Sixth Form MFL Students Visit Southampton University

Last Wednesday, seven Lower Sixth MFL pupils spent the day at Southampton University for a day of lectures and presentations based on the theme of ‘Why Languages Matter’.

Students spent the first hour listening to several lecturers exploring the importance of having another language in the world today and emphasised that they will be even more sought after in a post-Brexit environment.

The group also saw what an incredibly diverse range of jobs MFL graduates from Southampton had gone onto, including journalism, criminology, law, translation, politics, and many more.

Particularly interesting and inspiring was a Skype presentation that the group received from MFL graduate Florence Broderick.

At the age of 28, Florence had become Vice President of a start-up company called CARTO.

Florence emphasised how languages had helped her get this position and how she had since been travelling around the world using her French and Spanish in meetings and negotiations.

Pupils then spent time in different German, French and Spanish lectures on aspects on the culture and society, and they got a taste of what the teaching would be like at this level.

This was an excellent experience for pupils and gave them a real insight into the possibilities that having a language can open up, not only in employment, but also in terms of experiences.