Language week celebration in city school. REPORT
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Report on Language Week
Five days in September 2008, were observed as the Language Week in GIIS Balestier. In the multilingual society, the students get a vast range of exposure to the English Language. There is a need for inculcating a sense of pride and importance for the second and third languages that the students study as part of their curriculum. Keeping this in mind all the students were given an opportunity to make presentations in their language.
The first two days were devoted to students who learn Hindi as their second language. Students presented poems and stories in Hindi. Some spoke about their families, while others spoke about their friends, about Singapore, about their favourite fruit and so on. Slogans and idioms were also put up on the walls for students to read and understand.
Tamil Day coincided with the death anniversary of the great poet Mahakavi Subramania Bharathiar which falls on the 11th of September. The students paid tribute to one of the greatest Tamil poets and one of the most prominent leaders of the Indian independence movement by reciting patriotic songs that emphasized nationalism, unity of India, equality of men and the greatness of the Tamil language. Some students wore costumes to impersonate the great poet.
The students studying French also presented poems and other dialogues in French. They spoke confidently about various topics – Les saisons, les jours de la semaine, les mois de l’annee,Singapour and themselves. They also spoke about their professional aspirations in French.
Sanskrit, one of the two classical languages of India, is studied as the third language by our students. They displayed their knowledge of the language through songs and shlokas. Students of Std1 sang “Yaanam gachchati---“ a song about the sounds of birds, animals and vehicles
Students of Std 2 recited Shlokas like Adharam madhuram, ( poem of sweetness) , Kaakah krushnah( about a crow and a cuckoo) and Manasaa satatam ( a song about helping people)
The richness of the languages and the pleasure of listening to them spoken so eloquently by our students left us all with a feeling of joy and pride.