Nottingham High School's Modern Foreign Languages Department

European Day of Languages

Posted on 27. Sep, 2009 by Mr Picardo in Languages

Saturday was the European Day of Languages, a Council of Europe initiative held annually on the 26 September to celebrate language and cultural diversity. The EDL provides us with an opportunity to raise awareness about the importance of language learning. During this assembly I will tell you why I think learning languages is both important and good for you. I was fortunate to be able to lead assembly on Friday 25th to tell our pupils what we, as a school are doing to help them learn languages.

The assembly was delivered with the invaluable help from Finley T, Gabriel C, Ross D and James T, all from 6.2, who each explained to the boys and teachers filling up the Player Hall why they had chosen to learn languages. My most sincere thanks to them for their efforts.

Below is the main body of the assembly, delivered by Mr Picardo.

Why a language?

Well, a language is the easiest way to put an idea from my brain into yours without surgery. It has long been suspected that learning a language is indeed good for your brain and perhaps even makes you more intelligent.

The reasons why that may be are disputed: some argue that learning a language physically re-wires your brain and it works better as a result, while others point out that the ability of being able to access information from a wider variety of sources alone does the job. I have to say I personally agree with the latter.

Foreign language students constantly challenge their teachers to demonstrate the usefulness and purpose of learning a foreign language. It is notoriously difficult for foreign language teachers, particularly in English speaking countries, to convince a sceptic that speaking a foreign language is, in fact, a desirable skill to possess. After all, everyone speaks English, don’t they?

Language teachers, in my experience, are a very patient and tolerant lot and, after a deep sigh, they will probably explain that learning a foreign language has many benefits indeed, even if lots of people do speak English as a second language.

So what are these benefits?

Speaking a foreign language broadens your horizons, it allows you to see the world through other people’s eyes and, as a consequence, you gain a deeper understanding of events, for example, which is particularly important in a world that is increasingly globalised and interdependent.

To say that speaking a foreign language helps people understand each other better is possibly a platitude, but there is an important message here: If you speak their language, not only do you understand what they are saying, but also what they are doing and why they are doing it.

Speaking a foreign language allows you to reach out to people living on the other side of the planet and, in turn, it allows them to reach you, providing you with a different vision of the world, an alternative take on life that you might have otherwise never considered.

A foreign language allows you to see and take in more, it helps to keep you connected to other people. I think that is probably the reason why speaking a language other than your own makes you more intelligent, because, if we learn from each other, if we learn from communicating with each other, then there is no doubt: languages make you clever.

So what are we doing to help you learn languages?

The Modern Languages Department has recently been furnished with two state-of-the art Digital Language Suites – two classrooms with 26 and 16 computers respectively loaded with specialist software allowing you to learn not only French, German and Spanish, but also most other major world languages as well as others… well, not so major.

We have appointed Mrs Moorhouse, our new Language Resources Assistant, to look after the running of these Digital Language Suites. Mrs Moorhouse will ensure the Digital Language Suites are open from 8 am every school day. They will remain open throughout lunchtime and after school until 5 pm for you to come and work in them if you wish or if your teachers direct you.

Please go to see Mrs Moorhouse in the old Modern Languages office, near the new Digital Language Suites if you would like to practise and learn any of the many languages we have available for you. Including, of course, French, German and Spanish.

In addition, the Modern Languages Department has started keeping a blog, this website, to keep you up to date with information, resources and developments, as well as to provide interactive content with the aim of making language learning more fun and accessible.

Language Ambassadors

As well as all this new ICT based opportunities to learn languages, we are also establishing the role of Language Ambassadors, initially with boys in the sixth form. Language Ambassadors will play an active role in helping to teach languages further down the years, specially in the Junior School and Lovell House.
Should any of you boys be interested in becoming a Language Ambassador, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us in MFL. Our new office is by M1.

Thank you so much for your attention this morning. I’ll leave you with a thought, if there are any of you here this morning thinking that it is a shame I did not say anything at all in a foreign language during this assembly, then may I suggest you think again. I delivered my entire speech in one.

Tags: EDL