International Talk Like a Pirate Day

One of the most important days in the MFL calendar is, obviously, International Talk Like a Pirate Day.

OK, I'm not being serious, but can you think of a better way of capturing the imagination and holding the attention of younger students?

TLAPD as all the cool kids are calling it, was started in 1995 by 2 Americans, Mark Summers and John Baur (pictured below), and is, officially, in the words of its creators, the only holiday to come about because of a sports injury.

You can find the background to TLAPD here on wikipedia and the official TLAPD website here.

There is an English to Pirate online translator here and there are even Android, Apple things and Windows apps, too. 

Sadly, Pirate is not recognised by Ofsted as an official modern foreign language, but, don't fret, I've found some links to foreign language pirate sites for you.

Here goes: 

Lots of pirates phrases and vocabulary in French here.

There are some amazing German phrases and a vocabulary list here.

And for all you scurvy dogs with a hankerin' for the Spanish Main, there's this.

Have fun, me buckos!

PS. About 10 years ago, I actually spent the whole day at school speaking with a traditional "pirate" accent much to the amusement of my colleagues and the frustration of the management team.