In October, the Translation Exchange welcomed Year 6 pupils from Tyndale Community School to Queen’s for two mornings of workshops on Mandarin language, Chinese culture and creative translation. Pupils discovered ancient Chinese writing and poetry, experienced a day in the life of a undergraduate studying abroad in Taipei, translated part of a German novel and delivered sensational multilingual musical performances.
The two days showed the power of language in bringing together different parts of our community.
Over two sunny mornings in October, Year 6 pupils from Tyndale Community School in East Oxford joined the Translation Exchange in the Schulman Auditorium at Queen’s for interactive sessions on Mandarin language and Chinese culture, followed by Creative Translation workshops led by QTE Creative Translation Ambassadors.
The Mandarin Chinese workshops were supported by the Swire Chinese Language Foundation. Tyndale pupils learn Mandarin from Year 3 onwards as part of the Swire Chinese Language Programme, which aims to expand the provision of Mandarin Chinese language teaching across the UK. Inviting the pupils to Queen’s was a chance to show these young linguists where their Mandarin Chinese language studies could take them.
The Mandarin workshops were designed and led by undergraduate students from the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. The first workshop was delivered by Cosmo Siddons, a final-year student in Chinese Studies at Queen’s, and Noah Shenoy, a third-year student in Chinese Studies at Wadham College. A whistlestop tour of the pair’s travels and studies in China culminated in an imagined visit to a Chinese restaurant. Pupils were tasked with ordering popular Chinese dishes – many of which they were already familiar with from their Mandarin lessons in school – including spicy beef noodles, 牛肉面 (niúròu miàn), and dumplings, 饺子 (jiǎozi). Finally, the pupils explored the history of Chinese writing, tracing the evolution of Chinese characters from ancient Chinese writing on stone and bamboo to the modern characters they recognised from their Mandarin language classes, before hearing about how the undergraduates used the same linguistic detective skills to study ancient Chinese texts and classical Chinese poetry at university.
The following morning, the second Mandarin workshop was delivered by Rebecca Gardner, a final-year Chinese Studies student at Pembroke College. Having spent a year studying abroad in China as part of her degree, Rebecca led an interactive session about a day in the life of a university student in Taiwan. Pupils decided how to spend their day in Taipei, from picking a mode of transport to choosing which snacks to buy at the market, honing their Mandarin language skills along the way.
The sessions were inspiring and enriching for both the Tyndale pupils and the Oxford undergraduates. Cosmo said the following:
“My experience with The Queen’s Translation Exchange was deeply enriching and enjoyable. I had done some teaching beforehand, but this was my first time planning and conducting a workshop fully from scratch and therefore the process made me reflect and reconsider the most effective approaches to language learning. During the session, I was amazed by the level of enthusiasm and focus shown by the students. Their grasp of Mandarin Chinese was remarkable, which motivated me in my own studies, and they asked thought provoking questions about university life and China. The lesson also taught me the importance of adaptability during teaching. It’s fun to have to adapt on the spot to the flow of the lesson and the educational needs of your students. Overall, I finished feeling inspired by the students.”
The Mandarin workshops were followed by Creative Translation workshops led by QTE Creative Translation Ambassadors. On Thursday, Teddy Nze, a final year student in Japanese Studies at Queen’s, delivered a French creative translation workshop on translating songs. Comparing the French-Malian singer Aya Nakamura’s performance of ‘For me, formidable’ at the 2024 Olympics opening ceremony in Paris with the original version performed by legendary French-Armenian singer Charles Aznavour, the pupils discussed French cultural identity, colonial history and multilingualism in French society. Having never studied French before, the pupils successfully translated the song into English, before writing their own multilingual songs inspired by Aznavour and Nakamura’s renditions. Many of the pupils used languages they spoke at home to write their songs, including Wolof, Portuguese and Urdu. Others used elements of Aznavour’s original song and words from their French glossaries to compose new songs in English and French. A highlight of the morning came when the pupils ascended to the mezzanine balcony of the Schulman Auditorium foyer to perform their songs to their peers.
Teddy noted:
“I love these workshops because they prove that language learning can be fun. Part of the difficulty of getting children into studying foreign languages is that it seems like a lot of work without much of a tangible benefit, especially when STEM subjects are being prioritised more than ever in schools, but through these workshops students are able to use their creativity and subjectivity and get to take back with them a memorable experience that languages are fun. My workshop was about translating an old 60’s French song into English. Our workshops are always very diverse so we had students who could translate parts of the poem into Portuguese, Wolof, Urdu and Welsh. What I didn’t expect though was for them to turn them into and perform their own songs! It was wonderful to see the students using so much of their creativity to create a memory I’m sure we all won’t forget for a long time.”
Valuing and celebrating multilingualism is central to the Translation Exchange’s mission and our Creative Translation workshops for schools. The Tyndale students were excited to explore new and unfamiliar languages as well as to share their own linguistic knowledge and bring this into the workshops. One pupil said, “I liked learning about how things are pronounced in different languages and how we got to share our thoughts about the different languages we speak”. Another pupil commented, “I liked the way we got to share our different languages”.
It was wonderful to see the students using so much of their creativity to create a memory I’m sure we all won’t forget for a long time.
On the second morning, pupils took part in a German creative translation workshop led by Creative Translation Ambassadors and Queen’s students Emily Dicker and Lia Neill. Watching a scene from the 1999 German comedy film Sonnenallee, an adaptation of Thomas Brussig’s novel Am kürzeren Ende der Sonnenallee, pupils learnt about life in East Germany and discovered the history of the creation of the GDR through the story of a street divided in two by the Berlin Wall. Using the film clips to decode the text, pupils were able to translate an extract from the novel despite never having studied German, before creatively rewriting their translations to capture the feel and tone of the original.
Across the two mornings, it was inspiring and motivating to learn from both the pupils and the undergraduate ambassadors, and to bring together so many languages, cultures and experiences within a few short workshops. John Sparks, from the Swire Chinese Language Centre in Oxford, remarked:
“A wonderful two days! Thank you to everyone at Queen’s who made the experience possible for the children at Tyndale Community School. The children were challenged and inspired, while having the opportunity to share their own learning. The student ambassadors were outstanding, providing a deeper insight into learning languages and sharing their personal experiences of the countries they have visited. The two days showed the power of language in bringing together different parts of our community.”
The visit to Queen’s was also an opportunity for the pupils to learn more about life at university and their options for future study. During each workshop, the Tyndale students had the opportunity to engage directly with Oxford undergraduates and ask questions about studying languages at university. Eating lunch together in Queen’s Hall was a chance for the pupils to experience student life at an Oxford college. One pupil remarked, “I want to go here in five years’ time!”. Another pupil was left with a single question: “when can we come back?”.
Thank you to the Queen’s College, the teachers and pupils from Tyndale Community School, the undergraduate students who delivered the workshops, and everyone at the Swire Chinese Language Foundation for making these two days possible.
