Loughborough College offered students the chance to give their international communication skills a boost with a ten language challenge recently.
Public Services and International students came together to take on listening and speaking skills set to be vital not only for their careers but also in their daily lives.
“There were ten nationalities represented in our international student group including Chinese, Italian, German, South Korean and Turkish, with varying levels of English speaking abilities,” said Mark Henebury, International programme area lead at Loughborough College.
“The first challenge was for the UK Public Services students to explain to the internationals some key vocabulary phrases they wouldn't have come across before - and then the internationals were tested to see how well they'd learned it, paying particular attention to how they had moderated their English and had thought about different ways of explaining things.
“The international students were then asked to teach three phrases in their own language which the UK student had to learn and then stand up and repeat, including, "Hello, my name is…, I am from… and I like… ‘ (for example, football). All the students particularly enjoyed this.
“Some of our home students had never spoken to someone from another country before and it was a great opportunity for everyone to come together, meet each other and learn some really important communication skills. At the end they were all asking when they could do it again.”
Public Services Lead Tim Turner added: “To be face to face with each other like this the students were able to pick up on how more subtle things like hand gestures and tone of voice can help in communication and how crucial it is to really listen to someone.
“These are valuable lessons generally but for our Public Services students who may be looking at careers at airports, with the police, in prisons or for border forces they will be crucial.”