On Wednesday 26 June 2024, Calday Grange Grammar School and St John Plessington Catholic College, both participants in the Mandarin Excellence Programme, brought a total of 25 Year 10 students to visit Lancaster University. The group was led by Dr Wei Gan and Dr Lili Yang, and overseen by Michelle Tate, teacher training coordinator at the Centre for Chinese Language Education at the Institute of Education, University College London (UCL IOE).

The students began their day with a campus tour, including a visit to Lancaster University Confucius Institute (LUCI), which gave them a glimpse of the University and its facilities.

They were then given a lecture on ‘AI Translation and Language Learning’ by Dr Yun-Chung Li, Associate Lecturer from the Department of Languages and Cultures (DeLC), touching on harnessing AI for the benefit of foreign language learning and intercultural communication and how learning Chinese can expand horizons.

Following this informative talk, Ying Li, LUCI teacher, gave the students an interactive Chinese language session full of fun and games.

Cyrille Rollet, Senior Teaching Associate in French, DeLC, together with DeLC students Jack Shiers, Femi Akintemi, Harvey Hulse and Filippa King, shared their experiences and insights on learning foreign languages at university and how language learning empowers them in their academic life and widens their career path.

The day concluded with a competition of the videos created by students from the two schools, introducing their hometown and school life using Mandarin Chinese. They showcased their proficiency in Mandarin Chinese and perseverance they have demonstrated through their learning journey.

We are very pleased to welcome the group to Lancaster University and see these enthusiastic students making such great progress in language learning. We encourage the students to continue striving forward in their language learning to embrace the opportunities that learning a foreign language can bring. We look forward to more schools and students joining us to learn languages and broaden their global perspectives with us.