The UniOn! app for the incidental learning of languages and cultures

UniOn! is the application for the incidental learning of 4 languages and cultures (Finnish, Italian, Polish and Portuguese) geo-localised in the project cities/universities (Rovaniemi, Bologna, Poznan and Coimbra).

UniOn! was created in 4 versions – one for each language/culture/city of the project – which are similar but not identical. The 4 versions have in fact some common features and some peculiarities.

In the 4 versions of UniOn!, all the contents are organised in 8 main categories, and then in thematic groups, or sub-categories, and then again in texts and insets.

The 8 main categories are the following: i) university life; ii) getting around; iii) food & drink; iv) worth seeing; v) entertainment; vi) lifestyle; vii) services & needs; viii) shopping. In addition, there is a ninth category called Wordz which daily shows the word (or the phrase) of the day. Within each category, the texts contain language, culture and practical information, and each category also contains a game.

All the app contents are accessible without following any specific order, by navigating the categories and subcategories menus. Contents can be also accessed through the notifications received, which are based on geo-localisation, and through the search function. Images, audio, videos, links to external resources are also included in the application, which can be used almost entirely offline (only links to external resources require a connection).