Polyglot children may 'revitalise' Jersey language

The head of a service which teaches Jersey's native language said multilingual children "could be a key factor to revitalise" the use of Jèrriais.

Ben Spink from L'Office du Jèrriais goes to schools around the island to teach students.

He said he has found that children from different community groups who already speak more than one language find it easier to learn Jèrriais than others.

Spink said "it gives me enormous pleasure and enormous hope" to see children from different backgrounds learn Jèrriais, especially "if they've got a Latin language like Portuguese because they can make connections with the language".

Spink runs a lunchtime lesson at Le Rocquier School where students like Beatrice, 12, have been learning Jèrriais.

Beatrice is from a Portuguese family and can speak both English and Portuguese.

She said "it's a Latin language so I can connect it to Portuguese because it's quite similar" and "it's really cool to speak a language that not a lot of people can".

Beatrice added: "It makes me feel really proud and I think more Portuguese people could learn Jèrriais because there's lots of similarities."

Spink has seen children from a range of different community backgrounds learn the language and said he feels it also helps them connect with the island's identity as well.

He said "we've always maintained that Jèrriais is an inclusive language, it's open to anyone" and "we're very lucky to have Jèrriais as it's a vital part of our culture".

"That's why encouraging young people, especially multilingual learners, to learn the language is vital for its revitalisation and for it to be able to have a future," Spink added.

The service runs a lunchtime club at Le Rocquier as it does in other schools where students can learn the language through games and activities.

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