Eruditio latin quod cupiditas

Sunday 21st November 2010 saw the launch of an exciting £2.5million campaign to restore the teaching of Latin and Greek to all state school students in Britain within ten years. With celebrity supporters such as Joanna Lumley, Boris Johnson and Tom Stoppard, the campaign, lead by classics enthusiast Bettany Hughes, aims to ensure that more than current 16% of state schools offer at least one of the subjects.

The learning of classical languages is proven to help British learners of romance languages, particularly of French, Spanish and Italian, for they already have a basic grounding in the grammatical patterns. In addition, however good a translation of a piece of literature, there are always some aspects which can only truly be appreciated if the piece is read in its original language. A wide range of classical literature in its original text would be opened up to people if they were equipped with the language skills. Learning Latin is also proven to improve pupils’ standards across the curriculum, particularly in English and Maths, and classics graduates can expect to enjoy a higher employment rate than the majority of other arts graduates.

Personally, I believe that the campaign is a brilliant idea, and hope it will be effective. A couple of years ago I had the chance to learn a small amount of Latin at Weald. Even the basics have proved to be helpful as I now attempt to read medieval French literature!

This information in this post was taken from an article published in “The Sunday Times” on 21/11/2010.

Yr10 French 16/11/10 P5 Devoirs

Pour vos devoirs ce soir:

1: Find a photo on which you will base your oral presentation

2: You will need to answer some questions in the oral so practise recognising question words via this link: Exercise 1
Mlle Hardman

Avoir, Être, Faire and Aller

Year 8 French P1 16/11/10
Today we are going to revise the 4 key irregular verbs in French: avoir, être, faire and aller. We are going to:

a)find out what they mean,
b)find out why they are important,
c)and then practise them in different ways.

Practise:

4 Key irregular verb flashcards.

Using the above link:

1) Familiarise yourselves with the four verbs using the flashcards
2) In the "Study" section click on "Learn". Note your score at the end.
3) In the "Study" section click on "Test". Note your score at the end.
4) In the "Play Games" section click on "Scatter". Note your time.
5) In the "Play Games" section click on "Space Race". Note the Level, Kills and score you achieve.

We will publish the best scores for each section at the end of the lesson.

Your homework is to beat these scores! Add your new highest scores in the comments section before next lesson.

(Create a Google ID to be able to add comments to this post. Remember to blog safe and only use a pseudonym/nick name, never your real/full name online. Ask an adult if you are unsure).

Amusez-vous bien en apprenant les verbes irréguliers!

Mlle Hardman

Podcast Entry - YR7German Speaking Assess

We have recently completed some Year 7 German Speaking assessments. Play the entry on the Podcast and leave your comments - What did she do well (WWW)? Even better if (EBI)? Work out what level you think she might be (including sub level and your reasons for it:

Crossing the Channel

As our closest European neighbours, it is unsurprising that many of the current affairs which affect France also impact us in England. On Monday, it became apparent that the French Coastguard is of the belief that a ban should be enforced against those who wish to challenge themselves by swimming the 21 miles from Dover to Calais to cross the English Channel. The main reason for this proposal was fear of an accident occurring. Those attempting the challenge must pass through the world’s busiest shipping lane, which sees over five hundred vessels pass through each day. Several organisations, including ferry operators, have warned that passing swimmers could cause a serious accident, despite assurance from the Channel Swimming and Piloting Federation that the crossings are safe and well organised.

It is worth noting that France banned swimmers from using the Calais to Dover route seventeen years ago and also that no swimmer or support boat has ever caused an accident whilst completing the crossing. With this in mind, is the proposed ban a justified, or even necessary, measure?

Olivia, who is a keen swimmer in year 13, agrees that it would be a shame if the ban were to be enforced:

I think it would be a real shame to ban such an iconic event that many swimmers aspire to complete. I understand the obvious safety concerns, however, it is arguable that due to technological advances it is now safer than ever to swim the “Everest of open water”. I can only imagine the feeling of triumph and accomplishment is unparalleled and this should not be taken away from those who are able and determined to take up the challenge.

Language Leaders taking control of blog

Hi. My name's Jess. I am one of the Language Leaders in year 12. Among the other responsibilities that we have been given, we have been asked to contribute actively to the MFL blog. This is exciting, as it means that students will have more control of what appears on the blog! As I am already a keen blogger, I have gladly accepted the role of Blog Manager. I will be listening out for languages-related news in the press, achievements in languages of our students and reviews and write-ups of language events. I will be looking to meet with students who have anything that they would like to add. For now, though, bis zum nächsten Mal!

Why Learn Languages - (USA)

We are way behind in adding this to the blog (this video is from July 2008!), however related to current times nonetheless. Barack Obama illustrates the need for the American population to learn more languages. Interesting debates ensued in the American news highlighting language being very close to identity.

Languages in Exciting Future Career Choice

Below is a write up by Abigail, one of our year 13 English Literature students, who is applying to do a Linguistics degree for her future career choices. This highlights cross curricular links between English and Modern Foreign Languages and the place that they both hold in an exciting career choice. Enjoy!

I have always had a fascination with language and have been interested in how it works and is pieced together. Studying English Language at A Level has made me want to pursue with this into further education. However I have been looking at courses in linguistics. This will mean I am analysing language and looking at how it works, it is the science of language. There is an opportunity to choose some Modern Foreign Languages as modules as this helps when analysing texts in such intricate detail.
In some of the courses I have chosen at university there is a chance to study Forensic Linguistics as a module. This is what I have a true passion for and wish to go into after I finish my degree.

Forensic Linguistics is analysing language for the police. When text messages, emails or letters are involved they can be analysed in order to discover more about the crime being investigated. Also using forensic phonetics, interviews with suspects can be analysed in great detail to help in the same way. This is a fairly new branch of police investigation and has enhanced the ways in which they can solve crime. I am currently carrying out an EPQ on the topic so that I can make sure that it is something that I really do want to do as a career but also so that universities can see that I have a real interest in language outside my core A Level study.

Oxford Language Competition Success

Below is wonderful write up by Jessica, one of our year 12 students who studies AS German with Miss Sheehan, regarding a recent success that they had concerning languages. Enjoy!

On Wednesday 20th October, my parents and I spent a lovely day in Oxford. The reason for this was my success in the “Think Kafka” competition, which was organised by the Modern and Medieval Languages Faculty of Oxford University.
I was sent a link concerning the competition in May by Miss. Sheehan. I immediately decided to enter, mainly because I was eager to find out more about German literature. I also thought it would be a good way to have a break from revising for my GCSEs...
I had heard of the German writer Kafka, but in reality I knew little of his life or his work. There were three categories: “The Best Translation of a Kafka Story”, “The Best Essay on a Kafka Story” and “The Best Creative Response to a Kafka Story”, of which I chose the latter. This was mainly because I had no idea how I would go about writing an essay about one of the stories, and I had little inclination of how to do a translation.
Each of the categories offered a choice of two stories. Of the two that I had to choose between, I chose “Ein Kommentar”, because I immediately saw how I could interpret it as a metaphor for life. After reading it several times and a discussion with Miss. Sheehan, I decided to continue the story. I chose to write it in German, mainly because it felt more natural and I had had little previous opportunity to use the language creatively.
Writing my response was quite difficult; it was tricky to structure it, and I had to teach myself much of the grammar I needed, for it is not usually taught at GCSE level. Several redrafts later, my story was ready to send.
Winners were to be notified a week after the closing date. On that day I was travelling to Elbeuf on the school work experience exchange, so I forgot all about it. It was not until the Saturday morning, when I was strolling peacefully along the pavement in Rouen with my exchange partner and her family, that my Dad rang me. As he read the letter to me over the phone, I learnt that I was a joint runner up in the competition! Having never succeeded in any form of competition before, I started jumping around in excitement, an excitement which quickly decreased when I realised that I would now have to explain in French why I was so happy.
I could not really bring myself to believe it fully though, until I was able to hold the letter in my hands myself. It was only when I popped into school to tell them the news that I realised the significance and importance of what I had achieved.
After a summer of attempting to read Goethe, the day to visit Oxford swiftly arrived. Having known a couple of people who had studied at Oxford, and having considered the prospect myself, I was eager to visit. Despite thinking about it quite a bit, I really had no preconceptions of what it was going to be like.
The first part of my prize was to have lunch at Jesus College. Just walking into a college was fantastic; the building was beautiful and felt so steeped in history. There were ten of us in total, as well as a few current students and lecturers, so we started off by introducing ourselves. This was when I found out I was the youngest by a whole year, which surprised me quite a bit. The idea of the lunch was so that we would be able to get to know one another prior to the evening reception. As we ate, we had a variety of discussions, most of which lead back to German.
The ceremony begun with a speech about the importance of learning languages, and the often lucrative careers that language graduates can enjoy. Then, Kafka’s great nephew made a speech. I was surprised to learn that he does not speak any German, despite being a relation of one of the most prolific German writers ever. He then presented the prizes. I received a personalised copy of Kafka’s “Die Erzählungen”, which includes all the stories used in the competition, as well as a postcard and £20.
After taking some photographs, we had the chance to look at the actual manuscripts of the stories. Although they were in a glass case, it was amazing to see the paper which Kafka actually wrote on, and fun to try to decipher the words which had been crossed out.
Soon afterwards, it was sadly time to leave. I am extremely glad that I had this opportunity, for not only has it left me with a clear sense of my aims for the future, but it has also given me new ideas for how I can explore literature in other languages. I have been inspired by meeting the other prize-winners and sharing our passion for languages.