07/07/2010
04/30/2010
What are some of our TBGS students doing with their languages?
Here you can follow the experiences of some of our language students, what do they do once they finish their A Levels? How do they use their languages? Could this be you in a few years' time?
Joe Brook (2002 - 2009)
'The world is full of cultures. To tap in to these cultures effectively, you speak their languages.'
Hi. I'm Joe Brook. Studied Spanish for 7 years at TBGS. Applied for a deferred entry to read Spanish and Arabic at Exeter University and got the ticket! Why such a bizarre combination? Spanish because I've already studied and enjoyed it for so long I didn't want to give it up. Plus, it's the 3rd most spoken language in the world, with an increasing dominance in the USA. Arabic because of the highly important political, environmental and religious place it is and will continue to take on a world-wide stage.
Choosing to take a gap year was a good idea; to travel with Spanish up my sleeve made it a great idea. Although the initial Portuguese barrier halted progress in Brazil, as I crossed the border to Argentina, the statement I began with became so true. Overall I spent 3 months in South America, and here are a few things that speaking the native language 'tapped' me in to:
· Finding out and cooking national delicacies (adobo) for the hostel I stayed at in Cuzco, Peru and seeking out the best, and safest, nightclubs in La Paz
· Travelling for a month with four Argentineans; learning the differences between their and our cultures, picking up new words or phrases, continually improving my Spanish, making friends for life!
· Playing rugby in Argentina, then being invited to watch the team play in one of the biggest regional tournaments of the year, followed by eating 'asado' (an assortment of every cut of meat imaginable!) with the elite players from Buenos Aires!
· Enjoying bartering at the street markets; purchasing a whopping pair of silver earrings (for my sister of course!) and a poncho (not for my sister!) for half of their selling price
· Working at an orphanage; teaching English and giving them the chance of a job beyond farming, consoling and encouraging the orphans in their native tongue, discovering and willingly offering to pay the 5 Peruvian Soles (equivalent of 80 pence) to print the photos allowing one of the kids to apply for higher education, laughing and joking whilst playing football in the rain and mud, becoming a friend who can listen, understand and help
· Hiking Machu Picchu, crossing the Salt Plains of Bolivia, biking the Death Trail in La Paz and understand what the guides are saying!
I left each country with a much greater awareness of how its people lived than the average Joe tourist who speaks little or no Spanish. Bring on University. Bring on the Middle East!
Rose Aylett (2002-2004)
I moved to TGGS in 2002 to undertake my sixth-form studies, but at that time, (to my great dismay!) the girls school still didn’t offer the opportunity to study an A-Level in Spanish - one of the most important and widely spoken languages in the world! Fortunately, however, luck was on my side, as Mrs Foster came to the rescue and together with 4 friends, I became part of the first ever A-Level Spanish class at Torquay Boys.
It was my knowledge of Spanish that took me to Chile in my Gap-Year, where I spent six months teaching English in a school just outside of the country’s capital, Santiago. The school was situated in a beautiful area - nestled amongst Chile’s finest vineyards and lying in the shadow of the great Andes mountain range. I lived there with a host family – by far the best way to learn a language – who “adopted” me for the duration of my stay. I was treated like their very own daughter and I am still in touch with my “host sisters” now, five years on.
During the half year I spent in South America I travelled widely, visiting sites such as Machu Pichu, Lake Titicaca and Tierra del Fuego National Park. My Spanish greatly improved and being able to speak the language allowed me to communicate with local people on a more person level, in turn gaining a real sense of the vibrant culture of the continent and what it is like to live there.
Returning to the UK, I studied for three years at Durham University, graduating in 2008 with a BA in Theology and Philosophy. During my time at university I took every possible opportunity to travel, picking up a few words and phrases of different languages as I went. In a few months time I will be 24 and have travelled to 27 different countries. I have lost count of the number of languages in which I can say “hello”, “thank you” and “goodbye”!
I am currently living in Cairo, Egypt, where I work as an English teacher at the British Council’s third largest teaching centre in the world. Each term 2,000 students pass through our doors, and I stay friends with many of those from my classes, which gives me a great opportunity to practise my rather limited Arabic! Whilst living in the Middle East has its challenges, I love the climate and the hospitality of this incredible part of the world and will miss it greatly when I eventually decide it is time to come home!
Rose Aylett
Nicholas Coulson (1997 - 2004)
In year 13 after considering just about every other degree and career possible, I decided to study Chinese and Economics at Leeds. I wanted to adventure, but didn't want to lose the scholarly momentum that a gap year might interrupt. Studying Chinese offered a year in this mysterious far away land that few had been too, experience of a totally different culture and way of thinking, a different political system and it was the new land of opportunity. Economics, whilst not so romantic, was all the rage, the career of the moment, and it was deeply ingrained in the Anglo-Saxon way of thinking was that economics was something that all our leaders and those who wanted to overthrow their leaders needed to understand, furthermore not considering myself a natural linguist I thought it would be useful to have another toned skill accompanying my languages. My degree would be challenging and exciting, lofty and adventurous! I romantically envisioned the plane descending over curved traditional Chinese buildings with dragons protecting them from the bad spirits, whilst panda's roamed the streets happily cuddling all the children who passed by singing revolutionary anthems.
In my degree I experienced three years living in Leeds. Similar, yet strikingly different to home. A reminder that there is plenty of cultural diversity within our country alone. Following this I spent a year in China, ascending mountains, traversing gorges and rice paddies. I sat in Tibetan nomad yurts eating very suspect yogurt and dried beef, saw the towering metropolises in HK, climbed walls into the emperors summer getaway, got attacked by monkeys on Emei Shan, tried out various types of Kung Fu, spent a year living amongst hippie artists in Taiwan. Indirectly I also explored Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia in the process, conquering jungles and once, once alone on an active volcanic mountain that erupted every 30 seconds, i had set off late so was parkouring up the hill in the dark of night, out of season, not encountering another human soul for hours, and crawling back the last few hours after my knees had given out.
You can study Brain Surgery and become a Brain Surgeon. You can study languages and you can do almost anything. Languages opened up a lot for me. Fluency in another language multiplies your advantage of being a native English speaker, especially a British English speaker, partly because you’re competing against one of the most linguistically weak nations. Most of all is choice. Choice on where you live. Choice to have the freedom to move to, to float, to change. You have the chance to explore a plethora of options without having to commit so early. Even in countries with a high English level you can build more rapport, more trust, and more relationships if you can communicate in the local language. As your language proficiency is increasing, and you’re not wasting time whilst you are in the country of your language you can try anything out. I have translated, interpreted. I have tried out and am still learning about journalism, editing, networking, film and video. I am translating and conducting interviews for an international documentary film festival in October, and looking at the possibilities of following down that direction. Alternatively you can choose to start working your way up the ladder whilst I have yet to put too set myself on a career path, the amount of options open to me and the paths my former language classmates have taken are vast and exciting. In the meantime your ability to merge into a culture and live in the countries where your languages are prevalent allows you to experience other things. I have studied various Kung Fu's, joined a Japanese Butoh dance troupe, talked the intricacies of the world throughout the night with people who have grown up a million worlds away from my own. I have been charmed by the exotique of the east, then by understanding the other I have learnt to love my own culture.
Nicholas Coulson
English Editor
eRenlai Magazine
www.erenlai.com
Dan Harper (2000 - 2007)
When I was deciding what to study at university I only really knew that I wanted to have a year abroad and that I wanted to live in Manchester, so because I had started Spanish in year 10 and carried on to A-level I applied to do Spanish with various languages at various unis to keep my options open. I don’t really remember the exact reason that I chose Chinese, but I think it was because I had already done German and French at school and I wanted to do something new.
I’m now in my 3rd year at the University of Manchester and am coming to the end of my year abroad. I spent September to February living in Seville where I was a full-time student of the Universidad de Sevilla, doing the same courses and exams as the Spanish students and living in an apartment right in the centre city centre. Since the end of February I have been in Guangzhou in the South of China (next to Hong Kong), where we do 3½ hours a day of intensive Chinese language lessons at Sun-Yat Sen University whilst living on the campus in the city.
Both experiences have been as good as each other but very different at the same time. In China my improvement in the language is at least 100 times faster than when I was learning it back at home and there has been a lot of focus on that. I have also had the chance to experience life in a developing country which is something I never thought I would do, and it really couldn’t be any more different to home. As well as getting to know Guangzhou and eating everyday in the local “restaurants” for less than a pound, I have also spent a couple of weekends in Hong Kong and Macau (Asia’s Las Vegas) which are a completely different to mainland China or anywhere I have been before.
Spain was as much about trying to experience the Spanish culture and day to day life as trying to improve at speaking the language. My life in Spain revolved around eating really nice food and going out in some amazing cities at an age when I can really appreciate everything it has to offer (whilst being paid by the government to be there through ERASMUS).
Living abroad and actually using the languages is the only thing that has made all of the hundreds of dull hours of learning grammar and vocabulary seem worthwhile and I really wish I could have spent a full year in both countries. I will actually be taking a year break from Manchester next year, as since I have arrived in China the opportunity has come up to move to Beijing with a couple of my mates and carry on studying at a university there. However, I also have no doubt that I’ll spend some time a Spanish speaking country once I graduate, and I honestly believe that without the year abroad there is no way I would be doing anything like this!
Dominic Falcao (2002 - 2009)
He trabajado y estudiado 5 meses en Salamanca. Aunque eso pueda parecer mucho tiempo, ha pasado tan rápidamente que no me puedo creer que todo ya está terminado. He hecho amigos que voy a tener durante toda mi vida, y tengo experiencias que han cambiado mucho mi punto de vista. Y, también, he mejorado un poco (tal vez bastante) mi español. Al llegar aquí era como si hubiera empezado una nueva vida, una nueva etapa en mi desarrollo personal.
4 horas cada día de clases, 4 horas 'trabajando'. Y tener clases aquí es poco parecido a Inglaterra: todo es en español, y casi tres horas son sólo para la gramática. Luego, trabajar exige que hables en español todo el tiempo, hay que entender tareas y órdenes rápidamente usando español en un contexto super-útil y muy pertinente para futuros trabajos. En mi trabajo he hecho muchas cosas muy diferentes, por ejemplo, "Paintballing", clases de salsa, y hablar por teléfono con españoles todos los días.
Y la ciudad.. pues, es una de las más bonitas ciudades en toda España. Y lo mejor ha sido que he tenido una vida social muy activa, he conocido a personas de todos los continentes y casi la mayoría de los países de Europa. Encima, he vivido con dos personas de China, y mientras he estado aprendiendo español he ido aprendiendo sobre la cultura de China también.
Si tienes el tiempo y las ganas, os sugiero que por lo menos viajéis aquí, a Salamanca.
04/07/2010
03/30/2010
La milla de Agatha Christie
Report done for Spanish Television - click on link below to watch the report
http://www.rtve.es/mediateca/videos/20100330/cuadernos-secretos-agatha-christie/733591.shtml
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What can you do when you know languages?
16 Spanish journalists come to Torquay to interview John Curran, author of Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebooks
A team of 16 Spanish journalists from all the main newspapers, Spanish TV and EFE Agency (Reuters Spanish equivalent) spent Tuesday 23rd and Wednesday 24th April in Devon to interview John Curran and visit all the places related to Agatha Christie: The Grand Hotel, The Pavilion, Princess Gardens, Agatha Christie’s bust and shop, Torquay Museum, The Imperial Hotel, Beacon Cove, Greenway (her summer house by the River Dart), Dartmouth and Burgh Island.
John Curran, expert on Agatha Christie’s work, discovered in Greenway nearly 30 years after her death, the hand written 73 notebooks and two unpublished stories. The journalists wanted to visit all the places and interview John Curran this week because the Spanish version of Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebooks is coming out in Spain this week.
The tourist office phoned Torquay Boys' Grammar School asking if we would be able to help out providing an interpreter for the group for the two-day visit. It has been an outstanding experience for Mrs Foster for three reasons:
a) what it was about, the information about the discovery of the notebooks and all the knowledge John Curran has about Agatha Christie’s work
b) visiting all these places related to Agatha Christie and finding out about them all
c) the whole experience of going round with a group of journalists and cameramen from Spanish TV and all the most important newspapers and EFE Agency, something that Mrs Foster had never done before
Languages are extremely important in today’s world and being able to speak other languages can offer people very interesting experiences such as what Mrs Foster did.
Agatha Christie's mile - Spanish
GRAND HOTEL
Fue en este precioso hotel de cuatro estrellas donde Agatha y Archie pasaron su luna de miel tras su boda en Bristol en Noche Buena, 1914. Dos días más tarde, Agatha viajó a Londres con su marido y se despidió de él cuando se fue a la guerra en Francia. No le volvió a ver hasta seis meses de nuevo y casi seis años hasta que su vida de casados pudiera empezar de verdad. Merece la pena ir al Grand Hotel para tomar un café a media mañana o un té a media tarde.
LA ESTACION DE TRENES DE TORQUAY
En 1990, como parte de las celebraciones de Torquay del centenario de Agatha Christie, el Expreso de Oriente trajo a Hercule Poirot (David Suchet) a la estación para encontrarse con la señorita Miss Marple (Joan Hickson) por primera vez. En sus libros Agatha Christie nunca permitió que los dos se conocieran, así que fue verdaderamente una ocasión histórica. Cuando Poirot y Marple se vieron cara a cara en el andén, la anciana sabueso amateur extendió su mano y el detective belga, en su estilo único, llevó la mano hasta sus labios y la besó. Todos los espectadores allí presentes aplaudieron.
TORRE ABBEY
Testigo de ocho siglos de la vida inglesa, Torre Abbey (Abadía Torre) tomó forma en 1196 cuando se fundó como Monasterio Presmontratense1. La Abadía cuenta con la tercera galería de arte permanente más grande del Condado de Devon y ahora es parte galería, parte museo y casa histórica. Tras una extensa restauración de varios millones de libras, David Suchet abrió la propiedad al público en 2008. En septiembre 2009 se inauguró una nueva característica horticultural llamada El Jardín de Plantas Potentes de Agatha Christie, inspirado por las plantas venenosas y medicinales de sus libros.
PRINCESS PIER (Muelle de la Princesa)
Princess Pier fue construido en el año de nacimiento de Agatha y ofrece algunas de las mejores vistas de la Bahía de Tor. Patinar por Princess Pier era uno de los pasatiempos favoritos de Agatha. Costaba 2 peniques y se solía hacer al aire libre durante el verano y en el Pabellón de Conciertos al final del muelle en invierno. Lamentablemente, un fuego destruyó el Pabellón de Conciertos en 1974.
FERRIES GREENWAY
En la entrada del Muelle de la Princesa, no podrás evitar ver el Quiosco de Ferris Greenway, que ofrece una gran variedad de excursiones en barco a puertos como Brixham y Dartmouth. También llevan pasajeros a la casa de verano de Agatha Christie en Greenway, que la Organización de Conservación de Edificios abrió en 2009. Otras opciones incluyen un Crucero por el Geopark de la Riviera Inglesa, destacando varios aspectos del extraordinario patrimonio de la Bahía.
JARDINES PRINCESA
Abiertos en 1894, estos jardines victorianos fueron hechos en tierra reclamada del mar e incluyen una fuente ornamental, con muchas flores, cobijos ornamentales y palmeras importadas principalmente de Nueva Zelanda. Los jardines se llaman así por la Princesa Luisa, una hija de la Reina Victoria, que visitó Torquay en 1890. Agatha visitaba casi con toda seguridad estos jardines frecuentemente y figuran en uno de los libros de Hercule Poirot, “Los asesinatos ABC”. Cerca se encuentra el Teatro Princesa que pone una obra de Agatha Christie durante el festival cada año en septiembre.
EL PABELLÓN
Este elegante edificio georgiano fue inaugurado en 1912 como un gran Salón de Conciertos. En enero 1913, Agatha fue a un recital de Wagner con un joven que había conocido meses antes llamado Archie Christie. Tras el concierto volvieron a la casa de Agatha en Ashfield y Archie se declaró. Hoy el Pabellón alberga tiendas abajo y una cafetería arriba con excelentes vistas del puerto deportivo y la bahía.
EL BUSTO DE AGATHA CHRISTIE
El busto de Agatha Christie fue inaugurado el 15 de septiembre 1990 por su hija Rosalind Hicks, el día en el que Agatha habría cumplido 100 años. El busto de bronce es obra de la escultora holandesa Carol Van Den Boom-Cairns, y está basado en una foto de la escritora cuando tenía unos 60 años. La tienda de Agatha Christie y la Oficina de Turismo están al lado del busto.
THE STRAND
El Strand siempre ha sido un sitio popular de encuentro. En la época de Agatha Christie también era el punto donde tranvías y carruajes paraban y de joven seguramente que Agatha habría ido de compras aquí con su madre a exclusivas tiendas como William y Cox (ahora Hoopers). La tienda tiene una cafetería arriba con excelentes vistas del puerto.
EL MUSEO DE TORQUAY
El Museo de Torquay es en la actualidad el museo más antiguo de Devon y el que alberga la Exposición de Agatha Christie. La exposición, creada en 1990 con la ayuda de la Familia Christie, contiene fotos excepcionales de la escritora y su familia, muchos libros que incluyen primeras ediciones y otros artículos de colección. También se pueden ver trajes y artículos de la serie de televisión Poirot y Miss Marple.
EL CLUB REAL DE YATES DE TORBAY
En su autobiografía, Agatha habla con cariño del Club de Yates del que su padre, Frederick Miller, era un miembro prominente. Nació en América y de acuerdo a ella era un “hombre muy agradable, un caballero adinerado que nunca tuvo que trabajar”. Solía visitar el club todos los días para jugar a las cartas, leía el periódico y hablaba con amigos; una rutina que cambiaría durante la temporada de criquet, cuando dedicaba todo su tiempo al Club de Criquet de Torquay del que era Presidente.
BEACON COVE
Agatha era una buena nadadora y le gustaba nadar en Beacon Cove en lo que entonces era conocido como la Cala de Natación de Señoritas. Sin embargo durante su juventud, la cala casi fue escena de una terrible tragedia. Mientras nadaba un día, casi se ahogó, pero afortunadamente fue rescatada
por un pescador. Se rumorea que los “caballeros del Club de Yates de Torbay” usaban los anteojos para la ópera para espiar a las chicas, esperando ver algo atrevido. Living Coasts, un zoo costero, está situado justo al lado de la playa y merece visitarlo.
HOTEL IMPERIAL
En el primer capítulo de “Peligro Inminente” el Hotel Imperial (llamado después Majestic) es descrito por Hastings como “en su propio terreno en el cabo desde donde se puede ver el mar. El mar era de un precioso y profundo color azul.” La terraza del hotel es también el lugar donde se desarrolla el último capítulo de “Un Asesinato Dormido.” Agatha fue a muchas reuniones sociales aquí y el hotel aún refleja la elegancia y grandiosidad de esa época.
03/18/2010
¡¡Bienvenidos a los alumnos españoles del intercambio!!
This week we're welcoming our exchange partners back - look out for them in school especially on Tuesday 23rd and Thursday 25th March.... and say ¡HOLA!
This week we're welcoming our exchange partners back - look out for them in school especially on Tuesday 23rd and Thursday 25th March.... and say ¡HOLA!
