Cultural Connections: Our Spanish Pen Pals Exchange Letters The Waldegrave Spanish pen-pal exchange is now in its third year. Our current Year 10 students were the pioneers back in 2020 in exchanging letters with English students of IES Damiá Hughet, a mixed secondary school for students from 12 to 18 years of age in the beautiful Mediterranean village of Campos in Majorca. The students learn in Catalan, Castilian and English! Year 8 students wrote and decorated their letters introducing themselves, their families and their school. Years 9 and 10 did likewise and were thrilled to hear from their Spanish friends. They wrote about their latest news, how they celebrate Christmas and their social media preferences. Many are already asking when they will be writing to them again, students asking to write more in the target language is not something we hear often! It is beautiful to see language in action, innate motivation and young people practising the art of letter writing and developing social interaction.
“The pen-pal exchange is really useful because it allows us to communicate with people who have Spanish as a first language. Not only does it improve our Spanish, it also helps to apply it to a different form of communication. By having pen-pals, it opens an opportunity to learn beyond the classroom and shows what the most important reason to learn a language is - so we can connect with other people in different ways. Pen-pals are a really great idea because no matter what level of Spanish someone is on, they can still enjoy writing and creating a letter for someone else. It’s important that we’re able to contact them frequently to help us bond and appreciate how far our Spanish has come.” Anna 10SHO
“I have thoroughly enjoyed the pen-pal exchange and have found it to be a very
beneficial experience as it allows me to practise how to structure letters in Spanish in an exciting way, which will be helpful further down the line when it comes to the GCSE writing exams. I have also enjoyed ‘meeting’ new people and learning about traditions in Spain, which I was unaware of prior to this experience.” Hannah 10SHO
Made with FlippingBook Digital Proposal Creator