It has become tradition that on European Day of Languages, which takes place on the 26th September each year, Oundelians are taught a completely new language in their normal MFL lessons, and pupils try to guess for days in advance which language they are going to be introduced to.
The range of language taster classes on offer this year was huge. Teachers offered New Zealand Maori, Japanese, Portuguese, Turkish, Swedish, Arabic, Lithuanian and Russian, amongst others.
In some classes the pupils got the chance to showcase the languages that they know by teaching their peers. In the mix were Latvian, Cantonese, Tamil, Mandarin and Yoruba.
Other departments also joined in, introducing new language tasters to the lesson. In one Chemistry lesson, the challenge was to pronounce the Welsh word, Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.
It was a real celebration of a broad spectrum of the world’s languages, and at the end of the morning, pupils went back to their Houses to enjoy either a Turkish or Spanish lunch.
The European Day of Languages is a Council of Europe initiative. The Council of Europe represents 800 million Europeans across 47 member states and promotes pluralingualism, believing that linguistic diversity is a tool for achieving greater intercultural understanding and a key element in the rich cultural heritage of our continent.
S Davidson
