Student of the Month - December 2011

Our Christmas student of the month is a very special individual:

Chiara Giovanni in year 13 has been nominated by Frau Brown. 

Chiara is certainly one of the most talented linguists Tomlinscote has ever seen and easily one of the most enthusiastic, too. She has been one of our German language ambassadors and has recently participated in a three week intensive language course in Germany through our PASCH partnership.

We are pleased and very proud to reveal that Chiara has been offered a place at Magdalen College, Oxford, 
to read German and Spanish.

We hope that she will enjoy the course and are certain that she will continue to do exceptionally well!

Mit herzlichen Glückwünschen,

MFL Tomlinscote

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Joyeux Noël et Bonne Année!

Fröhliche Weihnachten und ein glückliches Neues Jahr!

¡Feliz Navidad y Próspero Año Nuevo!

Kung His Hsin Nien bing Chu Shen Tan!

Shinnen omedeto! Kurisumasu Omedeto!

Christmas in France - Petit Papa Noël

Here is another version of 'Petit Papa Noël'. Which one do you prefer?

Watch out for the cute dog in the video!

Christmas in Germany - Frohe Weihnachten!

DID you know? Here are some German Christmas traditions:

In Germany, children get a little surprise to make the long wait till Christmas a bit easier. On the 6th of December is Nikolaus (St. Nicholas day). The night before, children put out their shoes and in the morning they find some sweets or a little present in them.

...but only if they have been good! If they were bad, they might find a piece of coal or some sticks...

The main Christmas celebrations happen in Germany already on the 24th of December. On Heiligabend (holy evening) people have a big festive dinner with their immediate family and afterwards they open their presents!
On the 25th of December, they meet up with more family members for lunch and have yet another feast!

Christmas Traditions in Spain - ¡Feliz Navidad!

  DID you know? Spain has some interesting traditions at this time of year:

Children in Spain don't really get presents at Christmas, but they have to wait until the 6th of January, when Three Kings Day (el dia de los Reyes Magos) is celebrated. It's the day the three kings arrived in Bethlehem to see the new born Christ. 

On the night of the 5th of January, children put out shoes filled with straw for the kings' donkeys and camels, as well as some sweets for the kings themselves. The next morning, they wake to find that the hay and sweets have been eaten and that presents are waiting for them next to their shoes.

Later in the day, there are parades in the streets called the Cabalgata de los Reyes Magos. Accompanied by festive lights and music, nativity scenes are acted out. The three kings ride on horses, camels or elaborate floats and throw goodies and sweets down to the children lining the streets.

In recent years, some children have been very lucky and have also received presents from Santa but mostly, Santa has left this job to the Kings on the 6th January!

Another interesting tradition is celebrated at midnight on New Year's Eve:  
You eat  12 grapes, one on every stroke of the clock of Midnight. 
This is believed to bring good luck for the next year!
Apparently, you can even buy special little tins of 12 grapes in the shops for this purpose!

some vocabulary for you:

Christmas eve is called Nochebuena (good/lovely night)

NewYear's Eve is called Nochevieja (old night)

Gracias to Ms Burford for providing the information.

Joyeux Noël - two Christmas songs in French

Here's a French Christmas song to get you into the merry mood! Do you recognise the melody? 

It's called 'Vive le vent'.

Here are the lyrics, if you want to sing along:

Vive le vent, vive le vent,
vive le vent d'hiver
qui s'en va sifflant, soufflant
dans les grands sapins verts.

Vive le temps, vive le temps,
vive le temps d'hiver
boules de neige et jour de l'an
et bonne année grand-mère.


Sur le long chemin
tout blanc de neige blanche
un vieux monsieur s'avance avec
sa canne dans la main
et tout là-haut le vent qui siffle
dans les branches puis souffle
la romance qu'il chantait petit enfant

Et le vieux monsieur descend
vers le village
C'est l'heure où tout est sage
et l'ombre danse au coin du feu
Mais dans chaque maison
il flotte un air de fête
partout la table est prête
et l'on entend
la même chanson

and here's another one, called 'Petit Papa Noël' - do you know what that means?

here are the lyrics for this one:  Use a dictionary to look up new words!


1. C'est la belle nuit de Noël
La neige étend son manteau blanc
Et les yeux levés vers le ciel
A genoux les petits enfants
Avant de fermer les paupières
Font une dernière prière

refrain:

Petit Papa Noël
Quand tu descendras du ciel
Avec tes jouets par milliers
N'oublie pas mon petit soulier

2. Mais avant de partir,
Il faudra bien te couvrir
Dehors, tu vas avoir si froid
C'est un peu à cause de moi.

Il me tarde tant que le jour se lève
Pour voir si tu m'as apporté
Tous les beaux joujoux
Que je vois en rêve
Et que je t'ai commandés

3. Le marchand de sable est passé
Les enfants vont faire dodo
Et tu vas pouvoir commencer
Avec ta hotte sur le dos
Au son des cloches des églises
Ta distribution de surprises

4. Et quand tu seras sur ton beau nuage
Viens d'abord sur notre maison
Je n'ai pas été tous les jours très sage
Mais j'en t'en demande le pardon
Ho-ho-ho! Enjoy!

Fröhliche Weihnacht Überall - Michelle

Year 7s who went to Ravenscote last year will remember this song from their Christmas assembly.
Do you remember the lyrics? Sing along!

'Fröhliche Weihnacht überall' tönet durch die Lüfte froher Schall!
Weihnachtston, Weihnachtsbaum, Weihnachtsduft in jedem Raum.
'Fröhliche Weihnacht überall' töntet durch die Lüfte froher Schall!

1.  Darum alle stimmet in den Jubelton,
     denn es kommt das Licht der Welt von des Vaters Thron.

2. Licht auf dunklem Wege, unser Licht bist du,denn du führst,
    die dir vertrau'n, ein zu sel'ger Ruh'.

Feliz Navidad by Enrique Iglesias

Something for our Spanish learning students....Enrique, how do you spend your Christmas?

  

 

Weihnachtsmarkt in London

If you are heading to London these days, make sure you have a look at the Weihnachtsmarkt at the South Bank. It's probably the best German Christmas market experience you can get outside of Germany, with authentic sausages and mulled wine (and non-alcoholic punch) in ceramic mugs to take away. You can even buy a Weihnachtspyramide and Räuchermännchen.
Otherwise, there's the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park, also based on German Christmas markets. If anyone has been to one of these or to the real thing in Germany, send us your pictures!

almost like in Germany

Räuchermännchen

typical German Christmas decorations

eine Bratwurst, bitte

Last Christmas - auf deutsch!

'Tis that time of year again when you can't escape the merry mood. Here is our first contribution to get you into the Christmas spirit. Frau Mahler's favourite Alexi Bexi has produced Wham's classic seasonal hit in German. Put on your reindeer antlers and sing along!
"Letzte Weihnacht gab ich dir mein Herz, doch am nächsten Tag hast du es verschenkt.
Dieses Jahr, um mich vor Tränen zu wahr'n, bekommt es jemand Besonderes!"

Danke schön an Chiara Giovanni for finding Alexi Bexi for me last Christmas!

Student of the Month November 2011 - 2

Here are more Students of the Month 
from the French department: 

Madame Rinjonneau would like to nominate  
Jack Phillips in 9P for excellent behaviour and consistent hard work, as well as Jackson Keen in 10K for really good work! Keep going!! Well done to both of you!

Monsieur Daniel is presenting three year 9 students particularly worthy of our attention.
Marta Mungai, Andrew Lacey and Katherine Rowett have produced these fantasic texts as part of their assessments, which means that they were completed under exam conditions, with no dictionaries, books or other reference material for help! What a very impressive level of communication, complexity and accuracy. Some year 11s could learn from this.... Congratulations!