Norwegian Learning Community and Resource

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. You are also encouraged to tell us a bit about how useful OLS is or has been for you, and to include evidence of how you are using OLS ( screenshot, live small demo, etc. ).

• Choose one of the following topics:
  • Proverbs and sayings: tell us a proverb or a saying in the language you are learning, why you like it, how it may be similar or very different from the ones in other languages you know. 
  • Slang, oral or regional expressions: have you found out that locals speak in a different way in respect to what you had learnt in books? Tell us about expressions you discovered only thanks to your mobility experience.
  • The day when it all started:  do you remember the magic sparkle that made you take the plunge and start speaking/reading/writing in a new language, although you were still feeling insecure? Was it a friend you met, a book you wanted so much to read or a course you had to take? Tell us all about it and share with us the details about that special moment. 

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:

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. Participants who chose the topic “proverbs and sayings” may pronounce a saying in their native language if needed for the purpose of the video.
• Videos should be at least of 1 minute long 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 16 December 2024 at 14:00 CET, when the webform will be closed. Participants are strongly encouraged not to wait for the last moment to submit their video, to minimise the risk of failure of the submission due to technical issues. 

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 hereunder ↓