Learning Languages Newsletter November 2012

NEWSLETTER

Vol-4 | 26. November 2012

Festivities around

the globe

We will introduce you to

some of the Christmas

and New Years traditions

around the globe.

Read more here

David wins

Chinese Competition

David Tuipulotu will repre-

sent NZ to compete in the

international semi-final

and final competition in

Kunming, China.

Read more here

French day at Sutton

Park School

Sutton Park Primary

school dedicates an en-

tire day to celebrate and

promote French language

and culture

Read more here

Farewell message by

Bernd Schliephake

Bernd Schliephake is

leaving New Zealand af-

ter six years as German

National Advisor.

Read more here

Heretaunga College in

Germany

Students from Upper

Hutt's Heretaunga Col-

lege have recently been

flying the flag for New

Zealand on their trip to

Germany

Read more here

New Years in China

Chinese New Year is a very important festivity

in Chinese culture and is celebrated all around

the globe. It is based on the Chinese calendar

(lunisolar), starting with the new moon on the

first day of the new year (10. February 2013)

and ending with the full moon 15 days later.

Traditions vary across regions and some can

even be experienced here in New Zealand, for

example, the Lantern Festival. Have a look at

this video to get an idea about the do’s and

don’ts of Chinese New Years.

Families will clean and decorate their houses

and meet on the Eve of Chinese New Year to

share a festive dinner.

Children receive red envelopes or red packets

with money. And firecrackers are commonly

used during festivities.

According to Chinese Zodiac, 2012 was the

year of the dragon and 2013 will be the year

of the snake. You could build some origami

snakes with your class. Or you could paint

some Chinese New Years cards or build some

lanterns for the February festival.

Wikipedia

Wikipedia

Christmas in France

In France the grand feast of the Christmas season is

Le Reveillon, a dinner held with family held after

midnight mass on Christmas Eve. Children leave their

shoes around the Christmas tree to find them filled

with presents and sweets the next morning.

Earlier in the month, on 8. December, the festival of

lights is celebrated in Lyon, expressing gratitude to-

wards Mary, the mother of Jesus.

And on 6. December Saint Nicolas is cele-

brated with small gifts, such as gingerbread

men. However, Saint Nicholas is also ac-

companied by Père Fouettard, the whipping

father that spanks all the naughty children

who misbehaved throughout the year.

Bûche de Noël is a log-shaped Christmas cake,

made with chocolate, that is traditionally served in

France around Christmas time. It refers to the old

tradition of burning a yule log, of hard wood, for

Christmas.

Families decorate their homes

and put up a Christmas tree.

Many places will also display a

crèche showing the nativity

scene but also other traditional

scenes of a provincial village.

The little figures used for the

crèches are called little saints

(santons).

New Year’s Eve in France is called Saint-Sylvestre,

named after a pope that was buried on 31. De-

cember. The day is usually celebrated with friends

and family, serving special dishes such as foie

gras, oysters and champagne. At midnight every-

one kisses under the mistletoe with best wishes

for the new year. Fireworks are also common and

people may sing New Year’s songs (Chanson du

nouvel An, Choral des Adieux).

New Years in France

Wikipedia

Wikipedia

Christmas in Germany

Christmas celebrations in Germany start early in

December. Streets and shops are decorated and

children have an Advent calendar, counting down

24 days till Christmas. Have a look at this video for

an introduction to German Christmas traditions.

Families decorate their houses, put up a Christmas

tree and get an advent wreath with four candles,

lighting one candle on the first Advent Sunday,

lighting two candles on the second Advent and so

forth, until all four candles are lighted for Christ-

mas.

Early on 6 December

(Nikolaus day), German

children get up eagerly

to check the content of a

shoe they cleaned and

placed outside their door

the previous night. If

they behaved well

throughout the year,

they will find their shoe

filled with sweets and

toys by Saint Nicholas.

During the weeks leading up to Christmas most German cities have a Christmas

Market with stalls offering arts and crafts, baked items, roasted nuts, Gluehwein

(mulled wine) and some form of entertainment like musical performers or merry

-go-rounds. Have a look at one example.

December 24th is Heiligabend (Christmas Eve). While it is not a public holiday,

most people finish work at around lunch time and make their way to their families

or friends. In Germany, Christmas presents are opened late at night on Christmas

Eve. Many people (including those that are not religious) will attend a Church ser-

vice in the afternoon and then go home to sing Christmas songs in front of the

Christmas tree, or get the children to recite poems or perform a musical piece.

Families with smaller children will often get a visit by Santa Claus

(Weihnachtsmann) who brings the presents in a big bag. Once all presents are un-

wrapped it is time for dinner, which can be quite simple, just potato salad and

Frankfurters. On the following Christmas Days families will visit each other, eat

festive meals and share more presents.

Wikipedia

Christmas in Japan

Christmas is not a public holiday in Japan, but it

has become a day for couples to spend time to-

gether, as the media has promoted it as a time for

romantic miracles.

The commercial side of Christmas has also become

popular amongst party loving Japanese, where

Christmas lights and trees can now be found to

decorate the cities.

Christmas cakes made of sponge cake with cream

and strawberries have become very popular.

Little Japanese girls love the nativity story, as they

love anything to do with babies. And the cradle

with baby Jesus is especially fascinating to them as

Japanese babies don’t sleep in cradles.

A successful advertising campaign by Kentucky Fried

Chicken has led to a funny, new tradition. Japanese

eat chicken at KFC for Christmas. They either make

reservations or cue for hours just to get their

“sparkly chicken”.

Ōmisoka (New Years Eve) and

Shōgatsu (New Year’s Day)

are the two most important

days in Japanese tradition.

The Japanese New Year was

originally based on the lunar

calendar like the Chinese New Year. But in 1873 Ja-

pan adopted the Gregorian calendar. As in all other

countries, New Year’s festivities include special dish-

es and Japanese traditionally send New Year’s Day

postcards to friends and families. Originally, it was a

taboo to cook during the first three days of the year,

which is why Osechi-ryōri has become popular and is

often prepared on New Year’s Eve.

At midnight on 31. December, Buddhist temple bells

ring 108 times to symbolise the 108 human sins and to rid citizens of their 108

worldly desires.

Kagami mochi is a special rice cake made and served for New Years., the two layers

are said to symbolise yin and yang.

Many Japanese also like to watch the first sunrise of the year and visit the coast or

climb a mountain to do so.

New Years

in Japan

Japanese KFC website

Wikipedia

Wikipedia

Wikipedia

Christmas in Spain

Spain also celebrates Christmas, including all

the common traditions of Christmas trees,

Christmas markets and decorations. However,

it also has a few unique festivities, such as

jumping over Hogueras (bonfires) on the short-

est day of the year as a protection against ill-

ness.

Christmas is a religious holiday in

Spain, starting on 8. December with

the feast of the Immaculate Concep-

tion where ten beautifully dressed up

boys perform a ritual dance.

On Christmas Eve families come to-

gether to celebrate and little oil

lamps are lighted and placed on win-

dow sills.

At midnight bells ring to call families to “La Misa del Gallo”, literally rooster’s mass, a

midnight services. The Spanish Christmas dinner is eaten late, either after midnight or

just before the midnight service. Afterwards, people walk through the streets carrying

torches and playing instruments such as guitars and drums, with celebrations continu-

ing until the late morning hours. A Spanish saying is: “Esta noche es Noche-Buena, y

no es noche de dormer”.

On Boxing Day, children send their Christmas wish lists to the three wise men. In

Spain these three kings are the gift bearers not Santa. Children therefore leave their

shoes on windowsills on 5. January (Epiphany Eve), filled with straw and carrots for

the horses of the wise men. In exchange they will find gifts in their shoes in the

morning.

On 28. December, día de los santos inocentes is celebrated, which can be compared

to April Fool’s day. People try to trick each other with silly stories and jokes.

At midnight on New Year’s Eve, people in

Spain will eat 12 grapes, one on each

stroke of the clock to attract good luck for

the New Year.

And it is tradition to listen to the clock

from Puerta del Sol in Madrid, for exam-

ple, via television. Many people stay at

home for this tradition and head off to

the parties afterwards. But in Madrid

people meet on at the Puerta del Sol to

eat their grapes.

Another tradition suggests to wear new,

red underwear for the New Year’s cele-

brations, as this will bring good luck.

New Years in Spain

Wikipedia

Wikipedia

www.elaccitano.com

French Day at Sutton Park School

Sutton Park Primary school (decile 1, majority Pasifika

students) recently dedicated an entire day to celebrate

and promote French language and culture.

Jasmine Hanawy invited a wide range of guests from the

French community in Auckland to present and contrib-

ute to this event. And all students in the school , espe-

cially year 7 and 8, were in in some way involved in

organising and presenting the programme.

The programme included French pantomime perfor-

mance, a French quiz, French folk dancing and French

food. Further more, participants included a bilingual school, an exchange group from

New Caledonia and a well known folk dance group who perform and teach dance from

northern France.

This event was so special because it involved the entire school and built connections to

the French language learning community in a very inclusive and fun way. This could be

the reason why this school successfully presented year 7 to 10 candidates for the

French speech competitions earlier this year.

Do you have similar stories to share? Please let us know at [email protected] Do you remember Annelise Posthuma? The Chinese Language

and Culture Ambassadorto Schools for 2012? She has now suc-

cessfully obtained a Chinese teaching position at Middleton

Grange School. She will start her new role early next year and

will simultaneously study for a teacher’s diploma. Congratulations, Annelise!

Good news for Annelise

Chinese Bridge Competition for secondary stu-

dents is an annual international event organized

by Hanban in Beijing, China. Each year Confucius

Institutes organize the NZ preliminary competi-

tion to select the top NZ students of Chinese to

join the semi final/ final competitions in China, which are usually scheduled in October

each year. There are 2 stages of NZ preliminary competition: regional competition and

national one.

David Tuipulotu participated in the Auckland regional competition with other 100 plus

local students from about 20 local schools on 9th May this year. He was selected one of

the top winners to compete in the national competition on 26th May in Christchurch. At

the national competition, David was one of the 2 top students who received the special

awards to represent NZ to compete in the international semi-final and final competition

in Kunming, China.

It’s great to see David’s success! Congratulations David! We wish you all the best for the

upcoming competition in China this month. Go get it!

Wikipedia

David Tuipulotu wins

Chinese Speech Competition

Farewell message from

Bernd Schliephake

I was pleasantly surprised by the friendly

reception by border officials when I ar-

rived in Wellington in February, 2007.

And I continued to experience this

friendly attitude throughout my time in

New Zealand. I also remember blazingly hot temperatures of 28 degrees on my arrival

in Wellington, however these were not to be repeated in the following years.

I will take with me many fond memories of New Zealand. Especially, the little things and

daily routines which made my time here very special. I shall attempt to list some of

these “treats”, but won’t be able to cover them all.

Why I love New Zealand or what made New Zealand special for me:

The bus driver having friendly conversation with an older passenger.

The “weather update” and “best wishes for the day” announced on the train from

Petone into Wellington.

The view from my ILEP office overlooking Wellington harbour.

A concert by “Fly My Pretties”.

Enjoying Christmas Eve outside in the garden, eating lamb roast.

Christmas Eve apples.

Emerson beer.

Long black and coffee in general… and cafes everywhere in Wellington.

The coolest little capital on a windless day with blue sky, but also on many other

days.

The safety videos by Air New Zealand.

TUI advertisement.

Cuba street in Wellington with all its little shops and the best “Curry Laksa” out-

side Malaysia.

The book by Anja Richter: “what do I care about sheep”

Kiwi-English: e.g. “sweet as”, “bring a plate”, “chilly bin”, “jandals”, “togs”

The “upside down” world map, showing NZ at the top.

Special memories from my role as German Advisor in New Zealand:

The way the German language teacher motivated her students, during my

weeklong stay at a Wellington low decile school, straight after my arrival in New

Zealand.

The student interviews for German scholarships.

The weekends in Wellington with the scholarship finalists.

The success stories of the award winners.

Travelling through New Zealand with the Deutschmobil and the lessons related

to the Deutschmobil.

… continued on next page

… Farewell message ‘Abschied’ continued

Driving a trabi to a West Auckland school during heavy rain, while being inter-

viewed by a Radio New Zealand journalist. And generally the experience of driving

through New Zealand with a trabi.

The reply of a student on why he enjoyed studying German: “Because the gram-

mar fascinates me.”

Special award for an NZ student at the German Olympics in Frankfurt “for being

such a nice guy”.

Student submissions for the yearly film competition.

Conferences for German language teachers in Wellington.

All the Goethe Institute trainees that accompanied me on my various trips to

schools and assisted me in the design of German language lessons.

The exhibition “Deutschland fűr Anfänger” in Wellington.

The concerts by “Kleingeldprinzessin” at various schools.

The successful partner school initiative

All German language teachers who permitted me insight into their world.

Working on the brochure “A Language with Heart” and the related movie.

An invitation to Christchurch shortly after the big earthquake.

Being a member of the jury for the Oskar theatre competition in Christchurch.

The yearly talk festival with students in Mosgiel and Raglan.

The sand castle cake competition during the language camps.

My farewell from New Zealand after six years as a National Advisor will be difficult and

there will be many more memories I will take away. I would like to thank all German

language teachers in NZ for their hard work and never ending efforts to engage stu-

dents in this perceivably difficult language. Numbers of German language teachers

have dropped in the last few years, but I believe German will still play an important

role in the future of language learning in NZ.

I thank everyone for their cooperation, warmth and friendliness towards myself and

my work in the past.

Yours,

Bernd Schliephake

Heretaunga College in Germany

Flying the flag for New Zealand recently have been students from Upper Hutt's own

Heretaunga College on their trip to Germany. Visiting a myriad of magnificent venues

including Berlin, Potsdam, Hamburg and Heidelberg, they did themselves and the rest

of us proud.

For many of the students this was their first trip overseas, for others their first time on

an airplane. Yet they took a total of four flights and 26 hours in the air like veteran fly-

ers.

During the first week they were based near Berlin, in Luckenwalde, home town of tour

leader and organiser Babette Moehricke, German teacher at Heretaunga College. From

here the students had easy access to such iconic sites as the Reichstag, the Branden-

burg Gate and Checkpoint Charlie. The Cecilienhof, where the Potsdam Treaty was

signed at the end of WW2, offered another opportunity for a photo-shoot as did their

trip to Germany's answer to Versailles, the breathtaking Sans Souci Palace.

There was more lively entertainment in Hamburg during their second week with white-

knuckle rides at a theme park to rival anything on Australia's Gold Coast. Opportunities

to practise their language skills, shop and enjoy German food and culture were plenti-

ful, including a marzipan factory in the late-medieval town of Luebeck on the Baltic

coast.

Then on to Heidelberg in Germany's affluent south west, an impressive city from where

it is easy to explore numerous other beautiful towns such as Speyer and the Gothic,

Baroque and Romanesque cathedrals and castles strewn along the river Rhine and its

tributaries. Making their own chocolate at a factory in Stuttgart was, as one might ex-

pect for teenagers, enormously popular.

In all three centres the students stayed with host families. They sometimes accompa-

nied their peers to lessons at the local schools and joined their host families on day trips

to sites such as Martin Luther's historic home town of Wittenberg, enjoyed river cruises,

scenic tours, an ice hockey match and even popped across the border to Strasbourg,

France.

In all three centres the students stayed with host families. They sometimes accompa-

nied their peers to lessons at the local schools and joined their host families on day

trips to sites such as Martin Luther's historic home town of Wittenberg, enjoyed river

cruises, scenic tours, an ice hockey match and even popped across the border to Stras-

bourg, France.

Deutsche Welle, the German cultural channel, interviewed some of the Heretaunga

students for their Discover Germany programme. Watch the footage here.

On the final night the Kiwi kids delighted their hosts by performing the waiata and

haka, inviting the locals to join them after some tuition. The evening was the culmina-

tion of a highly enjoyable and successful trip, though everyone agreed it's also great to

come home to Aotearoa. By Steve Andrews

SEX SONG IN GERMAN EXAM – PART TWO

The Goethe-Institut will give a free T-Shirt “DEUTSCH IST SEXY” to every student who

manages to achieve the grade of Excellence in the NCEA Level 2 German examination

2012. For more information visit the Goethe-Institute’s website.

“I fell down a mountain

and only broke my leg”

“8 of my students are study-

ing for scholarship in 2013”

“I will miss the open uncomplicated

NZ students”

“ I now know about earthquakes”

“I wish I had been educated

in NZ schools”

“I am definitely going to be

a teacher”

“I fell down a mountain and

only broke my leg”

“I survived in Kiwi land and saw

an actual kiwi in the wild.”

“I walked on a glacier”

“I saw the All Blacks play twice.” “I lived for a year without asking my

parents for money”

I studied Maori at university” “I set up an exchange for my

students with a school in Spain”

“I will bring my family back to show them NZ”

“I am determined to stay in NZ and have already applied for my visa”

Your feedback please

We would like this newsletter to be useful and interesting to

you. This is our final newsletter for this year which gives us

the opportunity to get your feedback before launching into a

new series of newsletters next year.

It would be fantastic if you could quickly email or fax us any

comments you would like to make.

How often do you think the newsletter should be published?

I would like to see the following content:

Monthly is great

Monthly is too often, I suggest _______________

Monthly is not often enough, I suggest

Success stories of other teachers

Articles on pedagogy and academic journals

Articles on culture, tradition and other country specific facts and figures.

Language specific tools and resources I can use in the classroom

Articles in the target language to practice my language skills

Anything else you would like to say? We really appreciate any positive or negative

feedback. Thanks!

Please email us on [email protected]

or fax this page back to 09 6238975

Advisory Support

National Advisers for Chinese, French, German, Japanese and Spanish provide lan-guage specific support and can also offer advice about foreign language assistants and scholarship and immersion opportunities for each language.

National Coordinators for Learning Languages, Secondary Student Achievement Con-tract, focus on effective implementation of the New Zealand Curriculum and the NCEA realigned achievement standards as well as the development of literacy and language practices.

Northern & Central Regions please contact: Dee Edwards.

Southern & Central South Regions please contact: Jo Guthrie

NZALT The New Zealand Association of Language Teachers offers a nationwide net-work to support language teachers, including regional meetings, professional devel-opment, awards, newsletters, conferences and advocacy on key issues.

Professional Development Opportunities

TPDL (Teacher Professional Development Languages) is a Ministry of Education funded programme aimed at developing teacher language proficiency and second lan-guage teaching capabilities in order to improve student language learning out-comes. TPDL is available to beginners as well as language experts.

ILEP (International Languages Exchanges and Pathways) supports schools and teachers to implement the Learning Languages curriculum area, particularly at Years 7 and 8.

Language Immersion Awards are provided by the Ministry of Education for teachers of languages to undertake immersion experiences overseas. Further details are availa-ble at the AFS website.

Don't forget! Check out the Learning Languages Website for regular updates and more information.

SEX SONG IN GERMAN EXAM – PART TWO The Goethe-Institut will give a free T-Shirt “DEUTSCH IST SEXY” to every student who manages to achieve the grade of Excellence in the NCEA Level 2 German ex-amination 2012. For more information visit the Goethe-Institute’s website.

Award ceremony for German film competition The award ceremony for this year’s German film competition “Es war einmal” will take place on 7 December at the New Zealand Film Archive in Wellington from 12:30 until 14:00. There were 47 submissions from 12 schools and 3 universities.

TPDL - (Teacher Professional Development Languages) Applications are due on 30. November for this Ministry of Education funded pro-gramme for language teachers throughout NZ (new and experienced teachers all welcome). Develop your teaching in ways that impact positively on student learn-ing. Up-skill in the language you teach if you need to, learn another language if you are already fluent in the language you teach.

TPDL provides:

personalised support to develop an inquiry approach to teaching Internationally recognized qualifications

a pedagogy course customised for busy teachers (revised for 2013) For further information and applications please contact: [email protected]

iCLT French language workshops There will be up to 8 iCLT French language workshops in March 2013, held mostly in the regions and combined with Spanish. These will be facilitated by the French and Spanish National Advisers. The theme will be iCLT in the classroom. An explo-ration of culture and its place in the French/Spanish language learning classroom using the 6 principles of intercultural communicative language teaching and learn-ing. More information coming soon.

Stage de Noumea 2013 Teachers participate in a 3 week (21 Sept—12 Oct) immersion and study experi-ence in Noumea led by ILEP and TPDL staff. Accommodation will be with a family, study time will be divided between school observations, intercultural inquiry and formal language classes at the University of Noumea. 13 places are available in 2013. Deadline for applications is 29 March 2013, 5pm. Please go to the ILEP web-site for more information.

STANZA Immersion Weekend 2013 is taking place in March. Have a look here for more information.

Coming Up ... Key Contacts and Links