Malgobila News 

Years 10,11 & 12

SCHEDULE for GAT and End of Semester Exams

Musings from the Senior Hub

Ohayo gozaimasu, Guten Tag, Bonjour?

Do you speak another language? Do you know how to say “Hello” in another language? Did you have an opportunity to learn another language when you were at school? Did you enjoy it or wonder why you ever had to sit through a class to learn a language that you might never use? I was once on a beach, at Marlo in fact and a little boy fishing next to us on the beach said to me “Come si chiama”……after my initial shock that I could understand what he had asked me, I quickly replied “Io mi chiamo Belinda” ……hooray, I got to actually use the Italian I’d studied at school in real life.

At Bairnsdale Secondary College, as part of our Year 7-10 elective program, we offer an Asian language, Japanese and a European language, German. Student numbers wanting to study a VCE language are very limited. Students interested in continuing their studies access the VCE courses for their chosen language through the Victorian School of Languages which is located in Melbourne.

This year we have four students studying Year 11 and 12 Japanese, one studying Year 11 German and one studying Year 12 French. In week 2 of term 2 these students completed their oral assessment based on conversational language and I was lucky enough to be part of that. I was absolutely gobsmacked at the ease with which which they were able to hold a conversation in their chosen language with their teachers from the Victorian School of Languages. 

The resilience and responsibility that these students show on a daily basis, completing the enormous amount of work required to build their vocabulary and improve their conversational skills makes them model students at Bairnsdale Secondary College and in the Senior Hub they have our utmost respect.

Elizabeth Stevens studies Year 11 German and is grateful that her VSL teacher, Holger is prompt in answering her questions via email and phone. Elizabeth has taken advantage of the opportunity offered by the VSL to meet other German students at The Multicultural Hub in Elizabeth Street, Melbourne. Elizabeth was also disappointed that the Victoria Market was closed on this day.

Amelia is glad of the support we can provide here at the College, including having access to a quiet room, especially when she was learning to use the technology to link up with her Year 11 Japanese teacher Boris and then practising her conversational skills.

Esther Francis enjoys studying Year 12 Japanese and likes that she can express different concepts in Japanese, when there are no equivalent words in English.  Esther can often be found supporting the Year 11 Japanese students, like Molly Westhorpe in the Senior LRC. Molly aspires to be chef in Japan and does Unit 3 and 4 in Food Studies to support this aspiration. Molly is appreciative of the assistance she gets from our Japanese teachers at school like Miss Malberg who spends time with Japanese students at our Wednesday afternoon study session. After chatting with Molly and Esther, I walked away smiling, wondering if the joke they’d shared in Japanese was about me. 

Lucy Smith also studies Year 12  Japanese. To support herself and others, Lucy actually runs her own online conversational Japanese and English classes accessed by students all around the world. This girl is going places.

Julia Baker received exceptional marks for Year 11 French last year and has made an equivalent start to her Year 12 course with Namaste, her French teacher at the VSL. She enjoys access to the many opportunities that are available to language students in 2021 to improve her aural and oral skills. Her extremely humble and polite manner has made it impossible for me to tell her the only French I know is Bon Jour and ferme la bouche.