Languages - Ngā Reo o Te Ao

Staff

Languages - Ngā Reo o Te Ao

Ko tāu reo, ko tāku reo,
Te tuakiri tangata.
Tīhei uriuri, tīhei nakonako,
Tīhei mauri ora!

Your voice and my voice
are expressions of identity.
May our descendants live on and our hopes be fulfilled.
Behold the breath of life!

The International Languages offered are French and Japanese. Students are able to study a language right up to Year 13 level (NCEA Level 3 and Scholarship). Learning a Language is an essential learning area of the NZ Curriculum and students are encouraged to keep the learning of a language as part of their school education. They gain linguistic skills and cultural understanding and tolerance necessary in a modern world which has an increasing international focus.

Students will be able to communicate about every day activities and express their feelings and opinions about issues. The course includes the use of music CDs, films, magazines, videos, DVDs, websites as well as textbooks and MRGS course books. Students become confident in all language skills: speaking, listening, reading, writing. Each year the school uses native speakers of French and Japanese to further help and encourage our students in becoming confident and independent in the language.

We are fortunate to be able to offer our students of languages participation in a large number of outings, competitions and trips including a biennial Homestay Tour to Normandy, France and also one to Nagoya in Japan. They are extremely successful and popular and provide life changing experiences.

Students of languages can embark on a rewarding, exciting and challenging pathway as they look to gain lifetime skills and knowledge and also NCEA credits for their NZQA record of learning.

From the New Zealand Curriculum Framework: "All students benefit from learning another language from the earliest practicable age. Such learning broadens students' general language abilities and brings their own language into sharper focus. It enriches them intellectually, socially, and culturally, offers an understanding of the way in which other people think and behave, and furthers international relations and trade."

Pathways

France Homestay Tour 2012

With the help of the NZ-France Friendship Fund, MRGS conducted its 5th France Homestay Tour. Here is a report from one of the pupils on the Tour:

“Bags packed and ready to fly 18,546km across the world to a new country and a new town with a new family. More than 30 hours later, we were meeting those who were to be our homestay families for the next two weeks. What first was fear and anxious anticipation turned to enthusiasm and eagerness at meeting everyone. The weekend passed in a whirl of getting to know our new French families and the towns we were living in. Where a 50 year old house here might seem old, in France the homes there average 200 years! Our families took us to visit the Norman medieval festival, the Victor Hugo museum and other towns of Haute-Normandie.

Monday began, and along with it our first day at Lycée Jean XXIII. Many of us had to take the school bus at 7am! Life in France was proving to be so different to that of New Zealand. We did presentations of New Zealand to two schools including the Collège Bobée where our relationship with Normandy first started. Mr Wilkinson did a wonderful presentation of Maori symbols, and we sang a waiata and the boys did a haka – sharing our school and country with France. We travelled to Basse-Normandie for an overnight stay where we visited the thousand year old Bayeux Tapestry and two D-Day beaches. We visited Etretat with its chalky cliffs and very own hole-in-the-rock, as well as “Oscar the rooster” in an apple orchard. Everywhere we went, the scenery was so different and the houses so beautiful and quaint. The families provided us with many new food experiences. Cheese in Normandy is its own course, between the main and dessert. We had a farewell “cocktail evening” that was attended by many members of the community, including the Mayor of Yvetot, Monsieur Emile Canu, who along with the principal of the school, gave wonderful speeches highlighting the amazing benefits and importance of such international trips.

As hard as it was to leave behind our new French families, the week ahead in Paris promised more exciting experiences. We had busy days, but that’s how we managed to see many of Paris’ monuments. We visited le Musée Rodin with sculptures like The Thinker and the Kiss, la Tour Eiffel which was an awesome experience seeing one of the great landmarks of France. We also visited the Sacré Coeur, saw the Moulin Rouge and le Musée du Louvre with the Mona Lisa (la Joconde) and the Vénus de Milo, went shopping on the Champs-Elysées, and did a cruise at night down the Seine River. Sunday was spent at the Château de Versailles, where we picnicked in the gardens, rowed boats and cycled through the gardens. The weather was fantastic and it really was a surreal day! We went to the Arc de Triomphe at night from where we could see the Eiffel tower lit up in golden light and sparkling on the hour. The days continued passing in a flurry with the Cathédrale de Notre Dame, Musée d’Orsay, Centre Georges Pompidou, Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie. Every day we returned to our accommodation at the FIAP with ever diminishing bank accounts, heavier bags and sore feet! There we could fuel up at dinner, make friends with people from all over the world and catch up on sleep.

This trip was definitely the best we’ve ever had, and it will be one to remember for a very long time. The friendships we’ve made will last us for many years to come. Merci beaucoup to our three teachers Mr McAlpine, Miss Robertson and Mr Wilkinson without whom this trip could never have happened! From all eighteen students on this trip - thank you so much for the trip of a lifetime! Thanks again to the BOT and NZ-France Friendship Fund for supporting our relationship with the schools and community of Yvetot. We definitely made the most of this trip and all of us cannot wait until the French students join us in Auckland in February next year!”

By Richelle Fernandes

Japanese Regional Speech Competition 2012

On the 18th of August 2012, the Japanese Regional Speech Competition was held at AUT. Contestants from various schools decided to participate, including our own school, MRGS. As the people and contestants arrive, my anticipation rises. You can hear the quiet mumbles of the contestants as they practice their prepared speeches. Then the contest began. “Don, don, don”, I hear my heart beat loudly as the pressure of talking in front of a crowd gradually becomes scary and over-whelming. You might forget some of your lines or you might not get the audience attention that you were hoping for.

I was chosen to be the first speaker in the Year 12 division. Not only do the first speakers need to get enough audience impact but they also have to make little or even no mistakes to make the audience immerse themselves in the upcoming speeches and set a high standard so that other contestants can be more motivated to do their best. Being given this responsibility as the first speaker is very nerve-wracking.

The topic of my speech was “How to Get Rich”. I wanted to be different, like the sole grey hair that exists in a scalp of an adolescent person. In my speech I told them three ways to get rich. First was the traditional way of studying hard and saving diligently. But if they are too lazy, I gave them two alternatives of either marrying a rich person or robbing a bank in order to get rich. And to make myself a non-accomplice of a bank robbery, I also made sure to say that robbing a bank was illegal and that the police will go after them. I ended my speech by saying that luck was another factor and encouraged them to get rich.

It was overall a fun day. Although I did get second prize for my speech my friend and I came last for the Japanese tongue twister competition. Next year, I plan to enter the competition again and hopefully get first prize.

Veronica Lumauig Y12 RLML

MRGS Shines in Worldwide Languages Competition 2012

Results for the 10-day 2012 Language Perfect World Championships:

• Overall = 4th in World / 2nd in New Zealand
• Maori = 2nd in World (1st in NZ)
• Japanese = 3rd in World (2nd in NZ)
• French = 4th in World (2nd in NZ)
• MRGS pupils answered 1.4 million questions, scoring 453,122 points
• Language Perfect competitors worldwide answered 102 million questions

ELITE Award (10,000+ points): Joshua Simmons (12,630), Sephie Liu (10,382)

46 GOLD Awards (3,000+ points): McGregor Small (8,888), Ryan Chang (8,385), Elisa Yansun (8,052), Nidhi Bhandiwad, Kent Blowers, Bryan Busby, Oyishik Chakraborty, Phoebe Chau, Riccardo Dharmaratne, Richelle Fernandes, Ritika Fernandes, Nola Finau, Janita Fuller, Mandie Galea, Disha Gomathinayagam, Naman Gupta, Chloe Haigh, Karen Ho, Jonathan Khoo, Loviana Lavulo, Vinnie Law, Samuel Lee, Dan Li, Stephen Li, Aimee Matthews, Nathan McDougall, Ella Nelson, Aryaman Parulkar, Sneha Patel, Mike Qiu, Joel Roy Koshy, Romina Seylani, Angie Sun, Thomas Tomokino, Colin Ung, Pebble Varela, Reval Verghese, Danny Wang, Vanessa Wang, Azarm Yadgari, Lusi Yu, Gary Zhang, Ben Zhong, Linda Zhou, Qi Zhu, Ziwei Zhuang

Pupils also achieved 28 SILVER Awards (2,000+ points), 72 BRONZE Awards (1,000+ points) and 62 CREDIT Awards (500+ points)

A special random prize of a $20 iTunes voucher was won by Rosmi Shaju

This was an amazing 10-day period during which language pupils at MRGS spent many hours at school and at home learning and revising vocabulary and expressions from a number of different languages.
Students had so much fun doing this competition and gave amazing feedback such as:
“It is really fun and it teaches you lots”
“ Sugoi! I hope to continue Language Perfect next year”
“This competition has been such a success for me so far! I have enjoyed learning and revising words/phrases. I have learnt quite a bit. I’ve also been a bit competitive with my fellow class mates as well! My goal is to beat one of them!”
“Language perfect is awesome”
“This is so awesome, I’m having fun while LEARNING? So cool!”  
“It is very educational and competitive (:”
“Awesome. I’m learning new stuff every day! This is so helpful!”
“A PERFECT score on Language PERFECT”

Next year’s dates are: Monday 20 May – Thursday 30 May 2013

2011 Alliance Française French Speaking Competition

Ayesha Nadat, Taina Puloka & Audrey Tay were Regional Finalists Overall results are: Year 11: Ayesha Nadat (Excellent), Hannah Yang (Bien), Meghna Shelke (Encouragement), Grace Wang (Assez Bien), Arnab Sen (Bien) Year 12: Taina Puloka (Excellent), Shilpan Patel (Très Bien), Daniel Christev (Bien) Year 13: Audrey Tay (Excellent), Roza Ridwan (Très Bien)

2011 Language Perfect World Championships

Well done to our amazing MRGS pupils! 80,000 pupils + 1,000 schools + 11 countries + 36 million questions answered! Mt Roskill Grammar participated in this Worldwide Languages Competition by internet and gained the following impressive results: * 5th school in World overall (2nd in New Zealand) * 2nd school in World for French (Top in New Zealand) * 9th school in World for Japanese * 12th school in World for Maori * 1st school in World for schools entering between 251-500 pupils * 39 Gold Medallists (3,000+ points) * 12 Silver Medallists (2,000+ points) * 45 Bronze medallists (1,000+ points) * 42 Excellence Certificates (500+ points) Ziwei Zhuang of 902 was not only a Gold Medallist for Japanese, but she won the top prize in the whole competition – a 32GB iPod Touch!! Padmini Nunna of Y11 French gained 2nd place in the World for French, 13th place overall, with a staggering 16,802 points! Well done Padmini! Next year’s competition dates are out: 21-31 May 2012 – Cost = $5, please see www.languageperfect.co.nz MRGS Gold Medallists are: Padmini Nunna, Venkat Prakash, Emma Bos, Karen Dias, Ally Graves, Pauline Najoan, Pooja Patel, Jiantao Shen, Krithika Prahallad, Srishaa Iyer, Ilaisaane Mafi, Miriam Albadrawi, Shilpan Patel, Jenny Lee, Vanessa Wang, Emman Rahimi, Anandita Umapathy, Alice Ng, Cindy Ou, Diane Qiu, Soo Ling Tran, Roza Ridwan, Pebble Varela, Rachel Fan, Gandhar Paranjape, Angie Sun, Rachel Sun, Abhay Vaidya, Ziwei Zhuang, Daniel Christev, Ishank Sharma, Benny Chun, Jordan Chen, Gary Zhang, Mildred Wong, Aimee Matthews, Linda Zhou, Rayner Rebello, Theodore Loretz

2011 Japanese Speech Festival

Congratulations to Veronica Lumauig who took part in the recent Japanese Speech Festival. Veronica gave a dynamic and humorous speech about her life in the Philippines and the huge adjustments she had to make upon her arrival in New Zealand. Her speech won over the judges and she was awarded second prize in the Year 11 category.

France Homestay Tour 2010

In term one, twenty enthusiastic students committed themselves to being part of the 2010 France Homestay Tour. Extensive planning and fundraising got underway including parent meetings and deposit payments at the end of each term. A number of students haggled people with boxes and boxes of chocolates to help pay for the trip. At the end of term two, the group held a bake sale which turned out to be a huge success as many of us walked to the accounts office at the end of lunchtime grinning from ear to ear. Term three called for tour meetings each Thursday during lunchtime to sort out the details of the trip such as what to pack, itineraries, flight details and presentation preparation. The excitement escalated each meeting and on Friday the 17th of September, it was time to take off. At 8am we met at the departure lounge and were all too excited to focus. The long twenty-four hour flight with a five hour stop over in Singapore was definitely worth it. The first two weeks was spent in Normandy, where we all lived in a family’s home and learned the French culture first hand. The experience gained from living in someone else’s home for two weeks is invaluable as there is always so much to learn. During the weekend, our French families took us sightseeing to different tourist attractions such as the butterfly museum in Honfleur, the kite festival in Dieppe and even EuroDisney! In the second week the group travelled to Lower Normandy for an overnight trip where we visited the Bayeux Tapestry with its history of William the Conqueror’s invasion of 1066, some D-Day beaches such as Arromanches and the Mulberry harbour, the cliffs of Etretat and the house of France’s mysterious superhero Arsène Lupin. Everywhere we ventured was jaw dropping as France is such a beautiful country. Staying with families also welcomed us to the world of French food. Many of us tried specialties such as mussels & fries, cider, and a wide range of French cheeses.

Leaving behind our French correspondents was emotional, and we all look forward to hosting all twenty six of them in February 2011. The trip then led to a week in Paris, the world’s tourist capital city. Each day was jam-packed with sightseeing and shopping. The group was ecstatic when seeing world-famous monuments such as the Eiffel Tower, the Arc of Triumph and the Louvre Museum. Every night everyone came home to the FIAP youth hostel with sore feet, roaring stomachs and shattered energy levels. It was eye-opening taking the metro system everywhere in Paris. The first experience with the trains was traumatic as there were too many people and some girls even got left behind. But by the end of the trip, we were all veterans of the public transport system.

Words cannot describe the trip as it was so awesome! The group returned to New Zealand on the 9th of October with paper thin wallets, suitcase loads of souvenirs and gigabytes worth of photos. There was so much of France to absorb which is clearly evident as Matthew took over 3000 photos and Audrey over 2000, Mr McAlpine’s suitcase weighed close to 40kgs and Matt’s weighed 36kgs! It was indescribable being able to sing a waiata, perform the haka, hold a running competition in oversize jandals, do presentations of NZ food and culture, and show off our Roskill flavour to the French. The group grew very close throughout the three week trip and returned home with unforgettable memories such as: the boys doing the haka before our soccer game against our French correspondents, performing the Banana Dance in Changi Airport, being told off for starting a game of touch for “security reasons” and singing “I Choose You”, “Dynamite” and “Just the Way You Are” over and over again on the way to Lower Normandy. Despite some unfortunate events including Jennecca, Patrick and Audrey getting food poisoning for France’s “Quality Burger Restaurant” Quick, and some Metro tickets and money getting lost, the trip was without a single doubt, the best time of our lives.

An infinite amount of gratitude goes to Mr McAlpine, Ms Robertson and Mr Lett for their time and effort in preparing this trip. They were all very patient and took good care of us. All twenty of us are thankful to them for putting up with a rowdy bunch of teenagers who sung the same songs as if on loop play, had no shame in doing the Banana dance in public and handed over all twenty of our cameras to them to take group photos in front of every monument. A huge thank you goes to the New Zealand-France Friendship Fund as well who supported our trip and will also support the French school Lycée Jean XXIII when they come to New Zealand next year.

To the three teachers: Merci beaucoup. Le voyage ne pourrait pas être si incroyable sans vous.

To the students : All the bananas in the world…UNITE !! Roskill WHAAAAT!!!

Audrey Tay

Making Okonomiyaki 2010

'Kojima Sensei… Are we gonna make anything this year?’ her year 10 Japanese class asked
‘We’re making Okonomiyaki’ she replied.
And that’s exactly what they did.

At first, even her Japanese students were confused as to what okonomiyaki is. They later found out that it was a savoury pancake, made from a mix of flour, water, eggs, cabbage, bacon and all that.  It was then fried in special electric frying pans borrowed from teachers all over the school.

They majority of the savoury pancakes turned out good, some of us even went creative and made it into a stir fry (they forgot to put oil in it!).

All of us enjoyed the experience with hands-on Japanese culture- and the okonomiyaki was both nutritious and  delicious!