Our pupils do amazing things every single day, but behind those achievements are all of the hardworking staff here at Merchant Taylors’ School. In Staff Spotlights we look to explore the diverse backgrounds and skills of the people who make Merchant Taylors’ a great place to be. This week we hear from Adam Jones, Teacher of Languages.
When did you join Merchant Taylors’?
I am actually a new starter this year, I have just joined in September and have really enjoyed my first half-term here!
Tell us about your role. What excites you about it? How did you get into it?
I’m a teacher of Modern Languages, specifically French and German. My love of languages didn’t actually blossom until I was at university. In fact, when it came to choosing what degree to study, it was a close decision between Classics and Modern Languages. What finally swayed it was that a Modern Languages course included a year abroad. This is where you spend a year of your degree living in a country of the language(s) that you’re studying.
After completing my degree, where I spent my year abroad living and working in Paris, I worked as a graduate music assistant in a school in South London. I was all set to accept a place at music college to do postgraduate vocal studies, only to be tempted at the last minute into a teaching career. A decade later and I haven’t looked back.
What excites me most about Languages is their breadth, and the fact that learning another language involves more than just the obvious spoken communication. I like to think of it as learning any other humanities discipline, be that History or Philosophy, Politics or Literature, but the cultural context and source material is in another language.
What are you most proud of outside of your work at school?
One of my proudest moments was graduating from the University of Cambridge, a culmination of effort and hard work that I put into my degree. More recently, I’m proud to be a member of an award-winning London chamber choir, and to have successfully rehabbed from ACL reconstruction to compete in HYROX (a fitness endurance race) competitions and running events.
What did you study at A-Level?
French, German, Latin and Ancient Greek.
What piece of media would you recommend and why?
Books. I think reading is healthy, wholesome and enriching. There is such a wealth of literature out there, be it fiction or non-fiction, that everyone can find something they enjoy. I’m currently in a bit of a medieval phase, so can recommend The Burgudians by Bart van Loo, or indeed the medieval French chroniclers Jean Froissart and Christine de Pizan. I also have a particular penchant for Icelandic literature. The Nobel prize-winning author Halldor Laxness is well worth reading, as well as any of the Sagas of the Icelanders.
