantages of studying a foreign language.

Enquiries: 0161-247-6290

Registration: This event is now fully booked.

Mother Tongue Other Tongue is a multi-lingual poetry project intended to celebrate cultural diversity and the many languages currently spoken by young people across the United Kingdom.  Initially run as a regional pilot by Manchester Metropolitan University and Routes into Languages North West, the project has been adopted as a Laureate Education Project by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, and will be rolled out across England, Wales, Scotland and possibly Northern Ireland as Mother Tongue / Other Tongue UK in 2013. The North West project was officially launched by Carol Ann Duffy on 30th January and is open to young people ages 8 to 18. Other regional projects will be launched throughout the year.

Using the Laureate links into national poetry organisations, the project will hopefully have support from a range of well-known poets. We have already secured support from Carol Ann Duffy in England and Gillian Clarke in Wales. Working with Manchester Mela we have identified a number of South Asian poets who we hope to work with as well.

There are two categories to the competition: Mother Tongue and Other Tongue.

Mother Tongue invites pupils to write a ‘remembered’ or ‘original’ poem or song in their first language (any language at all, or in a mix of languages).  They will also be asked to write, in English, a brief account of their inspiration for submitting the piece. This category is judged on the commentary. Collaborative entries are encouraged.

Other Tongue invites pupils studying a language in school to write an original poem in that language. Entries must be from non-native speakers of the language.

You can find out more about the project at www.mtot.org.uk

Mother Tongue Other Tongue is a multilingual poetry competition that celebrates cultural diversity and the many languages currently spoken in secondary schools across the north west of England.

Mother Tongue / Other Tongue is open to all mainstream and supplementary secondary schools in the North West and pupils can enter as individuals or groups of any size.  It is, in effect, two separate competitions.

Mother Tongue

Entries for this category will be in two parts:

The first part is the poem, song or lullaby.  This can be an original, creative piece, written in any language at all (except English).

It can also be a poem or song that is ‘remembered’ – i.e. something in your Mother Tongue that you recall, or that has been told to you by a relative.

The second part of the entry will be a short written explanation of the first part.  This will be either a translation, or an account of why the entrant has chosen to share this piece i.e. why it is important to them or the person who told it to them.

This part of the entry must be written in English but pupils can be helped to scribe or edit this by teachers, parents, carers or by friends.  We welcome jointly-written entries.

Other Tongue

Entries for this category will be a single, original poem, written in a language that is being studied in school and is not the first language spoken by the entrant.

This must be an original piece of work, giving pupils the opportunity to be creative with their Other Tongue.

Allowed languages in this category are: Spanish, French, German, Italian, Urdu, Mandarin or Arabic.

The deadline for entries is Monday 28th May 2012, 5pm.

Please see below to download an entry form.

Workshops

A number of free workshops to help participating schools to explore language and poetry are also available. The workshop themes are below:

Finding your Voice

The 2012 Olympics

Past, Present and Future

Memories

Playing with Spanish

Translating Poetry

Mixing Tongues

Full details are available on the MTOT website: www.mtot.org.uk

Please note: These workshops are now fully booked.

Prize Giving Ceremony

The best entries will be illustrated and published. Posters of the winning pieces will be displayed at the Manchester Children’s Book Festival Family Fun Day on June 30th, 2012.

There will also be a prize-giving ceremony with Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, in the Capitol Theatre between 3 and 4pm with a special performance by the Huaxia Chinese School.

This will form part of a wider celebration of other languages and cultures. All are welcome.

For further information please go to www.mtot.org.uk or email mtot@mmu.ac.uk