It is currently the best of times and the busiest of times (with apologies to Dickens), we're gearing up for our Diwali - Festival of Light Celebration next Friday between 3-7 pm in the Global Languages & Cultures Room, we're in the midst of mid-term assessments for students and we're frantically writing papers and applications for conferences and publications way off in some distant future.
Our Modern Languages Resource Centre (MLRC) is showing a series of films recommended by each language group. The first film will be “Crazy Rich Asians” as recommended by the Chinese language group showing in the MLRC on October 24th.
Last week we received a visit from Dr. Sam Nolan from the University of Durham who wanted to know what we've been up to in the Global Languages & Cultures Room and get to know some of the other innovative projects around the University. It was great spending time with Sam as he talked about the new Centre for Academic Development that was recently opened and how they're exploring new technologies, including VR and AR. Sam wrote a short blog post about his visit to CMU.
Thank you for reading, we really appreciate your support and would love to hear more about what you like and what you've seen that might be useful to share. If you have anything you'd like to include in future issues, let us know.
People, Places, and Things
Read a fascinating article about a group of student translators, making Wikipedia pages, academic articles, and seminal works covering science, literature, and philosophy available to Arabic speakers.
Listened to Episode 1 of a new podcast called "Edtech will not save you" - Dave Cormier and Lawrie Philips talk through some of the key technologies that have declared themselves as saviors, but often fall short.
This week's second podcast recommendation is an episode from "We Teach Languages" exploring the Language Center’s Role on Campus and in the Community. Presenter Melanie Forehand interviews Angelika Kraemer about university language centers. They discuss how the old-style language labs have morphed into more modern, social spaces called language centers, and how those centers help to support language teaching and learning on campuses and in communities.
We're pleased to invite you to celebrate Diwali - Festival of Light in the Askwith Kenner Global Languages & Cultures Room on 25 October between 3-7 pm. Click the image above for more details.
On Screen
On the outskirts of Mexico City, over 50 years ago, a family began making and selling piñatas to the local community. Nowadays, the whole town is involved. The Piñata King takes a look inside the life of this town, and the head of the family who started it all.
This frenetic and fun short film takes you on a journey through Andalucía, let the passion of flamenco carry you along.
It's not too late!
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