So...is it for love, travel, intelligence or money that we learn languages?
Choosing to learn a language is a tough choice with so many to pick
from, so getting allocated a language on arriving at secondary school made the
process a little easier. After dabbling with ‘Le Club Francais’ in primary
school I hoped to hear bienvenue, but
instead, it was a bienvenidos for me
from the Spanish teacher. I was far from disappointed; a few rolls of an ‘r’
later and I was hooked, intent on taking in every word the teacher uttered. As
a young budding linguist going through school, it was the feeling of being able
to converse with people in another language and read what others couldn’t that made
the process of learning Spanish so exciting.
As I progressed, I realised that it was possible that languages could
open doors for me. As someone who had a flair for languages I began learning
Russian but it was Spanish which I took to sixth form and then to university.
Learning a language became a powerful tool that I realised I could use for a
career and for studying and working abroad. I decided to travel through South
America for two months during a gap year before university. The ability to speak
to the local people I encountered whilst zigzagging my way through Chile,
Argentina, Bolivia and Peru ignited my passion for learning languages.
Studying in the Basque Country and Galicia, taking Mandarin classes in
China, teaching English to some adorable children in Buenos Aires and living
with a family in a remote part of Nicaragua have given me experiences that have
shaped my values and the person I am. The value of learning a language can come
from these kinds of life-altering experiences or it can simply come from the
satisfaction of being able to order a plate of dumplings in Polish or ask for
directions to the Brandenburg Gate in German.
For me, learning languages is not about money, love or intelligence. The
most important benefit of learning a language, as I see it, is for the unique travelling
experiences it can bring. Learning a language has given me access to a world of
culture, fed my hunger for knowledge and allowed me to embrace moments spent
with diverse people in the most remote of places. And the best part: all these
experiences grew from that very first Spanish lesson at school. Click here to find out more about Kaplan International Colleges
A Look at Manchester's Urban Garden and Flower Festival
Manchester: you've given us an Irish Festival, a Jazz Festival, an International Festival, a Histories Festival, and now you've given us our very own Urban Garden and Flower Festival, AND we're still only in July with so much more to look forward to. All this week Manchester City Centre has been celebrating the 'Dig the City Urban Garden Festival' with the main event taking place inside Manchester Cathedral where over 30,000 flowers have been on display in stunning and incredibly creative floral displays taking visitors through Vivaldi's 'Four Seasons', down the stairs to visit Eliza in 'My Fair Lady', across the room for a taste of 'Brown Sugar' and finishing up at 'Wonderwall.' Make sense?
The photo to the left is a section from one of my favourite arrangements, 'Singing in the Rain' (Radcliffe Floral Art Group)
Manchester Cathedral during Dig the City
To the right is 'Brown Sugar', in the Rock & Roll, Pop section of the Cathedral (Hale Barnes Flower Club)
To the left is a section of the stunning 'Madam Butterfly' arrangement from the 'Timeline of Composers' section (St Mary's, Prestwich).
Beautifully positioned in the Cathedral, 'Walk Through the Fire' really does make you stop and look. Another favourite of mine (Bolton Floral Art Group).
'Singing in the Rain'
With 15 different areas to visit around the Medieval Quarter of Manchester, Dig the City has been an ambitious project and I think it has been successful in terms of bringing people and organisations together. As well as the Cathedral, the brand new National Football Museum (which I have yet to visit!), Manchester Arndale and the newly re-branded Corn Exchange (formally the Triangle) have all put on events and activities to get into the flower power spirit. On top of all that, I enjoyed a bit of a wander around the surrounding Cathedral Gardens, the Jubilee Garden, Groundwork Manchester's 'Living Street' and community gardens growing everything from lettuces to parsley and tomatoes. I spoke to one of the many keen and passionate volunteers about the community gardens and it was fantastic to hear how all the food growing would be going to the Booth Centre to be put to good use (the Booth Centre is a day centre that provides activities, advice and support to homeless people in Manchester).
The Volunteer Legacy Garden outside the Cathedral
Great to see The Corn Exchange, now back to using its historic name, taking part in the floral festivities of Dig the City this week...
The building's atrium floor was transformed into a Mad Hatter's tea party display from that well known classic, Alice in Wonderland. A large round table was scattered with vintage mismatched china teacups and cake stands adorned with soft lemon and dusky pink roses, peonies and sweet peas. The table was surrounded with baskets of flowers, classic books open on aged pages waiting to be read. As a sucker for afternoon tea I thought the display was simple yet elegant and a very creative way to take part in Dig the City.
As someone who feels passionately about people having access to green and open spaces in urban areas, it's great to see that an event like Dig the City has generated so much interest. We need some big things to happen in this city before I will be saying how wonderful and green Manchester is, but getting people (and more importantly children and young people) interested in gardens, flowers and plants and growing your own food is a good place to start. I hope Dig the City will become a permanent feature in Manchester's summer events calender. Congratulations to everyone involved!
Wandering down to have a nosy at the third Manchester Day Parade recently on 10th June made my Sunday afternoon a very fun and enjoyable one! More than 45,000 Mancunians came out to celebrate the city's diversity and the achievements of community and social groups across Manchester. The Parade was made up of over 2,400 participants who danced, drummed and weaved their way through the streets of Manchester City Centre, adorned with a dazzling array of costumes and impressive structures. A huge congratulations to everyone who took part in the Parade and helped to bring communities together in a fabulous display of Mancunian pride! For anyone who didn't manage to make it to the Parade this year, have a look at the photos below for a taster & get yourself down there next year! You won't be disappointed!
The fact that Liverpool has had the foresight to stage such a complex display of public art/street theatre, further highlights to me that it can and should continue to compete with the best of them. With more and more tourist destinations pushing the boundaries to attract visitors, it is clear that Liverpool has grabbed a well earned place in that list. It's no wonder Liverpool was awarded Capital of Culture in 2008. Despite years of neglect, Liverpool has pulled its socks up and the city has benefited from well thought out regeneration attempts, particularly in the city centre and around the Albert Dock. The emphasis on green, empty spaces is something the likes of Manchester should take note of, where in place of gardens and parks more and more blocks of flats continue to be built and sadly lie empty.
The most recent feather in Liverpool's cap is the Sea Odyssey Giant Spectacular. A three day event that took place between April 20-22nd in the city centre and North Liverpool, an area that has suffered economically for years. Having read and heard a lot about this 'Little Girl Giant', I was intrigued and decided to head over to Liverpool on the Sunday for the culmination of the event. I was astounded at the sheer number of people who had turned out to support the event, there were huge crowds and although difficult to find a good viewing spot for fear of squashing little children, I love that the event brought the community together to share in such a memorable occasion. I found a good spot on the Pier Head and waited for the three marionettes, a 50ft diver, 30ft 'little' girl and a 9ft dog, called Xolo, to float past on the Mersey.
The Sea Odyssey was inspired by a letter a young girl posted to her father in 1912 when he was a steward on the Titanic. Sadly, the letter was never delivered. A French street theatre company, Royal De Luxe, created the remarkable story, rather like a fairytale, of a giant who died on the Titanic, his orphaned little girl giant, the diver uncle and a giant dog. The whole concept is such a unique and unusual way for Liverpool to mark its links with the Titanic, 100 years after the ship sank to the depths of the Atlantic, taking with her those 1,512 passengers who sadly perished. The Sea Odyssey is a fitting tribute and a inspiring way for children as well as those who don't know much about the Titanic, to develop an understanding of what happened on 14th April 1912 and the legacy she has left behind.
Aside from the cultural impact the Giants will have on Liverpool, the event, which cost £1.5m, has boosted the local economy by at least £12m according to Liverpool City Council. Over 500,000 people visited the city to see the little girl, her pet dog and diver uncle wander through the streets of Liverpool with a wonderful backdrop of some of Liverpool's most beautiful buildings. I wonder what Liverpool will think of next? I will leave you with the story of the Giants:
The Sea of Liverpool has swallowed up so many sailors, travellers and adventurers that you would think it was a cannibal.
Icebergs are boat hunters and Liverpudlians are huge children with eyes full of hope and rebellion.
For the unsinkable Titanic, her first voyage was also to be her last.
But let's move right away to the story of one stowaway: loaded on board during the night, unnoticed - a thirty foot tall Giant capable of travelling through time, on his way to another continent to meet his daughter, the Little Giant.
Giants don't grow old, don't grow up, they just stay the age they are for eternity - that is, if they don't die. Disaster struck in the Atlantic Ocean; everyone knows the details of the accident. The ocean liner was the pride of Liverpool, and many different Liverpudlian tradesmen were recruited, mainly to maintain the ship and to look after the passengers.
But let's return to our gigantic passenger trapped in one of the holds. He feels the full force of the iceberg's blade. The sea rushes into the ship so fiercely that he is unable to move.
He is a prisoner and plummets 12,000 feet with the Titanic. We believe that, knowing he would soon die, he took his last underwater lift ride before coming to rest in a cloud of dust on the ocean bed.
Above, petrified with fear, survivors hoped for miracles - some were rescued, that too is known.
When the Little Giant heard the news, she sought out her uncle, the Great Giant's brother. While listening to her, the uncle made a decision that was to take him a century to carry out.
First, he would make himself a diving suit. Then he would scour the ocean floor for the shipwreck. After that, he would bury his brother in the deep-sea bed. Most importantly, he would come back with the letter the Great Giant had written to the Little Giant Girl. This is why he walked for many long years across the ocean floor, pulling the Titanic's mail trunk to bring back the post to Liverpool.
Such tragedies do not affect the Little Giant's morale who bravely decided to come to the reunion. While reading magazines before leaving, she discovered that there are another two famed legends in Liverpool - The Beatles music, and the sheer madness for football of the rebel City.
Before setting up her first camp in Stanley Park, between the two football stadiums north of the city, she decides she will go on a cruise through the town on a road-sailing boat. A few hours before her arrival, as if by magic, a geyser shoots up from the ground in the city centre, to herald her arrival." Story written by Jean-Luc Courcoult, Author, Artistic Director and Founder, Royal De Luxe.
Stanage Edge, Peak District There's nothing quite like a long, leisurely walk in the countryside, is there? Breathing in all that clean, fresh air and feeling that all that walking is 'good for you'. My recent trip to Stanage Edge, a 4 mile long gritstone cliff overlooking Hathersage in the Peak District was exhilarating but perhaps for all the wrong reasons! The day started off with blue skies and sunshine and us following the map correctly. Unfortunately as the day went on, the sky grew darker, the wind grew stronger and the hail and snow arrived - meanwhile we had become sure that the OS map was wrong (always a mistake - since the map NEVER lies!) Whilst the weather could have been better, it certainly didn't dampen our spirits. The views across the heather laden moorland reminded me how lucky we are to have such beautiful places in such easy reach! There's something quite exciting about walking on Stanage Edge during the winter. There's not a lot of people about which makes the views across the Hope valley just that little bit more special, knowing that you don't have to share them with anyone else!
As we reached the summit of Stanage Edge (458m) I only had to glance over the edge to see a picture perfect image of history - the abandoned millstones scattered around the area that have formed part of the landscape since the 19th century. The nearby village of Hathersage was once an important area for quarrying stones. They were used for grinding corn and metals in mills and later for the production of needles and pins, which Hathersage became famous for. It's sad to think of the grinders who had an average life expectancy of just 30 due to the fragments of dust and steel that entered their lungs.IT was also not uncommon for the gritstone wheel to shatter as it was rotating, causing injury to the grinder.
North Lees Estate Walking from Hathersage towards Stanage Edge, we came across North Lees Hall, an Elizabethan manor house. It is said that it was the inspiration for Thornfield Hall in Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre after she stayed in the area in 1845. The Hall has since been used in Pride and Prejudice (2005) and the BBC's production of Jane Eyre (2006).
Getting to Hathersage & Stanage Edge
Hathersage is situated in the Derwent Valley, Derbyshire (in the Peak District). There is a train station at Hathersage and from there you can do the 9 mile walk to Stanage Edge and back. Be sure to stop off at the quaint Cintra's Tearooms in Hathersage for a hot cup of tea and a warm scone on your return - especially if you get soaked by the rain, hail or snow during your walk!
Click here for directions for the 9 mile walk from Visit Peak District - On the Edge at Stanage...Enjoy!
Consider what you see and hear around you, and use your voices to Speak Upagainst hatred and discrimination.
Holocaust Memorial Day 27-01-2012
Arbeit Macht Frei "Work Brings Freedom"
When I think of the Holocaust, the first thing that comes into my head is the number '6 million'. In all the books I've read and films I've watched about the holocaust, that number has stuck in my head. Such an enormous figure is hard to imagine when I think of it in terms of people - men, women and children. 6 million people murdered in concentration and extermination camps, ghettos and mass-shootings. Hitler's regime murdered Jews from countries all over Europe as well as physically and mentally disabled people, homosexuals, gypsies, political prisoners and those involved in resistance movements.
Why this day?
Holocaust Memorial Day takes place on 27th January because it was on this day in 1945 that Soviet soldiers liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau - the largest Nazi killing camp. Here, 1.1 million people were murdered. Holocaust Memorial Day is one day in the year when we can reflect on our lives and think about those 6 million people who lost their lives as a result of Nazi persecution. It is also a day when we can spare a thought for those who lost their lives or whose lives were altered forever in subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.
My Experience of Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II- Birkenau
I visited Auschwitz during winter. I crunched around in the snow until I got to the gated entrance to Auschwitz where I felt quite awkward watching the sheer number of tourists about to embark on group tours. I immediately separated myself from them, trying to rid myself of the idea that Auschwitz was some kind of tourist attraction. But thinking about it now, I suppose it is. The fact that so many people come from all over the world daily to visit this 'attraction' shows us the enormous impact it has had the world over. Having seen it with my own eyes, I feel particularly strongly that everyone who has the means should visit Auschwitz or another Nazi camp at some point in their lives. Auschwitz I is a maze of camp blocks and barracks, all surrounded by barbed wire and overlooked by giant guard towers. It was originally a Polish military camp but when the Nazis came they turned it into a prisoners camp. Scull and cross bone signs dug into the ground threaten those who dare to wander too close to the barbed wire to 'Halt!' It was here that the first Auschwitz camps were opened and where they tested the lethal Zyklon-B (used in the gas chambers to kill people). It was also here where the Nazis conducted experiments on prisoners and carried out executions. Several of the blocks are open to the public and as you walk into each room you are surrounded by floor to ceiling huge collections of personal possessions from those who came to Auschwitz. Among the items were 3,800 suitcases, 40 kg of glasses and 110,000 shoes. One room held two tons of human hair. These rooms were probably the most moving and as you can imagine, it was an emotional experience.
Block 11 - The Death Block
Block 11 was known as the 'Death Block'. It was here that prisoners suspected by the camp gestapo of carrying out clandestine activities were held (attempting to escape/organising mutinies/contact with outside world). They were generally brutally interrogated before being shot. For a time this block also held the Sonderkommando (the special unit of prisoners who were forced to burn bodies). Going down into the basement, I saw four standing punishment cells so small (1 square metre each) that it was hard not to visualise four prisoners confined in each cell for the night before having to go to work in the morning. The only source of air was a 5 x 5cm opening covered with a piece of metal. There were also dark cells which prisoners were confined to for days or even weeks, this was the way the SS put people to death by starvation. The SS carried out an experiment here with Zyklon-B which led to the mass killing of thousands of people in the gas chambers. Between 3-5th September in 1941 600 Soviet POWs and 250 Polish political prisoners were selected from the camp infirmary to act as guinea pigs.
'Death Wall' in the walled-off yard of block 11
'Death Wall' - It was here that a firing squad would shoot prisoners.
Camp blocks
Barbed wire fence
"The first to perish were the children, abandoned orphans, The World's best, the bleak earth's brightest. These children from the orphanages might have been our comfort. From these sad, mute, bleak faces our new dawn might have risen"
(Auschwitz Birkenau)
Deportations arrived by train
A short bus or taxi ride away lies the remains of Auschwitz-Birkenau. At this camp, approximately one million European Jews were murdered. In 1944 over 100,000 prisoners (Jews, Poles, Roma and others) were here, housed in 300 wooden barracks. The camp holds the ruins of the gas chambers and crematoria. My experience here was somewhat different. It was a vast expanse of space (200 hectares of grounds), blanketed in thick snow from the bitter Polish winter. The cold seemed to penetrate through six layers of clothes and three pairs of socks to reach my bones. All I could think about was how perishing the cold was (-10), and how prisoners were made to walk around in freezing temperatures wearing next to nothing.
Auschwitz-Birkenau
After a while, the people drift away, the coaches drive away and all that is left is the sound of the icy air whizzing past you and the feeling that you are not alone. It was eerie, bleak and when I realised I was the last person left, somewhat terrifying. However, though it may sound strange, it was one of the most peaceful moments in time I have ever experienced. It was pure stillness. Nothing moved, nothing sounded - not even the birds.
I may be just one person out of millions who have visited Auschwitz, and I probably had a similar experience to others but I feel I took away something unique - something I haven't got from reading books about the Holocaust. And that is hope. Hope that by people, young and old, coming to Auschwitz and seeing with their own eyes the atrocities that were carried out here, it will give us a truer understanding of what human beings are capable of in extreme situations. Hatred and discrimination for whatever reason should never be tolerated under any circumstances. This message written on a plaque at Auschwitz-Birkenau sums up the way I feel perfectly:
"For ever let this place be a cry of despair. And a warning to humanity. Where the Nazis murdered about one a half million men, women and children, mainly Jews from various countries of Europe".
"I swore never to be silent whenever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented".Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor.
Make a pledge now to challenge the language of hatred and commit to using words which reflect respect for the dignity of those around you.
