Languages – Unlocking Your World

Before half term students were assembled in the Interactive Lecture Theatre for a presentation about the benefits of learning languages. In particular learning Spanish or French at GCSE. The talk was presented by Sonja Bernhard from the University of Manchester over two sessions for Spanish and French. In each session, Sonja was accompanied by students from the University of Manchester who were studying varying university courses including Spanish and Portugese, Marketing and Spanish, French and Chinese and Business and French.

Trinity students were encouraged to think about the benefits and prospects of learning a language in our society today as well as the opportunities it could bring in their lives. One of the main points discussed was that languages open many doors with this famous quote being shared. “One language sets you in a corridor for life, two languages open every door along the way.” (Franck Smith, Psycholinguist). At the end of the session pupils asked many questions to our guests including the reasons they chose to study languages.

More information can be accessed about the year 9 Options process on the school website. There are some short introductory videos for Spanish and French which are worth looking at. Thank you to Ms Knight for organising an informative a thought provoking event.