LOTE Week

Marian College celebrated LOTE Week on 24 May to 27 May. We were so lucky this year to be able to enjoy all the performances and activities before the lockdown on Friday 28 May. We were incredibly grateful for this opportunity, as we totally missed out last year due to the extended lockdown. And, did the students celebrate and enjoy the experience!

LOTE Week is an extension of the type of experiences the LOTE staff wish to provide in the classroom. This being an overlapping of the exposure to language and culture. The students are immersed in the culture through dance, the arts (performance), activities and food.

A Indonesian traditional dancer, Maria Perker, performed beautifully, highlighting that the traditional can be beautifully merged with the modern. She danced a number of Indonesian dances to traditional Indonesian music. She also danced to more modern Indonesian music and invited students to participate. The students were taught the moves and then performed for the rest of the students.

The Italian Comedia Dell’arte performance was called Venice in Love performed by Make A Scene Productions. The costumes and set not only transported the audience to another place, but also another time. The students revelled in the fun, comedy and romance, truly enjoying the audience participation that is so typical of Comedia Dell’arte.

The lunchtime activities did not fail to entertain. The students were eager to participate in all things cultural. The activities included Bingo that was called in both Italian and Indonesian, the Italian waitress race, the Indonesian spoon race, spaghetti and prawn cracker eating race. The students were also able to come and watch an Italian and Indonesian film.

All activities, trivial or otherwise, all proved to provide a value lesson. Being immersed in another culture and being exposed to the language enriches the learner’s knowledge and expands their skill base. Having another language as part of a repertoire of skills is known to expand a person’s empathy and of course their employability, not to mention their general understanding of the greater world.

"Knowledge of languages is the doorway to wisdom."- Roger Bacon (English Philosopher) 

Anna Ciccone

(Learning Leader )