Virtual International Day 2020-21

The World Languages Department and the grade 11 IB students made the most of the distance learning mode and organised our very first Virtual International Day. For the first time since we went online, students were able to interact and get involved in some engaging activities with their juniors, including Primary children. This year, it was truly a collaborative event as parents and other family members joined us for the mother tongue reading activities.

Here are some of our students’ testimonials and screenshots taken during the different activities.

International Day holds great importance and significance to our school. It is a day where we join together to celebrate and learn about our own mother tongue languages, new languages and cultures. We gain a chance to learn about our country and other countries and even share knowledge with our peers about our own culture, all of which helps build the growing cultural diversity in our school. International Day also presents us with an opportunity to strengthen the bond between our BD family as we as students work closely with our teachers to organise the events and also interact and collaborate with students across different grades. Grade 11 students also had the opportunity to interact with students from Grades 2, 3 and 4, and as that week also happened to be Earth Week, the students prepared activities revolving around environmental issues in French, Spanish and Hindi to do with the students from the primary grades!

Middle school and Gr11 Parents joined us for the Mother tongue Reading activity and made the day a real special one for all of us.

Anagha Nair, Grade 11

“ I think celebrating this day is super important because it shows us how essential cultural diversity is, and also how it’s so imperative to always accept and embrace those differences.”

Sara Suchanti, Grade 11

“This year's international day happened to be online due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but I still think it went by quite smoothly and I truly enjoyed the sessions I joined. The activity I enjoyed the most was when I got to attend the escape game because I love solving puzzles and riddles.”

“Internationational day was a really good experience and I really enjoyed it. I have always been keen on learning the basics of urdu and international day provided me with this opportunity.”

Shreni Sanghvi, Grade 11

“International day was amazing fun! I really enjoyed the entire day as a whole, because it was made so interactive and energising, but I definitely enjoyed teaching Japanese the most."

Kyra Jain, Grade 11

I think it is pertinent for us to celebrate this day because not only are we celebrating culture and languages, but we’re also learning to be more open-minded IB students. The plethora of languages that we offered to teach opened doors to a wide range of cultures and it is that inter-mingling of cultures that allows us to mark differences between our language and traditions and those of other countries. Collaboration was an important part of International Day whether it was between teachers or peers. Teachers guided students throughout the initial brainstorming phase, the planning phase and the final event itself. We students helped each other in executing plans that we had and even assisted each other with any difficulties we faced.

Anadya Rajoria

Le point culminant pour moi a été d'écrire mon nom en japonais et d'apprendre un peu la langue. J'ai l'impression que la journée est importante parce que nous explorons les cultures et les langues du monde entier.

Aanya Kapadia, Grade 7A

Me gustó la charla Ted porque era sobre uno de mis temas favoritos (los videojuegos) y porque tuve la oportunidad de cambiar otras opiniones.

Kaivalya Agrawal, Grade 11

’ai trouvé la discussion que nous avons eu après le discours de type"TED talk" incroyable. Les élèves de sixième et septième étaient très enthousiastes et ils ont beaucoup participé. Ils ont partagé leurs propres expériences de santé mentale pendant la pandémie. J’ai appris que tout le monde avait eu des expériences semblables pendant le confinement.

Advaita Sheth, Grade 11

Il est nécessaire qu’on connaisse les autres pays et les autres cultures pour améliorer la perspective globale.

Krisha Agarwal, Grade 11

J’ ai appris l'importance d'accepter chaque culture et de respecter les différences. Aussi, j'ai appris à bien communiquer.

Mirhaan Rajani, Grade 11

J’étais très impressionnée par les dessins des affiches que les élèves ont préparé après notre discours de type Ted sur le végétarisme. Dans l’ensemble je suis très contente que notre travail ait eu un grand impact sur les élèves.

Tanvi Chakravarty, Grade 11

Faire et enregistrer le discours ‘Ted’ était un peu difficile, et j’ai dû enregistrer au moins 10 fois. J'ai trouvé que ce n’est pas trop difficile d'ecrire en francais, mais pour avoir le vocabulaire et communiquer clairement il faut passer beaucoup de temps.

Aaditya Hingoo, Grade 11

Nous avons développé nos compétences en enseignement et en leadership, deux valeurs importantes du programme de l'IB. En effet, pendant la journée internationale, nous avons fait de nombreuses activités comme lire dans notre langue maternelle et enseigner des langues régionales. Même s'il y avait des difficultés techniques et d'autres petits problèmes, j'ai trouvé l'expérience très enrichissante et amusante parce que nous avons pu rencontrer des élèves du collège et cette interaction était bien nécessaire pendant cette période difficile.

Vidhi Sachade, Grade 11

“ la actividad de ‘reading in the mother tongue’ fue muy divertida! Cuando estaba preparando para la actividad, aprendí mucho de mi madre. Ella no habla mucho Sindh o Sindhi porque mi hermana y yo no hablamos Sindhi. Fue interesante escuchar sobre nuestra cultura.”

Saisha Uttamchandani, Grade 11

“Aprendí Punjabi por primera vez y fue una experiencia única! El dia internacional fue un descanso de la escuela normal. Es una gran experiencia educativa y aumenta nuestra creatividad como cuando escuchamos historias de diferentes países”.

Khushi Munjani, Grade 11