MFL Newsletter, December 2021

NHEHS Modern Foreign Languages

NEWSLETTER - DECEMBER 2021

le bulletin. die Zeitschrift. El boletin. 通讯. Tōngxùn.

A special edition focussing on this year's theme: Language and The Arts

Artist profile: Graziella Schazad, an inspiration

by Carmel Webb

Graziella Schazad ist eine erfolgreiche Musikerin in Deutschland, die von zwei Eltern mit Migrationshintergrund stammt.

Ihr Vater kommt aus Afghanistan und als er 17 war, zog er nach Deutschland um Psychologie zu studieren. Als Graziella 6 war, kam ihre Mutter als Wirtschaftsflüchtling aus Polen und lebte in einem Flüchtlingslager Ihre Mutter hat aufgehört, polnisch mit ihr zu sprechen, was sie sehr bedauert

Graziella ist in Berlin aufgewachsen, wo sie sich sehr zuhause gefühlt hat, da es dort so multikulturell ist und sie gute Verbindungen zu ihrer Familie auf der ganzen Welt hat Als sie ihr Familienhaus verließ, ging sie nach Süddeutschland, um sich unabhängig zu machen und zog dann nach Hamburg, um bessere Möglichkeiten für ihre Musik zu haben

Sie kann die Geige, Gitarre und Klavier spielen und arbeitet auch als Sängerin und Songschreiber*in Sie sagt, dass die Erfahrungen ihrer Eltern ihre Musik geprägt hat- Zum Beispiel benutzt sie oft eine indische Trommel. Sie schreibt oft Lieder, um zu verarbeiten, wie sie sich fühlt, was oft mit anderen Geschichten verbunden ist. Sie hat mit ihren Liedern viel Erfolg in Deutschland und ihre Fangemeinde wächst zunehmend

die Eltern- parents die Sprache- language der Wirtschaftsflüchtling- economic migrant die Möglichkeiten- opportunities die Geschichten- stories

Second MFL Film Night Huge Success

We were delighted to welcome 50 viewers to our second film night on the 26th of November to enjoy the film Ostwind together over popcorn and German wines (for the grownups!)

Coming up next are Mandarin, Spanish and Italian - watch this space!

ARE YOU READY FOR CHRISTMAS?

Germany: Frohe Weihnachten

Frau Schindler Smith celebrates Christmas Eve exchanging presents and enjoying a fondue with the whole family

In Germany we have goose, potatoes and red cabbage for Christmas day and will play lots of board games in the afternoon China: 圣诞节快乐 Shèngdànjié kuàilè

On Christmas Eve people give each other apples, as the Chinese for Christmas Eve is 平安夜 Píng'ān yè, which sounds a bit like 苹果 píngguǒ。

People don’t celebrate Christmas widely in China, however young couples treat it a bit like Valentine’s Day France: Joyeux Noël In France, most people tend to celebrate Christmas eve with a big dinner with family and we open the presents at midnight!

A traditional Christmas meal would include a starter, a fish or seafood starter, a main course, cheeses and the traditional christmas log or “bûche de Noël” Spain: ¡Feliz Navidad! In Spain, Christmas is celebrated between the 24th December and 6th January. However, the festivities start with the ‘Lotería de Navidad’

Instead of the traditional turkey, in Spain seafood plays a big part in a Christmas meal. Lobster and prawns are very popular!

The Stephen Spender Prize is an annual competition for poetry in translation, with different categories for the various age groups (under-14, under-16, and under-18) as well as an open category for adults. All entrants must be UK or Irish citizens or residents, or pupils at a British School overseas This year three girls from Notting Hill & Ealing High School won the Under 14 category

The little girl said, "Mum, there's a cat in the room across the hall from our basement " Her mother said, "Well then, there's a cat Come on, eat " The little girl and her mother were eating lunch.

The little girl said, "It can't get out " Her mother said, "Well then, it can't get out " The little girl said, "It's yowling." Her mother said, "Well then, it's yowling "

The little girl got a little impatient with her mother's inattentiveness Her tone increased and sped up "It won't stop yowling " Her mother said, "Ahhh, really? Why?"

The little girl lost her temper! She dropped her bowl of rice "Because it can't get out!"

Translation by Nadia Mubgar-Spencer

The Temple by the Stars

Translated by Adeline Goh

Against the blissful starry night stands

A temple which can be seen across the lands, Hundreds of feet high and dangerously tall It seems as if it is about to fall I stand inside the sacred temple, So close to the stars, and I am careful Not to make a noise, or I may disturb Heaven; they may have overheard Without making the slightest noise, I reach for the star, However, it is impossible to touch because it is so far From me and where I stand Gazing into the distance across the land. Against the constellations in the sky Lives a temple, where the eye Can see everything across the lands Right from where the temple stands.

Adeline’s Notes

When translating 夜宿山寺, my direct translation didn’t rhyme or flow very well; to overcome this I decided to slightly tweak the word order and choices, but I had to make sure it didn’t stray too far away from the poem I also found that it wasn’t very structured, so I decided to repeat the first two lines of the first verse at the end, but slightly altered it Another decision that I had to make throughout was trying to make the poem my own without changing the meaning or tone of the poem –the poem has a quite soft tone to it, so I had to try and maintain that In addition, there is also a part about the narrator trying to touch a star, which was a bit of a challenge to try and not only find how to add it so that it flowed, but to also make it rhyme with the other lines and maintain a steady rhythm.

All the birds

Translated by Matilda Hardman

All the birds are already there, all birds, all!

What singing, making music, Whistling, chirping, trilling!

Spring wants to march in now, She comes with song and sound How happy they all are, nimble and glad to move! Blackbird, Thrush, Finch and Star And the whole flock of birds Wish you a happy year, Nothing but salvation and blessings We take to heart what they announce to us. We all want to be happy, Happy like the little birds, Here and there, field out, field in,

Matilda’s Notes

This poem expresses joy and cheer, as evident from the repeated exclamatives and includes some quite detailed descriptions of “the birds”. As this poem employs a variety of adjectives, I was able to substitute different adjectives fairly easily in order to avoid repetition or breaking the poem’s rhythm in my translation. It was challenging at times to find an adjective that both made sense and fitted the metre of the poem, hence why I translated the adjective “Tirilieren” as “trilling” instead of “caterwauling” to comply with the two disyllabic words before it. My greatest obstacle in translating this poem was deciphering the line, “Frühling will nun einmarschiern,” I had to test out various combinations of this sentence by substituting in synonyms and shuffling the word order around I was initially very confused by the verb, “einmaschiern” which is directly translated as “to mash up” but after much searching of my thesaurus, I found out this could also be translated as “to march”, personifying spring and creating a delicate, natural image in the reader’s mind Finally, I chose not to make this poem rhyme as I felt like it would have deprived it of its depth and meaning. Had I made it rhyme, it would have created an inappropriate playful tone I also like the way the poem has an irregular structure and uses enjambment as it reflects the freedom of the birds and the random nature of the poet’s thoughts

Chinese Calligraphy

Translated by Millie Farrell for Marcelline Delbecq

The gray light extinguishes the twilight She is sitting there on the couch

there at the edge of the empty armchair in the empty apartment

She holds herself her black eyes untangling the black branches of the tree that barricades the window

Millie’s Notes

When translating my poem I had a few things that I changed just to make it run smoother and sound better in English however I really liked the original poem and the words used so I didn’t change much Firstly I changed ‘the grays of the light’ to ‘the gray light’ because the original version wasn’t grammatically correct in English. Then I changed ‘there at the edge of, the armchair, empty in the apartment, empty’ to ‘there at the edge of the empty armchair in the empty apartment’ because the word order wasn’t quite right in translation and because I personally prefer this word order too The next thing I changed is the part that says’ she stands straight’ and converted that into ‘ she holds herself’ because she is supposed to be sitting on the armchair and then it sounds like she is standing when really it just means that she is sitting up in the armchair The last thing I changed was ‘who’ to ‘that’ because it isn’t grammatically correct in English in the context of the line and also because the tree is not a person I thought it would be better to use that. I changed a few bits in this poem, not really for style but to make it more grammatically correct in English

Tai-Chi!

A fun trip to the Spanish Film Festival

Zara Bhayani, Chloe Papageorgiou and Bella Farlow

On Thursday 23rd September, the Spanish A Level students were treated to an amazing evening trip to see “Cuñados” at Ciné Lumière in Kensington, as part of the annual Spanish film festival held there A group of about fifteen of us from year 12 and 13 made our way there after school to meet our teachers, extremely excited for the comedy The entire film was hilarious and it was great to practise our listening skills in such a fun way! We all look forward to similar opportunities in the future

Cuñados centres around two main characters, Eduardo and his brother-in-law Sabonis, who are in urgent need of money due to Alicia Zamora, an entrepreneur who deceived them by not signing a form The two brother-in-laws decide that as a solution, they will kidnap Mod-esto, the brother-in-law of Zamora and hold him for ransom However, there is a slight issue Zamora does not care in the slightest and will not give them any money. After a night of drinking together in the family wine cellar, the three become friends and decide to steal money from Zamora in order to get the money that they need At the end of the film, they find themselves successful and are able to keep supporting their family winery Throughout the film, we see side-plots to do with personal relationships, for example, the divorce of Sabonis and his wife, as well as the family d

Artist Profile: Edith Piaf

by Yasmin Clifford

C

E , née en 1 our son i le était é me Piaf’, s taire de c

Quel style de chant a-t-elle utilisé?

Style cabaret, chanson, théâtre musical… sa musique était souvent autobiographique Chansons célèbres?

La Vie en Rose. Non, Je ne regrette rien. Hymne à l'Amour

Qu'est ce qui a influencé ses chansons?

Son histoire romantique et familiale mouvementée a grandement influencé ses chansons Tout d'abord, elle a été abandonnée par sa mère quand elle était bébé, et elle a passé son enfance dans une maison de prostitution Plus tard, elle a rejoint son père en travaillant dans son cirque. À 17 ans, elle a eu un enfant, qui est malheureusement décédé deux ans plus tard Après cela, elle a eu deux mariages et était l'amante de Marcel Cerdan, décédé dans un accident d’avion en 1949. Sa mort était une inspiration pour la chanson 'Hymne a l'Amour', sortie l'année suivante En général, ses chansons mettent l’accent sur les sentiments qu’elle a traversé pendant sa vie Circonstances de sa mort?

Elle a développé des addictions à l'alcool et aux drogues Elle a aussi eu trois accidents de voiture Malheureusement, elle est morte à 47 ans, probablement à cause d’une insuffisance hépatique

Year 9 Poetry

Year 9 Wrote poems in the style of Jacques Prévert This is one of our favourites!

La Tempête

Jasmine De Rosa Rachid

Dans ma maison Avec mon père Qui dort sur la chaise

Le chien dort à côté de moi Sur le long canapé

La pluie tape sur la fenêtre Et le vent hurle dehors

Je suis assise devant la télé, Je bois du thé Je pense au soleil et la chaleur Et comment j’aimerais être sur une plage Avec le bourdonnement des vagues et le chant des oiseaux

Loin du froid et de la douleur Que je sens brûler à l'intérieur de moi

La douleur qui me fait me sentir froide et vide Comme l’orage dehors, elle tonne dans mon cœur.

La pluie: The rain

Le vent: the wind Dehors: outside La chaleur: the heat

Les vagues: the waves La douleur: the pain

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