Category Archives: Events and Competitions

Events and Competitions, Portuguese, Translation

Reminder – Stephen Spender Prize

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Stephen Spender Prize for poetry in translation 2024 | 2 weeks left to submit!

Calling budding poetry translators of all ages! Just 2 weeks left to submit to the 2024 Stephen Spender Prize for poetry in translation. Translate ANY published poem from ANY language into English, and win publication and cash prizes!

The Prize welcomes entries from young people aged 18 and under from across the UK and Ireland, with categories for individual young people and teachers submitting on behalf of pupils, plus a special Portuguese Spotlight celebrating poetry from across the Lusophone world. Teachers from participating schools are also warmly invited to try their hand at poetry translation with the free-to-enter Teacher Laureate Prize, for the chance to win a subscription to Modern Poetry in Translation magazine and a creative translation workshop for their school.

This year, the Stephen Spender Trust is also delighted to extend the Open category to adults aged 18+ from all over the world, welcoming submissions from higher education students, academics and poetry and language lovers of all stripes. 

The winning translations will be chosen by Taher Adel, Jennifer Wong and Keith Jarrett, with publication and cash prizes for the winners, plus special certificates for up to 30 Commendees in each age category. Outstanding Teacher Commendations will also be awarded to three individual teachers and/or language departments who show exceptional engagement with the prize.

For full details and a wealth of poetry translation resources, including the Stephen Spender Trust’s Guide to the Prize for Teachers, head to the Stephen Spender Prize homepage: www.stephen-spender.org/stephen-spender-prize/.

You can also follow the latest Prize news on social media, using the hashtags #SSTPoetryPrize2024 and #PortugueseSpotlight. (X: @StephenSpender | Facebook: @StephenSpenderTrust | Instagram: @stephenspendertrust)

Events and Competitions, French

FRENCH FLASH FICTION 2024: THE WINNERS

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We’re delighted to publish the winning entries for this year’s French Flash Fiction competition. We’ll be publishing the winning entries for Spanish, as well as the runner up and highly commended entries for both languages in each age category over the coming weeks.

Thank you and huge congratulations to everyone who entered. The French judging panel were extremely impressed with all the entries we received this year (over 580 of them!), and commented the following about the competition:

We are thrilled to share our excitement about the entries for the 2024 Flash Fiction competition. A heartfelt thank you to everyone who participated and contributed to the competition!

We were impressed by the variety in your stories and by how much emotion and detail could be packed into just 100 words. Your stories made us laugh, gasp, reflect, and sometimes even tear up. We read tales that spanned from light-hearted daily occurrences to epic medieval duels and forbidden werewolf romances, from futuristic visions of 2050 to unexpected encounters with demon snowmen and talking ants. We encountered characters from all walks of life and visited settings that ranged from the familiar to the extraordinary. Along the way, we met a crocodile in the Thames, a sentient piece of bread, and many other memorable figures that made your stories so engaging.

We truly enjoyed reading your stories and want to commend each of you for your creativity and effort. Thank you for making this competition such a wonderful experience, and congratulations to all of you.

Without further ado, here are the stories! We hope you enjoy reading them as much as the judges did.

YEARS 7-9 WINNER

La Cuisine Française

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

J’avais fait une grasse mat. Je n’avais pas fait mes corvées. Ma mère allait vraiment me rentrer dans le chou quand elle reviendrait ! Je pourrais toujours lui raconter des salades. En vrai, je n’étais pas dans mon assiette. Tant que ma sœur s’occupe de ses oignons tout ira bien. Il n’y avait pas besoin d’en faire tout un fromage. Peut-être la moutarde ne lui monterait pas au nez. À partir de demain, j’enverrai la sauce. La porte d’entrée s’ouvrit. Purée ! Mes carottes sont cuites !

– James Best, Year 8

YEARS 10-11 WINNER

La Tulipe

Photo by Kwang Mathurosemontri on Unsplash

La pluie ne peut me blesser. Le soleil ne peut me brûler. Je ne meurs jamais. Quand les doigts doux de printemps glissent avec les vents parfumés, je me réveille. Je m’épanouis aux mélodies de l’été. Bien que tout le monde puisse cueillir mes cheveux, personne ne peut me détruire. Autrefois aux Pays-Bas, mon corps valait son pesant d’or. Maintenant, je pousse sur le bas-côté de la route, abandonnée. Quand le filet d’automne m’enchevêtre dans le froid, je me flétris. Mais j’attends toujours le réveil de printemps : ma beauté s’évapore dans l’air, mais ma vie perdure sous terre…

– Tony Shi, Year 11

YEARS 12-13 WINNER

Les Couleurs Cachées de Lily : Un Monde Autistique

Dans une ville pittoresque entre collines, Lily vivait. Son monde, aux couleurs qu’elle seule comprenait, la faisait danser à chaque pas, ses yeux contant des histoires dans un langage unique. L’autisme révélait un univers où les couleurs scintillaient et sons jouaient des symphonies. Au milieu de la « normalité », Lily trouvait réconfort dans son propre rythme, son esprit s’élevant au-delà des limites terrestres. Dans son monde, l’autisme n’était pas un obstacle mais un kaléidoscope de possibilités infinies, peignant sa vie d’une brillance incomparable.

Photo by Malcolm Lightbody on Unsplash

– Hannah Gleeson, Year 12

Félicitations à tous nos gagnants!

Events and Competitions, Multilingualism, Resources for language study, Studying at Oxford

Language Miracles Workshops

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St Edmund Hall is inviting A-Level state school students to a series of four interactive workshops exploring the miraculous nature of words and the people, periods and places opened up to us by the study of other languages, literature and cultures.

Open to Year 12 students at UK state schools, the workshops will allow students to develop critical reading and translation skills, introducing them to new avenues into university-style study of languages.

Benefits of participating:

  • Experience an Oxbridge tutorial
  • Learn more about the languages courses at Oxford
  • Develop skills and confidence to study languages at university
  • Meet others interested in studying languages
  • Hear from current Oxford University languages students
  • Strengthen your UCAS personal statement and interview skills

The workshops will take place in mid-July via Microsoft Teams. No language-specific knowledge is needed, and English translations will be provided.

For more information including registration, please visit the Language Miracles webpage.

Events and Competitions

2024 Oxford Language Teachers’ Conference

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We are delighted to share details about this year’s Language Teachers’ Conference which will take place on Friday 27 and Saturday 28 September 2024 at Somerville College, Oxford.

Somerville College
Credit: ©OUImages/John Cairns Photography

Our annual conference has developed out of the Sir Robert Taylor Society (named after the founder of the Faculty’s Languages Library), a network of teachers of Modern Foreign Languages in secondary schools, academics from the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages at the University of Oxford, and others interested in MFL.

This conference is now a core aspect of the Faculty’s Schools Liaison work, and provides a unique forum for interaction and exchange between the University and teachers. It offers teachers the chance to spend a night in an Oxford college, to attend various taster lectures and discussions, and to ask our academics and admissions tutors questions about our courses, research, and supporting students’ applications to Oxford.

Photo from the roundtable discussion at our 2023 Language Teachers’ Conference

2024 Programme

We are pleased to be holding the conference at Somerville College once again after a couple of wonderful years at St Anne’s. Somerville was established in 1879 as a hall for women, who were barred from the university at the time, and throughout its history it has remained committed to equality. Today, Somerville marries beautiful architecture with a proud emphasis on inclusivity and diversity.

The full provisional event programme can be found here and more information about the conference is available here.

A particular highlight of this year’s programme is scheduled for Saturday morning when delegates will experience an example of the creative translation workshops offered to schools by The Queen’s College Translation Exchange. The workshops are designed to make translation accessible and creative for school pupils by using the Stephen Spender Trust’s ‘Decode – Translate – Create’ method.  

Dr Charlotte Ryland talking about the language outreach and advocacy work carried out by The Queen’s Translation Exchange and the Stephen Spender Trust at the 2023 Language Teachers’ Conference.

Delegate rates and booking

Below are the various rates and ticket options available for both state and independent school teachers.

State school rateIndependent school rate
Full conference, including accommodation and breakfast£150£300
Full conference, excluding accommodation£100£200
Friday only£50£100
Saturday only£50£100

Please visit our online bookings webpage to secure your place. You will need to create an account (or log in if you’ve used our website before) and select the right rate for your school type and length of attendance. Bookings will close on 13th September.

If you have any questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to contact us at schools.liaison@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk.

We look forward to seeing you in September!

Events and Competitions, French, Spanish

2024 Flash Fiction Competition Results

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In December 2023, we launched our annual Flash Fiction competitions, which closed at the end of March. The competitions were open to students in Years 7 to 13, who were tasked with writing a short story of no more than 100 words in French and/or Spanish.

We had an incredible response, with entries coming in from all areas across the country! In total, we received over 1200 submissions across the two languages!

We would like to thank everyone who entered the competition and commend you all for your hard work and creativity in writing a piece of fiction in a different language. This is a challenging exercise, and a significant achievement – congratulations all!

We are delighted to be able to announce the winners, runners up, and highly commended entries for each language below. We will be publishing the stories over the summer so you can read them for yourselves.

French

In the Years 7-9 category, the winner is James Best. The runners-up are Zaynab Chaudhry and Simeon Molloy.

The judges also identified the following entrants as highly commended: Neela Alagar, Nicholas Bailey, Prayaan Sharma, Hassan Chaudhry, Grace Cao, Helene Leonard, Antoine Carmody-Portier, Bo Celeste Lawson, Vishnu Vardhan, Beemu Padmanaban, and Louis Koller.

In the Years 10-11 category, the winner is Tony Shi. The runner up is Vaishni Jeyananthan.

The judges also identified the following entrants as highly commended: Mia Wildgoose, Nia Mohlala, Ritisha Agarwal, Capree Chong, Eshaal Riaz, DingDing Zhou, Daisy Apfel, Darwin Armstrong Farr, Lucy Nguyen, and Katya Hanbury.

In the Years 12-13 category, the winner is Hannah Gleeson. The runner ups are Zac Henderson-Lea and Ashley Woo.

The judges also identified the following entrants as highly commended: Nigelle Niyodusenga, Massimo Mitchell, Rain Kaur, Grace Dobson, Harriet Palfreyman, Aaron Butters, Eleanor McQuinn, Caitlin Graeff, Sally Codling, and Jovian Yan.

The French judging panel were very impressed with this year’s submitted stories, and commented the following about all the entries:

We are thrilled to share our excitement about the entries for the 2024 Flash Fiction competition. A heartfelt thank you to everyone who participated and contributed to the competition!

We were impressed by the variety in your stories and by how much emotion and detail could be packed into just 100 words. Your stories made us laugh, gasp, reflect, and sometimes even tear up. We read tales that spanned from light-hearted daily occurrences to epic medieval duels and forbidden werewolf romances, from futuristic visions of 2050 to unexpected encounters with demon snowmen and talking ants. We encountered characters from all walks of life and visited settings that ranged from the familiar to the extraordinary. Along the way, we met a crocodile in the Thames, a sentient piece of bread, and many other memorable figures that made your stories so engaging.

We truly enjoyed reading your stories and want to commend each of you for your creativity and effort. Thank you for making this competition such a wonderful experience, and congratulations to all of you.

Spanish

In the Years 7-9 category, the winner is Sayuri Bansal. The runners up are Chloe Crowther and Donatella Ferrito Innamorato.

The judges also identified the following entrants as highly commended: Keira Moyes, Zara Amjad, Avy Abdulrazzaq, Ayomide Adesola, Chloe Lei, Amelie Thompson, Harry Clogger, Zeynep Yesilirmak, and Keira De Castro.

In the Years 10-11 category, the winner is Charlotte Jory. The runners up are DingDing Zhou and Xander McComb.

The judges also identified the following entrants as highly commended: Sophie Lonsdale, Siri Krznaric, Tiana Majumder, Atharv Kokate, Chloe Skelton, Anonymous, River Lee, Kumar Banerji Ballester, Annabel Hogan, and Jonathan Visan-Gherghe.

In the Years 12-13 category, the winner is Isobel Gurnett. The runners up are Daniel Enrique Ascencio Lopez and Aidan Brooke.

The judges also identified the following entrants as highly commended: Maria-Magdalena Covasa, Nihika Koranne, Noor Ullah, Oliver John, Rabia Chowdhury, Sadie Greenwood, Anonymous, Sophie Welberry-Smith, Valentino Ordonez Imafidon, and Velislava Koleva.

Our Spanish judging panel in particular have been extremely impressed with this year’s entries, and have commented the following about all the stories they read:

As always, we were captivated by the creativity of the many entries and thrilled to see a lot of very promising stories. It was a hard job choosing from so many markedly different pieces, some of which were humorous or haunting, serious or silly, but all entertaining. This year, there were quite a few that engaged intertextually with other works in English and Spanish literature as well as classical literature and myth and it was particularly good to see how your wider reading has been channelled into your own imaginative responses to the sources.

Huge congratulations everyone – you should be very proud of your achievement!

Events and Competitions, Portuguese, Resources for language study, Translation

Stephen Spender Prize 2024

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Calling MFL, EAL and English teachers! Bring creative translation into the classroom this summer with the Stephen Spender Prize 2024…

The Stephen Spender Prize is an annual competition for poetry in translation, with strands for pupils, teachers and individual young people, as well as a special rotating Spotlight highlighting a language widely spoken in the UK. The competition is open for entries from 1 May to 31 July and is free to enter for all schools and teachers in the UK and Ireland.

Whether you’re an MLF, EAL or English teacher, and whatever the languages taught and spoken in your school community, the prize is a perfect way to engage students of all ages this summer term.

Teachers are invited to register here to receive classroom inspiration and activity ideas throughout the prize window, and you can follow all the latest news on our website and social media channels. (X: @StephenSpender| Facebook: @StephenSpenderTrust | Instagram: @stephenspendertrust)

Here’s a list of the categories for 2024:

Ready to start planning and working on your entries? Head to our Guide for Teachers for all the key information about the prize at a glance, explore our Bank of Suggested Poems for poem inspiration, and find poetry workshops, worksheets, lesson plans and more in our Prize Resources hub.

To help you spread the word ahead of the launch, you can also download a free Stephen Spender Prize 2024 poster to display around your school, sixth form or university buildings.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email us at prize@stephen-spender.org. We hope that many of you and your students will get involved!

Applying to study modern languages, Events and Competitions, French, Open Days, Student life, Studying at Oxford, Why study French?

Testimonial: from Open Day attendee to current student!

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On the blog this week, first-year student ambassador, Laurence, describes his experience of attending our Modern Languages Open Day in 2022, and how it led him to where he is today.

I feel so grateful to be where I am today, a student of Philosophy and French at St John’s College. My journey into university language study began at the Faculty Open Day in May of 2022, when I was in Year 12. A couple of months prior, I had woken up one day and decided that I could not graduate with a law degree at 21, start training for the world of work, and never broaden my horizons beyond that. French was my favourite subject at school, and I had a passion for literature and culture as well as a budding desire to travel. I switched my application preparation towards languages, and the Open Day was my first port of call.

As an Oxford Bursary recipient from a state comprehensive in Coventry, I remember feeling awe when I arrived with my mum at the Exam Schools, where we listened to a range of different talks. It was refreshing to talk to other young people who had a passion for languages: MFL learning in my school had suffered from a chronic lack of interest. I particularly enjoyed the variety of sessions at the Open Day, from talks on French specifically, linguistics, and Italian, another language I was considering. Talks from tutors were highly informative regarding the literature/language balance as well as studying a language with philosophy, with personal touches about their own research interests that could not be so easily gleaned from the university website. I loved the excitement in the atmosphere around the Open Day, even the sun was out on the High Street!

The Examination Schools in the sunshine at the 2022 Open Day
Photo by John Cairns

I decided that a languages degree was for me, and after further discussions with ambassadors (French and Philosophy is a great combination, they said), we headed home. I remember on the train we even met a woman whose daughter had just graduated in French, it seemed like a sign! I would certainly say that the Open Day stoked my interest in languages further and convinced me, through the emphasis on literature and culture as well as the sheer range of degree options available, that it was a better option than Cambridge or any other university.

Laurence with two other prospective students at the 2022 Modern Languages Open Day
Photo by John Cairns

I have now finished two terms as a student here, and the experience has been everything that the Open Day promised, and more. I believe that the tutorial system is especially well adapted for subjects like English and languages because both tutor and student can pore over the text together. I think the Faculty does well at advertising this as what sets Oxford apart from other universities. 

I have enjoyed much of the early modern content, including Montaigne and Racine, which may be the focus of my Authors Paper next year – although with the input of the philosophy side, Diderot and Pascal also sound tempting. I’m also excited to look into potential linguistics or cinema papers later in my degree. The language side of the degree has also been engaging: the expertise of my native speaker teachers has shown me a new way to reach fluency beyond learning cast iron grammar rules, namely a sensitivity to context, culture, and idiom.

I feel like I have personally travelled a long way since the Open Day, now a languages ambassador myself. Grateful for the opportunity to help others to discover languages too, getting to give back through this outreach work is the greatest privilege.

****

You can still sign up to attend our Open Day on Saturday 11 May! The programme and booking link can be found here. The deadline to register your place is 8 May – don’t miss out!

Applying to study modern languages, Events and Competitions, Open Days, Studying at Oxford

Reminder: Modern Languages Open Day!

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It’s not too late to register your place at our Modern Languages Open Day at the beautiful Examination Schools (75 – 81 High St, Oxford) on Saturday 11th May!

Modern Languages Open Day 2022
photo (c) John Cairns

This annual event is a fantastic opportunity for students who are interested in learning more about our language courses, or who are still considering their options, as the Open Day will cover ALL of our languages: French, German*, Spanish, Italian*, Russian*, Portuguese*, Modern Greek*, Czech*, and Polish*. Most of our Joint School degree subjects – English, History, Philosophy etc. – will also be represented at the event.

*All of these languages can be studied here at Oxford from beginners’ level. 

Our Modern Languages Open Day is aimed primarily at Year 12 students and their parents/guardians/teachers, but Year 11 students who are starting to think about university study are equally welcome to attend.

Modern Languages Open Day 2022
photo (c) John Cairns

The Open Day will offer an overview of our Modern Languages courses and a general Q&A for prospective students in the morning*, with individual language sessions and a parents’/guardians’/teachers’ Q&A session occurring in the afternoon. Tutors and current students from the Faculty will be available throughout the day to answer questions from prospective applicants and their companions.

*Please note that, due to restricted places, only one parent/guardian/teacher may accompany each student for the morning session.

You can view the full event programme here.

Modern Languages Open Day 2022
photo (c) John Cairns

Booking your place at this event is compulsory – you can register your attendance here. Bookings will close at midnight on 8th May 2024.

We look forward to welcoming you to Oxford in May!

Events and Competitions, Resources for language study, Student life, Studying at Oxford

Lincoln College Study Days

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Lincoln College is delighted to announce another year of in-person Study Days for Year 12 students from UK state schools . These Study Days are designed to support students from non-traditional Oxbridge backgrounds who are on track to achieve high grades and potentially make an application to a selective university.

Lincoln’s Study Day programme is designed and delivered by academics and staff at the College in Oxford, with great opportunities to engage with tutors and current students. It will give prospective students a real flavour of life at Lincoln and what to expect from studying at Oxford University. It will also help them to develop relevant academic skills such as essay planning and critical thinking, and the admissions workshop and mock interview will help participants to make a competitive application to Oxford when the time comes.

Lincoln’s Modern Languages Study Days will take place on August 8th to 10th.

Accommodation will be provided free of charge, onsite, in Lincoln College rooms, alongside breakfast, lunch and dinner in the Dining Hall. The College can also offer support with travel via a reimbursement scheme.

To apply and see an outline of the programme, follow this link. The application deadline is Friday 24 May at 12 noon.

Applying to study modern languages, Events and Competitions, French, German, Spanish, Student life, Studying at Oxford

Modern Languages Summer School

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Applications are now open for Wadham College‘s annual five-day Modern Languages Summer School. The residential will take place at the college, based in the centre of Oxford, from 19th to 23rd August 2024.

Summer schools are designed to give UK pupils studying in Year 12 a taste of what it’s like to be an undergraduate studying at the University of Oxford.  Pupils will take part in an academic programme, live in College, meet student ambassadors studying at Oxford, and receive information, advice and guidance on applying to university. Wadham’s Summer Schools are free and the college will provide financial support to pupils to cover their travel costs.

We’re delighted to be able to run these events in-person allowing participants the best experience of life at the university.  The feedback from last year’s Summer Schools was hugely positive with over a third of participants subsequently securing offers to study at the university.

“After the summer school I am much more confident that I would fit in at Oxford and feel like I am more ready to move away from home”

Summer School participant, 2022

For Modern Languages more specifically, pupils will engage in a seminar series led by Wadham’s language tutors, including language classes in their selected language of study (French, German or Spanish) with opportunities to try other languages as beginners (including German, Portuguese and Russian). Students will complete an assignment on a main topic with feedback from tutors. Pupils will also be able to receive support from current undergraduates and from the College on making successful applications to top universities.   

For more information and to apply, click here: Wadham College Summer Schools. Pupils should be studying French, German or Spanish at A-level or equivalent to apply. Applications close at 5pm on 3rd May.

If you have any queries, please contact access@wadham.ox.ac.uk