Language Exchanges
Our linguists have been expanding their horizons beyond the classroom with exchanges across the globe.
At South Hampstead we celebrate the many advantages of language learning. This term, our GCSE German students welcomed their exchange partners from the Goethe Gymnasium in Berlin Lichterfelde. Having stayed with host families in Germany last summer, our Year 11 pupils welcomed their exchange partners to London this term – a wonderful opportunity to strengthen friendships and build connections. Students worked together in lessons and shared experiences whilst gaining confidence in their language skills and deepening their appreciation of another culture; embracing new opportunities, one boy bravely joined his first netball game!
Our Spanish students have had the opportunity to listen and learn through online sessions with our new partner schools in Colombia and Ecuador. Year 7 have been chatting about their hobbies and picking up new Colombian vocabulary, whilst our A Level students have enjoyed animated discussions with students in Quito, learning about local customs and bonding over football. The pupils in Cali were intrigued by the lack of boys at South Hampstead, whilst our own pupils were surprised to discover their counterparts had iguanas on their school grounds. Grace in Year 7 commented: “I loved the cultural exchange. It was a great way to talk to other people and get to know what learning is like to different countries.”
At South Hampstead, all pupils study French, German, Mandarin or Spanish in Year 7, adding a second language in Years 8 and 9, with many choosing to continue beyond GCSE. Trips to London’s Austrian cafés and Chinatown’s restaurants encourage pupils to practise in person, and numerous trips abroad for homestays, work experience and cultural exchanges provide further opportunities for immersion.
An Upper Sixth student, who has been offered a place at Magdalen College, Oxford, to study English Literature & Modern Languages, recently wrote an article on the value of studying languages: “As Baudelaire puts it: ‘Is art useful? Yes. Why? Because it is art.’ Languages, too, are ‘useful’ for their own sake. If the future is one of AI glasses, or even chips in our brains which can translate every word from every language on the spot, then surely learning languages for the literature, for the culture – for the fundamentally human bits – will be one of the most fulfilling, interesting, and challenging things we can do.”