News and latest information about the Trust
Congratulations to our new scholar Sian!
Sian has spent the first semester of her third year working in Strasbourg, France. She is studying a 4 year undergraduate degree in French, Spanish and European Union Studies.
From September 2014 Sian has been working as a Marketing, Communication and Translation Intern for Decantala (a Barcelona-based wine merchant).
We will keep you posted on Sian’s progress over the coming months!
Congratulations to our new scholar Phoebe!
Phoebe will be travelling to Germany in March 2015 to study German at the University in Jena.
In July 2015 Phoebe plans to start work in Germany
We will keep you posted on Phoebe’s progress over the coming months!
Ranking the eighth position of all the animals in Chinese zodiac, Sheep (Ram or Goat) represents solidarity, harmony and calmness. People born in the year of the Sheep are polite, mild mannered, shy, imaginative, determined and have good taste. On the negative side, they are sometimes pessimistic, unrealistic, short-sighted and slow in behavior.
Chinese New Year is the longest and most important celebration in the Chinese calendar. The Chinese year 4713 begins on Feb. 19, 2015.
Chinese months are reckoned by the lunar calendar, with each month beginning on the darkest day. New Year festivities traditionally start on the first day of the month and continue until the fifteenth, when the moon is brightest. In China, people may take weeks of holiday from work to prepare for and celebrate the New Year.
Legend has it that in ancient times, Buddha asked all the animals to meet him on Chinese New Year. Twelve came, and Buddha named a year after each one. He announced that the people born in each animal’s year would have some of that animal’s personality. Those born in sheep years are often artistic, charming, sensitive, and sweet. It is known as the most creative sign in the Chinese zodiac.
At Chinese New Year celebrations people wear red clothes, decorate with poems on red paper, and give children “lucky money” in red envelopes. Red symbolizes fire, which according to legend can drive away bad luck. The fireworks that shower the festivities are rooted in a similar ancient custom. Long ago, people in China lit bamboo stalks, believing that the crackling flames would frighten evil spirits.
In China, the New Year is a time of family reunion. Family members gather at each other’s homes for visits and shared meals, most significantly a feast on New Year’s Eve. In the United States, however, many early Chinese immigrants arrived without their families, and found a sense of community through neighborhood associations instead. Today, many Chinese-American neighborhood associations host banquets and other New Year events.
The lantern festival is held on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. Some of the lanterns may be works of art, painted with birds, animals, flowers, zodiac signs, and scenes from legend and history. People hang glowing lanterns in temples, and carry lanterns to an evening parade under the light of the full moon.
In many areas the highlight of the lantern festival is the dragon dance. The dragon—which might stretch a hundred feet long—is typically made of silk, paper, and bamboo. Traditionally the dragon is held aloft by young men who dance as they guide the colorful beast through the streets. In the United States, where the New Year is celebrated with a shortened schedule, the dragon dance always takes place on a weekend. In addition, many Chinese-American communities have added American parade elements such as marching bands and floats.
In the course of the New Year’s days, a temporary market will be setup to mainly selling New Year goods, such as clothing, fireworks, decorations, food, and small arts. The market is usually decorated with a large amount of lanterns.
Small year is the 23th or 24th of the last month of the year. It is said that this is the day the food god will leave the family in order to go to heaven and report the activity of family to the Emperor of the heaven. People will follow religious ceremony to say farewell to the food god, including taking down and burning the paint of the food god. After the New Year’s Day, people will buy new paint of the food god and display it in the kitchen.
A few days before the Chinese New Year, people will do a complete cleaning of the house and house wares which signifies to remove the old and welcome the new. Historically, when bathing did not occur often, people would normally take one to welcome the New Year.
After the cleaning, people will decorate the house to welcome the New Year. Most of the decorations are red in color. The most popular New Year decorations are upside down fu, dui lian, lanterns, year paint, papercutting, door gods, etc.
Last weekend I travelled out of Barcelona to the beautiful town of Sitges, which takes around 40 minutes on the local train.
Sitges is incredibly busy over the summer, but is calm and quiet over the months of November- February. Despite this, the weather was still lovely, with blue skies and plenty of sunshine!
I was fortunate to try Xató, which is Sitges’ traditional dish. The main ingredients are endives, cod, tuna, anchovies, aubergine and black olives. I have noticed since I arrived just how wonderful the sea food is here! The dish is also made with a delicious sauce containing chillies, almonds, garlic, olive oil, salt, vinegar and peppers.
In 1959 I was fortunate to receive a six month scholarship from the John Speak Language Trust. I was eighteen years old when I was released by my English employer (Bradford based) for six months to study and work in Germany. My journey to Germany began by rail and then by ferry. I resided in South Germany and rented a room in a residential property from a German family. I travelled extensively on a daily basis with Sales Representatives from my English employers undertaking light office duties. During my six month scholarship I recall having to write monthly reports in German for the Managing Director of the firm in Bradford for which I worked. I initially worked as a trainee, later taking on the role of a salesman abroad for the two Bradford based textile exporting companies where I stayed for six years.
My passion for the German language eventually led to a radical change in my career. I became a teacher of foreign languages (mainly German) at three English independent Grammar schools. My language teaching career spanned over thirty years.
Now retired (age 73), I continue to correspond with my many German acquaintances. I regularly write letters, read fiction and non-fiction and listen to music in German. I continue to use my German regularly as the language has been a part of my being since I was first taught it at the age of 13. Learning foreign languages as a youngster has certainly been beneficial to my career in sales and essential in my teaching.
The John Speak Trust scholarship was, in retrospect, the third rung on the ladder which made me into a life-long teacher and disciple of German. As a thirteen year old pupil attending Grammar School in the North of England I was taught German by an inspirational teacher from Vienna. At sixteen I spent several weeks on an exchange holiday in South Germany and then came the scholarship when I became fluent in the German language. I subsequently studied German language and literature for one year at the University of Erlangen followed by six months at the University of Vienna and a further three years at an English University.
Initially, as an eighteen year old living abroad I was emotionally immature. I had to become stronger spiritually and more independent in my new foreign environment. After spending three months in a rural setting in South Germany, I moved to the large industrial city of Essen. It was here that I met many urban people, many from other countries. Even today, as an adult volunteer dealing with teenagers from abroad, I draw upon those early experiences I had as a John Speak Award recipient, when encouraging young, homesick volunteers to persevere, overcome isolation and succeed in an enterprise abroad.
I would most definitely recommend the John Speak Trust to others. My time spent abroad using a foreign language allowed me to learn a new language and culture in a different environment both physically and spiritually. The broadening of my mind (thanks to the Trust and my experiences) has enabled me to travel to other countries and discover further cultures especially during my retirement years, when I became an adult volunteer for a company dealing with youth global work and travelled to Argentina and Mexico using my second foreign language, Spanish.
Michael Anthony Lumb
Essen is a city in the central part of the Ruhr area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Located on the River Ruhr, its population of approximately 567,000 (as of 31 December 2012) makes it the 9th-largest city in Germany. For the year 2010, Essen was the European Capital of Culture on behalf of the whole Ruhr area.
Manchester University are currently recruiting alumni who use languages in their career to take part in our Love Languages careers panel event. You can find details of our previous events here. If you are interested in getting involved fill in this short survey or email richard.screaton@manchester.ac.uk
Looking back, I can probably say that the 3 month scholarship from the John Speak Trust was one of the key defining points of my life – something for which I am extremely grateful.
One of the many memories that I have of my John Speak Scholarship time in France was talking to the lorry driver I was travelling with one day who was trying to explain to me that the workings of the braking system on his truck was based around magnets. You can imagine the difficulty trying to work out what he was trying to tell me whilst driving around the country roads in the area around Rheims. However we got there in the end and, 23 years later, I can still picture the moment that I worked out the key word ‘Aimant’ meant ‘Magnet’. Such is the power of learning a language from the native speakers of a country and without any possibility of help from Google Translate or Phoning a Friend.
My scholarship lead me to France in the summer of 1992. I was still at UMIST University in Manchester, studying International Management 
and French when I applied to the John Speak Trust having secured a place at the Ecole de Commerce de Grenoble where I was to study from September that year. Having accepted the place,
I was worried that the level of my French would not allow me to fully understand and participate in the lectures that would be held in the local language throughout that year.
Through my father’s business I managed to secure a 3 month work placement with one of their French wool suppliers, Ets Vromant SA, run and owned by the very kind Jacques Vromant. The scholarship from the John Speak Trust allowed me to cover my living costs which were meagre as I lived in a ‘Foyer de jeunes travailleurs’ – an eye-opening place to live which housed an eclectic group of young French people. My placement started in Lille where I worked in the Vromant foam factory, glueing foam together. A strange start which improved my vocabulary of words such as ‘Baby changing mattresses’, ‘Double foam sofa’ and ‘glue guns’. Words that I don’t use every day now (other than baby changing mattresses when my children were born – more of that later), but were exceptionally useful and intriguing during those first few weeks.
Having mastered the French words for ‘foam bathmat shaped as a foot’, I moved onto the next location of my placement – Rheims, where I travelled around the French countryside helping the team collect wool from the local farmers. I learned that this was the area where Champagne was grown in amongst a surprising number of sheep as well as the word ‘Pavot’ which describes a beautiful white poppy-like flower that lives in the French hedgerows. To this day I don’t know the English translation for this flower, but to me it is a ‘Pavot’. This was a short part of my learning journey as I moved the following week to spend the remainder of my time in Limoges from where I joined the wool collecting team, making forays into the Massif Central to buy wool from farmers.
In amongst the farm visits where we would be welcomed at 10am at a farmers kitchen table with a glass of ‘Berger Blanc’ or similar (an aniseed-based 45% alcohol designed to descale the kettle) I learned the word ‘Andouillette’. This is an offal-filled sausage, the smell of which to-this-day reminds me of that fateful lunch when the ‘Plat du Jour’ comprised what I thought of as an innocent looking sausage. Oh how I was mistaken, yet some of my French friends today see it as a delicacy. Much like the way my wife still struggles even now to understand the concept behind Pork crackling…
When we were not out in the truck collecting wool, I spent time sorting that very wool with some really interesting characters – one of whom I remember was called Pascal. He taught me the essential words such as ‘bale press’, ‘fleece’, ‘dags’ (the dung that we were removing from the back end of the fleece) and other very choice but essential words that I can’t repeat here. However, once he got bored with this, he tried to teach me the local Patois, though with limited success. Though they did laugh when I tried to speak in their local accent – great memories. It was during my stay in Limoges that I remember starting to dream in French – a clear sign that all was starting to click into place.
Armed with this wide-ranging and essential vocabulary and a far greater ability to understand many of the people I met, I drove diagonally 
across France towards Grenoble to start my new academic year. During this journey, after a frustrating time following caravans crawling their way through the windy mountainous terrain of the Massif Central, I was stopped by the French police for speeding down the hill the other side. Having established the fact that I had no money in order to pay the fine, the Gendarme took me into the police van whilst he decided what to do with me. I explained where I was going and why I had been frustrated going so slowly behind the caravans and awaited the verdict. Having pondered this for a while he let me go with the words ‘seeing as you speak such good French and have no money to pay the fine I will let you off this time. But don’t think that if you get caught later in the journey they will be so kind to you!’. John Speak saved me from a fine that day.
My scholarship story ends as my new year in Grenoble started. I was able to speak French fluently – something I am sure helped me to complete a fulfilling year at Grenoble and not least meet my wife and start a new era of my life. My wife and I now live in England where French is our home language (including ‘baby-changing mattresses’) and our bi-lingual children choose whichever word fits best into the sentence.
I use my French language regularly in my business where I export wool around the world.
I am convinced that the deep understanding of the French language and culture that I gained by being dropped into an intense learning situation at that time has lead me to better understand and appreciate the many different cultures that I deal with in my day to day business. This cultural appreciation was one of the key aims of the visionary John Speak when he left the funds for our use so many years ago.
Looking back, I can probably say that the 3 month scholarship from the John Speak Trust was one of the key defining points of my life – something for which I am extremely grateful.
Jo Dawson
Many congratulations to Mark Green (John Speak Trust – Past Committee Chair) on being awarded the Order of Merit by the Federal Republic of Germany
Have you received a John Speak Trust Scholarship or did/do you know someone who has?
We would love to hear from you.
Please contact the Trust and tell your story.
Derek Platts received a Scholarship in 1954 and has very kindly provided his Case Study – read Derek’s story
The John Speak Language Trust and the Trust Committee would like to wish you a wonderful and prosperous New Year.
New Year Language Resolution – There is no better time to turn your dreams of learning a foreign language into a reality, new year, new start!
Happy New Year Feliz año Nuevo 新年快乐
Šťastný Nový Rok godt nytår bonne année
glückliches neues jahr ευτυχισμένο το νέο έτος buon anno
明けましておめでとうございます Godt Nyttår с новым годом
feliz año nuevo mutlu yıllar chúc mừng năm mới blwyddyn newydd dda
