School of 71 languages

Nina 09-23-2006

A SECONDARY school has pupils that speak in a mind-boggling 71 different languages. Southfields Community College in Wandsworth, South London, takes kids who have fled war zones around the world and speak no English. Some have never been to school before.

But incredibly the college — believed to be the most cosmopolitan in Europe — has only THREE translators. It has 1,300 UK and foreign pupils aged 11-18 — and 550 of these arrived in Britain speaking no English.

So their first lesson was a crash course in our mother tongue. The pupils are then slowly introduced into mainstream classes, supported by the school’s ethnic minority achievement unit.

Among the languages spoken are Arabic, Kurdish, Farsi (from Afghanistan) Kazak (Kazakhstan), Croatian, Zulu (South Africa), Swahili (Kenya) and Krio (Sierra Leone).

Headteacher Jacqueline Valin said many of the children arrive deeply traumatised. She recalled: “One young Somalian girl had a scar on her hand from being shot.

“We’ve had an increase in the number of pupils from abroad but there has never been a problem with the racial mix.

“These children have a burning desire to learn.”

Despite the language barrier the school’s exam results are improving. The proportion of pupils getting five Cs or better at GCSE rose from 27 per cent in 2002 to 38 per cent last year.

BonitaPajarita

Wow! Now that's amazing!

I wish we had more of that around here in the U.S., we could all learn from each other, they learn English and they teach us there language and culture.

Kids pick of language so much faster at a younger age so as they become more comfortable and talk more amongst theselves they could learn 2-3-4-5 or more languages on top of English.

Pussy

I'm guessing they going to be translaters for some company becuae I can't see what else you would know that many languages for that would be really useful.

Natalie

Pussy I agree. While its pretty cool to know alot of languages and you think it would be a big advantage it really isn't. You'll be able to get some jobs alot of others wouldn't be able to get for example gov. translators but you would still need you build up your other areas. And not sure how much that school is doing in other clases if they teach their students 71 languages.

Requeim

I'm just going to come out and say this. You notice that the majority of the people in the pic are not white? Mostly is white americans who believe everyone should only talk in english. And I think that picture pretty much clarifies that.

Hsoolien

Americans as a country really, French was the language of choice internationally (easy to learn, not much room for misunderstanding) till the US kind of pushed the issue

sexyassnative

English is the hardest language to learn since its own rules don't apply. And Hsoolien is right, you say something in english and there is so much room for misunderstanding someone. Proably the reason why when you translate other languages in english it doesn't come out right all the time.

Hsoolien

I forgot to mention more countries list french as their national language of choice then english. (What can we say the Fench were very effective at collonizing)
Yeah english is a pain, outside of the rule difficulties, we embrace more words into our language then any other language (ex english has over 1 million words, french, about 100000, or les then 1/10th). Words can have to many meanings as well depending on where you are (fag is different across the ocean)

EssenceofBeauty

i wish i knew that many languages

BonitaPajarita

I dont think that has anything to do with it. The lack of whites that you are talking about are English. They are in the UK area (Europe). And they did state they are from all different parts of the world who have left or been rescued from War Zones. Europe currently is NOT a war zone.

If you ever seen the UK area or Europe its actually quite mixed considering the history of migration of cultures, and the fact all these countries are all squished together. On top of that because they are all very close most know and are more I guess you can say "cultured or culturely aware" than Amercians. Many also know at least 2 or more languages.

At least there are people out there doing something instead of nothing at all.