Teaser 1

It's a beautiful sunny day, perfect for studying. You sit down at your desk, open your notes and start reviewing the last session when a ding breaks your focus. Followed by 20 more. @Language Jam

Slightly annoyed, you take a look at your notifications. Tamara and Jay, two of the friends you made at LCU, are blowing up your phone.

Tamara: I need your help. And don't tell anyone. Call me asap.

Jay: yo i think messed up real bad can i count on you to help me fix this?✌️

What is going on? Find out in our next Language Jam where your participation and voting will directly influence the results of the storyline! February 8 - 14

Teaser 2

After meeting Tamara and Jay separately, you realise the situation is not so complicated. They had their first big fight right before their anniversary, but they don't know how to make up.

A few days after you met them, your phone blows up again. This time it's mostly because of Jay. They both have an idea of how to fix this...

What is going on? Find out in our next Language Jam where your participation and voting will directly influence the results of the storyline! February 8 - 14

Day 0 - Choose Your Language

Welcome to the 13th Language Jam! This LJ will use the same characters and setting as LJ11 if you want to briefly look back on it, but it's not necessary. ⁠

Picking Your Language

We highly encourage you to pick a new language since the event is only a week long, so there's lower commitment necessary! However, if you want to pick a language that you have already been working on, that is fine too

• Our “What Language Should I Actually Learn?” language quiz has been updated for a total of 134 languages, so you'll be sure to find new languages to fall in love with: https://www.languagecafe.world/quiz

• Resources for all languages included in our quiz: https://www.languagecafe.world/languages

Or, pick from a list or randomizer

• Top 100 languages: http://www2.harpercollege.edu/mhealy/g101ilec/intro/clt/cltclt/top100.html

• All languages: https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages

• Randomizer: https://zhuzilu.github.io/language-randomizer/

Day 1 - First there was football… 📖

🔶 Beginner: Find up to 5 words in your target language related to food or sports.

🔶 Intermediate: Write 1 to 3 sentences about a dish you like to eat or the last food you ate.

🔶 Advanced: If someone hosted a surprise party for you, how would you want it to be? Or What would be the perfect gift for you?

Story

It’s exam season at your university, so you’re stuck in the library for most of your day. A couple of weeks ago, you found a cozy corner on the ground floor that you claimed as your “study nook”. The table is big enough for all your books and notes, all while getting a nice view of the university’s courtyard through the large window in front of it.

Once in a while you take a break and observe what’s going on outside. Today, you see Tamara passing by, suddenly stopping, then abruptly turning around and leaning in to look at you through the window. She waves excitedly and signals something you don’t understand.

You go back to your book, but you barely turn the page before you feel a hand on your shoulder.

“Hey, you! Think you can spare a couple of minutes?” Tamara gently asks you.

You close your book and nod. Her and Jay had a bad fight a couple of days ago. On top of that, Valentine’s Day and their anniversary are both coming up, so she’d like to host a surprise party as an apology and celebration. “I was thinking about hosting a surprise party in the classroom where we first met. What do you think?”

It does sound like a cute idea. “I’m so glad you think so too!” she exclaims too loudly, earning a few shushes. “Would you help me with it? I know it’s in the middle of exams, but I can’t do too much or Jay will get suspicious.”

Will you help Tamara with the party’s preparations or continue studying?

The winning option was helping Tamara.

Day 2 - ...and then books 📖

🔶 Beginner: Find and share up to 6 words related to your hobbies and/or your likes/dislikes.

🔶 Intermediate: Write 2 sentences about a hobby you enjoy or an interest you have.

🔶 Advanced: How would you convince someone to try your hobby or give an interest of yours a try? Write a few sentences about what you'd tell them!

Story

Tamara’s thankful for your help. She spends the next hour explaining a concept you were struggling with, helping you pass your exam with an average grade.

The next morning, you’re back in the library preparing for another exam. As you’re taking notes on a particularly difficult topic, you feel a harsh tap on your shoulder.

Jay smiles apologetically “Yo what’s up? Have a couple of minutes for a chat?”

They tell you the same situation as Tamara, but in a more convoluted way. Their plan is also a surprise party but catered to Tamara’s interests: books, tea, and her favorite cake: chocolate with salted caramel. The only issue is… you realise they’re both booking the same room.

“I got Alvin to help me with the planning, but he’s… odd. Yeah, let’s put it like that.” They look around in case Alvin’s around before continuing. “Remember the stolen book saga? He’s been keeping to himself and making up wild theories about that. Something about the principal having stolen it. Anyway, I’m not sure I can depend on him fully. Can you help me?”

Will you help Jay with their own party or help Tamara instead?

The winning option was helping Tamara.

Day 3 - An Encounter at the Cafe ☕

🔶 Beginner: Write a list of 5 items either that you want to get for the party or that you’d like to get at the cafe.

🔶 Intermediate: Write about what kinds of snacks and drinks you enjoy. Tell us about them and send a photo if you’d like!

🔶 Advanced: Write a short dialogue: you’re buying lunch at the cafe. You can talk about food you’d like to buy, allergies, food preferences, or even the weather. You can also record this if you’d like.

Story

The next day, while taking a study break, you end up at the campus cafe. As you’re waiting to order, someone gets in line right behind you. “I’m surprised to see you taking a break from exam study; you’ll need all the help you can get,” a familiar voice says. You turn around to see Alvin smirking at you.

You open your mouth to retort, but he puts his hand up before you can say something. “Before you give me any excuses, I have a situation. I’m telling you this because Jay told me that he told you already about the…” He takes a quick glance around the cafe. “...Party.” Dramatic as always.

“Anyway,” he continues, “Jay asked me to help with logistics, so earlier today he wanted me to schedule Room 143 on campus because that’s where they first met blah, blah, whatever. But, when I called in to book it, they said that the room had already been booked for the exact same day and the exact same time as I had requested. Weird, huh?”

When hearing this, your eyes widen and you feel the blood drain from your face. Alvin immediately picks up on it and inquires about the sudden mood change. “Uhh..” you say, “well…”

Will you tell Alvin about the two parties or will you stay silent?

The winning option was telling Alvin.

Day 4 - No longer a surprise

🔶 Beginner: Write the time + 3 time expressions (today, tomorrow, later) in your target language.

🔶 Intermediate: Write 3 sentences describing what the cake would look like that you would order for a party.

🔶 Advanced: Write a paragraph explaining how you would manage two parties happening at the same time.

Story

Tamara’s words “don't tell anyone” echo in your head, but you decide to tell Alvin anyway. If he’s already helping with Jay’s party, then maybe he can give some advice with Tamara’s too.

“Well… actually, I was the one who booked that room.” Alvin shifted and spoke with a bite, “Why? You have nobody, why would you need that room? I mean, for this weekend.” Your eyes widen a bit at the sudden dig. You take a beat. “Unfortunately, Tamara has asked me to assist with planning a party that will be occurring in that room this Saturday at 7pm.”

You could see the gears turning in Alvin’s head as he spoke, “This Saturday… at 7pm?! That’s the same time as Jay’s party!” Alvin’s voice was getting quite loud at this point, so you shush him. “Jeez, yes, her surprise party is at the same time at Jay’s surprise party.” Alvin sheepishly grinned and lowered his voice, “What are you going to do? You are going to tell them, right?” “Alvin, you certainly have a lot of questions today. I’m not sure yet; I’ll figure it out later.” You grab your now-cold coffee from the counter and walk out as Alvin is calling for you to come back.

You check your phone: 3:04pm. Shoot, Tamara asked you to swing by at 3 to help with ordering the cake and decorations.

“Hi! Thank you so much for helping me even though exams are this week.” Tamara says as she opens the door. She closes it behind you and continues, “I was thinking that since this party is for Jay, then we could have the decorations and cake be Jay themed. Sportsballs and stuff. What do you think?”

“Maybe since the party is celebrating Valentine’s Day and your first anniversary you could have the decorations pertain to that. Like put up some pictures of you guys or anything significant to your relationship.” “That’s an excellent idea! A celebration of us.” She clasps her hands together and gives you a big grin.

With that agreed upon, you both quickly start brainstorming ideas for decorations, the cake, and activities for the party. Once you have everything sorted out, you place the order for the cake. “Do you think you could pick it up tomorrow? I’m nervous that with my luck, Jay would see me carrying the cake back here,” Tamara asks you.

Will you pick up the cake yourself or let Tamara do it so you can study?

The winning option was letting Tamara pick up the cake.

Day 5 - Picking up the cake

🔶 Beginner: Write 5 general gift ideas in your target language.

🔶 Intermediate: Write up to 3 sentences describing the best gift you ever got.

🔶 Advanced: What kind of gifts do you like/dislike? Write about it in your target language.

Story

Tamara is anxiously talking on her phone. “Hi, yes, I was just checking in about a cake I ordered yesterday… for Tamara, yes… I was told that it would be available at 5pm today, so I was hoping to swing by and pick it up soon before you guys close.”

With only an hour to pick it up, Tamara hurries to the bakery. She sends you live updates from there. They mixed up the logo of Jay’s favourite team with the rival one instead. As she was gathering her courage to tell the staff, she spotted Jay through the bakery window, so she ran out. Once she gets back to her room, she sends you a photo of the cake.

“This is the worst. I'm about to cry.” She tells you over the phone.

Do you help her fix it at the bakery or buy another one from the supermarket and try to decorate it yourselves?

The winning option was fix it at the bakery.

Day 6 - First there was football… 📖

🔶 Beginner: Write down up to 5 words describing locations (like up, down, to the left, to the right, there, here, etc.) or items you’d find in a classroom.

🔶 Intermediate: Pick an object in your room. Describe where it is located and how it looks like. If you don’t want to use an actual object, you can find a picture as reference instead or make something up.

🔶 Advanced: Write a paragraph describing a place you’ve been in or a place from a picture. You can be as detailed as you’d like in your description.

Story

It’s the day before the surprise parties. With Alvin’s help, you can freely set everything up in the room without the risk of running into Jay. Since you told Alvin about both parties, he invited Jay to watch a football tournament at his place to keep them occupied.

Tamara brings the cake to Room 143 for you to survey the damage. She takes a deep breath as she opens the lid. There indeed, was the rival team’s logo on her cake for Jay. “Don’t worry, we can fix this before tomorrow,” you say as you reach for your phone. You dial the bakery’s number and someone picks up. You explain the situation. The staff apologise profusely and offer to fix it for you.

You decide to rush to the bakery while Tamara gets started on the decorations. There’s not much time if you want to set up everything right. After about an hour you return victoriously with a perfect cake and an extra box of cupcakes on the house.

Your mood shifts when you see Tamara with tears welling up in her eyes. “Vivian just sent me a message. Apparently she heard that Jay’s planning a surprise for someone on Valentine’s Day and it’s not for me.” She sighs deeply before asking you “...do you think there’s someone else?”

Will you tell Tamara that the surprise is for her, or will you keep it a secret and make up an excuse?

The winning option was keeping it a secret.

Day 7 - Party Time

Now that we’ve reached the final day of the story, it’s time to look back on your journey through the Language Jam!

Write a short reflection about your experience participating in Language Jam 13. You can talk about things like:

• What you enjoyed most during the week

• Which day or activity was your favorite

• What new words, topics, or skills you practiced

• Thoughts on the story of Tamara and Jay and the new daily voting style

• What you’d like to do differently or improve for the next Language Jam

• Anything else about the Language Jam

Story

Carefully weighing your words, you make up a white lie to reassure Tamara. “Look, I’m sure Jay feels bad about your fight too, but they wouldn’t go so far as to see someone else.” You pause for a bit to see her reaction. She stopped crying and is looking straight at you. “...Fine, I’ll also let you in on a little secret, Tamara. I met Alvin in the cafeteria a few days ago. He told me that Jay’s helping him prepare for a linguistics Quiz Bowl on that same day.”

Tamara’s face lights up. “Right I remember Alvin mentioning he joined the Quiz Bowl club. That makes more sense.” She gets up, wipes her face, and checks out the cake. “Let’s get back to it.”

It takes you an hour to decorate the room in Jay’s team’s colours: blue and white plates, glasses with tiny lacrosse sticks on them, and even the napkins have lacrosse fields printed on them.

The sweets are safely stored in the break room next door. “You know, it’s odd that there’s another cake box from the same place we got ours in the fridge. I drew a star on ours so we take out the right one.” Tamara tells you as you get ready to leave.

—

You meet Tamara in the same room at 6:45pm the next day. Several of your friends are waiting with party poppers in their hands. She sent Jay a message to meet her in Room 143.

Not even 5 minutes later you hear someone knocking. Tamara rushes to open the door, where behind it, you all see Jay out of breath with a bag of party supplies in their hands.

“SURPRISE!!” You yell as you send the confetti flying.

Jay is overwhelmed by emotion. You see a couple of tears running down their face as Tamara explains the party plan and hugs them. “No way I literally planned a party for you too!” Jay yells out in disbelief. They run into your room, pull a key out of their pocket, unlock the partition between your classroom and the next, and slide it back to unveil a very Tamara-themed party.

They gesture to the neighboring room, “I forced Alvin to help me out on it. He should be here any minute with more things.” The man, the myth, the legend arrives a couple seconds later with a bunch of books and tea.

In a weird turn of events, they also managed to get each other the same gift: tickets to a kpop band they love. You and Alvin end up receiving the extra two for your help.

The evening isn’t relaxed at all. You watch a lacrosse tournament while Jay explains what’s going on the screen. Halfway through you start cheering for their favourite team as well. Eventually Jay’s party merged into Tamara’s, so once the sport themed activities were done, you started talking about books while listening to jazz and enjoying various types of teas.

Thanks to you, they made up and the parties remained a surprise!

You pass the rest of your exams with flying colors despite the busy week you’ve had juggling between your friends. Congrats on another successful semester!