The European Day of Languages Festival

Our European Day of Languages Festival will be taking place on Friday 25th September. Last year students had taster sessions in Swedish, Catalan, Mandarin, German and others.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Back in the UK

The trips to Paris and Barcelona arrived back safely with lots of stories of what the students discovered while in two of Europe’s most emblematic cities. Keep an eye on the blog for details of proposed trips for next year including Japan and Egypt.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

The Arts Festival

Last night we celebrated our Arts Festival. We started with Japanese drumming, had Jie singing Japanese rock and this was followed by African drumming. There were more amazing performances on the open stage with poetry readings, beat box, street dance as well as the drama performance, the Art and Photography exhibition and food and drink served in the school grounds. Thanks to all of those involved especially the Elliott Supporters and Mr Tucker.

KS3 Trip to Barcelona

A reminder that our departure details are as follows:
Tuesday 14th July • 13.30 Students assemble at Terminal 3 (NOT Terminal 5), Zone G, Heathrow Airport. Meet at the BA check-in desk.
• 16.40 Departure.
• 19.45 Arrival in Barcelona + transfer to hotel.
• Evening meal
• Visit to the Port Nou
Wednesday 15th May
• 08.00 Breakfast
• Visit the city – Parc Guell + Sagrada Familia
• Lunch
• Visit to the Camp Nou
• 19.00 Evening meal
• Barceloneta
Thursday 16th May• Full day excursion to Port Aventura theme park
Friday 17th May
• 08.00 Breakfast
• Visit the city
• Lunch
• 17.00 Depart hotel for the airport
• 20.35 Check-in
• Arrival at Heathrow, Terminal 3 – 21.45
¡Buen viaje!

Year 7 Trip to Paris

A reminder that our departure details are as follows:
Monday 13th July • Students meet at St Pancras Station at 07.00
• Departure for Paris 08.32
• Arrival Paris 11.47 + transfer to hotel (metro)
Tuesday 14th July
Bastille Day will be spent in the day at EuroDisney + we will return to Paris for the evening fireworks.
Wednesday 15th July
Day in Paris – Catacombs, Tour Montparnasse, Arc de Triomphe, Champs Elysées, etc.
Thursday 16th July
Cité des Science + central Paris
• Departure 19.13 (local time)
• Arrival in London 20.34
DON’T FORGET YOUR PASSPORT !!!!!
Merci !

Primary Italian

You can now listen to a mini presentation of the work produced by a group of Year 6 students who have been learning Italian as part of the masterclass programme run at Elliott School. You can hear the Podcast of their work on the following link: http://web.mac.com/sanferminuk
Ciao!

Podcast Updates (at last!)

Finally the podcast website has been updated for advanced level listening practice in French, German and Spanish. A large backlog of recordings and worksheets have been added.
The website address is:
http://tinyurl.com/3bkbnc

Language learning – the Obama view

“Why learn another language when everyone speaks English?” As you can see from the cilp below, Obama has clear views that this is not the case.

It is certainly not true that everyone speaks English. According to the CIA World Fact Book, only 5.6 % of the world’s total population speaks English as a primary language. That number doubles when people who speak English as a second or third language are counted. By conservative estimates, that means that well over four-fifths of the world’s population does not speak English.

It’s true that English has become a global common language over several decades; this fact, however, really should have little effect on your decision to learn a foreign language. The attitude that English alone is enough, in fact, creates self-imposed limitations. To remain monolingual is to stunt your educational development, to restrict your communication and thinking abilities, and to deny yourself the ability to fully appreciate and understand the world in which you live. Learning another language opens up new opportunities and gives you perspectives that you might never have encountered otherwise. Personal, professional, social, and economic considerations all point to the advantages of learning foreign languages.
done

The dangers of online translators

Online translators can be a blessing or a curse. If you don’t speak a word of a foreign language, an online translator can give you the gist of a web page’s meaning. However, the translation will likely be full of errors and strange wording. The following video link illustrates this point:
http://vodpod.com/watch/649296-a-wicked-deception
While online translators make huge mistakes there are a number of online dictionaries which are of great use to language learners. Here are some examples:
www.leo.org – German-English dictionary
www.collinslanguage.com – Online multilingual dictionary
www.wordreference.com – A really useful tool for looking up words, includes a foum to ask questions, and also comes with an iPhone app!

Revision – Spanish, French + German

A reminder to AS/A2 students that you can practise your listening skills using our school’s podcast site. The website is http://tinyurl.com/3bkbnc . Other sites that may be of use are:
SPANISH: www.teresasanchez.biz/podcast
FRENCH: www.french-podcasts.com
GERMAN: http://radio.sbs.com.au/language.php?language=German
GCSE students should remember that you can revise using the following sites:
FRENCH: www.zut.languageskills.co.uk
SPANISH: www.oye.languageskills.co.uk
GERMAN: www.gut.languageskills.co.uk
¡Suerte! Bonne Chance! Viel Glück!