Welcome to Students Incorporated, a podcast where we dive into relevant topics and issues
related to the world of business, technology, education, and design.
I'm your host, Mr. Jason.
Episodes include student conversations, interviews with thought leaders, and inspirational stories
with an international flavor.
This podcast is created and produced with the help of students from the International
Community School of Bangkok.
In today's episode, we'll be discussing the topic of foreign language.
I'm joined by co-hosts Lyon and Tazia for this episode.
In our first segment, we'll be interviewing two foreign language teachers, Ms. Siriporn,
the high school Thai, for Thai teacher, and Ms. Ching, the high school Mandarin teacher.
We'll be discussing the benefits of studying a foreign language and how it can impact your
life.
For the second part, we'll be discussing how some words and phrases do not always translate
directly over to another language.
And we'll welcome another guest, our high school French teacher, Ms. Amy, for that segment.
Okay, let's get our quote of the day and some headline news.
Our quote of the day comes from Frank Smith, and he said, one language sets you in a corridor
for life.
Two languages open every door along the way.
Frank Smith was a Canadian psycholinguist.
He has contributed to linguistics and cognitive psychology.
He was a big influence in the whole language approach for reading.
The whole language approach states that language is the larger category, and reading, writing,
speaking, and listening should be integrated into education.
This quote really emphasizes the importance of languages and how studying multiple languages
can open up so many different opportunities.
To begin with, the biblical worldview of the Tower of Babel tells the story of humanity's
attempt to build a tower that reached to the heavens in order to make a name for themselves.
In response to this effort, God confused their language and scattered them across the earth.
This story is often seen as an explanation of the diversity of the languages and cultures
that exist today, and serves as a reminder of humanity's need for humility and reliance
on God.
Next, in Hinduism, the origins of languages are tied to the god Brahma, who is used to
have created language in order to communicate with the gods and humans.
According to Hindu tradition, Brahma created Sanskrit, the language of the gods, which
is considered to be the oldest and most sacred of all languages.
Over time, other languages developed from Sanskrit, and today there are thousands of
languages spoken throughout the Indian subcontinent.
And finally, in Islam, the origins of languages are tied to the story of Adam and Eve.
According to Islamic tradition, Adam was taught the names of all things by God and from the
names language developed.
This story emphasizes the importance of language as a means of communication between humans
and between humans and God, and suggests that language is an essential part of our relationship
with the divine.
In Islam, the diversity of languages is seen as a reflection of God's wisdom and creativity
and is celebrated as a sign of his power and majesty.
We'll now jump into the first part of our episode with an interview.
I'll turn it over to our co-host and guest, Ms. Jing and Ms. Siraporn.
Could you please introduce yourselves and tell us how long you have taught at ICS and
what you teach?
Hello, everyone.
Ni hao.
Hi, this is Ms. Jing, and then I teach Mandarin in high school at ICS.
This is my fourth year teaching Mandarin over here.
Some of you probably haven't taken my class.
You probably haven't yet.
I hope more of you will be joining my class next year after this session.
I come from Tianjin, China, and before ICS also taught both in China and Indonesia.
And I've been enjoying teaching here at ICS in Thailand.
Sawadee ka.
I'm Ms. Siraporn.
I've been teaching here for 26 years since 1997.
Actually, I graduated in our major, my major in science teaching for secondary.
Come working at ICS is my new experience in teaching language and culture at the same
time.
And it has been a very wonderful time.
And I enjoy working here.
What benefits do you believe a person can gain by studying a foreign language?
Well, because I'm a Mandarin teacher, I'm just going to talk about this in terms of
like Mandarin Chinese as a foreign language.
So as most of you know that the world is becoming very increasingly globalized and learning
Mandarin foreign language can help you gain a very competitive advantage in a global business
world.
And Mandarin Chinese is spoken by over one million populations around the world, which
is like one fifth of the world population.
So Chinese history can date back to 5,000 years ago.
So it's very interesting language to learn from a neuroscience perspective.
I would say learning a language, especially learning Mandarin language, can use both of
your left and then right laparolope.
I'm not sure if you have heard about this.
The left hembrolope usually help you to learn the language, learn the sound, but learning
Mandarin because of the pictographic characters can also help you to enhance your memory and
cognitive skills and also can just help you to use both of your lobes at the same time
while learning Mandarin.
For me, I would think learning a foreign language would benefit you in many, many ways.
But what I would like to talk about is to help you to enjoy life more.
Because once you understand other people, you can communicate and that just open your
new window that you will understand them more.
You will be able to participate with the activity that they are doing.
And at the same time, it's build relationship with new friends and it just open another
world.
It's not only that, it's a chance that you can increase your brain.
I would say make you in many ways because as once you can read other language, you know
what people think about the same subject that we are talking, different language, different
culture.
We have more angles to look at.
So that would be our, I think the benefit that we could get from our learning foreign
language.
Thank you for that, everybody.
Now, our next question is how is learning a foreign language impacted or helped you personally?
Learning a foreign language definitely can help us to just understand different cultures
and then thinking in new ways or communicate with people from different part of the world.
I feel like the most important part for me to learn foreign language is I'm able to have
a very positive attitude and I have less prejudices toward the people who are different, especially
when we're in a very diverse world and then we're able just to embarrass the difference
among each other.
I started learning foreign language when I was in elementary school.
I started learning English and I continue in my high school, in my college and then
I personally feel like learning English, which is one of the other global language definitely
helped me to meet with people from different countries.
I'm able to communicate with them, I'm able to still learn more from them, which has helped
me to be like a more multidiverse person as well.
My personal experience about learning language, what has helped me?
First thing before I would enjoy another language, I have to go through the mountain of our problem.
Like I am the scared person who wouldn't want to try the new task and I'm so afraid of
speaking up and even make it harder, but once I have to start learning language when I was
that time 30 something, even though entire system we start learning since grade five,
but we know only A to Z and then that is, this is a chair and this is a desk, but I
cannot use the language.
But once I have to go over that mountains of problem, it's make me be more patient
to put up with the problem that I have and be brave to try new thing and do not afraid
to make the mistake, which was the very golden key for learning new language because we have
to make mistake to learn the language.
It was no way that we would speak perfectly at the first time.
It have to be wrong first and then would be correct and wrong again and it could be wrong
many, many times and even now I'm speaking English, I still make mistake, which I am
not afraid of making mistake.
So that would be one thing that I experienced that I have to go over that fear and then
to experience the new beauty of knowing the language.
The second thing that I have is when I start to understand the language, it's make me
more joy.
I can laugh, American Joke, I can watch I Love Lucy, which is my favorite own movie
and I laugh out of my lung that I understand what she's saying and would be so wonderful
and I would like to encourage anyone who would consider learning new language that you don't
be afraid of making mistake that the way to learn the language.
Moving on, what are some of the differences between teaching a foreign language versus
studying a foreign language and teaching it has to be very different than just studying
it, right?
Well, I'm so excited to talk about this topic because if you ask me how many languages have
you been studying, I can list a few, depends on who my students are.
If my students are Korean, I will pick up some Korean to study.
If my students are Thai, I actually start learning Thai.
I think it's very important when I learn a second language, I have this first hand experience
that how the second language has been learning and it's really helped me just to understand
how my students will be learning and then how I can relate to their experience because
when I teach a second language and then I can understand relate the challenge they're
facing and then I'm just able to modify or accommodate to their learning style or to
help them improve their learning.
And also I think this can help me to build a good rapport between teacher and then student
because I try to build this relationship, this understanding while learning a foreign
language.
So I think as a second language learner can also help me become a better second language
teacher so I can use my experience to create more effective strategies, instructions in
the classroom.
For being a teacher, it's really different, right, to being a student because the teacher
who teaches foreign language has to be the provider to provide the lesson and to connect
with the student, find what is the good lesson that would fit their need.
So each year our lesson, even though we have curriculum, it would have something that add
up or take away if it's not updated anymore and that's the challenge for the teacher
for providing the lesson that would interest the student.
For students, they have another motivation that they come to register my course as Thai.
Some would want grade, some would want to know more and some want to be with their friends
who enroll the same course.
But anyway, I would think that to be the student, first thing that they have to have joy and
pleasure to learn, that would make their learning easier and then to me, it's a part of their
routine to help them to practice the language.
And the grade would be the last thing that I would tell them that it will be great, it
will be good after they have a joy, the pleasure to learn and they make language.
This new language is that new routine of their life, so the skill of using language with
the new language would increase every day.
So I hope their grade will be great.
Thank you everybody.
And now this question is from Ms. Jing.
How would you say that the growth of Mandarin speakers will change the world and how it
works?
I feel so honored to answer this question.
To tell you the truth, I have an interesting story to tell.
So one day I was on BKS and then it was very crowded.
There was a couple with their kids.
They just got on the train and they were speaking Mandarin in front of me.
And then I don't think they know, I understand what they're talking about.
So they kept speaking in Mandarin and they kept using language for people around them.
They don't understand, but unfortunately, maybe they have some secret, but I was in front
of them.
So I was able to understand a lot of what they said.
So the reason why I was telling this, because you never underestimate how the population
in the world that is able to understand Mandarin.
I think some of you guys have this motivation when you learn Mandarin, you want to see if
you are able to relate the Mandarin study with business career in the future because
of the economy like in China right now.
But I would like to encourage you to study this language with a passion and with a desire
like for this country or for this culture.
Personally, I was so inspired by a missionary that a long time ago, he was born in Tianjin,
where I come from.
I'm not sure if you have heard about his name.
His name is called Eric Liddell.
He's a British athlete.
He was born in Tianjin and he's a very devout Christian and then who's famous for refusing
taking part of Olympia because the game was on Sunday.
So I'm not sure if you also watch his movie.
It's an Oscar winning movie.
It's called Chariot of Fire.
So it's very famous if you're interested in watching.
He works as a science sports teacher while he was in China as a missionary, but he was
also being interned into a prisoner camp later.
But over there that he's so passionate about Chinese culture, passionate about Chinese
people and then like even though in a camp he was able to instruct the children and teach
them sport and then helping others in a country where I come from.
So I was so inspired by him.
I think he has a great value of his life like in China.
So while you are choosing a foreign language to study, I think it's important that if
you have a desire to relate it to the people of the country, to get interested in their
culture and being willing to spend some part of your life in that country.
I hope this will be some reasons for you to choose which language you would like to study
in your life.
Thank you.
And Kru Siwa Porn, why is it important for the Thai students of ICS to learn Thai on
a deeper level?
Thank you for the question.
We the Thai, we have to be in Thailand, work with the Thai people.
Mostly language is the culture and Thai language have the level of the language.
Just today I listened about the level of the language.
We have the language that we talk with only friends.
The language was used with our parents, to our cousin, relative, teacher, and to use
with our boss.
So with the language that we have different level, that person know how to use the language
with the right person, the right situation, and it will just tell the efficient of using
the language.
It's add the credit to the person who use the language.
So even though we speak Thai, of course people would understand what we say.
But to speak, we need to practice to use the right tone, the right words that would help
the communication go very smoothly and we get more acceptable from others who work with
us.
So it's just be a very good, good benefit that we have to know our deeper level of the
language.
And with that, we'll be right back after a short PSA.
One, two, three, four.
The AP exams are coming up soon.
From May 1st to May 12th, students all over the world will be taking their AP exams.
Try to manage your time wisely and establish a good study schedule.
Rest is just as important, so make sure not to sacrifice your sleep schedule or health
in this process.
But remember, grades and scores do not define you.
Your determination and hard work is all that matters.
Good luck for all your exams, everyone.
We are back with part two.
In this segment, we'll be talking with Miss Amy, the high school French teacher at ICS.
We'll be discussing how some words and phrases in French and English do not directly translate
over and may not make sense if we tried.
Okay, let's jump into some French and English.
Hello, and thanks for joining us on our podcast.
Can you please introduce yourself and tell us how long you have been teaching ICS?
Yes, my name is Miss Amy, and I started teaching at ICS in the school year of 2011-12.
So it's been 12, this is my 12th year at ICS.
Also, we'd like to ask you to give us some context of the French language.
So what are some of your thoughts about its importance to French culture?
Maybe how it's revered, protected, and any other things you've learned in your studies?
You really cannot separate language and culture.
You really just can't.
They go together.
They're kind of hand in hand.
You can't, in the same way that you can't separate a culture from its time and place,
you really can't separate it from its language.
And we can't say that a culture is dead until its language is dead, right?
So the French language is almost a religion in France.
They really almost worship their language.
And I don't mean that in kind of a literal way, like somebody's bowing down and praying.
But the French language is so important to French people that being able to use language
well is kind of the highest measure of your intelligence.
And they place a super high value on being well read and well informed.
Literature is baked into every level of the French education system.
And it's almost like one of the highest aspirations you can have to be a published author.
And the French people have really gone a long way for protecting their language.
There's a whole organization called the Académie Française, which is made up of people who
are the guardians of the French language.
It's been around for centuries.
And to be on it, you have to be a published author and you have to be invited by the other
members of the Académie Française.
And once you're on it, you're on it for life.
And you even get a special title, which is Les Immortels, the immortal ones, right?
Because the French people really consider their language to be a treasure and something
that they guard.
And that's why they're not really concerned with making it easy for people.
They kind of like the fact that their language has some difficulties that make it a little
bit harder to master.
They think that the beauty is in the difficulty and the complexity.
And every time that the Académie Française proposes something to make it easier, like
simplifying spelling, people get very upset because it's not tradition.
They really want to maintain the tradition.
And so they have their languages highly codified.
And it's just really such an intrinsic part of their culture.
And proverbs and other kinds of expressions and sayings are part of that.
Like being able to use your proverbs and your expressions at the good time is a real mark
of intelligence and wit.
Our word that we use for like when people are good at kind of arguing back and forth
is like witty repartee.
That comes from French, right?
That idea of repartee is the idea of like fencing back and forth with language.
Thank you so much for sharing some of the background and context and how language is
so closely tied to culture.
So moving on to the next part of this segment, we like to discuss certain phrases or words
and compare those in English and French.
The first phrase in English we like to discuss is the phrase piece of cake, which essentially
means that someone is going to be easy to do.
Is there something equivalent in the French language to piece of cake?
Yeah, it's almost exactly the same thing.
It's c'est du gâteau.
C'est du gâteau means that's cake.
And that means it's easy, right?
One thing you have to know about the history of French and English is that like a full
one third of the English language comes directly from French because of William the Conqueror
and the Norman Conquest of England.
The nobility brought the French language to England and that kind of like trickled its
way down into the English language.
So we have a lot of expressions that are very similar, not only because England and France
are neighbors with just a body of water between them, but because our language and history
are so intertwined between the English culture and the French culture.
Thank you for the history lesson, Ms. Amy.
Okay, here's another one in English I've heard used.
It's the phrase killing two birds with one stone.
The meaning in English is that you can accomplish two things at once.
Ms. Amy, is there something similar in French?
Yeah, it's really similar.
It's actually, faire d'une pierre deux coups, which is to make with one stone two blows,
basically to do the same thing, to hit two things with one stone.
What about this one in English?
The phrase is the clothes don't make the man, which means that you can't judge a person's
character by their appearance.
What about in French?
I really like the one in French even more than the one in English because it's, la vie
ne fait pas le mien, which is like the robes don't make the monk.
Well, because the Catholic religion is so also deeply ingrained into French culture,
but it doesn't matter.
The idea is that even though on the outside you might have the appearance of someone who's
holy, it doesn't mean that's what you are like on the inside, and it really kind of
translates across.
Thank you so much for that, Ms. Amy.
Our next phrase is used a lot when something smaller and significant breaks something larger
significant.
In English, the phrase is the straw that broke the camel's back.
Is there something in French that has a similar meaning?
Yeah, so that expression, the straw that broke the camel's back, is really kind of like the
continuation of a fable where there's a camel that keeps getting straw loaded onto it, and
finally it's one single piece of straw that's just too much for the camel and it breaks
its back, right?
Well, in French, the expression is, c'est la goutte qui fait déborder le vase, which
is it's the drop that makes the vase overflow.
And you can kind of have that same word image of a vase of water, and you just put one drop
into it, one drop into it, one drop into it, and surface tension will hold it for a while,
but finally there will be that one drop that sends it over the edge, and now it's overflowing.
What about this phrase, getting a taste of your own medicine?
We know this phrase has nothing to do with medication.
It simply means that someone gets the same bad treatment as they have given out to others.
What is your take on this phrase, Ms. Amy?
Well, that's like in English, it's from, I mean, a long time ago, medicine always tasted
bad, right?
There was no such thing as like good flavorings in medicine, and a doctor would make up a
medicine and make someone take it, but then they wouldn't have to take it themselves.
They wouldn't be sympathetic when people thought it tasted horrible.
But in French, this expression would not make sense at all.
Getting a taste of your own medicine wouldn't mean nothing.
They'd be like, why am I tasting medicine?
I don't understand.
But the expression that they use is, la roseur arrosée, which means the waterer gets watered.
And it doesn't really seem to make sense unless you know where it comes from, and where it
actually comes from is one of the very earliest films, like a movie.
And it was a comic film, a silent film, of a man who's in his garden and he's watering
the flowers with a hose, and a sneaky little boy comes up behind him and steps on the hose,
and the water stops coming out, and the guy points the hose nozzle at his face to see
what's going on.
The boy takes his foot away, and the guy gets sprayed in the face with his own hose.
So that's la roseur, the one who's watering.
Arrosée is watered.
And finally, there's just too many idioms and proverbs to cover them all in this short
segment.
However, are there any you think are worthy of sharing before ending?
There are a million proverbs in French.
Like I said, people knowing their proverbs is really important, and they really like
to have things that rhyme.
Like someone who goes hunting is losing his place.
You can use that literally, like if you are sitting in a chair and you get up to go get
something and your brother sits down in your place.
So there's all kinds of fun rhyming ones.
There's lots of ones about weather and seasons and times of the year.
But one that I think is really important to me is one that I think applies to language
learning.
This is a proverb that I use all the time for myself, and it's petit à petit, le oiseau
fait son nez.
So petit à petit, little by little, l'oiseau fait son nez.
The bird makes its nest.
So just one twig at a time, right?
The bird flies away, gets one little stick and makes a nest, and he builds something
significant out of it.
And that's what it's like to learn a language.
You a little bit over time with consistency, you build and you build and you build until
you become fluent.
We are running out of time, but we'd like to thank our guests for joining us.
It was an interesting experience and we learned a lot about the benefits of studying a foreign
language.
As we end this episode, we'd like to thank our listeners for their continued support
of our podcast.
Make sure to listen to all of our episodes, which are available on all streaming platforms.
Coming up next, we'll be joined again by some of our younger listeners for Are You Smarter
Than a Fourth Grader and A Spelling Bee, something you won't want to miss.
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And we are signing off until next time.
We're Students Incorporated, because your voice matters.