We asked International House students to join the IH 70th Anniversary celebrations by joining our student competitions. The third and final round took place in September - December and students had to interpret the theme "Learning a Language in 2093" through a piece of drawing, writing or a photograph.
The theme was chosen from one of the core IH values; Evolution. We wanted students to envisage how their language classroom may evolve in the future and how the learning experience might change.
We were astounded by the number of entries and the broad imagination across a wide range of age groups (the youngest entry was from a 6-year-old student!). May these pieces of work and the students ideas be an inspiration to us all.
Thank you to all students who participated, it was a fantastic demonstration of engagement across the IH network.
Thank you to Peter Hayes, IH World Chairperson, who was the judge for this final round of the competition, He said of the entries:
I found it really interesting and thought provoking to read through all the entries and to look at the drawings. There were some really great pieces of work. However, in each category I found those which I chose to be the winner really stood out. The message portrayed by their work was interesting and incisive and the skill they showed, be that their drawing skills or their written expression, impressed me.
By Peter Hayes
Enjoy the inspiring winning entries below.
Under 8s Drawing Category Winner - A student from IH Split
Under 18s Drawing Category Winner - A student from IH London
Over 18s Drawing Category Winner - A student from IH Adelaide
Under 18s Writing Category Winner - A student from IH Porto
Schools of the future will be innovative places, with a focus on personalized learning, immersive experiences and accelerated learning. Students will be able to learn at their own rates and use interactive technologies, such as artificial intelligence. The boundaries between the classroom and the real world will blur. Schools will be modern, inclusive environments optimized for the success of all students.
Over 18s Writing Category Winner - A student from IH Gold Coast
I am very intrigued about the future, the development of our society and how the languages will change in the next few years. Because I believe that the world is developing very fast.
Nowadays, people speak more majority languages than minority languages. This situation has some advantages, such as more connections between different nationalities are made and we are more united because of these connections. But there are also disadvantages, minority languages are disappearing little by little. For example, I speak Catalan and I’m very worried about my native language as the number of Catalan speakers is decreasing. I think that this tendency will continue in the next 70 years.
There are few studies that state that eventually there may be only one language in the world. It will be based on English and computational language. It will be a coded language and related to mathematics. People and machines will speak this language, and it will be amazing if it happens because I love mathematics.
Other studies suggest that there will be machines that translate all languages. So, It won’t be necessary for you to learn any language. This gadget will be able to translate everything into your language and you will understand all the languages. This is such a crazy idea! It’s hard for me to believe this.
To conclude, the world is changing very quickly, artificial intelligence and new applications are being developed right now. These events are changing our world, and the future is very uncertain. How people will speak in the next 70 years is still a mystery.