Students have been both busy and very successful in the Languages Department this term.

International Languages Week

During International Languages Week, girls in teams of three or four completed a scavenger hunt around the school grounds, working out clues in Mandarin, French, German, Māori and Spanish, which directed them to nine different locations and then back to the Hall to claim their prizes.

They then had great fun learning and joining in with a Tahitian dance, taught and led by our French Language Assistant Teura.

Regional and National Speaking Competitions 

We have had a renewed emphasis on the spoken language in our classes this year, and the girls have fully embraced this, achieving some fantastic results in different regional and national speaking competitions.

In the recent French speech competition, the Concours Oral run by the Alliance Française, Columba girls swept the board with the following awards:

• Year 9 – 1st Prize Angela Fu, 2nd Prize Gemma O’Donnell, Excellence Laura Canton
  
• Year 10 – 1st Prize Hanin Taha, 2nd Prize Victoria Barrar, Excellence Tessa Campbell
  
• Year 11 – 1st Prize Abby Bowmar, 2nd Prize Georgia Francis, Excellence Eleanor Dunn
  
• Year 13 – 1st Prize Bethan Dunstone-Leitch, Excellence Ruby Edwards
  

Bethan has also competed in the National Finals of the Concours Oral, representing the Otago/Southland region, results pending.

In German, every year the Goethe Institut and ILEP (International Languages Exchanges and Pathways) award three PAD scholarships, funded by the German government, which pay for the winners to spend four weeks with a host family and touring different parts of Germany. The process is very competitive – Year 12 students of German across the whole country are interviewed by the National German Advisor, and then the 12 best are invited to a full immersion weekend in Wellington for the final interview. This year Lydia Christensen and Kate Truman got through to the final stage, and as a result Lydia has been awarded one of the prestigious scholarships and will be travelling to Germany next July.