English is my mother tongue,  and I know a small amount of French from doing my National 5 at secondary school. I know a few simple phrases in German and Italian from Primary school (numbers up to 10, my name is…. Etc).    I felt Italian and French came a lot more naturally to me in terms of accent and prior vocabulary knowledge, as appose to German which I did not find as easy to pick up.My experience of being taught languages is mainly positive, it was a subject I always enjoyed at school and I feel I picked French up relatively well. I enjoyed learning languages in primary school more than secondary, this could have been because it was made more fun and aimed at younger children, there was a lot of speaking and listening rather than reading and writing.

The ways in which I was taught languages were not always very engaging or exciting, especially in Secondary school where it was mostly textbook based. There was not enough speaking involved when it came to learning languages at school. It was mostly writing, reading and listening. I think that this meant I didn’t have the confidence to take part in conversations, which is a huge part of learning a language. This could also be because I did not begin to learn a language until I was in primary 4. I was taught German in primary school but decided I would rather learn French when I reached high school. At no point did I feel at a disadvantage compared to my classmates, who had learnt French at primary school. This was good for me, but it made it clear that the teaching of modern languages was not that effective, if someone who had no prior French teaching could join the class and feel equal.

French is the most important language to me, out of the languages I have had experience in learning. This could be due to  the fact that some of my close family members can speak French very well, and my grandma taught modern languages as her profession.  Having gone to France for my second-year placement, the desire to improve my French and my interest in the language grew. I do not value German as much as it wasn’t a language that I had the desire to learn from a young age, hence why I swapped to French moving into secondary school.

I learnt Italian when I was in primary 4/5 so I think being younger meant that the learning was less serious, there was more games, songs and talking involved and it was more enjoyable for that reason. The teacher was a native Italian speaker, and this meant she could share her experiences of Italian culture with us. In Secondary school, we would sometimes watch films in French and I enjoyed the challenge of trying to work out what was being said. However most of the learning was through textbooks and listing to the teacher (who was not a native speaker of French). Having only taken French as far as National 5 level, I did not revisit the language until I went to France for my LfL placement. This is where I learnt a lot about the language in a much more hands on way. I was thrown in at the deep end, but I think this gave me a lot more motivation to understand what the teachers and pupils in my school were saying.

During my second year LfL placement, there was countless opportunities for interpersonal and intercultural communication. I feel that I managed these well considering I know a little amount of French for conversation. Throughout my placement I would need to communicate with the teachers in my school in order to plan lessons and discuss the pupils’ development. This would be in a mixture of English and French, as sometimes I really didn’t understand what was being said. However, the longer I was in France, the more able I was to communicate in French with the teachers and the pupils in my school. This was continued outside of the school environment too as I needed to be independent in everyday life (getting on and off buses, asking for directions, shopping etc).