Students visit Manchester University

Belly Dancing at Manchester University

A group of Siddal Moor Sports College students and Miss Harris, a modern foreign languages teacher, visited Manchester Metropolitan University.

The group learnt a variety of modern languages and traditions, such as Arabic writing and speaking, Belly Dancing, as well as Italian Hand Gestures and they were later taught how to make Chinese origami frogs. A truly cultural experience.

Belly Dancing was the first activity on offer and all the students were taken through their paces by a qualified dance teacher. Lots of laughs were had by all.

Italian hand gestures were next on the itinerary and the students were given cards so that they knew what the instructor was signalling and were able to interpret her gestures.

Lunch was provided by the university before the students went onto an Arabic lesson. Here they learnt how to pronounce and write a small amount of Arabian words including the use of feminine and masculine phrases.

To end the day the students took part in an Origami lesson, this is a Japanese tradition; the word origami means ‘paper’ in Japanese. The students learnt how to make paper frogs.

Students and teacher had a very enjoyable day and are hoping to use some of the skills they have learnt to make there modern foreign languages lessons more cultural and are now willing to tackle languages that they would normally bypass.