Year 11 Languages Trip to Royal Holloway

On Friday 17th January, 20 Year 11 linguists went to Royal Holloway College to participate in a day of talks and discussions about the value and importance of studying languages at university, run by Languages For All. We listened to a lecture by an Italian professor on ‘reading’ Dolce & Gabbana adverts, and then split into small groups so that our students could talk to professionals from different fields about how languages studies have helped them in their careers, and how they use languages in their jobs now. Several students said that the conversations had made them think again about their A Level choices!

We had lunch in a big square overlooking the impressive Victorian Founder’s Building, and were then shown around campus by a student ambassador, who also told us all about what student life is like. She advised the students to study what they feel passionate about and said that they would never regret this.

After our tour, we split into groups for beginner sessions in a language we hadn’t studied before. In the French session, we learnt about intonation and making sure that our French phrases finish with emphasis. Standing up straight and throwing our arms out helped with this.

The last session was a lecture by Chris Dennis, a multilingual sports journalist, whose languages skills have taken him all over the world and given him access to sports people who would rather not be interviewed in English. His stories about the power and fun of being multilingual were certainly inspiring, and we left campus armed with goody bags and even more enthusiasm to keep studying languages!