Wilson's School in Wallington recently hosted Modern Foreign Languages Week, during the week beginning November 13th. Every year, this period is full of activities that celebrate and connect a multitude of cultures from all over the world; an enriching experience amongst a diverse school community.

 

A few events returned in 2023, such as the Year 7 Boules competition (boules being a French sport that involves rolling metal balls as close as possible to a target one). Among these was also the International Bake Off, encouraging students to show off their culinary skills and a bit of culture in edible form. The entries this year certainly did not disappoint, with cakes impressive in both height and the intricacy of their decoration.

 

Language taster sessions also made a strong return this year, with a popularity that was somewhat unprecedented. Each lunchtime session is designed to allow students to learn little bits of languages that they may have never encountered before, in a both educational and engaging way. They are almost entirely student run, which is likely a reason for their appeal. Those leading the sessions seemed to be able to engage in a friendly and entertaining way with their fellow pupils to create an especially memorable language-learning experience. A Tamil taster session held in the MFL department of the school was certainly no exception to this. Hosted by three Year 10 students, the venue was already completely full a while before the session was even scheduled to start, causing a large crowd outside the doors to have to be turned away by teachers.

 

For those lucky enough to get a seat, however, the session looked to be nothing short of the memorable experience that was expected. Instead of the regular greetings or conversation openers, the focus of this session was on how love might be expressed in Tamil, a language spoken predominantly in parts of South India and Sri Lanka. A succession of humorous and engaging slides presented the quite difficult language in an exciting way, for everyone from beginners to experts. Audience member Vivek found it 'the most interactive and fun experience' that he'd had learning a language.

 

Following its consistent success year after year, MFL week is bound to be making another triumphant return in 2024.