LANGUAGES

YEAR 9 FRENCH EXCURSION 

On Friday 14 February, 78 Year 9 French students and their teachers visited the Melbourne CBD to explore two aspects of French culture. One part of the excursion was to track down and map a list of French (or French-speaking) businesses in the CBD. The other aspect was a visit to the Immigration Museum to view an immersive exhibition reliving the history of the Notre-Dame de Paris, from when construction began in 1163, through the destructive fire in 2019, to the reopening in December 2024. 

We started off the bright sunny day with a scavenger hunt around the city. We visited some really cool French shops like Chanel, Waffle On, and more! Afterwards, we went to the Notre Dame De Paris exhibition and it was so interesting to read and learn about the medieval cathedral located in France. The immersive experience really captured the art of Notre Dame, and it was a great learning experience. Overall, this day was really fun, impactful and eventful. On behalf of all the students, we wanted to say thank you to all the teachers for looking after us. 

Tal Abrahamov, Year 9

On Friday 14 February, four French classes went to the Melbourne CBD and explored the newly inaugurated Notre Dame De Paris exhibition where students got to fully immerse themselves within French history and culture as well as become introduced to the struggles of immigration and migrants from all over the world. Not only did they familiarize themselves with the exhibition but based their knowledge of French culture and education to have fun with an exciting scavenger hunt, where students roamed around the city searching for restaurants, cafes, designer stores, etc. to translate what they sell and other important items in French, this soon resulted to the teacher marking the amount of points each group has received, and the team with the most points gets a prize. 

As time ran out, students had to make their way back to their designated location in the CBD at Federation Square, the day soon came to a slow end and all the students of Year 9 French took the train back to McKinnon Secondary’s main campus.

Jiya Mehta, Year 9

BEGINNING THE LANGUAGE LEARNING VOYAGE AT MCKINNON

My first weeks of learning French 

Bonjour, my name is Myra from Year 7 and for me learning French for the first time was like stepping into a whole new world with different sounds and structures. At first, I thought that to learn French you had to at least have some experience with the language or else it would take you years to learn the basics. But as time has proven I have already started to learn how to introduce myself and start a conversation with someone. It has only been a few weeks since my first lesson and I think I would love to pursue doing French as a language. 

Myra Razdan, Year 7

Bonjour everyone. Since starting the French program, I have found it amazing. I had never studied French before, so it was challenging at the start, but my French teacher, Madame Nonaka, has made it really fun to learn. She has taught us so many cool phrases and words. I can now form short sentences, like telling everyone my name, where I live, and what my nationality is. I am really glad to be doing French at McKinnon and learning more about the culture and language. 

Raphael Goldman, Year 7

Bonjour! Our names are Aryan, Toki, and Jai, and we’ll be talking about our first few weeks of learning French. At first, we were anxious about learning a completely new language from scratch, but after a few lessons French progressively got more fun to learn!  

Our first two weeks of learning French were packed with loads of activities and fun things. We learnt many things like saying hello in different ways, learning how to say simple conversations (like Hello, how are you feeling, and saying goodbye). We also got to learn how to introduce ourselves, including our names, ages, and nationalities.

The thing that surprised us most was how the alphabet is pronounced in French. We were especially surprised that the letter “W” is pronounced “doobla vay”! We also loved our French teacher who taught us a lot about greetings. Some of the greetings we learnt were “Comment tu t'appelles?” and “Salut!”.

Thus, French has become our favourite subject by far, and we hope to have fun, learn more French phrases and words, and become fluent in French. That's all from us, Au revoir!

Toki Ohnishi, Jai Parab & Aryan Prathish Menon, Year 7

MY FIRST WEEKS OF LEARNING SPANISH 

My Spanish Experience! 

I started Spanish this year full of excitement, enthusiasm, and even slight trepidation. A whole new language to learn! I could tell it was going to be fun, partially because of the fact that I would soon be able to speak to someone in a language other than English, but also because of my innate desire to learn. Although it was slightly daunting at first, my teacher, Ms Gomez, helped me to overcome that, and to enjoy every class as much as I possibly could. 

So far, I’ve learnt to introduce myself (me llamo Maia), and to ask someone how they are! (¿Qué tal?) I’ve interacted with my classmates and been capable of deciphering entire sentences in Spanish. My peers and I have taken part in several activities, where we have spoken and written in Spanish, and have also attempted to use the correct grammar in longer sentences. 

Through my eyes, I have progressed fast and am now confident in my ability to introduce myself to others. I am eagerly anticipating the time when I can fluently speak to people in Spanish, and, for the moment, I enjoy confusing my friends (and occasionally myself). Already, I cannot wait for my next Spanish class, and my next chance to learn. 

Maia Norgate-Burke, Year 7

When I knew I was going to start my high school years at McKinnon, I had wanted to learn Spanish. In 2023, I started learning it online with Duolingo for a school project, and I went on to really enjoy it and wanted to continue. When I met my Spanish teacher on the first day at school, I already knew I was going to enjoy this opportunity. My teacher is currently Ms Gomez, and she made both me and my class feel very welcome.

From our very first lesson, I've enjoyed learning the language and exploring their culture. She made it fun and engaging for everyone, and it's been an amazing experience so far. She made it easy for not only me to remember simple phrases in Spanish but also got it stuck in my head and made it as fun as possible. Although I haven't known her for a long time, she has always encouraged me to do my best. Spanish is now one of my most enjoyable subjects and I'm looking forward to the future classes. 

I never really thought I would enjoy it this much as I am right now, but currently I cannot wait when Spanish comes up on my timetable I would be filled with joy. If you are questioning taking Spanish, I cannot give you better advice to just go for it - and trust me, you will enjoy it. 

Stella Jhoomun, Year 7

My Spanish teacher, Ms Gomez, loves teaching our class about her native country, and its rich language. Have you ever been to Spain, whether it is visiting the breezy coastal cities or the lush green countryside? “El tiempo da buen consejo” The famous Spanish quote translating to time gives good advice, is one of my favourites. 486 million people in the world speak Spanish, making it almost as essential to know as English. 

As soon as I stepped foot into that classroom, I knew that I was going to love learning Spanish. I speak Italian fluently, so it was easy to understand most words, but some words were totally different. Having a patient teacher makes the world of difference though. My favourite moment in class was when we all had to stand up and start saying simple Spanish sentences to each other. I also enjoyed going around and learning how to pronounce our names in Spanish. Another fun activity was researching towns in rural Spain, which I found one with only 500 inhabitants! 

Overall, I think I have made a lot of progress with my confidence in learning another language, and I hope to continue on learning about this beautiful country and its many Spanish speaking countries. 

Sara Paszko, Year 7

Spanish is very fun and I have learnt a lot from Mrs Gomez. She is fantastic and her clothes are very pretty. Now I want to go to Spain. I also love talking with my teacher Mrs Gomez.

Hola mi llama es maddy, Español es muy divertida y Tengo aprendo mucho de la señora gomez. Ella es fantástica y su ropa es muy bonita. Ahora yo quiero ir a España también encanta hablan mi maestra señora gomez. 

Spanish is one of my favourite subjects. I absolutely love learning languages and being able to speak in Spanish with Mrs Gomez has brought my pronunciation to the next level as well as my understanding of the subject.

The Spanish activities in the curriculum are so much fun, I really enjoyed the time we spelt our names in Spanish mine is emeh-ah -deh-deh- ee griega-maddy and we also do a lot of work on introducing ourselves which is nice because we got straight to the point of learning Spanish.

Spanish is a very immersive subject and is a whole new world, The Spanish speaking world. The Spanish speaking world is enormous so not only is it extremely interesting and fun it is also practical if you ever want to go to South America, Spain or Portugal.

Gracias por leer.

Maddy McKay, Year 7

ALLIANCE FRANCAISE BERTHE MOUCHETTE COMPETITION

The annual Alliance Francaise Berthe Mouchette competition for students of French is coming up soon. Please keep an eye out for more information - we want to continue our tradition of participation and success!

Madame Lynd

Head of Languages