LANGUAGES

SCIENCE WEEK with the Max Planck institute

The famous German Max Planck Institute offers 12 short videos in English Language, a selection of research topics and explains fundamental scientific phenomena in an accessible manner.

Thank you to the Max Planck Society for sharing the films!

ÜBER 100 DEUTSCHE FILME ONLINE ANSEHEN

The Goethe Institut offers a free streaming service. Just register and enjoy a German movie with your family!

https://www.germany.travel/de/microsite/discover-germany-from-home/discover-germany-from-home.html

As we all cannot travel the world, enjoy virtual tours from your sofa or maybe a typical German recipe to follow - you will find it all exploring this site! 

Listen to current music from Germany on

https://www.goethe.de/en/kul/mus/gen/pop/cas.html

YEAR 7 GERMAN POETRY COMPETITION

Year 7 German students have been learning German poems for a McKinnon competition. Many memorized their first German poem and used Flipgrid to upload their recitation. Best presentations will be selected to participate in the AGTV Poetry Competition which will be held on 15 September this year. Thank you to Ms Reid for organising this event. 

2020 AGTV SCHREIBWETTBEWERB

We invite students from all year levels to participate in the 2020 AGTV Schreibwettbewerb. The topic is Future dreams - near or far away (Thema: Zukunftsträume – nah oder fern). Find more information on below and submit your writing to Ms Fowler. 

Please click on the following link to find more information about the courses on offer: 

https://www.afmelbourne.com.au/af/course-selector/?step_order=agegroup%2Csession&clicked_link=1

Let's party #EnsembleEnLigne!

Friday 21 August 2020, 6pm - 7pm

Andrea Fowler

Head of Languages

FRENCH FOOD AND FRENCH COOKING!

If you are the parent of a Year 7 French student, you might have been hearing them practising saying words like ‘les cuisses de grenouille’ (frogs’ legs) over the last few weeks. They have been learning about French food and will be presenting a dialogue in a French restaurant as their learning task.

Just for fun, here are some recipes in French that you might be able to experiment with at home. Cooking in French ; Le croque monsieur

And, in case the French is a little challenging and you don’t trust yourselves to follow the recipes safely, here are some recipes in English! Easy French recipes in English

THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF VICTORIA AND THE FRENCH CONNECTION

Every year the NGV has a visiting exhibition, and very often they have a strong French connection. Unfortunately, this year we are unable to visit in real life, but the following links will take you to past exhibitions by artists who lived and worked in France. We may be missing our overseas travel and our gallery visits, but we can still explore the world through the internet.

Painters : Van Gogh and the Seasons ; Monet's Garden ; Salvador Dali ; Degas ; The Impressionists

In addition: Fashion design Jean-Paul Gaultier ; History  Napoleon

You can also visit some galleries in France:

Musee d'Orsay ; Musee Rodin; Le Louvre

PARENTING WHILST TEACHING THE YEAR 12 FRENCH CLASS, NO PROBLEM!

Juggling teaching and parenting is immensely difficult but why not make it a learning opportunity for everyone? 

On Thursday morning, the Year 12 French class was delighted to read a story from an all-time French favourite, the T'choupi series (a boy-like penguin character), together with my daughter for the first five minutes of the lesson.

I provided a digital copy of the book to the Year 12s while my daughter and I had the hardcover version.

The story worked for both my two-year-old daughter who is a French native speaker and for the Year 12s as the text is accompanied with pictures of difficult words so everyone can learn something new. 

Cedric Chamontin

French Teacher

BERTHE MOUCHETTE COMPETITION YEAR 11 AND 12

On Friday 7 August, the French students of Year 11 and 12 experienced something completely new and out of their comfort zone, a competition unlike any other. Berthe Mouchette, an oral and written examination held all around the state, where each student has a chance to show off their French skills and maybe even get a spot in the final which will be held on Friday 11 and Saturday 12 September!

The structure was quite similar to that of an end of year VCE French exam. A written exam, held for two hours and an oral exam set to be held in person with an examinator, focusing on two subjects. The first being general conversation about yourself and the second being a well-researched topic, ours being “New Caledonia: towards independence?”. For the first time, Berthe Mouchette was held online over individual zoom calls. 

Other than bad internet connection and a lack of face-to-face communication this worked very well! The added comfort of casual clothes definitely eased some nerves and ultimately each person performed brilliantly! Now all that is left is to wait for the results on who did the best and is going to move on to the next stage of this competition!

A big thank you to Monsieur Chamontin for organising this amazing opportunity and helping us all the way throughout each step of this experience!

Stephanie Goldenberg

Year 12 Student