Why am I here?

0Consider how MFL can fit in to your future aspirations

0Understand what route your language learning journey can take

0Options available to you

0Hear from real people who use languages on a day-to-day basis

MFL at St Mary’s

0All of you are taking a language qualification right now0GSCE French

0GCSE Spanish

0AS French

0Take AS after gaining your GCSE

0 Take A2 after gaining AS level

What is in the AS/A2?

0AS0Unit 1 – L, R, W0Unit 2 - speaking exam0Topics: Popular culture, Healthy Lifestyle, Media &

Family and Relationships

0A20Unit 3 - L, R, W0Unit 4 – speaking exam0Topics: Environment, Multicultural Society & Social

Issues plus two cultural topics eg. Film, Literature History, Region, Architecture, Artist etc....

What next?

0Good linguists could take a language (or two!) at university

0 you DO NOT have to take a language by itself

0 Combined degree

0pick up a second language

0 spend a year abroad

Why take a language further?

0you enjoy learning languages

0you might like to work or travel abroad

0a good qualification to have for entry into college or university

0employability

0makes you stand out from the crowd

0 lots of well known people speak other languages and it has helped them in their careers

Give yourself the edge… they did!Match the names on the left to the degrees on the right:

J. K. RowlingAuthor (Harry Potter)

Paula RadcliffeAthlete

Lucy LiuFilm star

Jonathan RossTV and Radio Presenter

Rory Bremner Comedian

Fiona BruceNewsreader

Chris MartinMusician (Coldplay)

Nigella LawsonTV Chef

Chinese Language and Culture(1990)

European Studies(1982)

French and German(1983)

Modern European Studies(1996)

Greek and Latin(1999)

French and Classics(1987)

Medieval and Modern Languages(1983)

French and Italian(1986)

J. K. RowlingAuthor (Harry Potter)

French and Classics(1987)

Paula RadcliffeAthlete

Modern European Studies(1996)

Lucy LiuFilm star

Chinese Language and Culture(1990)

Jonathan RossTV and Radio Presenter

European Studies(1982)

Rory Bremner Comedian

French and German(1983)

Fiona BruceNewsreader

French and Italian(1986)

Chris MartinMusician (Coldplay)

Greek and Latin(1999)

Nigella LawsonTV Chef

Medieval and Modern Languages(1983)

Give yourself the edge… they did!Match the names on the left to the degrees on the right:

J. K. RowlingAuthor (Harry Potter)

Paula RadcliffeAthlete

Lucy LiuFilm star

Jonathan RossTV and Radio Presenter

Rory Bremner Comedian

Fiona BruceNewsreader

Chris MartinMusician (Coldplay)

Nigella LawsonTV Chef

Chinese Language and Culture(1990)

European Studies(1982)

French and German(1983)

Modern European Studies(1996)

Greek and Latin(1999)

French and Classics(1987)

Medieval and Modern Languages(1983)

French and Italian(1986)

J. K. RowlingAuthor (Harry Potter)

French and Classics(1987)

Paula RadcliffeAthlete

Modern European Studies(1996)

Lucy LiuFilm star

Chinese Language and Culture(1990)

Jonathan RossTV and Radio Presenter

European Studies(1982)

Rory Bremner Comedian

French and German(1983)

Fiona BruceNewsreader

French and Italian(1986)

Chris MartinMusician (Coldplay)

Greek and Latin(1999)

Nigella LawsonTV Chef

Medieval and Modern Languages(1983)

Today’s speakers

0Mrs Olga Gomez Cash

0Lancaster University

0Department of European Languages & Culture

Today’s speakers

0NST

0 Anne Benkel and Stuart Robinson

0travel company

0 school trips including WW 2015 Barcelona

0 based in Blackpool

Zoe Leigh

My Work

Role – Recruitment Consultant

Location - Paris

Company - Swift World Wide Resources

Swift WWR Is a recruitment agency specialising in the oil and gas industry, we find engineers and managers to work on oil rigs and other oil and gas platforms all over the world.

Benefits of being able to speak French

0 You will be able to communicate with around 340 million more people than your average English speaker.

0 Your understanding of grammar and vocabulary is massively improved.

0 In a French working environment you will be the best English speaker.

0 It opens you up to opportunities abroad, even at A-Level standard.

0 There is nothing that you can learn at university about speaking French that you cannot learn at A-Level if you take advantage of the opportunity.

How French Has Helped Me

0Graduated from St Mary’s Sixth Form with a B in French and went on to study at the University of Sheffield.

0 Spent a year as a student in the south of France.

0Went on to work in customer service at NS&I (boring)

0Did a Marketing internship with a local Fylde company.

0Moved to Swift WWR UK last year in March, then to Swift Paris in June.

My Tips

0 Learn the irregular verbs as quickly as you can.

0 Practise listening, use youtube, watch films that you know well in French.

0 Speaking- use music to improve your pronunciation, it helps with accent, rhythm and breathing. It also helps with listening, I strongly recommend Emily Loizeaufor this purpose.

0 If you want to say something learn how to say it! Use all the tools you can to find out how to say what you want to say, it makes learning far more fun if you express your own opinions in your work!

0There is a tendency to think that you should only study

languages if you are going to become a professional

linguist.

0This is a mistake!

0Being able to understand and speak another language

is helpful to most spheres of existence, whether you

are a linguist-medic, linguist-lawyer, or linguist-

gardener.

0I suppose the question you are now asking is ‘why’?

0I am now in my second year of medicine, and studying

French at A Level was not something that I thought

twice about

0If you have any sort of interest in languages, you

ought to pursue it - it can never be detrimental

0Shows enormous breadth when applying for uni, jobs,

or whatever you want to do after school/college

0Doing a language shows that you are different and

multi-talented

0Will also improve your English; this may seem trivial,

but when competition for good jobs is ever-increasing,

this should not be underestimated

0 It’s interesting! It is not just learning words and how

to put them in the right order in a sentence

0 Discuss issues (social, political, environmental etc.)

that are, and will remain, relevant to all of us

0 Studying a language stimulates interest, encourages

perceptive thought, and improves your ability to

debate on such issues.

0 It’s always handy to be well-informed about the world

around you (and, therefore, how you change it……)

0 In a world that is becoming ever smaller, learning

different languages improves job prospects and opens

up more of the world to you, whether this be working

abroad, or just going travelling

0 Languages are something that any employer would

find attractive in an applicant

0 If you are wanting to go to university, it also opens up

the possibility of studying abroad for a year,

experiencing a different culture, and making new

friends (cheaper holidays in the future!)

0 The year abroad is the highlight of people’s degrees

0 From a medical perspective, I’ve always had an

interest in working abroad at some point for a charity

such as Médecins Sans Frontières

0 Having a language greatly improves your chances of

being able to do something like this, which can be

personally rewarding, as well as supporting those who

so need it.

0 Furthermore, as part of a medical degree you do an

elective, where you can go essentially anywhere in the

world to do a bit of doctoring for a few weeks.

0 Being able to speak more than just English opens up a

lot more interesting places

0I hope that this has been useful

0If you are even just thinking about studying a language,

do so! It will only benefit you, your future, and

potentially an awful lot of other people, too.

0There are no drawbacks