Sophie Charlton (1991)
Girls Grammar gave her wings
From the moment she arrived at Girls Grammar in 1987, Sophie Charlton knew it was the school for her.
The support for Languages and Art, along with teachers who embodied a sophisticated and worldly outlook, was unlike anything she had experienced before. It fired a passion for travel and culture that would take her around the world.
`When I started in Year 8, we had to do two languages for the whole year and continue with at least one for Years 9 and 10,’ she remembers.
Sophie chose an unusual combination that spanned continents, taking up Japanese and German. She stuck with both languages to the end of School and beyond, forging a career in corporate travel before exploring a different path that led her to teach German in Brazil and, more recently, English in rural Japan.
For Sophie, life’s journey has always been about finding a way to combine a love of languages and travel that was nurtured at Girls Grammar. One of her defining experiences was embarking on BGGS’s very first exchange to a German affiliate school in 1990.
At the time, Sophie was the sole Girls Grammar student on a seven-week summer-holiday exchange to Maria-Wachtler Schule, in Essen, arriving in December 1990, just one year after the historic fall of the Berlin Wall.
It was a trip filled with highlights, including living with a host family while attending Maria-Wachtler, and experiencing her first white Christmas. She even brought home a piece of the famous Wall after a memorable trip to Checkpoint Charlie, the one-time border crossing between East and West Germany.
At Checkpoint Charlie in 1990
Being immersed in a foreign culture took Sophie’s language skills to a new level, spurring a family holiday to Japan the following year to experience the same enrichment.
At the end of Year 12, Sophie says: `I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I loved meeting new people, I loved travelling the world and I loved languages. So, I tied all of that up into a Hospitality Management Degree so could work in hotels and resorts around the world.’
Although she achieved that, working for Swiss International Air Lines in London, and Japan Airlines and Wotif in Brisbane, Sophie found she eventually wanted a career that allowed her to `give back’, and returned to university to add a teaching string to her bow. The extra qualification allowed her to combine travel and work in a way that felt more meaningful.
`Work overseas—just do it! You will never regret it. If anything, you’ll regret not doing it.’
Sophie CharltonShe recently returned to visit the BGGS Spring Hill campus after finishing a two-year contract teaching English in a village of about 6,500 people in the centre of Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido. Here, temperatures would plummet to -7 degrees in winter, and the island would be blanketed in snow. Skiing was a popular PE pursuit.
Classrooms, however, were much simpler.
`If my students in Japan came here to see this school (Girls Grammar), they wouldn’t be able to believe it. Their schools are not like this,’ Sophie said, explaining anything too colourful—from décor to teachers’ clothing—is considered a distraction.
Lunchtime too, is very different, steeped in ritual, with a focus on communal nutrition that dates back to post-WWII times, when food was scarce and malnutrition was rife among Japanese children. Each day, a central kitchen in Sophie’s home village of Takasu would cook and supply meals to all high schools and primary schools in the district, ensuring children ate together.
`The children put on aprons and little bandanas to help serve the food to their friends.’
After the meal was done, students from kindergarten through to high school would sweep and wipe down the classrooms.
Stopping to experiencing life, rather than just traveling through different cultures, is something Sophie is keen to continue and encourages others to try.
`Work overseas—just do it! You will never regret it. If anything, you’ll regret not doing it.’
Her advice to the Grammar Girls of today is to follow their passions.
`There can be a high expectation that you should know what you want to do in high school and that can put pressure on some students. I’d just say look to your passions and volunteer—it’s not only a good experience, it’s a great way to find out what you might like.’
A `lifetime highlight’ for Sophie was two weeks spent as a volunteer teacher in a small village near Siem Reap in Cambodia.
`I just want BGGS girls to know what a difference they can make by volunteering abroad. And remember Plan A may not eventuate. That’s okay. Plan B can often be even better.’
Teaching in Japan
A very Australian sports focus
Sophie's article in the 1990 BGGS School Magazine