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From their arrival in Paris to their departure three days later, QE A-level French students enjoyed their authentic taste of Parisian life and the opportunity for some language learning. 

Moving around on public transport, the boys took in the sights and used local specialist guides who spoke to them in French.   

Head of Languages Nora Schlatte said: “The trip was an ideal opportunity for students to practise their language skills in an authentic environment, while experiencing the culture of France’s capital at first hand.” 

The group visited the Latin Quarter, the Ile de la Cité, including a walk around the outside of Notre Dame; the catacombs, the Pompidou Centre, the Stade de France; Montmartre, the Sacré Cœur, the Musée d’Orsay and the Arc de Triomphe. 

Ms Schlatte, who accompanied the 14 boys on the trip, along with Enrichment tutor and History teacher John Haswell, added that the boys had benefitted from the guided tours being delivered in French and had enjoyed the opportunity to explore the catacombs themselves. 

“An understanding of Paris’s history and modern cultural life is an integral part of the A-level course, and this trip had direct relevance to the boys’ course of study,” she said. 

Amongst the highlights for the boys were the evening boat trip and the tour of the Stade de France. Shuaib Adam, of Year 12, said: “Seeing the Eiffel Tower in person on the first night had me in awe, let alone a cruise along the River Seine watching the Eiffel Tower light show.” 

“We travelled around Paris via the Métro, which was much better as we really got to experience that Parisian lifestyle,” he added. 

“We were also given lots of free time to explore the city ourselves and try out the great French cuisine, including the renowned ‘galettes and crepes’, which couldn’t have been any better and which rounded off the trip.” 

Sixth-formers made a trip to watch one of the most famous works by the influential 20^th-century Marxist German playwright and poet, Bertolt Brecht.

The group of Year 12 and Year 13 German students took the train to Kingston to watch The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Der kaukasische Kreidekreis) in the town’s Rose Theatre.

Languages teacher Rebecca Grundy said: “Although not an official member of the Communist party, Brecht was committed to highlighting social injustices and the imbalance of power distribution through his work.

“He was a proponent of ‘epic theatre’ (episches Theater); it was his belief that theatre is a way of showing audiences the world as it is, and of encouraging them to respond.

“Brecht made use of the ‘alienation effect’ (Verfremdungseffekt) to achieve this; theatrical devices aimed to keep the audience critically, rather than emotionally, engaged. The students enjoyed spotting these in the play.”

Set in the Soviet Union around the end of World War II, The Caucasian Chalk Circle is a re-writing of a 14th-century Chinese play, The Chalk Circle, by Li Xingdao.

It relates the story of a land dispute between two agricultural communes and of a visit by a singer and his band of musicians. The singer tells a parable as a way of settling the dispute, concluding that the land should go to those who will use it most productively – the fruit growers – and not the goat farmers who owned it previously.

It thus features a play within a play, which is itself an example of an alienation device. Other examples include the:

• Use of song to narrate the action and characters’ thoughts;
• Jarring use of props, including a teddy bear as a baby!
• Sparse set.

The visit reinforced the boys’ Sixth Form German studies. The Sixth Form course covers Berlin and its cultural scene. Brecht lived and worked in East Berlin for a large part of his career, although The Caucasian Chalk Circle was written in the United States, where Brecht was living in exile during the war.

He returned to East Berlin after the war and died there in 1956 at the age of 58. At first supportive of the government’s repressive measures following the East German uprising of 1953, Brecht eventually expressed his disillusionment over the events

The trip was organised by Ms Grundy, who accompanied the group, together with her fellow Languages teacher, Katrin Hood.

Year 12’s Hanan Moyeed said: “This trip was absolutely unforgettable. Seeing the play was a brilliant experience. It also links well to what we have been looking at in lessons.”

QE linguists have won national and regional honours in a literary translation competition run from The Queen’s College, Oxford, that attracted thousands of entries nationwide.

Year 7 pupil Jonas Dawit took second prize nationally for French in his age group, while Year 11’s Arjun Patel was the winner for Greater London for German. Olly Salter, of Year 12, also won a regional commendation, again for German.

All the QE boys who entered the Anthea Bell Competition were given a one-off lesson about literary translation from German or French into English, using resources provided by the competition organisers.

Languages teacher Katrin Hood said: “I congratulate everyone who entered, and of course our winners, who did brilliantly to be recognised amongst such fierce competition!”

It was the second consecutive year that QE has entered the competition, which is named after an acclaimed English literary translator who died in 2018.

“It has once again been a pleasure to discuss literary translations in class, and to hear our students’ fantastic and creative solutions to the particular challenges each text presents,” said Ms Hood.

The competition is run by The Queen’s College Translation Exchange – an initiative which seeks to bring together university students, school pupils, teachers and members of the public – and involves young linguists submitting their own translations of a specified piece of writing.

An internal round at the School is held first: open to all boys, it this year attracted 73 entrants, representing an increase on the 2021 figure.

From these entrants, judges from across the Languages department picked the best French and best German translator for each age group. They also identified the five from each group whom the School was allowed to enter into the national competition.

Nationwide, 14,000 secondary school pupils undertook the translation task, with more than 3,200 then going through to the national competition, which was judged by a team comprising both Queen’s College undergraduates and professional translators.

National runner-up Jonas had to translate the surrealist poet Robert Desnos’s poem, Le Crapaud, (The Toad). Its first stanza is:

Sur les bords de la Marne
Un crapaud il y a
Qui pleure à chaudes larmes
Sous un acacia.

Jonas translated this as :

A toad all warty
On the banks of the Marne
Weeps hot tears
Under a thorn.

“He has chosen to maintain the rhyme scheme of the original, but in doing so has had to change the meaning of some of the original words. These decisions are central to the translator’s craft,” said Ms Hood.

“The competition gave us an opportunity to go beyond what we normally do in the classroom and allowed the boys to be introduced to a wide range of literary texts that they otherwise might not have come across.”

After learning of his commendation, Olly reflected on the experience: “’Entering the Anthea Bell translation competition was immensely rewarding. The need to think outside of the box – to ensure not only the meaning, but also the tone, of the text was preserved – was exciting and something I will carry with me into my future study of languages and translation. I am so glad that I took part.”

The year group winners in the internal QE competition, most of whom are pictured, top, were as follows.

French:
Year 7 – Jonas Dawit
Year 8 – Nimesh Nirojan
Year 9 – Binaga Solangaarachchi
Year 11 – Darren Lee
Sixth Form – Theo Mama-Kahn

German:
Year 7 – Stephan Tinss
Year 8 – Hardik Ingale
Year 9 – Keon Robert
Year 10 – Avkash Lahkar
Year 11 – Arjun Patel
Sixth Form – Alan Yee Kin Yan

A Year 12 team has taken first prize in a prestigious German-language national debating competition.

It is the first time QE has entered this well-established annual event run by the Goethe-Institut, a global cultural organisation that is the German equivalent of the British Council.

The four-strong team from QE impressed in three earlier rounds, before eventually taking the title in the final, overcoming a team drawn from the near-4,000 students at The Sixth Form College, Farnborough.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “Congratulations to the team on their great success against tough opposition in this well-regarded national competition.”

Assistant Head of Languages Burgunde Lukasser explained that the motions debated were challenging, as the topics and the necessary vocabulary do not form part of the AS course followed in Year 12. “Our boys, team captain Olly Salter, Theo Mama-Kahn, Jai Patel and Ansh Jassra, were incredibly impressive each time. They really made us proud!”

Languages teacher Katrin Hood, who also accompanied the boys, added: “Theo, Ansh, Olly and Jai are exceptional Germanists and gave eloquent and dynamic performances. Their teamwork was outstanding, and it was clear how thoroughly they had prepared for the occasion. The boys had received helpful feedback from the debate judges along the way, and made a real effort to fine-tune their performance for each new round. The result was nothing short of mind-blowing!

“The atmosphere during the event was lovely, as Year 12 students from other schools came to watch. It was fantastic to see so many young people from around the country chatting and sharing their love of learning German.”

The first two rounds of the contest, the Debattierwettbewerb (debating competition), were held online, the third took place at Dr Challoner’s Grammar School in Amersham, and the final in the Goethe-Institut’s London base.

The rounds, motions and results were as follows:

Round 1: School canteens should only be allowed to sell vegetarian/vegan food. QE, in favour of the motion, beat Coloma Convent Girls’ School in south London.

Round 2: The use of social media endangers the health of young people. QE, against the motion, beat The Royal Grammar School, Guildford.

Round 3: The mental health of young people has been neglected during the pandemic. QE, against the motion, beat Dr Challoner’s.

Round 4: The future of medical provision is digital. QE, against the motion, beat Farnborough.

The three judges evaluated the teams against four criteria: knowledge of the topic and argumentation; debating skills in German; oral expression in German, and interaction with the audience. The judges announce the result and their overall impression, but do not publish the final score.

“It was a great experience for all involved,” said Miss Lukasser. “The person in charge of the debating competition, Frau Vogelgesang, said in an email to me afterwards that they were still talking about the amazing performance of the QE team.”

Four Year 12 linguists have reached the next stage of a prestigious German debating competition after enjoying success in two early rounds.

Two of the four also appeared in a French competition, where the QE contingent won multiple debates against fierce opposition from sixth-formers from other schools, many of whom were older.

The next stage of the German competition – organised by the Goethe Institut, the Federal Republic of Germany’s highly respected cultural organisation – will be hosted by QE early next month, with the finals taking place at the Institut’s London headquarters at the end of March.

Head of Languages Nora Schlatte said: “I pay tribute to these dedicated and talented debating teams. I especially congratulate our German students: their progress in the Goethe Institut competition is a well-deserved result of the hard work, commitment and sheer linguistic ability they brought to two very different online debates.”

Towards the end of the Autumn Term, A-level German students Theo Mama-Kahn, Olly Salter, Ansh Jassra and Jai Patel beat Croydon’s Coloma Convent Girls’ School on the motion, School canteens should offer vegan and vegetarian food.

In the recent second round, the QE boys faced the Royal Grammar School Guildford. They were debating the motion The use of social media is harmful to the health of young people.

These first two rounds took place online, but QE has been asked to host the third round in person. Competitors will gather at the School on 3rd and 4th March.

Wishing the four boys well for the future rounds, Languages teacher Helen Shephard added: “Their spoken German is outstanding and their debating skills are second to none.”

Still basking in their success, current School Captain Theo and classmate Olly were then joined by fellow Year 12 pupils Alan Yee Kin Kan and Antony Yassa for the French debating competition, which was held at St Paul’s Girls’ School.

They found themselves competing against 24 other schools, mainly from the private sector, who fielded more than 30 teams.

The QE four were split into two teams, with each debating three motions. These covered very diverse topics: Korean pop music, the environment and politics. Both QE pairs won two of their three debates, often facing opponents who were already in Year 13.

“It takes a lot of confidence, preparation and an excellent standard of French to be able to participate so successfully in such an event, and we are very proud of these students!” added Ms Schlatte, who served as a judge at the competition, together with QE Languages Assistant Joelle Simpson.

QE’s youngest linguists put their newly acquired skills to the test in a high-speed House competition.

Teams from QE’s six Houses competed to translate five sentences into French and then five into German both quickly and accurately.

Each Year 7 form put forward a team made up of three or four boys. First place went to Pearce, with team members Ameen Elamin, Kyle Goldband, Tuhin Mitra and Nittant Moudgil scoring an emphatic victory.

Languages teacher and Head of Extra-Curricular Enrichment Rebecca Grundy said: “The competition was a ‘running translation’ which means that there is a text to translate, but split into sentences.

“They all got the first sentence at the same time and, as soon as they had translated it, they brought it to the teacher. If it was perfect, they got the next sentence, but if not, they had to go back and try again. The first team to finish the entire text was the winner –and that was Pearce, who won by quite a margin!

“They were allowed to use their text books to help, as the ‘vocab’ we used was taken from the Year 7 course, but the sentences were pitched to be extra-challenging, particularly in terms of grammatical structures.”

Here are a few examples of the challenges the boys faced:

• Translate: ‘He has long hair and blue eyes’. This tested boys’ knowledge of French adjective endings (‘Il a les cheveux longs et les yeux bleus.’)
• Translate: ‘In my free time, I read, but on Saturdays my brother does judo.’ Testing positioning of German verbs (‘In meiner Freizeit lese ich…’)
• Translate: ‘My brother is called Max and he has a computer.’ Testing the German accusative case (‘…er hat einen Computer.’)

Harrisons’ took the runner-up spot in the competition, which was organised by the Languages department, while Broughton and Underne shared third place.

“All the boys showed fantastic enthusiasm – but remained very well behaved – and so will receive a merit each,” said Miss Grundy.