Festival of Languages: Celebrating Linguistic Diversity
This month Dulwich College Shanghai Puxi Senior School celebrated our Festival of Languages. We have many talented, multilingual students in our school, and the purpose of the Festival of Languages was to celebrate the rich linguistic diversity of our community and to raise awareness of lesser-known languages.
‘Search for My Tongue’
by Sujata Bhatt
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The Festival of Languages commenced with a video showcasing the mother tongues spoken by some of our students. Students from across the College delivered lines from the poem ‘Search for My Tongue’ by Sujata Bhatt in their native languages.
The poem looks at the challenges one may face when using a language that is not their mother tongue and how it feels to suppress the instinct to communicate in a home language. The poem beautifully demonstrated the complicated relationship our students may face when considering their language and identity. We listened to some of our multilingual students share the difficulties they faced when first beginning their education in a different language, but also considering the benefits they feel it has brought and the opportunities it can provide in the future.
Immersive Activities to Celebrate Language and Culture
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On Tuesday, our Key Stage 3 students had the pleasure of experiencing some exciting immersion-based activities. Students participated in a Flamenco workshop with a native speaker who introduced the history of the dance and taught some core movements, ending in a routine showing this lively, traditional dance style – all delivered in Spanish!
The students then proceeded to the Spanish tapas bar where they were welcomed by their Spanish-speaking hosts. In the restaurant experience, they were challenged to order their food and drinks in Spanish, as well as deal with any unwanted problems that may arise! Both experiences enabled our foreign language learners to be fully immersed in authentic opportunities to use the language they have been studying in class. This feels especially important as we move away from the restrictions of the pandemic and students can put their learning into live action at last!
Throughout the week, students participated in problem-solving activities to work out the original origins of some idiomatic expressions (such as the Japanese expression: ‘dumplings instead of flowers’) and some common English loan words (e.g. ‘coffee’ taken from Arabic and ‘ballet’ taken from French).
During their language classes, students experienced some new and less-familiar languages, participating in French and German taster sessions. Students made links and drew comparisons between their knowledge of their current foreign language option, Spanish, and the newly introduced language to help them make meaning. Finally, the week ended with a lunchtime foreign film screening of ‘Le Petit Nicolas’. This was an exciting chance to experience a classic French comedy and the unique French film style which was well received by the students.
Festival of Languages was a fun and immersive week, helping our students to bridge the gap between language and culture, experience some new languages, and deepen their understanding of the multilingual heritage of their peers. We can’t wait to see how this annual festival will continue to develop in the future.
