Celebrating the European Day of Languages

We had a fantastic time celebrating the European Day of Languages on Thursday 23^rd, September 2021.

The European Day of Languages is always celebrated on September, 26^th of every year. But, as it will be during our 1^st Exeat weekend, we have forwarded this wonderful celebration forward to a little earlier in the week. 

The Sixth Form enjoyed some interviews on Teams with a few people who were using their languages in their work. First, we listened to Izama Gandul, a Spanish lady who is an engineer consultant for Airbus. She explained how important it was for her to speak different languages to be able to integrate and communicate with her colleagues from other countries. Then, we listened to Georgie MacLeod-Ash, a former Old Brutonian who is now working in London using her Spanish in Politics. She gave us a full description of her amazing trips in South America during her year abroad in Chile, and how she adapted so easily to South American life because she could speak the language, and she enjoyed an interest in their culture. We also interviewed a Post-Graduate Student, Hugo Middle, who has just finished his degree in Italian and Spanish at Oxford. He told us that he was hoping to find a job in sport, using his languages at the same time. According to Hugo, if you had learned one language, the others were easier to learn.

The 3^rd Formers had the privilege to listen to our mystery guest, Lloyd Wallace, a professional skier. He told the 3^rd Form pupils that he had to speak mainly French and German as he was training most of the time in Switzerland. Speaking these languages has allowed him to integrate more easily to the Swiss community. The 4^th Form pupils interviewed Johnny Thabot, a very successful businessman who uses his languages all the time. Lloyd Wallace and Johnny Thabot were Old Brutonians and took languages for A-Level. They admitted it was a difficult A-Level to take because it required lots of work but, their effort has been rewarded as they are now both successful.

Flickr album: European Day of Languages - 23rd September 2021 | Height: auto | Theme: Default | Skin: Default Skin

In the afternoon, we had an MFL Quiz for the Juniors, and we finished the day with our Poetry Reading Evening with our Sixth Form linguists. What a pleasure it was to listen to everyone reading out poems in Azeri, French, German, Italian & Spanish. Staff got also involved, and I would like to thank Mr Loveless for reading out a German poem & Ms Checketts for reading out an Italian poem so beautifully. Reading out poems is very good to help everyone build up their confidence and the linguists of King’s should be extremely proud of doing so.

The aim of the day was to show the pupils at King’s that languages can be a tool that allows them to get greater jobs and greater opportunities in life. Look at Lloyd Wallace’s career: he is a professional skier who can adapt anywhere because he will always make the effort to learn the language of the country he stays in. He has recently had to pick up German as he is training at the moment mainly in German Switzerland.

Madame Agathe Webb - Head of MFL