LANGUAGES

SISTER SCHOOL IN NEW CALEDONIA

Our relationship with our new sister school, College de Tuband, is warming up! We have resumed our pen friend relationship and 20 of our French students have received letters which they are now replying to.

In addition, the planning for a visit from 45 students from the school is well under way, with a call going out for host families. If you haven’t already seen this form, please have a look and let us know if you are able to support this initiative!  

Host families for New Caledonian visitors 

Jenny Lynd

Languages Learning Area Manager

LANGUAGES SOCIETY TRIVIA COMPETITION - EAST CAMPUS

On Tuesday 2 May, the Language Leaders organised a cultural trivia at lunchtime in V2.3. We had 5 teams sign up, each consisting of 4 students! As students funneled in, the Kahoot was being prepared, and excitement was buzzing in the air. Then, the Kahoot was started, and the battle began. The questions consisted of geographical (How many countries border Germany?), historical (French was derived from which language?), and cultural (Oktoberfest is celebrated in...?). 

It was an extremely close fight, with team "Jal" easily leading in the first few questions, but ultimately, Team "The Wall" caught up and snagged first place! Congratulations to them and all other teams for the great effort, and thank you to the Language Leaders for organising this event!  

Alex Do

Language Leader(EAST)

MAIN CAMPUS DANCE OFF 

Term 2 started with a blast for the Language society at Main Campus with a Just Dance lunch! On Tuesday 9 May, the Language Leaders held a Just Dance in the Merc during lunchtime. The Just Dance consisted of songs from various languages, some included German, Spanish and Korean! Students were all welcomed to bring their friends and come along to dance to songs of all sorts of languages. 

At the start of lunch, there was already a crowd in the Merc, ready to dance away! However, when the first song started to play, it started off with only the leaders dancing, but slowly and surely, more and more people joined in on the fun! By the end of lunch, the Merc was filled with smiling faces, students and even teachers dancing! It is safe to say that everyone had a great time. 

On behalf of the Language Leaders at Main Campus, I want to thank everyone who got involved and also thank Madame Reid and Madame Lynd who helped organise this event!

The Language Leaders can't wait to organise more fun language events in the future! 

Christina Tan, Year 10 Student

Language Leader (Main)

2023 GERMAN FILM FESTIVAL 

On Tuesday 9 May 2023, Years 9 and 10 German students visited the German Film Festival that offered a school screening on the day. 

The film Alfons Zitterbacke - Endlich Klassenfahrt! (Alfons Jitterbit - Class Trip Chaos!) is a comedy produced by Mark Schlichter which was released in 2021. The original book series "Alfons Zitterbacke" was written in the GDR.

The movie was filmed at the Ostsee (Baltic Sea), Schloss Ostrau near Dresden and in German nature parks not far from Berlin. The movie introduces students to the annual school trip that students undertake often at the end of a school year. Popular German activities such as hiking and rock climbing, German beach culture, family and youth issues are presented with a mix of humour and adventure. The presentation of German youth language and culture are another valuable part of this film.

Students enjoyed the screening and will reflect in class time on character descriptions and film reviews, an entertaining way of learning the language. 

Thank you to Herrn Nutting for helping me to organise the event and accompanying our group on the day.

Andrea Fowler

German teacher

YEAR 8 GERMAN EMAIL EXCHANGE PROJECT

Students of Year 8 German are currently involved in a small-scale email-exchange project in which they exchange emails with a partner of their age at a school in Germany, making this a very real language activity for an authentic purpose. Students at McKinnon SC and students in Germany filled out forms about their hobbies and interests and I have tried to match interests where possible. 

Students drafted a first introductory email about themselves and their world, using the German that they have learned so far since the start of Year 7. It has been great to see students seeking feedback on their writing before sending off their first email. Apart from their own sentences in German, students have also included URLs in their email for websites such as community clubs that they are involved with, or links to articles in the German Wikipedia about places in Australia or elsewhere that they have mentioned in their email.

It's been exciting to see students talk to each other about their German partner and about the reply they’ve received from them. We have also discussed as a class cultural aspects or lifestyle similarities and differences that have caught students’ attention in their partners’ replies. Perhaps some of our students will end up in ongoing contact with their email partner, as quite a few students have reported to us in previous years after taking part in this language activity.

David Nutting

German Teacher