Steve's sandbox

Author: Steve Evans

  • A final report to say “Muchas gracias y hasta luego” – by Hannah Phillips

    My John Speak scholarship took me the capital of Spain, Madrid, to support me as I took part in a year’s internship within the Spanish multinational company NH Hotels. After previously studying in the North of Spain for 5 months, my year working as a trainee Buyer within the International Purchasing Department of NH was about perfecting my use of the Spanish language and getting real experience in an International company.

    The John Speak scholarship was a huge part of my experience abroad, giving me the financial ability to be able to submerge myself in the Spanish way of life and also travel the country that I was lucky enough to be able to call home. My time and travels here has opened my eyes to the Spanish culture, something you don’t see through the text books at University, and has made me appreciate even more how useful a second language is and will be for my future career.

    I recently read a quote which really summarises how I feel about learning such an important second language such as Spanish and it says “The limits of your language are the limits of your world”. This is something I totally agree with and thanks to this year, and thanks to John Speak, my world has been opened to the 350 million people that speak Spanish as their native tongue in 21 countries over four continents.

    Once again, I would like to say a huge thank you to John Speak and everyone involved in the scheme for letting me have such a memorable experience in Spain. I thoroughly recommend to anyone who is in a similar position to me to also apply! The next stage involves me returning to the UK to finish my University degree and I will keep the trust updated as to where my future takes me!

    Thank you again,

    Hannah Phillips

  • Abril en Madrid

    Abril en Madrid , sin duda marcó el inicio de la primavera , ¡por fin! También se inició una serie de fiestas de la comunidad de Madrid, que me han permitido viajar y conocer Barcelona. Desde Navidad han sido unos meses muy intensos desde el punto de vista del trabajo con el re- lanzamiento de ” NH Hotel Group ” y sin ” Festivos “, mi oficina acogió con satisfacción las vacaciones de Semana Santa.

    Ligeramente diferente al Reino Unido, la mayoría de las regiones de España tienen “Jueves y Viernes Santo “, que es que tienen ” Viernes Santo ” y en vez de ‘ Lunes de Pascua ‘ Se trata de ‘ El Jueves Santo ‘ . De cualquier manera los españoles terminar con un fin de semana de 4 días de esa semana , que me dio tiempo suficiente para conquistar Barcelona.

    La ciudad siempre me había intrigado desde que me había trasladado a Madrid, no sólo por la rivalidad que existe entre mi casa actual y el Barcelona , que puede estar en relación con el fútbol o la mejor atracción turística. Pero más que nunca a causa de la enemistad que existe entre algunos madrileños y catalanes . Algunos de ustedes saben que Barcelona forma parte de la región de España llamada Cataluña y quieren separarse de España y ser independiente . Independientemente de esto realmente disfruté de mi fin de semana largo en Barcelona , la obra de Gaudí fue aún mejor en la vida real , es una ciudad realmente impresionante y tiene algo único que Madrid no … una playa !

    Hablando de fútbol y de rivalidad , ya que escribo esta entrada para abril , el Atlético de Madrid ha ganado la Liga y se enfrentará al Real Madrid en la final de la Liga de Campeones en mayo. Tengo que admitir que no soy el mayor fan de fútbol , pero vivir en un país donde el fútbol es básicamente parte de la cultura , hace que me encuentre entusiasmada para ver el partido de la final para ver quién es en realidad el campeón de la ciudad!

  • Edward Mortimer – Final Case Study

    This young girl is being given some basic education along with about thirty of her peers. Classes took place once a week in the open air on a straw mat.

    My John Speak Scholarship took me to Pakistan for a period of ten months to perfect my command of the Urdu language; widely accepted as the lingua franca of the Indian Subcontinent, a rich blend of Persian, Arabic and Turkish vocabulary with a Hindi grammatical base. Much like the English we speak today it could be described as a ‘mongrel’ of a language, but what a playful, diverse and beautiful mongrel she is!

    Prior to my Scholarship I had been to Pakistan twice. During those short visits I had developed a keen interest in UK-Pakistan relations, and this was the initial impetus for learning the language. I was already an intermediate speaker, and my reading ability was well developed, but I simply could not express myself on the level that I wanted to. During my Scholarship, everything changed.
    I spent the majority of my scholarship teaching in a large school, and this was a fantastic experience that really stretched me. However it was living with a Pakistani family that was the true catalyst for my language development. I found myself in such a diverse range of situations, and had to call on every noun, verb and adjective available to me: From attending colourful engagement parties and making speeches to large groups of young children, to hospital visits and running errands.
    Possibly one of the most rewarding experiences during my Scholarship was participating in an education project in my spare time, which was run by the family I was living with. This involved working with the children from some extremely poor tribal communities, and being able to communicate love and encouragement to the children in a language they understood was an incredibly moving experience.

    I hasten to add that my time in Pakistan was not always easy. I had to jump through multiple hoops in order to obtain the correct visa, and I often got discouraged during the initial period when I found it difficult to express myself. In addition I developed some health problems about half-way through my Scholarship, on top of having to go 6 hours a day without electricity (a daily occurrence in Pakistan). Despite all of these challenges I was given fantastic support by the Trust from day one, I couldn’t have asked for more.
    Having previously interned at the British High Commission in the Pakistani capital Islamabad, I am champing at the bit to use my newfound language skills to further British interests in South Asia, economically, diplomatically and culturally. I’ll be keeping the Committee informed of my progress, and once again I’d like to express my gratitude to them for giving me this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

    Edward Mortimer – John Speak Scholar, Pakistan

     

    A wise man

  • Goodbye and Thank You

    I have recently returned to the UK, having completed my ten-month John Speak Scholarship.

    I can sincerely say it was one of the most life-changing experiences I have ever had.  I have learnt so much, not just in terms of my language learning and cultural knowledge, but also about myself.  Do feel free to get in touch with me if you would like to hear about my Scholarship experience in more detail, and I encourage everyone who reads this to submit an application if they haven’t done so already. Now is the time to say thank you once again to the John Speak Committee for their generous support, and goodbye or, as they say in Pakistan…Khuda hafiz.

    This is a photograph of myself with a lovely Pakistani family I befriended.

  • Oceans Full of Words…

    I am now almost in the final week of my John Speak scholarship. I have been enjoying reading in Urdu a lot of late, perusing literally anything I can get my hands on (discarded flyers, road signs, food packaging…you name it). I find reading in any language a very empowering experience. Often I read something in Urdu that I like; something poetic, grammatically idiosyncratic or eye-catching, and I’ll find an opportunity to slip it into a casual conversation the following day! I sometimes think of a language as an ocean: You can paddle in the shallows, but there’s nothing better to dive in.  It’s vast, it’s rich, it’s bottomless…

  • Enjoy the Ride

    This young girl is being given some basic education along with about thirty of her peers. Classes took place once a week in the open air on a straw mat.

    It’s been a few days since I’ve blogged, and life has not been dull in the interim. It is sad to think my scholarship will come to an end in approximately two weeks, but I intend to make the most of the time remaining, and develop myself as much as possible. Even at this stage I am still meeting new people. Yesterday a rickshaw driver in whose conveyance I travelled insisted that I call him directly in future whenever I needed to go anywhere. It seems I have procured my own personal taxi service (although many of Pakistan’s roads are in such a state of disrepair that travelling this way can never be described as glamorous). Travelling by Rickshaw is fun though, for a short period you are in a confined space with a complete stranger, and it offers a wonderful opportunity to encounter the culture from another new perspective…

  • From the Summits to the Sea…

    As promised here is a photograph I took of one of the Kalashi children last week. The clothes she is wearing are ‘normal’ attire; I can’t imagine what they wear at wedding or birthday celebrations! If you look closely you can see the intricate embroidery in the cap which is adorned with shells, despite the Kalash valley being approximately fifteen hundred kilometres away from the Arabian Sea!

    This girl is a very special tribe found in Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier. Notice the tiny shells adorned in her cap.

  • Queries…!

    I get asked all sorts of bizarre questions whilst I am here in Pakistan. For example ‘What kind of face cream do you use?’, ‘Is London near the UK?’ and ‘Where you ever any good at cricket?’ I always try and answer these questions to the best of my knowledge (it’s Nivea, just in case you were wondering) but besides simply providing a ‘stock response’ I am always grateful for the opportunity it presents to engage in a deeper conversation, as it exposes me to the different ways in which people use language. On that subject I wrote a poem today (in Urdu) for somebody’s birthday card. It seemed to go down well, in spite of my rejection of several grammatical rules that I am very familiar with. What is art without a bit of creative rebellion?!

  • Feeling Humbled

    I have been reflecting a lot on education of late, and how the receipt of it (or not as is often the case here) can have such a profound impact on person’s life. But that said I have realised intelligence is not just about ‘what we know’, i.e. naming the World’s ten fastest growing economies, or correctly applying Pythagoras’ Theorem, but also takes into account what we have experienced, and our responses to those experiences. When I looked closely at the girl in this photograph (who has never received any formal schooling) I saw such an-depth of understanding of what life is, that I felt humbled. At times like this I am reminded that my scholarship has bought me here to learn. Whilst that is indeed a humbling experience, it empowers us as well.

    This girl is no more than 8 or 9, and yet often she is responsible for looking after younger siblings!

  • The Spice of Life

    I was invited by a family to lunch today, and I had a wonderful time.  They made ‘peeka’ food in my honour.  ‘peeka’ means ‘tasteless’ and is used by Pakistanis to refer to food that doesn’t have any spices in it! I really enjoyed the food; I just hope they didn’t mind it too much.  I sat with their daughter (aged nine) and listened while she read from her school textbooks.  She read with such keenness and vigour, and it really opened my eyes to the huge potential of so many children in this country.  It is a travesty that often the only thing holding back such promising individuals is a lack of funds.  I won’t forget this young girl though, I just hope I can support her more in the future.