LANGUAGES

NEW LANGUAGE TEACHERS 

Welcome to another two of our new language teachers. It is great to have them with us:

MADAME NONAKA

Bonjour, je m’appelle Miku Nonaka. Please call me Madame Nonaka. This year, I am teaching Years 7, 10 and 11 French at the McKinnon Road campus. 

I have always been passionate about language learning, and I currently speak English, Japanese and French. I love exercise, food, music, travel and spending time with friends and family. I stayed in the city of Strasbourg, France during last Christmas and had the most wonderful time there - if you’re ever looking to experience an authentic European Christmas, be sure to visit the place!  

MADELEINE RÉMONT

Bonjour/Hola! I am Madeleine Rémont and I am the new French and Spanish teacher at McKinnon East Campus. 

This is my second year of teaching and I've come from Prahran High School, where I was teaching French. I am half Belgian and half Australian and have lived in Spain for a year. I love to travel, have music jams with friends and spend time in rainforests. I am stoked to be part of the budding Spanish program and look forward to contributing to its growth.

PREPARING FOR THE GERMAN EXCHANGE PROGRAM

McKinnon students participating in the German Exchange Program are eagerly anticipating their departure and meeting up face-to-face with their German exchange partners. They have been in contact online for a few months and have been exchanging various things of interest and preferences during their online conversations. But all students are now counting down the days until their departure on Saturday 30 March. 

Students will enjoy one week of German school holidays and traditional German Easter traditions and then attend three weeks of school at the Alfred-Wegener-Schule in Kirchhain, our sister school in Germany. They will attend school with their hosts and participate in regular lessons. Our teacher colleagues at this school have already planned additional activities for us in the school and outside of school hours. They will also participate in a three-day excursion to Berlin and will have the opportunity to get to know the German capital with its rich history. 

Our students are sharing the flights to Germany and the trip to Berlin with a group of German-learners from another government school in Victoria and will no doubt make new friends in that group, too.

Over the coming weeks until departure students are expected to attend lunchtime sessions to prepare themselves for school and family life in Germany. They will be encouraged to increase their general conversation skills in these additional lunchtime lessons. They will also prepare bilingual presentations about Australia and will present them to classes in our sister school. 

We are very much looking forward to returning to our sister school in Kirchhain, Germany. The travel restrictions caused by covid-19 in the recent past meant that students missed out on these wonderful opportunities to immerse themselves in the cultures of the language that they are learning, and to use German in everyday life with an exchange partner and their family. We are very grateful that we are now able to continue our long-lasting relationship with our sister school as in past years.

David Nutting & Andrea Fowler

German Teachers

OUR START IN LEARNING GERMAN

Guten Tag! 

This year we're learning German at McKinnon Secondary College. Our teacher this year is Mr Nutting, and we're so glad we got him as he is able to make learning German fun and easy. Only a couple lessons in and we already know how to introduce ourselves, say our name and ask someone about their day. German is a very interesting language and we'll tell you why!

German is a very similar language to English and has so far been simple to learn. For example, guess what “Hallo” means in English. We have learnt about most of the German alphabet. However, there are a few exclusive German characters like ß that we will be learning about later in the year. Depending on when you are reading this we could say "Guten Morgen" or "Guten Tag" or "Guten Abend" or even "Gute Nacht". We have learnt all about the German-speaking countries, the countries that border Germany, and how to pronounce them in German. We have already learnt so much German in two weeks! Danke for reading. Auf Wiedersehen!

Luca Sirianni & Nati Mankov

Year 7 Students

LUNAR NEW YEAR

Lunar New Year is known to me in Vietnamese as “Tet”, a word that brings up memories of family, happiness and love. This festival is, for me, the equivalent of Christmas in western cultures as it is the time of the year when I reunite with my family and relatives to celebrate the year that has passed and to make wishes for the coming year. Tet is so important in my culture not only because it gives families the rare opportunity to meet up again but also because it ignites a sense of connection and belonging like no other.

On the first day of Lunar New Year, people would usually dress in their newest and best clothes to celebrate a new chapter in their lives. Temples would be packed as everyone comes to pray for good luck in the new year. You would also visit each of your relatives to wish them peace and prosperity. Children would receive red envelopes with money inside as a blessing of luck from their elders. Then, at lunchtime, you would head home to prepare a feast, which would be placed in front of the ancestral altar, along with incense, in order to welcome your ancestor’s home to dine and celebrate the new year with you. 

Common dishes that are cooked include a special reddish orange sticky rice called “Xoi Gac”, a yellow mung bean dessert and “Banh Chung”, a sticky rice cake filled with mung beans and pork. These dishes also represent good luck as red and yellow are considered the colours of fortune.

In Vietnam, this festival would go on for several days. It is the longest national holiday, giving workers and students alike the time to return and celebrate with their families. Though it is not as prominent in Australia, celebrations and dragon dances are still held at some temples in suburbs like Springvale, so if you’re keen, come and join in the festive atmosphere next year! 

Just remember not to wash your hair or sweep the floor on this day! You’d be washing or sweeping all of your luck for the coming year away!

Katy Do

Year 12 Student

UPCOMING EVENTS

JOHNSTON ST FIESTA: 24 - 25 FEBRUARY

Now in its 45th year, Fiesta welcomes you back to celebrate and partake in the cultures of Hispanic and Latin American Culture! Across two days in February, we will eat, sing and dance to our heart’s content as Fiesta dances into its first festival since 2019 (https://www.hilafiesta.com.au/)

SPANISH FILM FESTIVAL:  JUNE - JULY 2024 

spanishfilmfestival.com

PARIS: IMPRESSIONS OF LIFE 1880 - 1925

Exhibition at the Bendigo Art Gallery - until 14 July 

Exclusive to Bendigo Art Gallery, Paris: Impressions of Life 1880–1925 takes visitors on a journey through the lively and picturesque streets of historic Paris. The busy banks of the Seine, bustling marketplaces, grand boulevards, idyllic public gardens, and the heady atmosphere of bohemian Montmartre are brought to life in more than 170 works of art and artisan objects. From the renowned collection of the Musée Carnavalet - History of Paris, the iconic museum of the history of Paris, this exhibition reflects on an effervescent period of great social change, urban development and artistic innovation which shaped modern Paris and continues to capture the global imagination. 

Tour seven themed pathways and discover artisan street signs, historic couture, decorative arts, and everyday ephemera alongside paintings by artists including Jean Béraud, the pre-eminent painter of Parisian life in the Belle Époque, Maurice Utrillo and Paul Signac, pioneer of the artistic technique of pointillism, as well as vibrant graphic prints by Toulouse-Lautrec and his contemporaries. 

The oldest municipal museum in Paris, the Musée Carnavalet was founded in 1866 to document the history, built environments, and unique character of Paris during a period of rapid modernisation. Located in the historic Marais district, the museum is home to over 620,000 works of art and artefacts from the Mesolithic period to the present day. 

Proudly presented as part of Bendigo International Collections.