Interlingua - The French Issue

INTERLINGUA

ISSUE FIVE THE FRENCH ISSUE

WELCOME

SPRING TERM 2022 Welcome to the fifth number of the University College School Modern Languages journal, Interlingua.

This term we are celebrating all things French, in celebration of the fact that our French Department is growing in strength and vitality, and inspiring pupils - both past and present - to engage in an appreciation of French language and culture. It is not without significance that French in both the Entry and the Shell year groups provides the portal through which all future language studies are accessed.

The Cultural Dossier contains some original research from our Transitus and Sixth pupils on contemporary and historical issues that have shaped Francophone culture, as well as some examples of the work that our French pupils have produced from the Entry to Sixth.

The issue begins with an interview by pupils of Ms Tobert, our Head of French, who is harnessing the strength and vitality of this well-established

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department in the light of the social, political and cultural changes ushered in by the 21st century.

Despite the lack of trips abroad at present, the French Department continues to enrich and inspire pupils at all levels through cultural extension work, French film analysis, email exchanges, debating and translation competitions, and much more! Bonne INTERLINGUA, SPRING TERM, 2022 lecture!

THE INTERVIEW

Ms Tobert, Head of French Interviewed by her Upper Remove French class

Where did you learn French?

SCT: My mum is French, but I grew up speaking only English at home as my dad doesn't speak a word of French. Although we occasionally visited family in France, I really struggled to communicate with them as a child and I was too embarrassed to try! I think my love of the language came later, when I started studying it in secondary school. I found it was a language that came easily to me and I found it really satisfying to see how much I could learn and improve in a short space of time. I actually loved learning all languages, and I decided to study French and Spanish for A Level and then at university in Cambridge.

Looking back now, I wish I had made more of an effort to speak French to my mum - it certainly would have made my studies easier!

Have you ever lived in France?

SCT: I have never actually lived in France, but when I graduated from university, I started working for a finance company called Bloomberg, and my job involved managing accounts in Paris. For 3 years, I travelled every week to Paris for a few days at a time and spent all day long speaking to customers and colleagues in French. This is when I really saw my French improve. The weirdest moment was when I realised that I had started to dream in French!

Is it true that pastries and break really do taste better in France?

SCT: In my (slightly biased) opinion, they definitely do, but you'll have to try for yourself and tell me!

Do you have a favourite French actor or actress?

SCT: I'd have to say that my favourite actor at the moment is Omar Sy. I love his performances in Intouchables and Lupin; he plays endearing characters and brings a lot of charm to the roles. It's no surprise that he has become such a big star in France!

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WHERE ARE THEY NOW? UCS FRENCH STUDENTS LARA SCHIFFRIN-SANDS

What made you decide to study French at university?

Strictly speaking I didn’t study French at university, I studied at a French university. I did a Double BA between Sciences Po and UCL, in the Social Sciences. (The official name of the degree was the European Social and Political Studies) So after finishing my A-levels, I moved to Paris and spent two years at Sciences Po in Paris, where I followed a cross-disciplinary curriculum in the Social Sciences, all in French. Then when I returned to UCL I majored in Philosophy.

This degree suited me well because while I loved French at school, I didn’t want my entire degree to be French. This programme then let me carry on using (and improving) my French, while letting me pursue the Social Sciences.

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Lara Schiffrin Sands

INTERLINGUA, SPRING TERM, 2022

WHERE ARE THEY NOW? UCS FRENCH STUDENTS LARA SCHRFFIN-SANDS

What were your experiences of studying French at university?

Again, I don’t know how well my experience speaks to this. Rather, what I learnt very early on was the importance of living in a foreign country to perfect your language skills. While my ability to decipher Huis Clos for my A-level exam might have been strong, it was really difficult when I first moved not only to follow a university-level curriculum, but also to understand what my peers were saying - so much argot we were never taught. Luckily, I picked up quickly, and am so glad I moved.

What have you gone on to do since leaving university?

After graduating from UCL, I began a PhD program in Sociology the next September at UC Berkeley in California. I am in my third year of that now, and am hoping to write my dissertation on school police (yes, that’s a real thing here…)

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WHERE ARE THEY NOW? UCS FRENCH STUDENTS LARA SCHRFFIN-SANDS

How has French been helpful in your life beyond UCS? Beyond the obvious advantage of moving me to Paris, and the tight group of friends I have kept from there, French has opened up many possibilities in my career as a researcher. I initially applied to the PhD program with a proposal to conduct a comparative analysis on the role of race in school disciplinary processes between France and the U.S., a project that would only have been possible given my French.

While that particular project has dropped by the wayside, speaking French can open many doors in terms of research possibilities available to me. And, when I am having a hard time understanding Bourdieu’s social theory, I can always revert to his original French text.* *This is a joke. The author would never advise attempting to read Bourdieu in his original French, and to be quite honest, nor English either.

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INTERLINGUA, SPRING TERM, 2022

THE PROUST UCS MODERN THE PROUST UCS MODERN LANGUAGES TEACHER LANGUAGES TEACHER QUESTIONNAIRE QUESTIONNAIRE

At the start of the Spring Term 2022, the Modern Languages Department welcomed Elsa Garnotel, our new French Language Assistant. We took the opportunity to ask her some questions to find out more about her!

What makes you happy?

Dancing, yoga, flowers, long and relaxed dinners with friends, anything that sparks creativity.

What’s your greatest talent?

I am pretty good at being myself. I also believe that I have got a certain talent at empowering others.

Who do you admire?

Passionate people, people using their voices to make the world a better place. My mum and the women I am surrounded by, Simone de Beauvoir, Dr Denis Mukwege, Nadia Murad, Martha Graham, Benjamin Millepied.

What do you value most in your friends?

Trust. They are also hilarious.

Your motto for life?

What would you do if success was guaranteed?

And a weakness?

Overthinking things at times.

What’s your Whatsapp status?

'Choose love.' Cheesy but true.

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What talent would you like to have?

Knowing to speak every language.

What drives you mad?

Intolerance, racism, sexism, basically everything that comes from a place of hate.

Your favourite book?

There are too many but I particularly like Zadig by Voltaire, Soie

by Alessandro Baricco, La Horde du Contrevent by Alain Damasio, Ce que le jour doit à la nuit by Yasmina Khadra.

Your most precious belonging?

My family and friends.

What is your greatest fear in life?

Losing loved ones.

If you were not a teacher, what profession would you have?

Being an artist. Or work in the art industry.

Your favourite dish?

Tiramisu.

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ANTHEA BELL TRANSLATION COMPETITION

The Anthea Bell Translation Competition is a national school translation competition, set up and run by Queen's College, Oxford. The purpose is to promote language learning and inspire creativity through the translation of poems, articles and fictional texts. This year, the competition was held with all classes in the Lower Remove, Remove and Transitus in French. Some of the best translations can be seen below.

Who was Anthea Bell?

Anthea Bell OBE (1936–2018) ranked among the leading literary translators of the 20th and 21st centuries. Her work from German, French and Danish into English encompassed the writings of Kafka, Freud, E.T.A. Hoffmann, the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, Georges Simenon, W.G. Sebald, René Goscinny, Cornelia Funke and many others.

She won numerous literary awards, some of them several times, and was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 2015.

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LOWER REMOVE FRENCH TRANSLATIONS

Lucas Samonas, Lower Remove

This poem by Yves Bonnefoy, was painted on a street wall in Paris in 2000, with an illustration by Pierre Alechinsky.

The poem is entitled 'L’Arbre bleu'.

Passant, Regarde ce grand arbre et à travers lui il peut suffire.

It may suffice.

Car même déchiré, souillé, l’arbre des rues, c’est toute la nature, tout le ciel, l’oiseau s’y pose, le vent y bouge, le soleil y dit le même espoir malgré la mort.

It’s even torn, soiled, It’s a street tree, it's all nature, all the sky, the bird goes there, the wind goes there, the sun gives us hope despite death.

Philosophe, as-tu chance d’avoir l’arbre dans ta rue, tes pensées seront moins ardues,

Philosopher, are you lucky to have the tree in your street, your thoughts will be less

tes yeux plus libres, tes mains plus désireuses de moins de nuit.

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As I am passing I look at the majestic tree and through him

arduous, your eyes more free, your most eager hands Enjoy your last night.

INTERLINGUA, SPRING TERM, 2022

LOWER REMOVE FRENCH TRANSLATIONS

Jack Lesser, Lower Remove

Passant, Regarde ce grand arbre

Bystander, Look at this majestic tree

et à travers lui il peut suffire.

and across it It is enough.

Car même déchiré, souillé, l’arbre des rues, c’est toute la nature, tout le ciel,

Because even though it is ripped, contaminated the tree on the street, It is a natural wonder,

l’oiseau s’y pose, le vent y bouge, le soleil y dit le même espoir malgré la mort.

All the sky, The gracious birds settle down there, The wind the thrives, the sun This is the same hope, Death.

Philosophe, as-tu chance d’avoir l’arbre dans ta rue, tes pensées seront moins ardues, tes yeux plus libres, tes mains plus désireuses de moins de nuit.

Philosopher, Are you grateful enough for the tree In your street, Your thoughts will be less clustered, Your eyes more free to roam, Your hands more desirable Not as dark.

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LOWER REMOVE FRENCH TRANSLATIONS

Jeremy Jeffes, Lower Remove

Passant, Regarde ce grand arbre

Passer by See the grand tree

et à travers lui il peut suffire.

and with it You will suffice.

Because the same torn, squalid, tree of the streets, It is all of nature All the sky A bird, there it flies,

Car même déchiré, souillé, l’arbre des rues, c’est toute la nature, tout le ciel, l’oiseau s’y pose, le vent y bouge, le soleil y dit le même espoir malgré la mort.

Philosophe, as-tu chance d’avoir l’arbre dans ta rue, tes pensées seront moins ardues, tes yeux plus libres, tes mains plus désireuses de moins de nuit.

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The wind moves, and, the sun our hope, despite, our fear of endless death.

Philosopher, Are you worthy, to have this tree On your street?

You think you’ll have less a hardship Your eyes more free Your hands greedier, Even less than at night.

INTERLINGUA, SPRING TERM, 2022

LOWER REMOVE FRENCH TRANSLATIONS

Isaac Gordon, Lower Remove

Passant, Regarde ce grand arbre

Passer-by, Gaze upon this huge tree and look

et à travers lui il peut suffire.

past it, T hat is all.

Car même déchiré, souillé, l’arbre des rues, c’est toute la nature, tout le ciel,

Because even the ripped, stained, tree on the streets, it is all that remains of nature, the sky, the bird rests there,

l’oiseau s’y pose, le vent y bouge, le soleil y dit le même espoir malgré la mort.

the wind glides through there, t he sun there bellows of the same hope in spite of the death.

Philosophe, as-tu chance d’avoir l’arbre dans ta rue, tes pensées seront moins ardues, tes yeux plus libres, tes mains plus désireuses de moins de nuit.

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Philosopher, you are lucky to have this tree in your street, your thoughts will be less arduous, your eyes are freer, your hands more eager for less darkness.

INTERLINGUA, SPRING TERM, 2022

REMOVE FRENCH TRANSLATIONS

Ro Khan-Philips, Remove

Ce petit avatar vient d’un jeu japonais du même nom. Créé en 1978, il a rendu fou les "geeks" du pays. Derrière cet avatar, l’idée d’Invader est de créer une passerelle entre art, quotidien et numérique à la manière d’un hacker de l’espace public. Ses personnages sont comme des virus, des envahisseurs, un moyen d’ancrer le numérique dans la réalité. Le tout chargé de sacs remplis de kilos de tesselles de céramique, une vraie performance.

Toujours masqué, Invader pose son art en toute illégalité et doit ruser à chacune de ses interventions. Tous ses motifs sont préparés à l’avance et la pose se fait souvent la nuit dans des endroits difficiles d'accès, souvent haut perchés.

Si Paris protège l’art de rue et poursuit les auteurs de pillages ou de dégradations, d’autres villes au contraire voient les œuvres d’Invader comme une atteinte à l'espace urbain et décident de retirer ses œuvres.

Un crève-cœur pour l’artiste qui, après 20 ans de métier, continue de préférer la rue aux musées.

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REMOVE FRENCH TRANSLATIONS

Luca Ridard and Edward Dyson, Remove

This small avatar originated from a Japanese game of the same name. Established in 1978, to please the geeks of the country. On the other side of each avatar, the idea of Invader is to create a passageway between art, everyday life and digital, like a hacker in the public space. His artworks are like viruses, invaders, a way of securing the virtual in reality. All loaded with sacs brimming with masses of ceramic, a real feat of art.

Always disguised, Invader poses his art unlawfully and must use his ingenuity in each of his interventions. All his patterns are prepared in advance and the construction is often done at night in places that are treacherous, often at a great height.

Paris protects street art and punishes the criminals of looting or destruction, other cities, on the other hand, see Invader's works as a violation on urban space and decide to take down his works. A devastation for the artist who, after 20 long years in the business, continues to prefer the street to museums.

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REMOVE FRENCH TRANSLATIONS Ro Khan-Philips, Remove

This little avatar comes from a Japanese game of the same name. Made in 1978, Space Invaders has driven local geeks crazy! Behind this avatar, the idea of “Invader”.is to create a link between art, daily and digital in the style of a “hacker” of public spaces. His characters are like viruses, invaders, a way to anchor the digital in reality. It’s all laden with kilos of ceramic tiles, a real performance. Always masked, Invader poses his art illegally and must be cunning with each intervention. All his motifs are prepared in advance and the installation is done often at night in places that are difficult to access, often high up. While Paris protects his street art and prosecutes those who are responsible for stealing or damaging it, other cities see Invader’s work as an attack on urban spaces and decide to remove his works; A heartbreaker for the artist who, after 20 years in the business, continues to prefer the street to the museums.

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REMOVE FRENCH TRANSLATIONS Joseph Hayes, Remove

This cute little character comes from a Japanese game of the same name: ‘Space Invaders’. Ever since its birth in 1978, ‘geeks’ across the country have been driven crazy by it. The brains behind this amiable writer, the idea of Invader is to build a bridge between art and digital technology in the style of ‘Space Invaders’, and to incorporate this into daily life. His funny figures, which are like images or invaders, are an anchor between digital technology and reality. One must admit, with the whole thing being weighed down by bags filled to the brain with ceramic tiles, it is a true performance.

Carefully plotting his every move, Invader installs his art completely illegally, all while wearing a mask. All his works are pre-prepared and the intricate installation process often takes place at night, in places so high that you or I would never dream of going.

While Paris protects the street art and yet continues to pursue culprits of looting, vandalism or other, less creative graffiti, other towns have decided on the contrary approach: to take down his works. The question is, where do you draw the line between street art and vandalism? Either way, it is a heart breaking situation for an artist who, after 20 years of experience in the business, still prefers the freedom of the streets to museums.

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REMOVE FRENCH TRANSLATIONS Theo Melikian, Remove

This little avatar comes from a Japanese game of the same name.

Created in 1978, he drove the ‘geeks’ of the country crazy. Behind the avatar, the idea of invaders is to create a bridge between art, daily life and digital in the manner of a hacker in a public space. His characters are like viruses, invaders, a way to anchor the digital in reality. All loaded with bags filled with kilos of ceramic tesserae, a real achievement.

Always masked, Invader poses his art illegally and must use tricks at each of his interventions. All his patterns are prepared in advance and the installation is often done at night in hard-to-reach places, often high up. If Paris protects street art and prosecutes the perpetrators of looting or degradation, other cities, on the contrary, see Invader's works as an attack on urban space and decide to withdraw his works. A heartbreak for the artist who, after 20 years in the profession, continues to prefer the street to museums.

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TRANSITUS FRENCH TRANSLATIONS Dev Mirpuri, Transitus

This passage is taken from the novel L’Art de perdre

by Alice Zeniter. The novel tells the story of a family who moved to France following the Algerian War of Independence. In this extract, the family are moving from temporary accommodation in rural southern France (the Logis d’Anne) to a permanent home.

Lorsque le car dépose les quelques familles du Logis d’Anne dans leur nouveau quartier, il pleut. Le sol est encore boueux des travaux. C’est triste à mourir. Le problème de ce ciel nuageux, comme Hamid va le réaliser très vite, c’est qu’il permet de tout voir. Les yeux ne plissent jamais devant une brillance excessive, il n’y a pas de flots de lumière suffisamment puissants pour rendre flous les détails environnants.

It is raining when the bus drops off the families from the Logis d’Anne to their new neighbourhood. The ground is still muddy from the work. It looks dreary as death. The problem with this cloudy sky, as Hamid will very soon realise, is that it allows everything to be seen. Eyes never squint at the excessive brilliance, there are no streams of light strong enough to blur any surrounding details.

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TRANSITUS FRENCH TRANSLATIONS Dev Mirpuri, Transitus

La Kabylie et la Provence étaient une succession de silhouettes d’arbres, de crêtes et de maisons à moitié mangées de lumière. Elles étaient faites de taches de couleur qui dansaient entre les paupières difficilement tenues entrouvertes. Et l’Oued qui descendait la montagne depuis le village jusqu’à Palestro s’allumait par intermittence de reflets aveuglants comme si tout au long de la pente des contrebandiers avaient utilisé des morceaux de miroir pour s’envoyer des signaux. On croit que la lumière permet de montrer, d’exposer crûment chaque détail. En réalité, à pleine puissance, elle cache aussi bien que l’ombre, sinon mieux. Mais le ciel gris de Normandie ne cache rien.

Kabylia and Provence were a succession of tree silhouettes, ridges and houses half swallowed up in light. They were made up of splashes of colour that danced between eyelids that were barely held open. And the wadi that flowed down the mountain from the village up to Palestro lit up intermittently with blinding flashes as if all along its slope, smugglers had used pieces of mirror to send signals to each other. It is believed that light makes it possible to show, to crudely expose every detail. In fact, at full force, it hides just as well as shade, if not better. But the grey sky of Normandy hides nothing.

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TRANSITUS FRENCH TRANSLATIONS Dev Mirpuri, Transitus

Il est neutre. Il laisse exister chaque bâtiment, chaque trottoir, chaque homme qui marche de l’autocar jusqu’à son futur appartement, chaque trace de boue qui macule déjà les marches de l’escalier et l’intérieur des logements car il n’y a paillasson nulle part. Le ciel est bas pourtant, il est distant. Il ne se mêle pas au paysage. Il se contente d’être là, à l’arrière-plan, à la manière des toiles abstraites devant lesquelles on place les enfants le jour de la photographie à l’école.

C’est comme si le ciel regardait ailleurs.

It is neutral. It lets every building exist, every pavement, every man who walks from the coach to his future apartment, every trace of mud that, for one thing, stains the steps of the staircase and the inside of the apartments because there is no doormat anywhere. The sky is low yet it is distant. It doesn’t blend in with the landscape. It is happy to be there, in the background, like the abstract canvases in front of which children are placed on the day of their school picture. It is as if the sky were looking elsewhere.

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TRANSITUS FRENCH TRANSLATIONS Zac Herrmann, Transitus

When the bus drops off the few families from Logis d’Anne in their new neighbourhood, it is raining. The ground is still muddy from the work. It is as sad as hell. The problem with this cloudy sky, as Hamid will soon realise, is that it allows you to see everything. The eyes never squint at excessive brightness, there are no rays of light strong enough to blur the surrounding details. Kabylia and Provence were a succession of tree silhouettes, ridges and houses half eaten by light. They were made of patches of colour that danced between the eyelids, which were held half-open with difficulty. And the Oued, which went down the mountain from the village to Palestro, was lit up with blinding reflections, as if smugglers had used shards of mirrors to send signals to each other all along the slope. It is believed that the light makes it possible to show, to expose every detail. In reality, at its most powerful, it hides as well as shadow, if not better. But the grey sky of Normandy doesn’t hide anything. It is neutral. It lets every building, every pavement, every man walking from his bus to his future apartment, every trace of mud that stains the stairs already, and the existing interior dwellings, because there isn’t a doormat anywhere. The sky is low, however it is distant. It doesn't blend into the landscape. It is happy to be there, in the background, in the manner of the abstract pictures in front of the kids on school photography day. It is as if the sky isn't looking.

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ENTRY WELL-BEING PROJECT - SPRING 2022

For the Entry and Shell themed term on Wellbeing, pupils put together posters in French about the things that they like. Here are some of the best ones created by our Entry pupils.

Baptiste Rech

Mati Potts

NAME Jonah Kermisch

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ENTRY WELL-BEING PROJECT - SPRING 2022

Eli Greenbaum Ally Twaddle

Simon Kantor

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Alfie Heslam INTERLINGUA, SPRING TERM, 2022

SHELL EMAIL EXCHANGE PROJECT - SPRING 2022

Entry and Shell pupils have been taking part in an ongoing email exchange with pupils in a school in Paris, giving them an insight into life in France and allowing them to use their French in a real-life scenario. Here are some of the letters produced by our Shell pupils.

Cher Adam, Je m’appelle Daniel. J’ai treize ans et j’habite à Londres.

Dans ma famille c’est ma sœur, mon père, ma mère et un lapin qui s'appelle Hazel. Je suis amusant et sportif. J’adore le foot. A l'école, j'étudie les maths, la science, l'histoire et le français. Ma matière préférée est le eps parce que c’est très intéressant. Quelles langues parle-tu? As-tu des frères et des soeurs? J’espère avoir bientôt de tes nouvelles.

Amitiés Daniel

Daniel Loukine

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SHELL EMAIL EXCHANGE PROJECT - SPRING 2022

Chère Nina, Je m’appelle Dylan. J’ai treize ans et j'habite en Angleterre, Londres avec ma famille. Mon sport préféré est le foot et le tennis parce que . J’ai les cheveux bruns et courts et mes yeux noisette. Je parle anglais et hebrew mais je lis hebrew.

Ma matière préférée est la biologie et la physique parce que c'est amusant et intéressant. Où habites-tu? Quelles langues parles-tu?

J’espère avoir bientôt de tes nouvelles, Amitiés Dylan

Dylan Rock-Joffe

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SHELL EMAIL EXCHANGE PROJECT - SPRING 2022

Cher Pravanga, Je m’appelle sonny. J’ai douze ans et j’habite ά londres. Dans ma famille j’ai trois frère et mere et père et mon chien, je parle anglais et je suis fatigué. Mon sport préféré au foot mais j’aime au rugby. J’aime regarde la télé, le sport, j’aime l’art et j’aime mange.

A l’ecole, j'étudie beaucoup matière, ma matière préférée le sport parce que c’est amusant.

Où habites-tu en france et quelles langues parles-tu?

As-tu des freres et des soeurs?

Amities Sonny

Sonny Berman

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SHELL EMAIL EXCHANGE PROJECT - SPRING 2022

Cher Adam Mon jeu préféré est GTA. J’aime les mathématiques et jouer au foot. Mon préféré est Arsenal parce que c'est très intéressant. J'adore surfer le net parce que c'est très intéressant.

Je n'aime pas la lecture parce que c'est très ennuyeux. J’ai une mère, un père et un frère. Ma mère s’appelle Nicky.

Mon père s’appelle Edward. Mon Frère s’appelle Dylan.

J’adore ma mère, mon père et mon frère.

J’habite à Londres en Angleterre avec ma mère. Je ne suis pas avec mon père et mon frère.

Où habites tu?

Au revoir!

Christian Johnson

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THE TRAILBLAZING ENTRAÎNEUSE LEADING LES BLEUES: CORINNE DIACRE Nicky Helfgott, Sixth

Corinne Diacre, manager of the French women's football team, was interviewed by our French language assistant, Elsa Garnotel, for International Women's Day. The subtitles of her interview were translated by several of our Sixth students, so that it could be enjoyed by the entire school community. Below, Nicky Helfgott comments on his learnings from the interview.

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THE TRAILBLAZING ENTRAÎNEUSE LEADING LES BLEUES: CORINNE DIACRE Nicky Helfgott, Sixth

Corinne Diacre is something of a trailblazer in the football world.

Having captained Les Bleues in her playing days, in 2014, she became the first woman to manage in the top two tiers of a men's European League, and the first woman to take charge of a men’s French team.

She took charge of Clermont Foot, a modest Ligue 2 side, with the aim of ‘maintaining their position in Ligue 2 at a minimum’. Now, after a successful managerial stint at Clermont, Diacre is the manager of the French national women’s team.

Female representation in football has increased exponentially since Diacre’s childhood in the 1980s. Growing up a football fanatic, she was an outcast as women’s football was discouraged or banned in some countries as she grew up. Even England prohibited women from playing football until 1971 as it threatened the masculinity of the game. After what appeared as a bleak future for the women’s game, it has been transformed. Over 1 billion viewers tuned into official broadcast coverage of the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2019, with 260 million tuning in to watch the United States brush Holland aside in the final; a figure greater than that for the NBA Finals or the Stanley Cup.

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THE TRAILBLAZING ENTRAÎNEUSE LEADING LES BLEUES: CORINNE DIACRE Nicky Helfgott, Sixth

When Diacre was growing up in the agricultural region of La Creuse, women played for love. There was no money in the beautiful game, nor strong female idols by which young girls could be inspired. Diacre has become something of a football idol herself and says that girls today should have a female football idol, something of which there is no shortage.

Whether it is the vision and craft of Alexia Putellas, the ruthless goal-scoring abilities of Vivienne Miedema or the flair and skill of Debinha, girls today are spoilt for choice.

Whilst Diacre recognises that there are differences in the pace and physicality between the male and female games, women’s football is becoming more universally appreciated.

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THE TRAILBLAZING ENTRAÎNEUSE LEADING LES BLEUES: CORINNE DIACRE Nicky Helfgott, Sixth

Diacre was asked for her words of wisdom to inspire future UCS generations. “If you want something, go for it. Sometimes you have to shut your ears and take advantage of the moment”.

As a final piece of inspiration, she gleefully narrated the story of la grenouille sourde, a message to never doubt yourself and focus on your own path.

“A group of frogs decided to organise a race. The challenge was to be the first to reach the top of a very tall tower. As soon as the news of the race spread through the village, lots of curious frogs gathered to see and support the contestants. Full of courage and motivation, the contestants began to climb. But soon the villagers began to make derogatory comments: "They'll never make it!". After a few minutes, some of the climbers became demotivated and quit the race. Others succumbed to fatigue and preferred to sit and watch those who continued.

The comments of the villagers started again: "Who do they think they are, if it was possible, we would have done it already!

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"We have never seen such foolishness, frogs are not made to climb" said others. The little competitors, despite their courage, began to realise the difficulties of their project. They left the race one after the other. All of them. Except for one.

She climbed slowly, relentlessly, while the comments around her became more and more insistent: "Get off, you'll never make it!”. Yet, tirelessly, the little frog kept going. After a huge effort, she finally reached the top. Everyone rushed around her to find out how she had managed to do what no one else in the world had ever done before. One of them came up to her and asked for her secret. Then she discovered that the little INTERLINGUA, SPRING TERM, 2022 champion was deaf…”

THE TRAILBLAZING ENTRAÎNEUSE LEADING LES BLEUES: CORINNE DIACRE Nicky Helfgott, Sixth

Corinne Diacre was that frog; entirely deaf to the negativity and doubt which has followed her managerial career. She has opened up pathways for women in the footballing world.

Eyes will be fixated on her France team in the upcoming Women’s Euro 2022 in July as they take on Italy, Belgium, and Iceland in the group stage. If she inspires her team even half as well as she inspired me, I think it’s fair to say that France has a good chance of winning! *DISCLAIMER* Although unlikely, some meaning may have been misinterpreted as the interview was initially conducted in French by Elsa Garnotel.

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TRIPS- SPRING TERM 2022 Saul Meyers, Remove

Remove Italian trip to Tate Modern – Thursday 24th February 2022 On the 24th of February, we left just after 1 to go to the Tate Modern art gallery in London, we walked to Finchley road tube station and all piled onto the tube. We got off the tube at Southwark station and took a short walk to get to the gallery, on the way there we saw many of London's sights such as the The Fenchurch building. We met our tour guide who was an Italian man, and he took half the tour in Italian and half the tour in English to help with our learning. The first Artist we looked at was the wife of famous Italian artist Mario Merz, Marisa Merz, we saw her small sculptures made of knitting needles and wool. She made contemporary art and worked into her 90s until she passed away in 2019. We also saw a strange looking shoe she made for her daughter using paraffin!

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TRIPS- SPRING TERM 2022 Saul Meyers, Remove

We then moved to the next room where we saw Enrico Baj’s, ‘Al fuoco, Al fuoco!’ painting meaning ‘fire,fire!’, Baj painted a strange looking figure in a burning forest. We all enjoyed this painting due to its crazy and chaotic nature, Baj used children's toys to make up part of the figure, giving the idea of childhood and innocence in his work.

Someone in the group pointed out that the man in the painting seemed to be on fire internally but not externally, which could represent the anger of the figure and also the artist. We saw some other Italian artists' work such as Mario Merz. However My favourite piece was by Guiseppe Penone, who used a big mountain of clay to represent breathing and his own breath in his piece, which the tour guide thought of as ‘the hardest thing to show in art’, Penone but his leg and torso into the clay and took some breathes to imprint the shape of his breathing into the clay, many of us found this very interesting as you can see every little detail from his body and from what he was wearing. We then got back on the tube and quickly rushed back to school.

We all thought the Tate modern was incredibly fun and, vediamo l'ora di tornarci!

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TRIPS- SPRING TERM 2022 Saul Meyers, Remove

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TRIPS - SPRING TERM 2022 Dev Mirpuri, Transitus

Review of Transitus French Debating Competition On 18th November 2021, four Transitus students: Sam Friedman, Aaryan Wadhwani, Lukas Horvat and of course myself, took part in a French debating competition hosted by Haberdashers’ school. Although we were aware that none of us had any experience debating, it was still a fantastic opportunity to undertake something that was out of our comfort zone. When we arrived there, we were put into groups of two and assigned topics to debate, some of which included whether the police are still useful in society, and whether it is important to speak properly. Although we had prepared some notes in advance, it was nothing compared to the level of French of that of the girls from Wycombe Abbey, which was outstanding and unbeatable! This was no surprise given that they had prepared mountains of notes and had prior debating experience. Nonetheless, whilst our defeat was inevitable, we were so glad for the opportunity to attend and hopefully this event has given us all the motivation to do better next year.

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TRIPS - SPRING TERM 2022 Louis Woof McColl

On Monday and Tuesday of last week the Lower Remove Italian classes visited the Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, a collection of post-impressionist, modernist and most prestigiously, futurist art works which is what we came to see! Prior to the class we learnt about what futurism, or futurismo in Italian, strives to achieve. Our classes were taught that futurism was an artistic movement based in visual art but it also straddles the worlds of fashion, gastronomy, cinema and photography. Futurism is an Italian, angry, raw movement that glorifies innovation, speed, modernity and war and we learnt the Italian key terms that would help us describe the amazing specimens in the Collection. The Estorick museum was enlightening and showed us a new side to futurism through one of my favourite pieces entitled 'Music' by Luigi Russolo in 1911.

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TRIPS- SPRING TERM 2022 Louis Woof McColl

Together, the classes deduced that this might be a representation of synaesthesia and different emotions provoked by music, we also noted on the hands of the pianist, of which he has many which we found to represent the movement of the hands which greatly reflects futurism as a ideology - a movement fed up with the stillness and motionlessness of the movements before it.

However there is another side to futurism, a side with less dazzling colours and vividness. A side dedicated to the advancement of Industry, weaponry and war -guerra in Italian. We went via Overground to Highbury and Islington where a five minute walk got us to the Museum and we saw two exhibitions of Futurism and Italian postimpressionism. The most popular painting was 'Music', and 'The Hand Of The Violinist', which the class really enjoyed. Afterwards we engaged in a great workshop where we made artistic booklets on futurism and how futurism appealed to us, which we all loved. I think we were influenced by the art we’d seen and we made some fantastic collages. All in all, it was a very successful trip and we had loads of fun!

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MANDARIN CORNER Maria Pia Maggioni, Head of Mandarin

Chinese New Year Movie Night On the 28th January, to celebrate the upcoming Chinese New Year of the Tiger, we invited students to watch the animation movie ‘Big Fish and Begonia’ and try out some typical Chinese drinks and snacks! Here’s what some of the students had to say after the event!

“I really enjoyed the movie night as it was a fun insight into Chinese film and it really helped me improve my language skills. I picked up on words such as dad, mum, goodbye and thank you etc.

Additionally, I thoroughly enjoyed the snacks and I had approximately fourteen crackers. I could have eaten fourteen more…

In conclusion, I would hope that more fun activities like this happen in the future as it makes me enjoy learning Mandarin even more. It is also a great way to round off a hard term/ topic of learning!”

Finn, Lower Remove 39

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MANDARIN CORNER

“The Mandarin movie was great. I had plenty of Chinese snacks I had never seen before (I particularly liked the marshmallow biscuit). The movie was in Chinese with subtitles and was a very interesting story with plenty of memorable moments. In the movie I felt as if I also learnt about Chinese culture and mythology.”

William, Lower Remove

““I really enjoyed going to the Mandarin movie night recently. It was a really fun experience where I got to try out new food, learn about Chinese culture and also practise some of my Mandarin. The movie was very entertaining but personally for me, trying the new food was the best part. There was a whole variety of Chinese snacks and drinks which were all available to try. Overall it was a really fun night packed with new experiences, food, and culture. All of which were very exciting.”

Luka, Lower Remove 40

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MANDARIN CORNER

““The movie night was a great idea, it exposed everyone to a beautiful part of Chinese culture, and the tasty snacks were an added bonus. I would highly recommend going to the next one next year!”

Ro, Remove “The movie night was great! Lovely Chinese snacks provided by the Mandarin Department, a great animation movie that took us on twists and turns, and overall a great evening! Highly recommended!”

Finn, Remove

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MANDARIN CORNER

Cooking Lesson and practice!

For Modern Languages Enrichment Week, during one of our Mandarin lessons, Ms Liu taught us how to make her favourite Chinese dish: stir fried egg and tomato ( ) . The lesson was very interesting and we learnt many new Chinese words for every ingredient that was used in the dish, these included: tomato, egg, oil, spring onion, sugar and

西红柿 炒 鸡 蛋 炒

salt. Another word we learnt was which meant stir-fry but was made up of radicals meaning fire and less, so it literally meant to cook with fire for less time. The most interesting thing we learnt was how the colours of the dish (red and yellow) were very important to Chinese culture as they were both the colours of the flag and the colours of the roof and walls of the Forbidden City in Beijing.

Not just was the lesson really exciting, it came with what was probably the most fun homework I have ever had; we got to make the dish. It was very easy and did not take up much time but was also very entertaining.

As a big fan of cooking, I enjoyed every step of the process. Although the cooking process was very enjoyable, I did not particularly enjoy the final result. This was due to the fact that the tomatoes we used gave it a very unpleasant texture when cooked and I had severely under seasoned the food. However, a massive thank you to Ms Liu for teaching us how to make this dish which I will definitely try to make again.

Edoardo, Lower Remove

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MANDARIN CORNER

西红柿炒鸡蛋

“When we had the lesson on how to cook I really enjoyed it because it was a really fun way to learn how to cook a traditional Chinese dish which many Chinese students and people would know how to cook, so it felt very inclusive and informative and I'm sure all of us would like to have a lesson like that again!”

Obi, Lower Remove

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MANDARIN CORNER

“Chinese Chess Club On February 22, the students of the Chinese Lunchtime Club, as well as other students and teachers took a class on Xiangqi, Chinese Chess.

They started from getting to know the chessboard and carefully studied the names and function of each piece. They then learnt the difference between Chinese chess and international chess, and then had a go at playing! Through such activities, the students and teachers experienced a game so central to Chinese culture, cultivated their thinking ability, and made new Xiangqi friends!

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CULTURAL DOSSIER: MAKING PARIS GREENER Tomo Ashley-Wilson, Transitus

Despite Paris being renowned for its famous landmarks, food and heritage, one thing the city of romance lacks is greenery and good air quality. As these issues have become more profound in recent years, it has been decided to take steps to give the fashion capital a brand new makeover, with its plan to become Europe’s greenest city by 2030.

As it stands, Paris by landmass only comprises of 9.5% garden area and green space, lower than any other major European city and much lower than to compare it to London which is currently 33%.

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Paris does not want to just climb off the bottom of the league table, and it has set its sights to compete for the title, against cities such as Vienna and Oslo with 40-60% green space.

By 2030, Paris has the intention of covering over half of its city into greenery, whether it be through rooftop gardens or introducing more parks and scattering more trees throughout the entire city. In total, roughly 170,000 new trees are estimated to be planted in the next five years.

The two most notable projects set forth to achieve this goal revolves around two already historical landmarks; Les Champs Élysées and the Eiffel Tower. In the city’s most famous street, they plan to remove road lanes and set up pedestrian and cycle lanes as well as ‘tree tunnels’ to enhance air quality. And at the Eiffel Tower, new parks will be built, stretching over 100 acres of land to turn into green public space.

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CULTURAL DOSSIER: MAKING PARIS GREENER

Paris has been put under pressure to act for some time, this comes in perfect timing with the Paris summer Olympics around the corner 2024, and it wouldn’t make sense for the city where the international climate change agreement was signed - aptly named the Paris Agreement, had their own issues concerning pollution and lack of green space. On top of this, it would boost tourism in Paris as new green spaces have been purposefully chosen to be located near famous landmarks, so this would lead to a further injection of money into the Parisian economy.

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CULTURAL DOSSIER: THE FRENCH PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION 2022

Aaryan Wadhwani, Transitus

In April this year, France will complete their 12th presidential elections since the establishment of the Fifth Republic in the country (in 1958), and it looks like it's going to be a tight one. As I’m sure many of you are aware, the government of France is currently led by Emmanuel Macron (leader of La Republique En Marche party) who is currently serving his first term as the President of France. However Macron's current term is due to end in May and although he appears to be the strong favourite he now has to face other competitors in order to reclaim his status as the present incumbent.

When campaigning for the elections began, his main opponents in the preelection polls were Marine Le Pen (of the National Rally party, formerly known as the National Front party, symbolising anti-immigration), Valerie Pécresse (of the Republicans), Eric Zemmour (Reconquête Party) and Jean Luc Mélenchon (la France Insoumise). However, now we are already approaching the latter stages of the campaigns and we are approaching the date of the actual election itself; according to pre-election polls and political forecasting (carried out by several organisations, including The Economist magazine), his main competitors now only appear to be Marine Le Pen and Valerie Pécresse.

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CULTURAL DOSSIER: THE FRENCH PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION 2022

Macron’s current issues and situation: Currently a fair amount of French people have been criticising Macron for his imperious style of governance. He has been significantly attacked from both the left and right sides of the political spectrum, and this has resulted in his approval rating falling to below 40% according to surveys conducted by experts in France. Macron also has lost some of his popularity, over his term as French president, due to his handling of the pandemic and how he has failed to achieve some of his ambitious agenda during his first term (although this has largely been due to Covid). This suggests that although he still appears to be the bookies’ favourite to win the next French presidential elections, his campaign might not be so easy and those running against him, particularly Marine Le Pen and perhaps even Valérie Pécresse, do in fact have a fair chance of victory. Also no French president has ever been re-elected in the history of French politics so some claim this stacks the odds against him. However he still possesses much popularity amongst the French people; this can be demonstrated by how he won the last French election by commanding 66.1 % of the votes.

Additionally he has already served a successful first term with many of his policies being well received by the French people, evidenced by how many regard him as being far better of a President than the two most recent predecessors (Sarkozy and Hollande) .

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CULTURAL DOSSIER: THE FRENCH PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION 2022

An insight in to Macron’s key competitors: Both Le Pen and Pécresse probably appeal more to right wing sympathisers due to their respective ideologies. Pécresse particularly is certainly an advocate for right wing policies. An example of a sign which displayed this was how during her Paris rally she allegedly pointed out Macron’s “failure” to forbid athletes from competing while wearing the Muslim headscarf and even made an ambiguous reference to “replacement theory”. These examples effectively display the potential radicalism of the policies she might put into place if she were President. This is why she has the support of the majority of the right wing sympathisers in France, which makes her one of the front runners. However her current radicalism is probably the reason why Marine Le Pen is a more fierce competitor to Macron than she is. Marine Le Pen’s main policies are also actually fairly far right policies such as the idea in her manifesto about adopting hardline policies to discourage future immigration into France. It was these very far right French nationalist policies which actually, according to the BBC, resulted in her loss in the last elections. However she now seems to be quite keen on appeasing the left and centre through her very socially liberal approach which she has adopted in determining her policies. She has also successfully displayed this more liberal approach through how she has claimed to speak for “all people” and made increasing efforts to appeal towards a wider electorate, for example managing to appeal to Muslim voters in the French suburbs (something which is quite unusual for a right wing, nationalist idealogist). It can therefore be suggested that it is this more liberal approach which has enabled her to gain more popularity than Pecresse. However, according to the pre-election polls she has still not been able to catch up with the popularity of Macron.

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FRENCH QUÉBEC A BILINGUAL CITY

Anton Sanschagrin, Sixth

Montreal is a fascinating city that has undoubtedly been impacted by the French language. It is the second most-populous city in Canada and the principal metropolis of the province of Quebec. Montreal's province, Quebec, is culturally distinct from the rest of Canada because its sole official language is French. In fact, Montreal is the second largest French speaking city in the world, after Paris.

Montreal is a city with considerable French colonial history dating back to the 16th century. It began as a missionary settlement but soon became a furtrading centre, a role that was enhanced after the conquest of New France by the British in 1763. Montreal’s location on the St. Lawrence proved to be a major advantage in its development as a transportation, manufacturing, and financial centre.

Under the French regime, Montreal became one of New France’s favoured destinations. In the 1760s, however, the city’s dominant French Canadian Catholic population began to see an influx of English-speaking Protestants, initially following the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1763, which officially ceded New France to Great Britain, and then as a result of the American Revolution, when loyalists migrated into the region. Indeed, from the early 1830s to the mid-1860s, those of British origin constituted the majority of Montreal’s inhabitants.

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The growth of Montreal as a manufacturing centre required plenty of labour; in answer, some came from Europe, but most of those who sought work were French Canadians, which eventually led to conflict. The owners and controllers of the Montreal economy were, for the most part, Anglophones; French Canadians, the dominant population from the mid-1860s, worked in the factories. That divide at the workplace was mirrored in a spatial pattern that developed whereby Boulevard Saint-Laurent (St. Lawrence Street) became a linguistic partition, with Francophones living to the east of it and English speakers to the west. This can still be seen today and is seen by the image on the right illustrating the French/English divide that exists to this day.

Although French is the primary language of Montreal with 57 percent of the population speaking it at home, Montreal is one of the most bilingual cities in Canada. More than half of the city’s population is bilingual. Montreal owes its language dynamic to its colonial history of language contact between the French and English communities. Canada's large English-speaking population has influenced Quebec French to add some English words into the language and vice versa.

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However, Montreal has seen growing tensions in recent years between French and English speakers, as many francophones have growing concerns of the erosion of their culture. Two new studies have found that French is on the decline in Quebec. French is expected to decline steadily over the next few years in favour of English, according to projections made public Monday by the Office québécois de la langue française.

However, Quebec’s evolving linguistic landscape is not necessarily a result of a weakness in the French language. French is the dominant language in the province’s public institutions. The francophone population is continuing to grow over time. Furthermore, most newcomers whose mother tongue is neither English nor French learn to communicate in the latter. In fact, Statistics Canada predicts that in Quebec, the percentage of people who can communicate in French will remain stable until 2036.

In Quebec, many still consider that keeping the French language strong and dynamic is a challenge. Language debates continue, arousing passions and igniting controversies. Issues surrounding language of instruction and signage remain topical. For instance, in 2012, the Parti Québécois proposed barring francophones and allophones from attending anglophone CEGEPs. The proposal was met with strong opposition and the party was forced to backtrack on the issue.

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FRENCH QUÉBEC A BILINGUAL CITY

Montreal is one of the cities in Canada where Frenglish, or, in French, le franglais, is spoken. This mix of French and English words is how Montrealers have come to adapt in an environment where these two languages coexist. Not only has Frenglish emerged from the coexistence of French and English within the same province, but Montrealers also came up with another unique slang. During an interview conducted in Montreal, a Haitian second generation immigrant stated that “It’s deeper than just mixing English and French in one sentence, it’s about sharing different cultures and mindsets, but mostly, it is about having a unique identity as a city that’s multicultural.”

Allophone - In Canada, allophone is a term that describes a person who has a first language that is not English, French or an Indigenous language.

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CULTURAL DOSSIER:HOW THE FRENCH REVOLUTION SPREAD MODERN IDEOLOGIES

Carys Nicholas, Transitus

The French Revolution was a turning point in France’s history and essentially shaped modern day politics. The French Revolution popularised modern ideologies based on the idea of the power and sovereignty of the people.

Before the French Revolution, most people lived under a system of governance that had been in existence for generations, which in most cases was monarchy. Following the French Revolution, however, no government was considered legitimate until it could demonstrate its legitimacy. Those who supported the monarchy were challenged by republicans. Even among republicans, some favoured an elite-controlled government, while others favoured a more democratic system. As a result of the French Revolution, many ideological alternatives emerged, including Liberalism, Nationalism, Socialism, and, eventually, Communism.

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CULTURAL DOSSIER:HOW THE FRENCH REVOLUTION SPREAD MODERN IDEOLOGIES

Liberalism Liberalism is a political and moral ideology founded on the principles of equality and liberty.

The hereditary aristocracy was abolished during the French Revolution under the slogan "liberty, equality, fraternity," and France became the first country in history to grant universal male suffrage. During the Revolution, there were two major events that marked the success of liberalism. The first was the abolishment of feudalism in France on August 4, 1789. This led to the downfall of feudal and aristocratic privileges and privileges. Secondly, the passage of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen in August 1789 which was regarded as an key document in the development of Liberalism and human rights.

Throughout the 19th century, liberal governments were founded in countries across Europe, South America, and North America as a result of the French Revolution's success. As a result, the Revolution is seen as a pivotal moment in Liberalism.

Nationalism Nationalism is an ideology that promotes loyalty, dedication, or allegiance to a nation over any other individual or group interests. The French Revolution sparked the modern nation-state movement and was instrumental in the emergence of nationalism across Europe. As Napoleon Bonaparte's forces conquered new territories, the notion of nationalism expanded throughout Europe. The Revolution had a deep and long-lasting impact on European intellectuals as well as French nationalism. As a result, national liberation became one of the most prominent issues in European and global politics in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

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Socialism and Communism The French Revolution did not directly lead to the philosophies of Socialism and Communism in the nineteenth century. It did, however, create an intellectual and social atmosphere in which these ideologies and their propagandists could thrive. The late-eighteenth-century French communist intellectuals not only criticised private property, but also argued for its eradication and the construction of a society based on egalitarian and communal property ownership. François-Noel Babeuf, a political activist and journalist from France, went so far as to advocate for violent revolution in the name of wealth redistribution. Also, some of the most prominent communist philosophers, such as Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, were educated during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, when there was extensive revolutionary activity, which likely had an influence on their philosophy. The French Revolution extensively impacted France’s social and political views, making France one of the most socially progressively countries at the time of the revolution, this has a significant impact on the advancement of human rights and democracy.

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CULTURAL DOSSIER:THE CANNES FILM FESTIVAL

Dev Mirpuri, Transitus

For almost 75 years, everyone who’s anyone in the film world has flocked annually to the French Riviera in May for the biggest event of the year: the Cannes film festival. The festival is widely considered the most prestigious film festival in the world, mainly because of its exclusivity and long history of premiering some of the greatest films of all time. It has also launched the careers of many prominent filmmakers, like Quentin Tarantino and Steven Soderbergh. However, the festival isn’t just about killings made on bigmoney deals sealed over champagne in hotel suites and on luxury yachts. It is a goldmine too for the many locals in the French Riviera.

Today, film festivals operate more like micro economies. They can make smaller cities boom by bringing in business, providing young people with employment and hence a reason to remain in the region as well as developing a city’s national and international links. With the population of Cannes normally tripling during the 12-day festival, from 74,000 to more than 200,000, the local economy not only thrives on it; it depends on it.

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CULTURAL DOSSIER:THE CANNES FILM FESTIVAL

The festival accounts for an astonishing €195.87 million in economic impact, a large portion of the annual €800.70 million generated by the tourism activity in Cannes. For hotel owners, the festival generates 10-15% of their annual revenue.

For those who wait tables in Cannes restaurants; for the bartenders who mix cocktails and the DJs who work the decks in the city’s countless nightclubs; for the porters, concierges, housekeeping staff at the five-star hotels dotting Cannes’ legendary Croisette, the Cannes Film Festival is an economic lifeline.

However, the festival’s glitz and glamour throw, into sharp relief, the poverty and inequality present in Cannes and the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region.

Cannes simultaneously has some of the world’s most expensive real estate and also a higher poverty rate than the national average. A total of 18.4% of families in Cannes fall under the poverty rate, higher than the national average of 13.9%.

Moreover, the Gini index - which measures income inequality - for Cannes is 40% compared to the national average of 30%, due in part to the inegalitarian nature of the population’s demographics.

To address the growing social and cultural inequalities, the City Council of Cannes and seven local businesses and individual donors created the Cannes Foundation in 2017. The Cannes Foundation aims to collect private financial contributions from individuals and companies in order to redistribute them to local associations executing projects in the fight against exclusion in the Cannes basin. Moreover, in 2020, whilst the coronavirus pandemic held the world hostage in lockdowns, the city decided to recontextualise the festival’s usual hub, the ‘Palais des Festivals’, as a temporary shelter for the homeless, taking in between 50 and 70 people every night.

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It is important to continue talking about the real-life consequences that occur when incredibly large-scale events, like the film festival, bring a tremendous amount of opportunity and simultaneously disenfranchisement to the same place. So, next time you see the stars strut their stuff along the red carpet, enjoying long, exhausting days of screenings, networking and parties, spare a thought for the homeless locals less than a block away, facing long, exhausting days panhandling for a meal.

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CULTURAL DOSSIER:FRENCH COLONISATION

Zac Hermann, Transitus

France had the capacity to become the leading European power in the 17th and 18th centuries. During the reign of Louis XVI, France had the strongest army in Europe, including the navy. However, due to the overseas policy, this never happened, and England, which was not limited by the overseas policy, succeeded in establishing its empire.

Colonisation in North, South and Central America Giovanni da Verrazano, an Italian explorer in the service of King Francis I, recognised the North American coastline as French in 1524. Over the next decade, a man named Jacques Cartier explored the St. Lawrence River, but his plans for a colony came to nothing. Apart from that, for the rest of the century, France's colonisation slowed down, and it only managed to build a few small settlements in Guanabara Bay (located in Rio de Janeiro) and in Florida, but both efforts came to a bad end. During this period, France was preoccupied with internal conflicts due to the influence of King Philip II of Spain. But in the early 17th century, with the restoration of internal religious peace by King Henry IV's Edict of Nantes (1598), and the decline of Spanish power and influence, the King chartered a Western Company.

Explorations continued and in 1603 a man named Samuel de Champlain travelled to Canada, called New France. Champlain became the outstanding leader of Canada, and established a fort at Cape Diamond, Stadacona, which is now known as Quebec. In 1608, Champlain fought and won against the Iroquois at New York, and in 1615, he explored the west (Lake Huron), and stimulated the fur trade.

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CULTURAL DOSSIER:FRENCH COLONISATION

In 1624, the Conseil de la Marine was created by Cardinal Richelieu. This post was in charge of all colonial affairs. French colonisation of the West Indies began in 1625 with the admission of French settlers to St. Kitts (already colonised by the British in 1623 and shared between the two countries until its cession to the British in 1713). By 1664, France owned 14 West Indian islands, including Guadeloupe and Martinique. In addition, Santo Domingo (Haiti) was inhabited by many Frenchmen, mostly freebooters from the Tortuga. At that time Haiti had not yet been annexed, but when it was, it became the most lucrative colony in the world. This was due to the slave trade and African Americans being forced to produce sugar, coffee and other cash crops for the world market.

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CULTURAL DOSSIER:FRENCH COLONISATION

Colonisation in Africa The French were active in Africa in the 17th century, but it was not until the 19th century that the main period of expansion took place. In 1830, with the invasion of Ottoman Algiers, conquests in West and Equatorial Africa began, and protectorates in Tunisia and Morocco were established in the decades leading up to the First World War. After the war, parts of Cameroon and Togo were added to these protectorates, as they had once been German territories. Throughout French Africa, the colonised developed strategies to resist or evade French authority and to cope with the upheavals of occupation. After the First World War, reformers, nationalists and Western-trained trade unions emerged and pushed for a more equitable distribution of political and administrative power. These demands for change soon made it possible to begin the process of decolonisation after the Second World War. French efforts to re-establish imperial rule failed and, following a referendum in 1958, almost all the territories of sub-Saharan Africa claimed independence. In North Africa, negotiations led by Tunisian and Moroccan nationalists led to the independence of these countries in 1950, but the decolonisation of Algeria took place only after a damaging war, as millions of European settlers lived there.

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CULTURAL DOSSIER: THE FIRE AND THE RESTORATION OF NOTRE DAME: CULTURAL HERITAGE AND THE FRENCH RESPONSE Sam Friedman, Transitus

On April 15th 2019 in Notre Dame Cathedral, one of the greatest examples of French Gothic architecture, a fire began. The destruction which ensued sent shockwaves throughout Europe and the rest of the world as millions watched one of the greatest cathedrals and monuments to French culture and religion set alight. While the cathedral was not destroyed completely due to the bravery and competence of public services in France, over 2 years after the fire the cathedral is still in need of restoration.

With construction of the cathedral beginning in 1163 and ending mostly in 1260, through many restorations, renovations and landmark events such as the French revolution and the coronation of Napoleon, this landmark has stood the test of time. A symbol, not only of French religious heritage, but also of history and monarchy throughout the centuries, the importance of this landmark cannot be understated.

This is why this fire was such a tragedy. Live updates of the fire were broadcast throughout the world. Millions watched the attempt to save this cathedral from total destruction.

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INTERLINGUA, SPRING TERM, 2022

CULTURAL DOSSIER: THE FIRE AND THE RESTORATION OF NOTRE DAME: CULTURAL HERITAGE AND THE FRENCH RESPONSE

However in the midst of this tragedy something hopeful was revealed. As this was happening and afterwards, millions were raised to save and restore the cathedral. With donations pouring in from charities, individuals, organisations and businesses the sum of money raised reached almost 1 Billion Euros. A clear care and interest in the heritage and history of France, as well as architecture was displayed. This attitude of care and preservation towards monuments and historic buildings is typical of France.

Being in the top 5 countries for monuments to heritage according to UNESCO, France not only has a rich history and culture, but also an admirable and proud attitude towards its culture and monuments. This restoration effort has reflected this attitude perfectly. However, some people have criticised this effort. They claim that although this is admirable, the amount of money raised is concerning in terms of France's national priorities. It has been said that people seem to be more passionate and pay more money towards this heritage than towards other social issues in France such as homelessness and poverty. A good point is raised.

However, simply because this money could be spent elsewhere, does not take away the admirability of this fundraising effort. In this disaster the symbolism of this great cathedral has expanded. As it rises from the ashes it will become not only a symbol of France's rich cultural heritage, but also of France's powerful attitude towards this heritage.

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INTERLINGUA, SPRING TERM, 2022

CULTURAL DOSSIER: THOMAS PESQUET

Lukas Horvat, Transitus

Thomas Gautier Pesquet is a French aerospace engineer, pilot, and European Space Agency astronaut. Born on the 27th of February 1978 in Rouen, Pesquet quickly gained a love for learning and academics. He was always drawn to the physical sciences and in 2001 he graduated from the ‘École Nationale Supérieure de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace’ in Toulouse, France, majoring in spacecraft design and control. From October 2001, he worked as a spacecraft dynamics engineer on remote sensing missions for a firm called GMV in Madrid, Spain. From 2002 to 2004, he worked at the CNES, a French space agency, as a research engineer where he specialised in space mission autonomy. He also carried out studies on future European ground segment design and European space technology harmonisation. From late 2002, he was a CNES representative at the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems, working on cross-support between international space agencies. He also graduated from the Air France flight school in 2006, where he went on to fly the Airbus A320 as a commercial pilot and has logged over 2300 hours in commercial airliners.

After being selected as a European Space Agency candidate in May of 2009, he successfully completed his basic training in November 2010. Since joining the European Space Agency (ESA), Pesquet has spent a total of 196 days, 17 hours and 49 minutes in Space. He has taken part in a range of missions throughout his career, including: SpaceX Crew-2, Expedition 65, Expedition 50, Soyuz MS-03 and Expedition 51. Most recently, Pesquet was a mission leader in SpaceX’s revolutionary Crew-2 flight to the international space station, where he spent 6 months onboard the station.

Thomas Pesquet’s contribution to aerospace and astronautics is immense and is something that will undoubtedly be remembered historically.

Through his love for space, aeronautical sciences and aviation, Thomas Pesquet has become a pioneer of space exploration and will remain a figurehead of space travel and astronautics for many years to come.

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FRENCH CINEMA AND TV

Oriya Tietjen, Transitus

Cinema Cinema is one of the most important and significant aspects of French culture: one could even say that the French invented the idea of cinema.

“L'arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat” (The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station) is a 50-second film created by the Lumière brothers, which was screened in 1895 and is considered to be the birth of cinema, not only in France, but in the whole world.

“La Nouvelle Vague” (The New Wave) is a French cinema movement that emerged in the late 1950s, which aimed to give directors full creative control over their work, allowing them to delve into improvisational and almost existential storytelling. One classic example is Les quatre cents coups (The 400 Blows) by Truffaut, which won several awards at the Cannes film festival in 1959.

Some very influential and popular French films include: La Haine by Kassovitz, Amélie by Jeunet and Jules et Jim by Truffaut. (I highly recommend that you watch these iconic films!)

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INTERLINGUA, SPRING TERM, 2022

FRENCH CINEMA AND TV

Oriya Tietjen, Transitus

TV France’s first television broadcast was in Paris in 1935, however broadcasts ceased in 1939 due to the start of World War II. With broadcasts continuing in 1944, TV became increasingly popular and more channels were introduced, creating an infamous battle for ratings during the 60s and 70s.

French TV has come a long way since then, with some of Netflix’s most successful shows being French. The show Lupin was watched by 70 million households worldwide within its first month of being released on Netflix, becoming the most watched non-English series on Netflix. The show Call My Agent (Dix pour cent) was and still is a huge success, winning an Emmy award in 2021!

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INTERLINGUA, SPRING TERM, 2022

CULTURAL DOSSIER: LA NOUVELLE VAGUE CINEMA PROJECT

Sam Friedman, Tomo Ashley-Wilson, Oriya Tietjen, Aaryan Wadhwani, Oscar Diamond, Carys Nicholas, Zac Hermann, Lukas Horvat, Dev Mirpuri

The Nouvelle Vague (New Wave) is a movement in French cinema that charactised many French films from the 1950s and 60s. Nouvelle Vague directors rejected conventional filmmaking techniques in favour of experimentation. La Nouvelle Vague is considered one of the most influential cinema movements due to its originality in its editing, visual style and narrative, as well as its engagement in the social and political landscape of the time. In this article, we write about some of the most important Nouvelle Vague directors: Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol and Alain Resnais.

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CULTURAL DOSSIER: LA NOUVELLE VAGUE CINEMA PROJECT

Sam Friedman, Tomo Ashley-Wilson, Oriya Tietjen, Aaryan Wadhwani, Oscar Diamond, Carys Nicholas, Zac Hermann, Lukas Horvat, Dev Mirpuri

François Truffaut François Truffaut was born on the 6th of February 1932 in Paris and died on the 21st of October in 1984 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, close to the heart of Paris.

He was a French film director and was a major figure of the ‘Nouvelle Vague’ new wave era, as well as an author between 1958 and 1979 of at least a dozen largely autobiographical dramatic comedies regarded throughout the world as works having, in the wake of Abel Gance, Jean Renoir, Jean Cocteau, Roberto Rossellini, revolutionised cinematographic narration.

Truffaut exerted a huge influence on cinema in France and elsewhere, his influence being most evident in the auteur cinema of the "Jeune Cinéma Français" of the 1990s and 2000s but his techniques also had an influence on New Hollywood cinema (the new wave of Hollywood of cinema) which came about in the 1970s. Truffaut is therefore definitely one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema During Truffaut's career he was always exposed to many foreign films and he spread these influences on French cinema. He is also often described as the founder of the new wave and an icon because of his enormous influence on French cinema.

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INTERLINGUA, SPRING TERM, 2022

CULTURAL DOSSIER: LA NOUVELLE VAGUE CINEMA PROJECT

Sam Friedman, Tomo Ashley-Wilson, Oriya Tietjen, Aaryan Wadhwani, Oscar Diamond, Carys Nicholas, Zac Hermann, Lukas Horvat, Dev Mirpuri

Some of his well-known films include Tirez sur le pianiste, meaning Shoot the pianist, and it is about a pianist and the plot involves three women in his life: Marie Dubois, Nicole Berger, and Michele Mercier. It is a police drama and is directed in the ‘nouvelle vague’ style. The film had suffered financially, even though it was popular among cinema enthusiasts.

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CULTURAL DOSSIER: LA NOUVELLE VAGUE CINEMA PROJECT

Sam Friedman, Tomo Ashley-Wilson, Oriya Tietjen, Aaryan Wadhwani, Oscar Diamond, Carys Nicholas, Zac Hermann, Lukas Horvat, Dev Mirpuri

Jean-Luc Godard Born on 3rd December 1930 in Paris to Franco-Swiss parents, Jean-Luc Godard went on to become one of the most influential French directors, screenwriters and cinema critics of his time. Godard constantly challenged the conventions of film-making and revolutionised the way films were made through his experimentation with narrative, sound, camerawork and continuity.

Godard first received global acclaim for his film A Bout de Souffle, released in 1960, which was one of the earliest and most influential films of the Nouvelle Vague. A keen reader of existential and Marxist philosophy, Godard often expressed his political views through film.

Some of Godard’s most influential films include Le Petit Soldat (1961) about the Algerian War of Independence, Vivre Sa Vie (1962) - his most popular among critics, Les Carabiniers (1963) about the horrors of war, and Le Mépris (1963), starring Brigitte Bardot.

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CULTURAL DOSSIER: LA NOUVELLE VAGUE CINEMA PROJECT

Sam Friedman, Tomo Ashley-Wilson, Oriya Tietjen, Aaryan Wadhwani, Oscar Diamond, Carys Nicholas, Zac Hermann, Lukas Horvat, Dev Mirpuri

Jean-Luc Godard married twice, to actresses Anna Karina and Anne Wiazemsky. Both of these actresses starred in a number of his films.

Godard is still considered a highly influential director; in a 2002 Sight and Sound poll, Godard was ranked third in the critics’ top ten directors of all time. He is considered to have created one of the largest bodies of critical analysis of any filmmaker since the mid-twentieth century, and his work has challenged both cinema norms and the vocabulary of film criticism.

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INTERLINGUA, SPRING TERM, 2022

CULTURAL DOSSIER: LA NOUVELLE VAGUE CINEMA PROJECT

Sam Friedman, Tomo Ashley-Wilson, Oriya Tietjen, Aaryan Wadhwani, Oscar Diamond, Carys Nicholas, Zac Hermann, Lukas Horvat, Dev Mirpuri

Claude Chabrol Claude Chabrol was born in 1930 and lived in the South of Paris. His love of cinema started at the age of 12 when he created a cinema club in his town.

His parents hoped that he would become a pharmacist like his father and grandfather. He was recruited by the army after having finished his studies and he worked as a doctor. After leaving the army, Chabrol decided to take a job as a journalist for Cahiers du Cinéma, which later went on to publish articles from a number of influential Nouvelle Vague directors.

Chabrol has been described as the most prolific of Nouvelle Vague directors. He made a film every year until his death in 2010. His wife inherited a lot of money, which Chabrol used to create his first film Le beau Serge in 1958.

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CULTURAL DOSSIER: LA NOUVELLE VAGUE CINEMA PROJECT

Sam Friedman, Tomo Ashley-Wilson, Oriya Tietjen, Aaryan Wadhwani, Oscar Diamond, Carys Nicholas, Zac Hermann, Lukas Horvat, Dev Mirpuri

Chabrol went on to create his own business called AJYM Productions, using the initials of his family members. Once it became successful, AJYM Productions went on to finance his friends’ films, such as The Sign of Leo. In 1960, Chabrol created one of his best films Les Bonnes Femmes Other famous films by Chabrol include The Unfaithful Wife, The Butcher, and La Rupture. In 1973, Chabrol created his first film with a political theme; Les Noces Rouges.

Chabrol continued to produce films which went on to win a number of awards, such as the Prix René Claire. Near the end of his career, Chabrol created one of his most famous films, Madame Bovary.

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INTERLINGUA, SPRING TERM, 2022

CULTURAL DOSSIER: LA NOUVELLE VAGUE CINEMA PROJECT

Sam Friedman, Tomo Ashley-Wilson, Oriya Tietjen, Aaryan Wadhwani, Oscar Diamond, Carys Nicholas, Zac Hermann, Lukas Horvat, Dev Mirpuri

Alain Resnais Alain Resnais, born on the 22nd of June 1922, came from a line of renowned pharmacists. As a young boy, Resnais suffered from chronic asthma, and as a result of this, had a rather solitary childhood, which was mainly dictated by his intense interest in creative activity. Resnais was born into a rather wealthy family, and was homeschooled as a result of his asthma. He was an eager reader, however by the age of 10, he became fascinated with films.

While still a boy, Resnais received a film camera for his birthday, which he used (at the age of 14) to film his classmates and direct a film version of the popular thriller, Fantômas.

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INTERLINGUA, SPRING TERM, 2022

CULTURAL DOSSIER: LA NOUVELLE VAGUE CINEMA PROJECT

Sam Friedman, Tomo Ashley-Wilson, Oriya Tietjen, Aaryan Wadhwani, Oscar Diamond, Carys Nicholas, Zac Hermann, Lukas Horvat, Dev Mirpuri

Alain Resnais was exempt from military service during WW2, because of his illness. In 1940, he went to Paris to study cinematography at the Institute of Advanced Cinematographic Studies. During this time, he became engrossed in the study of theatre, and later reproached this aspect of his life, as he was too immersed in filmmaking to join the underground resistance movement. Due to this infatuation however, Resnais gained experience in helping his actors rehearse for films, and even gained a sensitivity towards them.

His stylistic influences consisted mainly of French surrealist painters such as Andre Breton, whose work he enjoyed from a young age, and many of his first short films were surrealist but unfortunately many have been lost to time. The main filmmaker who had influence over his style and captivated him was Jean Gremillon, best known for his 1937 film Gueule d’amour, who taught him for a brief period of time in 1943.

Between 1946 and 1958, his main focuses were short films about artists and paintings, in this period he made short films about Van Gogh, Gauguin and the Picasso painting Guernica, with his film about Van Gogh winning an Oscar for best 2 reel short in 1949.

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BOOK REVIEWS

Jhumpa Lahiri’s love story with Italian language 20 years 7 books later Marianna Orsi.

Jhumpa Lahiri (1967) started her literary career in 1999 with the collection of short stories Interpreter of maladies for which she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. She later published The Namesake (2003), Unaccustomed Earth (2008), The Lowland (2013), and is currently the director of the Creative Writing Programme at Princeton.

In 1994, while she was working on her PhD dissertation in Renaissance studies, she visited Florence and started what she defined her love story with Italian language.

'I don’t have a real need to know this language. I don’t live in Italy, I don’t have Italian friends. I have only the desire. Yet ultimately a desire is nothing but a crazy need. As in many passionate relationships, my infatuation will become a devotion, an obsession. There will always be something unbalanced, unrequited.

I’m in love, but what I love remains indifferent. The language will never need me'. (from In Other Words)

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BOOK REVIEWS

Jhumpa Lahiri’s love story with Italian language 20 years 7 books later Marianna Orsi.

In 2011, twelve years and three private Italian teachers after her first encounter, Lahiri moved her entire family to Italy and start her “pilgrimage” to Rome, to conquer the language.

I’m going in order to change course, and to reach the Italian language. In Rome, Italian can be with me every day, every minute. It will always be present, relevant. It will stop being a light switch to turn on occasionally, and then turn off.

In doing so she also decided to take distance from her native language, and to stop reading and writing in English altogether.

'In preparation, I decided, six months before our departure, not to read in English anymore. From now on, I pledge to read only in Italian. It seems right, to detach myself from my principal language. I consider it an official renunciation. I’m about to become a linguistic pilgrim to Rome. I believe I have to leave behind something familiar, essential'.

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BOOK REVIEWS

Jhumpa Lahiri’s love story with Italian language 20 years 7 books later Marianna Orsi.

Starting from elementary texts and adaptations provided by her teachers, while her Italian skills grew, she gradually progressed to more advanced reading, gradually covering the Italian 19th century literary classics: Moravia, Pavese, Ungaretti, Saba, Levi.

The self imposed exile ended in 2014, when Lahiri was appointed director of the Creative Writing Programme at Princeton, but it produced In altre parole (2015) her first work in Italian.

In this linguistic autobiography following her quest of Italian language through 20 years and two continents, Lahiri indulges on personal anecdotes and studying techniques, unfolding her turbulent relationship with her second language.

Her Italian prose is still steeped in English syntax, sentences are really short, to an Italian ear, therefore, the narration might sound fragmented, quite unnaturally paced. Not to mention that a few teachers would recommend her studying method: language learning is not a solitary enterprise, but largely based on communication and interaction. On the other hand, however, her plain style might facilitate reading and comprehension for non native readers, who might also relate to the author’s experience as a learner.

Lahiri refused to translate her own work into English, because she didn’t want to “contaminate her Italian”. The task was in fact performed by Ann Goldstein, well known for her translation of the works of prominent Italian novelist Elena Ferrante.

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BOOK REVIEWS

Jhumpa Lahiri’s love story with Italian language 20 years 7 books later Marianna Orsi.

After her second non fictional book in Italian, Il vestito dei libri, translated by Alberto Vourvoulias-Bush (The Clothing of books, 2016) and exploring the art of book jacket, and her translations of Domenico Starnone’s short novels Lacci (Ties) and Scherzetto (Trick), in 2017, Lahiri published her first Italian novel.

Dove mi trovo was released in 2018. After her twenty-years long apprenticeship, Lahiri felt confident enough to translate it into English herself as Whereabouts.

The prose here flows more naturally, vocabulary is more accurate and less contrived compared to the previous Italian works. Again, the story proceeds in short narrative fragments. Each one is a glimpse into the protagonist’s life, a snap-shot detached from the broader picture. The plot is quite un-existant, all chapters are in fact named after the places and the actions of her daily routine as a translator and a professor: Sul marciapiede, Per strada, In ufficio, In trattoria; ‘on the sidewalk’, ‘down the street’, at the office’, ‘at the restaurant’. As any lonely and sensitive person, she observes and interrogates reality around her, noticing small details that most people don’t mind, sneaking into other people’s lives for an instant, and leaving her short stories like breadcrumb trail behind her. If In other words was the narration of Lahiri’s quite epic quest of Italian language, Whereabouts follows the unnamed protagonist through a quest of herself and her own words in her daily life journey.

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BOOK REVIEWS

Jhumpa Lahiri’s love story with Italian language 20 years 7 books later Marianna Orsi.

Before leaving Italy for Princeton in 2014 Lahiri sketched a list of Italian authors and designed a class on Italian literature in translation. Shortly after, Penguin Classics approached her asking to assemble an Italian anthology. The result was The Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories (2020), that, as she states in the introduction, is a “volume I and others would be excited to teach from, and that students, ideally, would be eager to read”. It comprises, in fact, “a wealth of styles, and a range of voices”. Many of the authors anthologized “would not necessarily be familiar to any one Italian reader.” since many of them have “fallen out of favour, or have been sporadically published, and are therefore hard to come across in Italian bookstores”. Lahiri wants to give voice to “women authors, lesser-known and neglected authors,” as well as “authors who practised the short form with particular vehemence and virtuosity”. The aim of the collection is to “present a portrait of Italy that reflects its reality” rather than the “reassuring but ridiculous” stereotype particularly persistent in American culture (“a perception encapsulated by an American who once said to me, ‘Nothing bad can possibly happen in Italy’”). Another central issue in Lahiri’s anthology is the representation of women. Many of the texts “are portraits of women, some confronting and challenging patriarchal ideology, others revealing attitudes in which women are objectified, belittled, maligned”.

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BOOK REVIEWS

Jhumpa Lahiri’s love story with Italian language 20 years 7 books later Marianna Orsi.

Jhumpa Lahiri, La rinuncia, from In

Jhumpa Lahiri, The Renunciation, from

altre Parole

In Other Words, translated by Ann Goldstein

La rinuncia Scelgo

The Renunciation

Roma.

mi

I choose Rome. A city that has

affascina fin da piccola, che mi

fascinated me since I was a child,

conquista subito. La prima volta in

that conquered me immediately. The

cui ci sono stata, nel 2003, ho

first time I was there, in 2003, I felt a

provato

sense

un

un’affinità.

Una

città

che

senso

di

rapimento,

Mi

sembrava

of

rapture,

an

affinity.

I

di

seemed to know it already. After only

conoscerla già. Sapevo, dopo solo un

a few days, I was sure that I was

paio di giorni, di essere destinata a

fated to live there.

vivere lì.

A Roma non ho ancora amici. Ma non

I have no friends yet in Rome. But

ci vado per far visita a qualcuno.

I’m not going there to visit someone.

Vado per cambiare strada, e per

I’m going in order to change course,

raggiungere

A

and to reach the Italian language. In

Roma l’italiano può accompagnarmi

Rome, Italian can be with me every

ogni

day, every minute. It will always be

giorno,

la

lingua ogni

italiana.

minuto.

Sarà

sempre presente, rilevante. Cesserà di

essere

un

interruttore

da

accendere talvolta, poi spegnere.

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FILM & TV REVIEWS

Mac Galatis, Sixth

The Top 10 Films and Series on Netflix for French Students: (in no particular order) 1. Lupin: Truly exceptional, well-acted series about a criminal with good motives, “gentleman cambrioleur”.

2. The Shiny Shrimps: Film about a water polo team and their antics, they end up going to the gay games where they prove their lacking ability at an international level. Amusing film with clear French.

3. He Even Has Your Eyes: Film about family and race.

Discusses the important topic of adoption and the way in which this can cause problems, but can also be beneficial for parties involved. Much like a misplaced mega knight on a tricky goblin barrel.

4. Stuck Together: Film about residents within a block of flats during Covid, in good humour and with a wholesome ending, this film is well balanced with a hint of spice but also mellow amusement. Quite relaxing and nice to end an evening off to.

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FILM & TV REVIEWS

Mac Galatis, Sixth

5. I Am Not an Easy Man: Film regarding the inversion of typical gender roles, an intriguing perspective looking at the way in which power dynamics affect both the workplace and everyday life, a must for those scintillated by neofeminist ideologies.

6. Osmosis: A queer and quirky show regarding a software to find soulmates, something very different and far more artsy than the majority of items on Netflix. The combination of accepted ideologies and new traditions makes for a creative yet dark and sombre storyline that never ceases to convolute.

7. West Coast: The influence of media on a rural group of teens, scintillating and synchronously amusing, interesting to see life in a more rural setting, yet still the cultural diffusion from urban landscapes pervading rural traditions before subduing them completely. The action unveils speedily and is somewhat unpredictable. Intriguing indeed.

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FILM & TV REVIEWS

Mac Galatis, Sixth

8. Call my Agent: Standard and well known, most of you will have seen it but for those that have not it regards an agency for actors and the way in which they operate, as well as some insight into whom they operate with.

The show also contains many very famous actors from the actual scene. A great deal occurs over a great deal of episodes.

9. La Vie Scolaire: Discussing underprivileged schools in France, and looking at life there from the perspectives of teachers who are forced to suffer in this entrapping system. Looks into inequality in France as well as the life of the students who are captured in the hands of the French schooling system in the banlieues.

10. Emily In Paris: An absolute insult to anything French, truly clichéd and overly dramatic. However, the show remains amusing nonetheless. It also gives some interesting insight into different sectors of the French economy and the cultures within these sectors, especially when compared to English and American traditions.

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PUPIL LANGUAGE WORK: THE ENTRY RESPOND - WHAT MAKES A GOOD LANGUAGE LEARNER?

I think that some qualities of the person matters because he has to be positive about it and interested in it. You will also need some self discipline so you can achieve your goals in a certain amount of time because they need to be efficient with their time so they do hours. Adrian Avanesian

A good Language learner is a learner who repeats and continually repeats the new words of the language that he/she is learning and continues learning new words every day to keep their mind fresh and improve the memory of the words being learnt.

Alexander Kleyner

Someone willing to alter how they speak and really put time and effort into learning how to read, write and speak the language.

Someone that is ready to embrace the beautiful language of French. Avi Schliesser

A good language learner includes someone having passion towards the language as well as dedication towards learning grammar such as accents and vocab Armaan Shahvarooghi A good language learner will revise for important tests, will ask for help if they are stuck, behave well in class, search up unknown words and take initiative. Dhruv Jagannathan 87

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PUPIL LANGUAGE WORK: THE ENTRY RESPOND - WHAT MAKES A GOOD LANGUAGE LEARNER?

To be a good language learner you first have to have a good attitude to learning this means like concentrating in lessons and trying not to get distracted by other things. I think that commitment is also key as commitment means like revising well, maybe going over vocab you have learnt in the lessons. You also should be able to know how to revise well, revising well means not just looking at a piece of paper with words, it could be using Quizlet or asking a friend or family member to test you.

Hunter Sadd I think you need to be a natural hard worker at the same time as being resourceful and creative, while always trying to improve yourself and your memory so that you can keep on learning progressively. You should revise about 2 times a week of past and present things that you are learning so that you remember the thing from earlier on at the same time as learning what you have to, so that if there is ever a writing assessment you need to do, you will also be able to use your past subjects just as well as the current subjects you are learning. Hector Tollis

A good language learner can persevere when the words are difficult, and figure out ways to remember complex words.A good language learner can also put in the effort and passion into learning everyday and looking back at past work, that is a good language learner. Isaac Brittan

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PUPIL LANGUAGE WORK: THE ENTRY RESPOND - WHAT MAKES A GOOD LANGUAGE LEARNER?

Dedication to the language - always listen and always try to learn.

Revise - revise the recent topic to put it in your long term memory.

Attitude - always have a good attitude to learn.

Try - always try your best and work your hardest Never stop - don't give up and always keep persisting .

Louis Hodes

You need to be enthusiastic and passionate while listening to your peers talk.

Harry Bayfield

A good language learner is someone who has a passion to learn that language and will not give up.. They must be ready to spend 20 minutes a day studying vocabulary and grammar. They must not be discouraged if they do not learn much at first but they must carry on. It does help though to have a good memory but it is not necessary.

Samuel Roman

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NEXT NUMBER: THE SPANISH ISSUE AUTUMN TERM, 2022

Call for Articles!

Are you a UCS parent, Old Gower, pupil or teacher with an exciting, worthwhile or interesting career - past or present - where the study of languages are essential, relevant or recommended? Maybe you studied for a degree in Modern Languages which led to a complete different career pathway than the one you imagined! Perhaps you had to acquire a second language along the way? Any connections with Spain or Latin America would be most welcomed!

We would love to hear from you! Articles, reviews of language learning apps or interviews about living or working abroad would be most welcome.

Please email: helen.laurenson@ucs.org.uk