Maltese Learning Community and Resources

Do you want to share your language learning experiences and take the chance of winning an Interrail Global Pass? If you are an OLS member, join now the #OLSCommunityStories video contest!

How to participate

1) Create a video from 1 to 3 minutes including the following elements:

- Introduce yourself to the OLS community members: start your video by saying your name, where you are from, where you spent, are spending or will spend your mobility and which OLS language learning community you are part of.

- Choose one of the following topics:

• Pronunciation challenge: say a tongue-twister, a word you like or read a sentence from a book in the language of the country where you’re spending your mobility. You can also pick a sentence from OLS language courses. Explain the reason why you pick the sentence.
• Tell us an anecdote about your language learning journey: tell us something that happened to you while making your first steps in your new language: a funny misunderstanding, the first time you attended a class in a different language, how you made friends in your new language, etc.
• What or who inspired you to learn a new language? Tell us more about the motivations that influenced you when you chose to embark on your language learning journey: was it a person you met, a new job, a place you travelled to…?

2) Read carefully the rules below, fill in the participation form and submit your video. For accessing the webform you will need to insert the same credentials of your EU Academy account used for OLS (EU Login). To submit your video, you can choose between the following two options:

• Publish your video on your preferred social media (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube or TikTok) using the hashtag #OLSCommunityStories and share the link of the video in the participation form.
• Share your video through a file-sharing system of your choice and include in the participation form the link for downloading it.

Rules of the contest

To be eligible, entries must comply with all the points below:

Videos must focus on at least one of the topics listed above. Videos out of topic will not be considered eligible. Moreover, videos will not be considered eligible if they: have or refer to offensive, derogatory, hateful, racist, sexist, discriminatory or obscene content, promote trademarks, companies or brands, incentivize the use of alcohol, tobacco or drugs, speak about political issues or religion.

Participants should focus on the language of the country where they are spending their mobility: to be eligible, they should pronounce at least one sentence in that language. The rest of the video can be made in another OLS language, but not in the native language of the participants. Participants will be asked to declare that the language(s) used in their video is/are not their native language and to certify that all the information declared is true.

• Videos should be at least of 1 minute length and maximum 3 minutes long. Shorter or longer videos won’t be considered eligible.
• Only one entry can be submitted. In case of multiple entries, the participant will be asked to clarify which video should be evaluated for the OLS contest.
• The participant must be the only one speaking and the only recognizable person shown in the video. Other non-recognizable persons may appear.
• Videos should respect Intellectual Property rights. The participant must own the copyright of all media (images and music) used in the video or have a licence to use them. If his/her video is shortlisted, the participant will be asked to provide right crediting information which will represent a mandatory element to confirm the eligibility of the video.
• The submission of entries is open until 4 February 2024 at 24.00 CET (midnight), when the webform will be closed.

The OLS Community management team reserves the right to contact participants for clarifications or communications on submitted videos.

What’s in there for you? Prizes and evaluation criteria

The results of the OLS video contest will be published on EU Academy. Besides, at least 20 videos will be shortlisted and will enrich the OLS video collection on the OLS Open Area on EU Academy. The link of the announcement with results as well as the link to the EUA page containing the shortlisted and awarded videos might be shared on the Internet, on EC and EACEA websites, EC corporate platforms and/on EC social medias accounts.

Among the shortlisted videos, the authors of the 10 best videos will be awarded with a gift card of the value of 300 euros on the All Aboard website that gives access to an Interrail/Eurail Global Pass.

The videos will be evaluated by a jury composed of OLS Community Managers, communication and language learning experts from the OLS Team and representatives of the European Commission according to the following criteria and scores:

• Content Relevance of the video (up to 10 points)

This criterion will assess if the video addresses the proposed topics and how relevant and compelling it is.

• Creativity of the video (up to 10 points)

This criterion will assess if and how the video has been created using an interesting and original storytelling approach.

• Quality of the video (up to 5 points)

This criterion will assess the technical execution of the video in terms of audio, visual and editing quality.

• Proficiency of the language used in the video (up to 5 points)

This criterion will assess the effort of the participants in telling a story using the language learned. The focus is on the effort you make, not on the level!

The selection of the winners of the OLS video contest will be based on a clear evaluation grid taking into account rules and selection criteria exposed here. The jury’s decision is final. For any question on the selection process, you may contact the OLS Community Management Team writing an email to ols-support@tremend.com. If you wish to file an official complaint, you can write an email to EACEA-ONLINE-LANGUAGE-SUPPORT@ec.europa.eu.

Data Protection

Before submitting your entry, please read the data protection notice in relation to the contest.

So what are you waiting for? Click here and take your chance to win an Interrail Global Pass!

Do you have questions on how to participate? Ask our community managers by opening a forum topic in the dedicated section “OLS Video Contest” of your language learning community.