‘To have another language is to possess a second soul.’
So said Charlemagne.
For me learning languages was always more than an exercise at school, it was more about exploring the world, its edges and to start understanding people. However, at first I never realised it was about exploring another me. It may sound ridiculous, but when I speak one language I differ from the me that speaks another. Sometimes I feel that I live several lives with different mindsets.
That’s why for me to know a language means not only to know how to use a range of its rules and vocabulary, but to understand its native speakers. We live in Saint Petersburg, where on one hand we have the culture of the city and on the other an incredible mix of international cultures inside the BSSP. I find it extremely important to study the language's culture as well, so I’m always curious when it comes to the foreign ones. This is what I want to share with our students: the world is wide and we are all different and grew up with varied backgrounds. During my lessons I don’t want to just explain the rules, I try to explain why it’s exactly as it is, what would French people say about it, how do they see the language. Showing the connections between English and French is exciting because they both have plenty of things in common, as well as their obvious differences.
When we translate from one language to another, in most of the cases we can’t do it literally, we need to follow the concept of the native speakers mindset. Thus, when speaking another language we have to understand that now we have our own vocabulary, our ways of expression, a different voice, new gestures and even jokes. In exploring foreign languages we can discover deeper meanings of well-known words and, as it develops, we can compare ideas and even language philosophy that has been developing for centuries.
What is more, this may be exactly that precious moment when students make their own discovery. There is much more probability that they will realise it in this way because they did not just learn something that they were asked to memorise but they indeed understood it. In fact, it’s not only about better training exercises, it’s about personal development too. At the point when we follow someone’s logic, somehow we start sharing it and develop our empathy. Nowadays we pay more and more attention to being tolerant, proactive and to develop skills, so foreign languages are an extremely important key to this success. The more you learn foreign languages, the broader you see and the more colourful the world grows with its millions of nuances.
I love seeing how BSSP students are thrilled to know about French students’ lives, what they usually do and even whether their world is the same as ours. Each lesson we explore our everyday life together but from a different perspective and each time it’s a fascinating and unforgettable experience.
After all, when students meet me in the corridors greeting me with French words or when they just use them all of a sudden, this is their opportunity to be a new person.
Miss Sasha, French Teacher
