{"id":1898178,"date":"2026-04-23T05:12:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T02:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1898178"},"modified":"2026-04-23T05:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T02:12:08","slug":"jerseys-language-may-be-revitalised-by-multilingual-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1898178","title":{"rendered":"Jersey’s language may be ‘revitalised’ by multilingual children"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/ae44\/live\/1d926380-3d5a-11f1-a7f7-c90fc0a93ea1.jpg”]<\/p>\n

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\"BBCBBC<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Beatrice is from a Portuguese family and has been learning Jersey’s language with L’Office du J\u00e8rriais<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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The head of a service which teaches Jersey’s native language said multilingual children “could be a key factor to revitalise” the use of J\u00e8rriais.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Ben Spink from L’Office du J\u00e8rriais goes to schools around the island to teach students.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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He said he has found that children from different community groups who already speak more than one language find it easier to learn J\u00e8rriais than others.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Spink said “it gives me enormous pleasure and enormous hope” to see children from different backgrounds learn J\u00e8rriais, especially “if they’ve got a Latin language like Portuguese because they can make connections with the language”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"The<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Beatrice learns J\u00e8rriais during lunchtime sessions with other students<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Spink runs a lunchtime lesson at Le Rocquier School where students like Beatrice, 12, have been learning J\u00e8rriais.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Beatrice is from a Portuguese family and can speak both English and Portuguese.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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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”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Beatrice added: “It makes me feel really proud and I think more Portuguese people could learn J\u00e8rriais because there’s lots of similarities.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Ben<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Ben Spink is hopeful for the future of J\u00e8rriais as children from different backgrounds are learning the language<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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He said “we’ve always maintained that J\u00e8rriais is an inclusive language, it’s open to anyone” and “we’re very lucky to have J\u00e8rriais as it’s a vital part of our culture”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Follow BBC Jersey on <\/i>X and <\/i>Facebook<\/i>. Send your story ideas to <\/i>channel.islands@bbc.co.uk<\/i>.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/c393mvnw2dgo”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/ae44\/live\/1d926380-3d5a-11f1-a7f7-c90fc0a93ea1.jpg”] BBC Beatrice is from a Portuguese family and has been learning Jersey’s language with L’Office du J\u00e8rriais The head of a service which teaches Jersey’s native language said multilingual children “could be a key factor to revitalise” the use of J\u00e8rriais. Ben Spink from L’Office du J\u00e8rriais goes to schools around the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[35,226],"class_list":["post-1898178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-bbc-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1898178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1898178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1898178\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1898178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1898178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1898178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}