’Looking for Languages’ at Manchester Museum

A language-themed trail around Manchester Museum took place on 12 April and saw over 340 people take part.

Families were invited to collect their ’Looking for Languages’ trail sheets from members of the Linguistic Diversity Collective , find the language-related items and take part in associated activities - including writing your name in hieroglyphs, learning about palindromes and roaring like a dinosaur. Children received a ’language detective’ badge after completing the trail.

The Linguistic Diversity Collective designed the trail, in partnership with Research Platform Creative Manchester and Manchester Museum, to encourage children to think about their own language and explore areas of linguistics in a fun and engaging way.

"We loved hunting the artifacts, thank you," wrote Noah, who followed the trail with his brother Elias.

Parents who visited commented, "It’s guided very well, kids were engaged," and "My 6-year-old daughter learnt a lot through the activity sheet and was interested in how to say a word in different languages."

To keep up to date with activities run by the Linguistic Diversity Collective, which is part of the Department of Linguistics and English Language, you can sign up to their mailing list.