Written by Antoni Golebiewski, Grade 9 as part of the MYP Journalism Elective, led by Mr. Josefino Rivera
Language Week is an annual event at ISP where all students can engage in many activities, including language lessons, interesting facts and games, along with sharing their diverse cultures and many languages. During Language Week, students had the opportunity to learn different languages, try foods from around the globe and much more. This year’s theme was connection.
Mr. Jesus Alemany, a Spanish teacher who has been working at ISP for 18 years, is one of the organisers of Language Week. He was part of the team that started Language Week 17 years ago with Mrs. Mongers, a past French teacher.
“It is important to honour the students and who they are. I have always been part of it, and it is one of the most important parts of being an international school.” he said.
According to Mr. Alemany, it is important to celebrate and raise awareness about different cultures and languages.
Zile, Grade 9, was part of this year’s celebration and took part in the community gathering speaking about the Pashtun language. She is part of a group that prepared for language week as well as part of STUCO and MUN. In her view, multiculturalism is also a defining characteristic of our school.
Ms. Beata Rodlingova was also one of the teachers who started Language Day back in 2006 (which later took the form of Language Week). This year, her task was to oversee the individual committee of students. In her opinion, celebrating Language Week is important because some cultures don’t have the space or opportunity to highlight their culture, especially in a school where speaking in English is the norm.
One of her favourite activities is The Language Call, where students during a Community Gathering have the chance to say a word or phrase in their language.
“It is great to see just how many cultures we have in our school,” she said.
Language Week helps highlight our diversity and lets students embrace their cultures and traditions, and time and again it shows us our differences and teaches us new things each year. Language week is a one-of-a-kind opportunity for everyone to celebrate our school’s diversity.
