Jump to: Fluency in the playground |
He signed up for Mandarin |
Joining the culture club
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Fluency in the playground |
Before moving to Toronto, Ontario from the state of California last year, German was Katarina Gullien’s “secret” language. “We spoke it at home, but no one else could understand it,” she says. “In California, we went to German school on Saturdays, but that wasn’t really effective.” Now, a Grade 7 student at Toronto German School, also known as Deutsche Schule Toronto, Katarina loves being able to speak her “secret” language in the classroom and on the schoolyard.
To meet the needs of a growing expat and German-Canadian community, Toronto German School was opened in September 2000 and offers nursery school through Grade 8. The focus is on developing bilingual students. “We teach according to the enriched German curriculum while incorporating some Canadian elements,” says Hanna Pai, the school’s principal.
At this school, German-speaking students develop English and French language skills, while English-speaking students learn German. “The younger a child is, the easier it will be to learn a second language,” says Pai. “But we’ve had students of all ages make tremendous progress.”
— Hailey Eisen
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He signed up for Mandarin |
His native language is Afrikaans, his common tongue is English and Jan is excelling in a host of other languages at Mulgrave School, in West Vancouver.
“I started in Grade 3, learning French. I learned Latin in Grade 7,” the Grade 9 student says. Looking for an even greater challenge, he signed up for Mandarin last year. “My dad said it was going to be the business language of the future. It’s hard to get used to because it’s very different from French or English, but once you learn the grammar, it’s pretty easy.”
— Heather Greenwood Davis
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Joining the culture club |
When Grade 8 student Jimena, travelled to Marseilles, France earlier this year to compete in an international gymnastic competition, it changed her opinion about learning French.
“It was my first time in Europe so it was a great experience to see how different things are,” she says.
Jimena was grateful for the opportunity to practice what she has been learning in the classroom at Mississauga, Ontario’s St. Jude’s Academy, since almost everyone she encountered on her trip spoke French. This experience made her decide to take her learning of the language to the next level.
“When I came back to Canada, I was inspired to learn French so that I can speak fluently,” she says. “I finally realized that there was a point to learning another language.”
— Claudia D’Souza
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