#ThinkLanguages 2025

#ThinkLanguages Week

#ThinkLanguages Week

Over 21,000 students across 240 schools celebrated the eighth year of #ThinkLanguages last week, hosting their very own festival of languages and cultures.

Taking place across the week of 17 – 21 November, #ThinkLanguages Week 2025 had the largest amount of participants since its inception in 2018 and was a huge success for all who took part.  Students, teachers, parents and friends all got involved in bringing languages and cultures to life in all parts of their schools with inspirational talks, multilingual quizzes, cultural fashion shows and much more!

A highlight for many this year was with an action packed online opening ceremony, which kickstarted events. In it, speakers including founder of Grá chocolates Gráinne Mullins, Portuguese speaker and athlete Coach Ozzy, Euronews journalist Méabh McMahon and social media influencer, polyglot Yuji Beleza, provided an insight into their experience with language learning and where it has taken them

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The students’ enthusiasm was evident throughout the week with schools posting lots of updates and capturing their day on social media using #ThinkLanguages. The national ‘language inspired’ quiz, which took place twice a day each day of the week, was once again a big hit this year with over 1,400 teams from schools across the country vying for first place.

The #ThinkLanguages Champion Team Competition preparation was also in full swing, with participants asked to vlog their #ThinkLanguages Week activities to be in with a chance to win a trip to Brussels, the languages capital of Europe! The prize is kindly funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs for a third year, as part of the A Career for EU Strategy.  Finalists for this year’s competition will be announced before Christmas, in advance of partaking in the National Final in January. To find out more about the Champion Team Competition, click here. 

Universities

 #ThinkLanguages Week partners were also a hive of activity as students engaged in a range of activities, including in universities across the country. TY students took part in on-campus workshops and activities, getting an insight into what life is like to study languages at third level. Student language ambassadors also were out on the road, visiting individual schools and providing talks

The Irish Film Institute

Another highlight for many proved to be The Irish Film Institute with cinemas nationwide showing foreign language films during #ThinkLanguages week, offering students the opportunity to see some of the best movies in the language they are learning. Films were also available to stream directly into classrooms for any schools who were unable to make to the cinema. Over 600 students took part in screenings in the IFI venue in Dublin alone during #ThinkLanguages Week. 

Movies that were streamed on #ThinkLanguages week included:

  • The Marching Band / En Fanfare – Senior French
  • Two to One / Zwei zu eins – Senior German
  • Germany/ Alemania -Senior Spanish
  • Gagarine – Junior French
  • Winners / Sieger Sein -Junior German
  • La Suprema – Junior Spanish
 

Cultural Institutes 

This year saw the addition of new partners; cultural institutes who hosted onsite events with workshops, guest speakers games, online resources and more. Students visited the Goethe Institut, Alliance Francaise, Cervantes and Istituto Italiano and experienced the excitement that each language had to offer!

Students also reached out to their school and local community to help shine a light on the many cultural personal and social benefits of foreign language learning, using this year’s #ThinkLanguages themes of “Think Global, Act Local” to be inspired by the many languages and cultures that surround them daily. Dates for #ThinkLanguages 2025 will be announced in the New Year so keep an eye on Languages Connect social channels.

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