With English retaining its status as the unquestionable international language of commerce, the real-world value of spending years familiarising yourself with a second language is not always obvious. However, last month, our Spanish pupils were treated to a virtual seminar from Aeronautical Engineer, Javier Gadea Ezquerra, who spoke about his own experiences of increased career prospects through speaking four languages. We caught up with our Senior School Spanish Ambassador, Daisy Ford, to hear why she is so passionate about the language and why Framlingham College is such a unique place to learn other languages.
Daisy Ford, in Year 12, has been chosen as the Ambassador for Spanish by her tutors and, she says, learning Spanish at Framlingham College is different from learning it elsewhere. “I really enjoy Spanish, particularly because the department is really active,” she says. “So you’re not just learning the language and the grammar, but there’s a massive emphasis on the culture behind it. Obviously, our teachers being native speakers really helps with that.”
As part of the Spanish A Level, which Daisy takes here at the College, Head of Spanish, Mr Sedeño set up a virtual talk with Aeronautical Engineer for Airbus, Mr Ezquerra, to give pupils insight into how Spanish can enhance career prospects in a number of fields. Daisy adds: “It was a really inspiring talk. He was speaking about how languages open up so many different opportunities in the world of work.
“He firstly talked about his own experiences and travels with his family and then he went on to pin down key reasons for why you should learn another language and how that helps with jobs. It was brilliant as it really helped me to realise how many sectors that skill could be deployed in other than the obvious ones like translating.”
While Daisy says the small class sizes for Spanish at Framlingham College have helped her develop her proficiency enormously, she hopes to continue to develop her Spanish when she leaves Framlingham College and eventually become fluent in the language. She says, as soon as she is able, she hopes to visit Salamanca or Seville with her family to practice her language skills in Spain.
Finally, when asked what advice she would give to people who may be considering taking a language at GCSE level, she says: “I would say try not to shut down that [languages] opportunity early on. It’s quite easy to not take a language for GCSE and languages are quite difficult to go back to. So, I would say even if it’s not your favourite subject, I’d keep ticking over with it because in later life you might be so thankful you did.”
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