Popular study platform Quizlet has announced that it is to offer dialect lessons for university students moving to new cities.
The learning platform aims to help bridge the gap between university students and their new hometowns by helping students learn about regional slang and dialects.
11% of students hadn’t visited the town or city that they were due to study in
The move comes after a study was conducted on perceptions towards university towns. It revealed that 11% of students hadn’t visited the town or city that they were due to study in.
In the same study, of 1,030 students aged 17-24, 23% admitted that they had visited just once, and 44% said that they’d visited “once or twice”.
Quizlet have enlisted the help of various local councils, writers, poets and bodies, including the University of Bristol and Liverpool City Council, to help with these “dialect” lessons.
The aforementioned research found that, when students were asked if they used any regional terminology or slang, there was a 50-50 split between those who did and didn’t.
Newcastle has enlisted the help of North-East poet and writer Lisa Matthews, to develop a list of Geordie words and phrases that may to be unfamiliar to those who aren't originally from Newcastle.
A series of flashcards on the Quizlet website includes, “The Toon”, “Aalreet”, “Gadgie” and the famous, “Howay”
A series of flashcards on the Quizlet website includes, “The Toon”, “Aalreet”, “Gadgie” and the famous, “Howay”, all listed for students to brush up on their regional slang.
The Vice President of International at Quizlet hopes that the regional slang flashcards will help improve relations between students and locals in big university cities.
“We created this resource to try and mitigate those university jitters: teaching students about their new surroundings through the important pillars of language and culture. The relationship between students and the local population can sometimes be a challenge, and that’s why all these language experts wanted to get on board to help us bridge linguistic divides.”
The lack of interaction between students and locals was also emphasized in the study. 28% of participants said that they ‘rarely’ had interactions with people outside of university, and 16% said that they ‘never’ socialised with locals. 34% said that they ‘sometimes’ spoke with locals and made friendships, and just 22% said that they ‘often’ socialised with locals.
Quizlet are hopeful that the dialect flashcards will be a success, so that Newcastle students can 'gan yem' with a few more slang words up their sleeves.