The Oxford MFL Event
“You can never understand a language until you can understand at least two.”– Geoffrey Williams
“One language sets you in a corridor for life. Two languages open every door along the way.” – Frank Smith
“Never make fun of someone who speaks broken English. It means they know another language.”– H.Jackson Brown, Jr
Over the course of my life, I have discovered numerous benefits of being multilingual. As someone who is competent in speaking four languages, I have found that being multilingual not only helps me when I’m in other countries, but also opens doors and opportunities in my own country.
With young people from all over the world, the Concord community is a diverse place where most students here are in fact bilingual. In Concord, The Modern Languages department offers a vibrant teaching in French, German, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, and Japanese.
On the 27th of September, our school held a ‘MFL Workshop’ in the theatre. Not only were the college’s MFL students invited, but many students from other schools situated in Shrewsbury also attended the event. The 3 hour event on the Wednesday afternoon was jam-packed with information about learning languages in A-Levels, majoring a degree in a language, the variety of job opportunities provided for a language student, the different courses in university that are catered for language students, as well as the general benefits of learning a foreign language. It was definitely an eye-opening experience, especially when we were given an Italian lecture by the Oxford presenter. After the presentation we were also split into teams according to our year group and the language we had chosen for a mini interactive session with the respective teacher.
By the end of the workshop, I had gathered a whole new perspective on MFL, a detailed insight on the transition between A-Levels and university, along with a deeper understanding of the benefits entitled to a language student.
Not only is learning foreign languages fun, I think everyone should have the chance to learn a second language, reap the benefits of being bilingual, and fire your endeavour towards the epitome of your abilities!
Rachael – F5
Monitor Training 2017
What did we learn during monitor training? Quite a lot, and we had to learn it quickly. We arrived on Saturday the 9th September, four days before all the other Form 5s and one day before all new students. We had to learn how to try and welcome them into the school, and make them feel like they had a new home at Concord.
That was much more difficult than it sounded. Once we had arrived, we spent a day trying to find out how to welcome new students in the best way possible. We had to decide on games to play and how best to learn names, though I personally still managed to forget everyone’s every few minutes!
We had to plan the monitor games, and a lot of time and effort went into the order and composition of the induction games. We had only an hour and a half, and we realised how short-a-time that actually was as we changed everything time and time again!
I think we all learned a lot, and it was good to be able to help people settle in. As Tee Punpipatpaiboon said about what monitor training allowed him to do; “I enjoyed it because as you get along with them, they get more confident and get more comfortable, and you’re able to lead them to where they are, and that is very satisfying.”