September 26th is European Day of Languages, but with so many nationalities represented here at College, we wanted to celebrate languages more widely, highlighting their importance and the impact they can have on our lives and our ability to understand others in today’s global world.

Adam K-J and Sophia M led a multi-lingual chapel this Wednesday where we heard Swedish, Japanese, Russian and French as part of our panel interview, followed by the Lord’s Prayer in German (S.M) and Romanian (Emily G.). Dr Pothecary shared his experience of living in Sweden and working as an engineer in a Swedish company, where learning the language enabled him to communicate with colleagues and friends. Mrs Nishimura spoke about the impact that learning Japanese when living in Japan had on her future, describing the ability to finally understand everyone around you as “a superpower”. Ismayil shared the rewards of being a polyglot, with Azerbaijani, Russian, Spanish and English in his repertoire.

Listening to them and reading the testimonials below reminds us of the many reasons people have for learning and enjoying languages, as well as the diverse paths that lead them to a particular one.

To me, languages feel like a puzzle to decode and solve. I love finding patterns in things and connecting the dots between words with similar etymologies is extremely satisfying. I remember taking part in the Linguistic Olympiad last academic year and having such a good time, especially with deciphering the Cherokee language, where the sentence order was subject-object-verb, which is different to the languages I know. I think that knowing language is one of the easiest ways to know a place’s culture. For example, in my native tongue of Cantonese, one way of saying “apple” is “snake fruit”, which derives from a shortened form of the Red Delicious variety of apples, the “cious” part of “delicious’ is acoustically similar to the word for snake in Cantonese. This reflects back on the British occupation of Hong Kong in the 20th century. For something as simple as the word “apple”, it already shows the history of the culture. Languages are also a way for people to connect; I believe that one of the greatest ways to build rapport is to speak the same language as someone’s native tongue. Learning languages as helped my brain think in different ways, as languages are usually developed with convenience in mind, sometimes the path of least resistance is the best solution. Learning languages have also reinforced my pattern recognition skills.
Hendrie, Upper Sixth

I enjoy learning languages because I find exploring different cultures interesting. I taught myself the Korean alphabet when I was 10 after watching a Korean drama my cousin showed me. Now I can watch certain Korean TV shows and follow along without subtitles. Learning other languages enables you to understand the nuances of social interaction in different countries. Personally, I love travelling and if you were to travel to a country such as France, Japan or Korea and spoke using the wrong formality you could be perceived as being rude and disrespectful – I have experienced this when speaking to an elderly lady whilst travelling in Korea! This helped me understand how important learning languages are and not just using google translate as it doesn’t understand the context. I tried learning a few other languages including Arabic and Japanese because I find it fun. At school, I am doing Spanish and French GCSE and in the future I would like to learn more languages and explore different parts of the world using them.
Tallulah, Fifth Form

I was recently asked whether I would rather be fluent in all the languages in the world or be able to play every musical instrument. Despite my ongoing wish to improve my violin, I could not give up the opportunity to be able to speak to everyone I meet in their native language. After spending an amazing two weeks on a language course in France, my brief taste of French culture gave me the dream of one day living in France, an ambition which is motivation enough! My trip to France gave me the belief that you can never fully understand a culture if you can’t understand the quirks and idioms of its language. I believe that although learning a language can be a challenging pursuit, the reward of being able to communicate with others will always make it time well spent.
Isa, Upper Sixth

I believe learning a language is a great way to explore culture and connect with people. I am currently taking three language A-levels including Greek, Latin and French. I am also planning on taking German GCSE in the summer as I am passionate about it. Aside from school, I spend some of my time on Duolingo where I study Chinese and Polish. I really enjoy learning new languages as it enables me to understand more about a country’s culture. Even at the very start of your language journey, you can begin to understand what people around you are saying quicker than you may think. This builds a sense of both drive and accomplishment. I am aspiring to continue my education of languages at University, as this is the area in which I am most passionate.
Flo, Lower Sixth

I was terrible at GCSE French. I had to take it twice. Still only managed a B (G6). But I loved communicating with locals when on family holidays to France, Italy, Spain and Greece – and would try my hardest, often with smiles, hand gestures and careful listening. When I was in L6 I went to Romania to work at an orphanage with my school. All the pupil volunteers were allocated one or two of the orphanage children to teach to swim, teach English to and generally get to know. I formed a strong bond with my charge, and they taught me a good deal of Romanian in return for English. It was really the first time that I had grasped the power of language, and I realised that my GCSE in both Latin and French, were actually really useful for Romanian. Sadly, I can’t remember much anymore, as I didn’t keep at it, nor had the need to practise.

One of my proudest achievements was learning to speak Italian.

It was very important for my first job that I could. I ran a small educational travel company called Art History Abroad. I was a lead tutor and lecturer for the Gap Year Courses that we ran in Italy. All the Art History teaching I did was in English, but all the hotel, museum, transport and restaurant bookings were in Italian. I had to get groups in and out of nightclubs with local bouncers and I often had to visit Italian police stations due to lost passports, stolen purses etc. My Italian was initially pretty rudimentary, learning pronunciations via friendly waiters in pizza restaurants. I learnt to speak Italian much more accurately by when I lived in Rome for a year. I had some one to one lessons, but it all came down to befriending people who didn’t speak English. I had to learn their language and not the other way around.

If I hadn’t have learnt Italian, I wouldn’t have had quite the rich experience of Art History, nor the experience of education on overseas trips, which led me to the doors of teaching in the UK, which led onto Housemastering. So all in all, I owe a great deal to being able to speak a European Language.
Mr D Evans

I love learning languages, of course. As a languages teacher I wouldn’t be able to say anything else. I also know that there are many different routes to learning a language and although they will undoubtedly push you out of your comfort zone, the reward is great and lifelong. Growing up in a bilingual home certainly gave me a distinct advantage for French, but my journey to speaking German was an altogether bumpier road. At the age of 12, I started in a German school knowing little more than how to say what pets I had or where I lived. I could barely communicate with my peers let alone follow along in History or Physics lessons. I struggled for years with German until eventually, it clicked – I am certain my former German teacher from those days would fall over in Ohnmacht if he knew I went on to become a German teacher myself. Spanish was the only language I learnt in a more conventional classroom setting. Languages had become a huge part of my life, but it was only later that I saw how much of an advantage this would be. Before training as a teacher, my first two jobs after university as a recruitment consultant in a multi-lingual agency and then as a marketing assistant at L’Oréal were in large part thanks to my languages but also the communication skills I had gained from them. I very nearly took a job at an international private bank in Paris which again had everything to do with the languages on my CV. Learning a language takes dedication and regular practice, just like a musical instrument – but they give us a window into different countries and cultures and allow us to look beyond our own horizons, not to mention the fact that a language on your CV will stand you out from the crowd, even in this day and age when you can go out and buy a pair of AI translator Ray-Bans…now where’s the fun in that?
Mrs A Million

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