Blog | John Speak Language Trust

Oliver-de-Planta-Schloss-Nymphenburg-2-Munich-Germany

The palace itself is quite opulent and beautiful. When you walk into the main room upon beginning the tour, you will be amazed at the over-the-top decorations – cherubs, cherubs, everywhere!

Posted on July 31, 2014 by Oliver de Planta

Tagged with: Architecture, Castle, German, Germany, Lion, Munich
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Allianz Arena

The Allianz Arena is a football stadium in Munich, Bavaria, Germany with a 69,901 seating capacity. Widely known for its exterior of inflated ETFE plastic panels, it is the first stadium in the world with a full color-changing color exterior. Located at 25 Werner-Heisenberg-Allee at the northern edge of Munich’s…

Posted on July 31, 2014 by Oliver de Planta

Tagged with: Football, German, Germany, Munich
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Abril en Madrid

Abril en Madrid , sin duda marcó el inicio de la primavera , ¡por fin! También se inició una serie de fiestas de la comunidad de Madrid, que me han permitido viajar y conocer Barcelona. Desde Navidad han sido unos meses muy intensos desde el punto de vista del trabajo…

Posted on May 20, 2014 by Hannah Phillips

Tagged with: Barcelona, Easter, Football, Futbol, Madrid, Primavera, Semana Santa, Spring
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Edward Mortimer – Final Case Study

My John Speak Scholarship took me to Pakistan for a period of ten months to perfect my command of the Urdu language; widely accepted as the lingua franca of the Indian Subcontinent, a rich blend of Persian, Arabic and Turkish vocabulary with a Hindi grammatical base. Much like the English…

Posted on May 12, 2014 by Edward Mortimer

Tagged with: Pakistan, Scholarship, Tribe, Urdu
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Oceans Full of Words…

I am now almost in the final week of my John Speak scholarship. I have been enjoying reading in Urdu a lot of late, perusing literally anything I can get my hands on (discarded flyers, road signs, food packaging…you name it). I find reading in any language a very empowering…

Posted on May 12, 2014 by Edward Mortimer

Tagged with: language, metaphor, ocean, reading, Urdu
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Enjoy the Ride

It’s been a few days since I’ve blogged, and life has not been dull in the interim. It is sad to think my scholarship will come to an end in approximately two weeks, but I intend to make the most of the time remaining, and develop myself as much as…

Posted on May 1, 2014 by Edward Mortimer

Tagged with: conversations, disrepair, Pakistan, rickshaw, roads, transport
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From the Summits to the Sea…

As promised here is a photograph I took of one of the Kalashi children last week. The clothes she is wearing are ‘normal’ attire; I can’t imagine what they wear at wedding or birthday celebrations! If you look closely you can see the intricate embroidery in the cap which is…

Posted on April 30, 2014 by Edward Mortimer

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Queries…!

I get asked all sorts of bizarre questions whilst I am here in Pakistan. For example ‘What kind of face cream do you use?’, ‘Is London near the UK?’ and ‘Where you ever any good at cricket?’ I always try and answer these questions to the best of my knowledge…

Posted on April 25, 2014 by Edward Mortimer

Tagged with: accents, conversations, friendships, Pakistan, poetry, queries, questions
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Feeling Humbled

I have been reflecting a lot on education of late, and how the receipt of it (or not as is often the case here) can have such a profound impact on person’s life. But that said I have realised intelligence is not just about ‘what we know’, i.e. naming the…

Posted on April 22, 2014 by Edward Mortimer

Tagged with: childhood, disadvantage, education, intelligence, opportunities, Pakistan, Urdu
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The Spice of Life

I was invited by a family to lunch today, and I had a wonderful time. They made ‘peeka’ food in my honour. ‘peeka’ means ‘tasteless’ and is used by Pakistanis to refer to food that doesn’t have any spices in it! I really enjoyed the food; I just hope they…

Posted on April 11, 2014 by Edward Mortimer

Tagged with: education, food, future, peeka, potential, spice
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