Young linguists cause a buzz at Cardiff competition

This July Cardiff University played host to the Routes into Languages Cymru National Spelling Bee Competition!

The competition, which is now in its fifth year, is for Year 7 pupils from across Wales who are learning foreign languages. As a funder of Routes into Languages Cymru, Cardiff University and its School of Modern Languages was proud to hold the event on 2 July and welcome Wales’ young linguists to its campus.

Over 50 language pupils from 22 schools have been competing in previous Spelling Bee rounds throughout the year. Having succeeded in class and school competitions, this event welcomed the very best multi-lingual spellers in Wales.

The pupils competed in French, Spanish, German and Welsh 2nd Language. In preparation, the pupils had learned 200 words before the competition and then had one minute to spell as many of the learned words as they could. The pupils were given the words in English/Welsh and would then translate the word into the target language and spell it using the target language alphabet. During the afternoon, the pupils who took part also heard from two guest speakers; Phil Murphy and Lilli Craemer who both work in the engineering sector. Phil and Lilli spoke about how they use their language skills in the world of STEM; both attributing their successful careers to this combination of skills.

Ellie Jones, Project Manager of Routes into Languages Cymru, said “This event is the highlight of our year at Routes Cymru. We know how hard the pupils have been working to get to this point. We had a great day welcoming la crème de la crème, or even le miel du miel, of multi-lingual spellers to Cardiff.”

The National Final was sponsored by the European Commission with support from Cardiff University, Bangor University, CILT Cymru, Ysgol Gyfun Gwyr and See Science.