Hola! Bonjour! Guten Morgen! Salvē! That is as far as I can go! Another phrase we hear very often is: “I understand everything but the speaking is the difficult part”.
If you can engage in a simple conversation, people abroad are going to be more willing to help you and ask you about your country. Those are the basic elements in a GCSE course. On the other hand, if you decide to take a foreign language to A level you will be able to converse about a wide variety of current affairs and study at least two cultural aspects of the country.Languages can open the door to an amazing new world and help you learn about the culture, food, painting, music, business and geography of a country. The immersion into the culture is normally made during trips and exchange visits. This could be eating “Tapas” and “Jamon Serrano” in front of the Sagrada Familia or Parc Guel in Barcelona, or being mesmerized by the Branderburg Gate or the Reichstag in Berlin, or succumbing to the temptation of a “crepe à la Nutela” and contemplating la Sainte Chapelle in Paris, or braving the northern limits of the Roman Frontier.
At Giggleswick, pupils are introduced to four languages: Latin (only in Y7 and 8) French, German and Spanish from Y7, from which they choose to continue with three in Year 8 and two in Year 9. They then choose at least one language for GCSE, when we follow the AQA Specification and the innovating resources online in Kerboodle. In addition, we have subscriptions to various languages websites so lessons are always exciting with the touch of modern technology with the use of interactive whiteboards.
Those going on to take one or more languages at A level follow the AQA specification as well, and many regularly study languages at university: in recent years, for example, students have gone on to read Chinese and Russian in Birmingham, Management and Languages at the LSE, Politics and Languages in London, French and Management at Newcastle, Spanish and Russian at Manchester, French and German at Durham, French and Russian at Cambridge and French and Spanish at Oxford.
We hear very often about scholarships and jobs lost, not only in foreign countries but in the UK, because of an inability to speak a language. Now we have the power in our hands to overcome this limitation. Employers value the ability to communicate and trade with other countries and we can give them what they want. How enriching would it be to become a doctor, physician, personal trainer, businessman or businesswoman, actor or musician in the Dominican Republic, Morocco or Switzerland. This dream might come true, thanks to the learning of a Foreign Language so, ‘Anímate! Allons-y! Lass uns gehen! Venitē!’
