Spanish Department

Visita a Gredos

In the summer holidays of 2017, 40 Year 8 and 9 girls took part in the first Spanish department trip to an activity centre in the Gredos Mountains in Spain. It was a great success and they benefited from a superb linguistic and cultural experience. The girls enjoyed a variety of activities, including sporting activities conducted in Spanish. The food was excellent, but you did need to speak Spanish to be served! There was also time for visits to Salamanca and Ávila which we all agreed were beautiful cities and girls also had some shopping time which they made full use of. We are looking forward to our next trip in 2019

“The Gredos trip gave me an opportunity to improve my Spanish skills and try out new activities, as well as familiarising myself with Spanish culture. I had the chance to try out: t-shirt painting, a Spanish cookery class, an adventure ropes course, a nature walk, archery, making a TV programme, orienteering, swimming and some thoroughly enjoyable trips into the city. Personally, I most enjoyed making and starring in a “telenovela”, as I was able to put across my personality and humour in an entirely different language. Overall the trip massively improved my Spanish speaking, listening, reading and writing skills by challenging me with new phrases and unfamiliar words and it has helped me gain confidence in my linguistic ability.” Lily Rimmer 10D

Pasaporte de Trabajo Independiente Studying Foreign Languages Entrevista con Nuria nuestra lectora

This year we have launched a new “Pasaporte de Trabajo Independiente” to record all the extra independent learning that the girls complete beyond their Spanish lessons. Three girls in 7B, Iman Javaid, Kashaf Ashraf and Eimaan Murtazza have excelled themselves and were awarded a Headmistress’s Commendation. Iman, who completed forty extra pieces of work, says, “I really enjoyed filling in my Independent Learning Passport! I would recommend using Quizlet as it’s a great app for making your own quizzes and there are lots of different ways to test yourself.” Kashaf says that her favourite apps were Duolingo and Linguascope and she completed 50 independent learning activities. Well done, girls! In October sixty-five of our talented linguists took part in a language event to find out more about the value of languages and the opportunities available for further study and within the world of work. Sonya Bernhard from Manchester University gave the girls a wealth of information about the different degree options available for studying languages including combinations with other subjects such as Economics, Science, Maths, History, Engineering & Law. Girls were then given a glimpse of the difficulties & delights of the “year abroad” by Old Girl Izzy Sabini. Izzy used a picture of her skydiving on the last day of her time in Spain to sum up the slightly daunting thrills of this experience. Girls also had a new language taster session in either Mandarin, Russian or Arabic to highlight the possibility of studying languages “ab initio” at university. The quote below sums up the message of the event: “One language sets you in a corridor for life. Two languages open every door along the way.”

Frank Smith Psycholinguist Year 8 have been practising their questioning skills by interviewing Nuria our language assistant and then doing some clever verb manipulation to write up their findings in the third person. This group also took on the extra challenge of incorporating 3 tenses! Se llama Nuria Roig y tiene 51 años. Vive en Worsley en el oeste de Manchester. Su barrio es muy bonito pero no hay muchas tiendas. Tampoco hay muchas instalaciones. Su casa es bastante grande y le gusta mucho. También tiene un jardín. En el futuro le gustaría vivir en Barcelona porque es su ciudad. Tiene do hermanas mayors, pero no tiene hermanos. Tiene un pez que es naranja y bastante grande. Le encantan los peces porque le gusta el mar. Pero no tiene un perro porque no le gustan los perros. Prefiere los gatos. En su tiempo libre hace deporte. Por ejemplo le encanta hacer la natación. A veces hace atletismo. También le gusta mucho salir con sus amigos o su familia. El fin de semana pasado fue a Manchester y luego trabajó en su jardín. Nos parece una persona muy simpática. Amaani Adam, Hollie Asquith, Yaqeen Alkaabi & Rumaysa Ahmed