Wales, Europe and the World fair held at Bangor

Bangor University recently hosted the Routes into Languages - Wales, Europe and the World fair and exhibition to almost 160 pupils who have embarked, or are about to embark on Welsh Baccalaureate courses in schools in north Wales. The Wales, Europe and the World event aims was to help pupils find out more about working, studying and travelling in Europe and beyond, and learn how speaking another language can enable them to get the most out of the experience.

Following the inspiring opening address by the Head of the School of Modern Languages (SML), Dr Anna Saunders, the pupils attended a range of workshops and information sessions featuring games, dance, careers, language tasters and useful information about studying and working in Wales or abroad. This varied selection was offered by Careers Wales, Lampeter Confucius Institute, Europe Direct Llangollen and Wrecsam, as well as Bangor University staff and students: Dr Jonathan Ervine (Euroquiz), Anita Chauhan (multilingual Street Dance), Gesina Heil (German taster session), Yolanda Higueras (Spanish taster session) and Maria Cristina Seccia (Italian taster session).

A team of Bangor SML students ran the language games workshop, and the smooth running of the event was supported by a team of stewards recruited in the main from among Bangor students. A session for teachers was led by Mrs Sylvie Gartau of WJEC/Cynnal, and full support was also received from Routes into Languages Cymru and Cardiff University Widening Access.

Feedback following the event, from both pupils and their teachers, was extremely positive. Every single workshop was acknowledged for its fun approach to languages, and its usefulness, and many of the pupils said that they would have liked the opportunity to attend more workshops and would certainly attend a similar event in future. Pupils had clearly been inspired and at the end of the day 95% of them said that they would like either to continue to study or to learn one or more foreign languages.

Photos from the event available here.

Publication date: 31 July 2012