Download - 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