Hola! Spanish has arrived at Roncalli!

Hola! Spanish has arrived at Roncalli! This year we welcomed Mr Reuben Fletcher to our small Languages Department. Reuben has come in from the cold, after spending a year teaching in Invercargill. He and his wife are happily installed in Timaru, and Señor Fletcher has already begun to make his mark here, teaching in three different departments.

He currently teaches two Spanish classes, starting with the Year 9s; each Year 9 class is given a term’s introduction to the Spanish language and some culture. In Year 10, those students who want to pursue a language (having had a taster of French last year) have opted in to Spanish for the year, though there is the possibility of completing one semester, and then moving on to a different option for the final two terms of the year. If numbers allow, we intend to introduce Spanish in Year 11, starting in 2019.

French continues to be taught at senior level, with a very focused group of Year 11 girls and two brave Year 12 boys! These students are working via Te Kura, the Correspondence School, encouraged and supported by Mme Thomas.

As we did not undertake our traditional biennial trip to one of the French-speaking Pacific islands last year (due to low numbers and the relatively high cost of such a trip), I have offered the two Year 12 boys the opportunity of participating in a Swiss Exchange at the end of this year. This involves hosting a student from one of the French-speaking cantons of Switzerland (Geneva, Valais, Fribourg, Neuchatel, Vaud and Jura) in the middle of the year, and going to stay with that student’s family in our summer holidays, for around 8 weeks. Dollar for dollar, this trip is much more reasonably priced and the cultural and linguistic benefits will be immense. I would love to see this become a reality for our current French students!

Throughout New Zealand, the number of students taking a foreign language in secondary school continues to decline (from 24% in 2000 to 19%) though there is a renewed effort to reverse this. The new government has acknowledged that we seem to be out of step with the rest of the world where the value of learning to understand and speak a second language is recognised and well documented. For those students who find such study interesting, a world of opportunity awaits!

Vive le français ! Viva l’espagñol !

Mrs S Thomas