On Thursday July 21, the Languages Department hosted the annual Languages Poetry Competition. This Competition invites boys from Year 7–11 who study one of the eight languages the chance to recite a set poem in their language of study. 

The competitors are judged based on their pronunciation, fluency, engagement with the audience and ability to tell a story.

In my address to the audience on the night, I posed a question.

“Why are we here?”

Some may say out of tradition. The Languages Poetry Competition has run for over 20 years now, but why do our boys continue to learn other languages when English is universally spoken around the world, and for those who find themselves overseas and unable to speak a foreign language, there is the internet and a multitude of language apps that can do the translating and talking for us.

So why?

My answer is at once complex, and yet really very simple.

Besides being an outstanding brain exercise, as science would attest, or a great addition to a CV, knowing another language or learning its poetry offers us so much more on a very profound level.

What is revealed to us when we look at the range of topics covered in the poems … is this.

We all laugh at the ridiculous vision of an 18-metre long ant pulling a cart full of penguins and ducks.

We can all feel the delight of seeing a beautiful butterfly.

We recognise the gentle nobility in a farmer working his field or the rush of playing a good game of cards.

There is the exquisite joy of knowing love and the despair at losing that love.

The beauty of nature painted through words knows no cultural bounds.

And the fact that people have been writing about love and war for millennia shows us the same thing – we are, in essence, all one. Poetry, language, regardless of what that language is, are part of our shared humanity.

In a world where, moment by moment, we are confronted with violence, hate, xenophobia and increasing isolationism on the screens that are our constant companions, it becomes even more imperative that we share with the younger generation that is before us the vision of unity and strength through diversity via the medium of language. This is our passion and it drives us forward each day.

In short, the ability to speak another language, to find that place between cultures where you feel genuinely connected to yourself and the world around you, remains something magical.

Congratulations to all the boys who performed on the night, and a special pat on the back to those who went home with accolades.

Languages Poetry Winners 2016

Chinese

• Zach Zoud (7/ME)
• Oscar Bell (8/ME)
• Liam Pidcock (9/MA)
• Thomas Papasavvas (10/FL)
  

French

• Henry Armstrong-Bailey (7/LE)
• Louis Miletto (8/MO)
• Harrison Rowland (9/FL)
• Angus Mackie-Williams (10/PR)
• Jack Crawford (11/KL)

Latin

• Tom Alscher (7/FL)
• Max Tobin (8/PR)
• Jonathan Lee (9/FL)
• Linus Griziotis (10/FL)
• Fin Casey (11/KL)

German

• Michael Chi (11/JN)

Italian

• Marco Loprevite (11/MO)
• Benjamin Serone (11/MA)

Japanese

• Winston Lin (11/FL)

Modern Greek

• Christos Mavropoulos (11/ME)

Spanish

• Jonathan Eassy (11/FL)

Cheryl Priest
Head of Languages (Acting)