By: Joe Lipman, Year 12


On Friday 20th April, the Year 12 language students went up to the University of East Anglia in Norwich for a Language Revision Day. After some bumpy country roads up to Norwich, we finally made our way to the grand, modern campus of UEA. We were greeted by student ambassadors who later accompanied us for the rest of the day.

Full of excitement and raring to engage in a full day of language learning, we were handed a timeline of what was going to happen during the day. We began our journey in one of the Universities lecture theatres where we received a talk by a current French lecturer about the positives of; studying languages at university, studying languages at UEA and finally about the importance of preventing the extinction of some languages that are close to “dying”. This swift lecture, taught us a lot about the amount of different languages spoken around the world and the vast scope of areas a student studying languages can then go into as a profession.

Before arriving at UEA, we were asked to select a number of different taster sessions that would interest us. These varied from “Beginners Japanese” to “Subtitling” to “Translation in Professional Sport”. After the opening lecture, we were separated into groups depending on which taster session we picked. In these groups, we went off and got a quick insight into the different ways in which languages can be used in professional as well as everyday life. This was a great experience as it showed us the many possibilities that language students have in the working world and overall the short lectures were made entertaining and very interactive.

For the final part of the day we received some oral practice by speaking to both French/Spanish lecturers and students at the University. We engaged in direct dialogue on a number of different topics for around two hours. A challenging experience that proved very valuable by the end as a number of us felt that they were far more confident with their oral language skills coming out of the session then going in. It was a unique experience to be able to be placed in an environment heavily dominated by the language we are studying, an experience that is nearly impossible to achieve without going to the native speaking country.

Overall, the day was a great success. A mixture of both fun, interactive talks and challenging but important oral practice. We left the UEA feeling very happy and grateful for the warm welcome we received. Mr Dyer and Miss Baudas said they thoroughly enjoyed looking over their students as they engaged in some live role-playing exercises that will help the development of their language greatly.

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