Taylor’s Centre for Languages hosts annual Language Day event

The 2021 instalment of Taylor’s Centre for Languages’ International Language Day came to an end after an eventful slew of online workshops on 4 September.

The workshops were conducted by various academic staff from the Faculty of Social Sciences & Leisure Management and attracted around 200 participants in total, a much higher number than last year’s 120.

Official event poster (Source: Taylor’s Centre for Languages)

According to event organizer Norshahila Binti Mohamad Razak, this year’s event aimed to teach participants the correct use of language in their writing and daily conversation.

Norshahila said, “We had brainstorming sessions with lecturers to look into general issues students and lecturers face.”

For the English workshop for example, we could see how students struggled to send an e-mail in the right manner to lecturers, administration and external parties.”

The event started off with a workshop on e-mail writing ethics. Participants were guided on writing effective e-mails and obtained tips on avoiding their e-mails from being misinterpreted by their recipients.

This was followed by a workshop about French internship opportunities, in which Culinary Institute alumni shared their experiences working and living abroad in France.

In the Malay Language workshop, participants were introduced to the proper usage of Malay prepositions. Common mistakes made using these prepositions were also highlighted to participants.

As for the Korean workshop, participants learnt the basic grammatical structure and pronunciation of common phrases used by tourists in Korea. Additionally, unique Korean tourist spots were recommended to participants.

Lastly, the Mandarin workshop educated participants on the verbal differences between Chinese dialects and standard Mandarin.

Psychology student Eunice Chong Yi Xuan, who attended the e-mail writing ethics workshop, said that she learnt some practical skills and details about composing an email which she believes would be able to benefit her professional communication in her career.

Korean Workshop participant Lo Meng Sum also said that she found the workshop useful.

“Although we only learn some basics, those basics at least can actually help people who are planning to travel to Korea some day and also let us know more about Korean culture too,” said Meng Sum.

This is the second time International Language Day has been held virtually since its inception in 2014.