Website editor: Miriam Fine (Yr 12)
On Tuesday 4th March, the Modern Foreign Languages department and Polyglot Society invited three speakers to school to address 40 linguists in Yrs 11 to 13 about issues relating to their academic research.
The first speaker was Dr Geraldine Horan from UCL, who spoke to the girls about the history of swearing and cursing in German; we learnt why people swear and how taboo subjects have changed over the centuries. The second speaker, Peter Langdale, drew links between Dante, Primo Levy and Coleridge. The third speaker was also an academic from UCL, Dr Seth Graham, who gave a history of political jokes in Russian under Yeltsin and Putin.
All three talks were fascinatingly varied and the girls were given into a glimpse of the sometimes very specialised research which goes on in university languages departments. They also benefited from a themed buffet! The symposium was very successful and we plan to make it a regular feature on the MFL calendar.
Many thanks to the speakers, the attendees and the Polyglot society members who helped with the organisation of the event.