Languages Week

St Cuthbert’s Languages Week

Bonjour, Hola, Kia ora, Ni hao, Salvete! Each year, Languages Week provides a wonderful opportunity for us to celebrate not just the languages taught at St Cuthbert’s, but those also spoken by our diverse community of staff and students.

This year, our annual celebration of languages was launched by Professor Robert Greenberg, Dean of Arts at the University of Auckland. As well as English, Professor Greenberg speaks Russian, Bosnian Croatian, Serbian, Macedonian, Bulgarian, Hebrew, French, German, Slovenian and Czech, among others! He has also started to learn Te Reo Māori, Korean and Japanese just to add to the list. When Professor Greenberg lost his sight during his postgraduate study at Yale, he took a year off to learn Braille. He then returned to university and completed his PhD at the age of 29. Professor Greenberg emphasised how the ability to speak a foreign language immediately transcends differences and creates an instant connection between people. His story is one of resilience, adaptability and academic brilliance which inspired the students in his presence.

Students were then involved in a range of activities across the week to celebrate the languages and cultures within our College.

It was particularly heart-warming to see our Senior girls assuming such a leadership role with our Juniors. Many of our Senior School linguists spent time introducing girls from Years 0 – 6 to Latin, Chinese, Spanish and Te Reo Māori. Our Junior School girls learn French yearround, but this was taken to the next level with fun games led by their ‘Big Sisters’. The Junior School also held a wonderful cultural fashion parade.

In the Senior School, the Year 7 students were involved in an artistic model recreation, while the Year 8 students had so much fun competing in teams against each other in an epic 50-minute quiz about the languages taught at St Cuthbert’s. The Tutor Group Quiz saw all Senior School students testing their language knowledge, with IAKAH crowned the champions. It was a riot of colour and fashion when a huge number of students embraced the opportunity to try on a range of different traditional Chinese costumes. A treasure hunt looking for ancient Roman coins immediately garnered the attention of future archaeologists, while future art historians

were given the challenge of recreating a famous artwork from a range of different cultures. The week culminated with the Food Truck carnival where an array of different sweet and savoury options from different cultures were on offer.

Head of Subject: Languages, Rob Griffiths shares the importance of studying a language (or five)!

“There are of course the fancy neuro cognitive benefits which show that languages activate areas in the brain which enhance skills like mental processing and memory. Studying a language is like going to a gym but for your brain. It’s the equivalent of a mental workout. Just as importantly though, studying a language connects you to other cultures, allows you to meet other people and broadens your mind. Plus it’s fun!”

The Austrian philosopher, Ludwig Wittgenstein, famously pronounced that “The limits of my language are the limits of my world.” It is hoped that Languages Week opened the hearts and minds of students to a world beyond their own.

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