Maiduguri Linguistic Centre

The English language was initiated from a small cluster of islands off the coast of Western Europe and slowly developed and got spread through a few permutations. Over time, with an explosion of colonialism, this language suddenly spread across the world like wildfire. And now, it has become the most widely spoken language in the world.

Every child matters, give them equal opportunities.

GPON's visit at MLC in line with the ongoing localization training that aims at grooming and equipping National NGOs with the required skills for better operations.

We are excited to launch the MLC Translation Program in early 2023! Supporting MLC Translation Team and the partners to grow in the humanitarian work is paramount.

Maiduguri Linguistic Centre (MLC) has been granted free access to the Phrase Academic Edition, an academic program designed for universities with translation courses.

We are using Phrase in our translation courses free of charge. Phrase is a complete translation platform that includes translation memory, integrated machine and human translation, terminology management, and both online and desktop CAT tools. Phrase supports an incredible range of organizations and companies to accelerate localization and their global growth. These include Translators Without Borders (TWB), TransPerfect, LionBridge, Uber, Zendesk, Shopify, Personio, TravelPerk, OVH, Supercell, Huawei, Vistaprint, Škoda, Bosch, Fujifilm, Volkswagen, Porsche, XING and thousands other customers worldwide.

We would like to sincerely thank Phrase for granting us free access to their platform through the Phrase Academic Edition.
https://phrase.com/roles/academia/

We are excited to launch the MLC Translation Program in early 2023! Supporting MLC Translation Team and the partners to grow in the humanitarian work is paramount.

Maiduguri Linguistic Centre (MLC) has been granted free access to the Phrase Academic Edition, an academic program designed for universities with translation courses.

We are using Phrase in our translation courses free of charge. Memsource Cloud is a complete translation platform that includes translation memory, integrated machine and human translation, terminology management, and both online and desktop CAT tools. Memsource supports an incredible range of organizations and companies to accelerate their global growth. These include Translators Without Borders (TWB), TransPerfect, LionBridge, Uber, Zendesk, Shopify, Personio, TravelPerk, OVH, Supercell, Huawei, Vistaprint, Škoda, Bosch, Fujifilm, Volkswagen, Porsche, XING and thousands of other Memsource customers worldwide.

We would like to sincerely thank Phrase for granting us free access to their platform through the Phrase Academic Edition.
https://phrase.com/roles/academia/

INTERNATIONAL DAY OF EDUCATION.

Education is a human right, a public good and a public responsibility.

The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 24 January as International Day of Education, in celebration of the role of education for peace and development.
This year's commemoration theme is: "to invest in people, prioritize education".

Without inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong opportunities for all, countries will not succeed in achieving gender equality and breaking the cycle of poverty that is leaving millions of children, youth and adults behind.

Today, 244 million children and youth are out of school, and 771 million adults are illiterate. Their right to education is being violated and it is unacceptable. It's time to transform education.
In relation to this, today MLC staff paid a sensitization visit to Yerwa Practicing School in Maiduguri. Below are the pictures highlighting the event.

20 Reasons To Learn A Language In 2023

1. With apps, podcasts, games and more, language learning has never been this fun or accessible. Maybe you never cracked open your old French textbooks because you didn’t resonate with that style of learning. Good news: there are more ways to learn than ever, and you’ll benefit most from a well-rounded approach that keeps you engaged and motivated, anyway. You can immerse yourself with movies, books, and podcasts in your target language.

2. More and more people are feeling ready to travel. People are feeling more optimistic and confident about traveling in 2023 than they did in 2022, according to research from Booking.com. If you’re in the cohort of people who are looking forward to taking all the trips you put off in 2020, 2021 or 2022, there’s no time like the New Year to start perfecting your latte order in another language.

3. Digital nomad visas are rapidly becoming a thing. In 2023, people are increasingly mixing business with pleasure as remote work opens new possibilities to them. In response, more and more countries are offering digital nomad visas that allow visitors to gain temporary residency while they’re working remotely for a non-local employer. Forget study abroad — this could be your year of work abroad.

4. We’re overdue for family reunions. Reconnecting with your heritage is one way to get the ball rolling. With many people now potentially years behind on getting together with loved ones, multi-generational family reunion trips are one of the top travel trends expected by Booking.com this year. If you’ve ever wanted to learn an ancestral tongue to connect more with your heritage, imagine being able to greet your grandmother in her native language at this year’s reunion.

5. We’re eager to step out of our comfort zones, and a new language will surely challenge yours. Blame the cabin fever maybe, but half of world travelers want to experience complete culture shock in 2023, and even more — 73 percent — are looking to push themselves beyond their comfort zones. Whether you book a flight to do this or find a way to do it from your couch, why not join the tide and step out of yours?

6. You’re probably ready to turn the subtitles off when you watch your favorite foreign-language shows. Increasingly, streaming services like Netflix and Hulu are branching out into non-English media. There’s never been a better time to learn a language from your TV, and the added challenge of watching with the subtitles off might give you a big motivation boost that you won’t get from finishing your stack of flashcards.

7. Your brain will thank you for it. Language learning: it’s good for your brain! Language learning has been shown to help you build more gray matter in your brain, which helps delay the onset of dementia and also boost your ability to multitask, focus and solve problems.

8. Language learning can literally make you happier. It’ll help you build self-esteem and confidence, and you’ll get joy out of all the added social connection made possible to you. Also, learning new vocab activates the reward center of your brain. Get those dopamine hits where you can, folks!

9. It can make you a better person too. Learning a new language can actually make you more empathetic. Numerous studies going back to the 1970s have shown that speaking another language makes it easier for you to see things from another person’s perspective. It can also help dissolve prejudices and boost your cultural competence. Working on a language is working on yourself.

10. Language learning will aid you in your own self-discovery. A lot of people who study other languages say they can tap into entirely new dimensions of their personality in another language. Part of this is due to the fact that certain languages are better at expressing certain types of emotions than others — whether through intonation or through words that don’t exist in your native language. Also, saying things in a second language can feel less “charged” than saying it in your mother tongue. It’s part of the reason why cursing in another language just doesn’t hit the same.

11. Embracing mistakes is good for you. Language learning helps you do that. Believe it or not, language learning isn’t (or shouldn’t be, at least) about attaining perfect fluency. It’s about creating more possibilities for communication and pushing through your initial mistakes. And when you overcome your fear of making mistakes, you overcome your fear of trying all sorts of new things.

12. A new language might just be your ticket to that career change you’ve been contemplating. Knowing another language can give your resume (and salary) a much-needed boost, especially if you’re looking for work in a field that values foreign language skills. Here are just a few careers that you can consider as a multilingual candidate.

13. A new language can open doors you didn’t even know were there. The professional benefits are already substantial. But you won’t know what else a new language will make possible for you until you try it. Speaking another language opens you up to more connection with the world. Don’t be surprised if new pathways are revealed in the process.

14. You’ll have more books to read. And movies, and podcasts, and more. Yes, TV shows are where it’s at. But think of all the other media you can put on your list. Only 3 percent of books published in the United States are translations of books in other languages. If you want to read other-language literature, the best way is to learn to read the other language.

15. …and ask a local for their restaurant recommendations. The only thing better than hitting it off with your waiter is hitting it off with a waiter who doesn’t usually talk to a lot of tourists. Learning the local language is a great way to avoid tourist traps and find out where the locals love to eat — not to mention befriend a few of them, too.

16. Google Translate isn’t good enough to replace language learning (yet). Technology is amazing. It grows more amazing by the year. But for now and for the time being, translation apps still have a lot of catching up to do. While auto-translation devices might come in handy from time to time, actually knowing the language is still the best way to communicate with others.

17. You’ll understand more about the human experience. If you’re American or British, becoming bilingual might make you different than a lot of your peers. But actually, it’ll make you more like the majority of people in the world. It’s more common to be multilingual than monolingual, which means multilingualism is kind of the default human condition.

18. Committed? Language learning can be a good bonding activity. If you’re dating someone who shares your interest in other languages, studying together — or being each other’s accountability buddies — is a good way to spend time together and keep each other motivated. Or maybe you’re with someone who doesn’t speak your language very well, or their parents don’t speak English. Learning their language is a gesture of love, and one that will bring you even closer.

19. You can use it to replace your more destructive procrastination habits. You can probably open up your phone right now and get hard data on how much time you waste mindlessly scrolling through social media. Why not commit a portion of your time-wasting budget in 2023 to language learning? The best part: it’ll stimulate the same physical reflexes that make you want to reach for your phone whenever you’re bored. By diverting that impulse into “opening up a language lesson,” you’ll build more productive habits and decondition yourself from more addictive scrolling tendencies.

20. It’ll help you build the resiliency and confidence to take on even bigger things in 2024. Remember what we said about how making mistakes is good for you? If you can overcome your fear of saying something imperfectly in 2023, it’ll set you up to overcome even scarier feats in 2024.

Day 2 of MLC & NRM staff training on the Community Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM).
Thank you for the facilitation.

An interactive session of MLC and NRM staff undergoing a training on the Community-Based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) as preparatory activity for the Nutrition Project at Lassa, Askira/Uba.
Thank you for the facilitation.

If we want to unleash all the potentials of our continent, we must first rely on ourselves, be more united and believe more in our own capacities to build the Africa of tomorrow.