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Students Discover Languages During International Week

In an effort to promote the importance of being bilingual and appreciating world cultures, all divisions at Ranney School held a “Discover Languages Week” spanning January 27 until February 3, 2012. This educational, yet fun-filled week, consisted of cultural celebrations, a presentation of foreign theatrical skits and the sampling of eccentric foods.

Kicking off “Discover Languages Week” was Ranney’s Lower School division, which celebrated the Chinese New Year as well as other cultures at a Lower School Gathering on Friday, January 27. Throughout the assembly, each class — dressed in different colors or outfits signifying such countries as Ireland, Spain, Italy, India and more — learned to say Happy New Year in Chinese (Kung Hei Fat Choy), sang Happy Birthday to their classmates in Mandarin, and listened to the story of the Chinese New Year read aloud by three students from Ms. Cooley’s Mandarin class. “It is really important for students to share their work in language classes with the rest of the school community,” said World Languages Chair Heidi Bonney.

Located in a festively decorated RSPA Panther Hall complete with red lanterns, oriental music and various student-made works of art depicting the Chinese year of the dragon, the assembly also featured a very special surprise; a visit from a Chinese dragon led by several students including Michael Cunningham ’20 and Kieran Fino-Saunders ’20!

Next, beginning Monday, January 30 and ending Friday, February 3, Upper School students experienced foreign language through the Ranney Rover — a daily newsletter containing quotes from such notables as French writer Luc de Clapiers who said, “la vérité est le soleil des intelligences” meaning “truth is the sum of intelligence,” facts on countries like Italy and China, and translations of such words as “sprechen” meaning “to speak” in German. Similar to the Upper School, students at the Middle School level were also exposed to different languages in the MS Messenger every morning.

As a fun way of capturing the attention of older students at Ranney, the Upper School also showcased several films created by foreign language students at a “Discover Languages Film Festival” held in RSPA Panther Hall on Wednesday, February 1. Hosted by emcees Walter Cuje ’12, Kendall Torpey ’13 and Hannah Simpson ’12, the event featured several student-produced videos depicting French, Mandarin and Spanish language and culture. Short skits ranged from cooking and music videos to telenovelas, and more. Afterwards, members of the audience were asked to vote on videos that best fit into the following categories: Best Video, Best Language, Best Overall and Funniest Video. Videos selected were:

Best Video – Mon Enfance (My Childhood) by Mohnish Rachuru ’15
Best Language – Chinese Food by Walter Cuje ’12 and Patrick Glodkowski ’12
Best Overall – Ven a Bailar (Come Dancing) by Alana Grieco ’13, Roey Hadar ’13, Alexandra Seneca ’13, Erika Serhus ’13, James Soldati ’13 and Kendall Torpey ’13
Funniest Video – Le Crepe Epique (The Epic Crepe) by Kenna Conley ’14, Omar Hozayen ’13 and Alexander Rafiqi ’13

In recognition of their efforts, those 12 students with winning videos received a dress-down day on Monday, February 6, 2012.

Cooking was a common trend across several divisions throughout Discover Languages Week. Aside from watching several cooking videos at the Upper School’s Film Festival, eighth grade students at Ranney received a taste (literally) of Spanish culture on a trip to Escondido’s Restaurant on Thursday. There, the group brushed up on Spanish-speaking skills while mulling over exquisite Spanish cuisine.

After a week strictly dedicated to language and culture, students at Ranney now possess a greater understanding of and respect for the world around them. “The more we become aware of cultural and linguistic differences, the more tolerant we become of those differences,” said Ms. Bonney.
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Ranney School

235 Hope Road
Tinton Falls, NJ 07724
Tel. 732.542.4777
Our mission is to know and value every child, nurturing intellectual curiosity and confidence, and inspiring students to lead honorably, think creatively, and contribute meaningfully to society. 

We envision Ranney School as a nurturing learning community, in which families, faculty, alumni, and all of Ranney’s constituents collaborate to know and value every child, foster individual talents, sustain powerful connections between children and adults, and graduate resilient, globally-minded citizens.