1st Mar 2011
Sallis Benney Theatre
Brighton turned bilingual yesterday in a novel drive to inspire young people to select German at GCSE. Giant post-it notes translating names into German were pinned to four iconic buildings throughout the city. Brighton Pier became “die Landungsbrücke” and Churchill Square Shopping Centre “das Einkaufszentrum”.
Brighton’s ‘post-it’ notes form part of the Goethe-Institut’s campaign to encourage more young people to ‘think German’ and consider the short and long term benefits of selecting the language at GCSE. Currently just one in ten Brits speak a foreign language, despite the majority (72%) of UK international trade conducted with non-English-speaking countries. Local German pupils from Hove Park School with their German teacher James Sandford were also on site to talk about the benefits of learning German. A total of four buildings across the city were labeled, with University of Brighton Art Gallery becoming “die Kunstgalerie”, and Duke of York’s Cinema “das Kino”.
Karl Pfeiffer from the Goethe-Institut comments: “Speaking a language provides young people with a huge number of opportunities that will stay with them throughout their lifetime. Having a language can benefit all aspects of a young person’s life, so we’d urge any parents whose children are thinking about their GCSE options to talk to them about choosing a language. “
Foreign language skills are the key to success in a modern globalised world. Knowledge of German opens doors to business as well as academia.”
In 2010 around 65,000 young people took German GCSE. The number of pupils taking GCSE has been in decline since 2002 and has decreased by 50% over the period from 2001-2010 To learn more about the opportunities to learn German, young people should log on to www.goethe.de/london/
Pictures by: Pinnacle Photography
