Language festival

Language learning is an ongoing activity.  Apart from the variety of learning strategies we use at school, students benefit from exposure to the language outside their classroom too.  Our students of French recently had a wonderful opportunity to showcase their skills in the language when they participated in the Language Fest at International School Aamby.  They pitted their cartooning, acting, recitation and quizzing abilities with students from other schools and came out winners in three of the four events they took part in.

Here are the extracts from some reflections after the Aamby competition:

 

This year, our school participated in International School Aamby’s Language Festival, “Romance 2018”. The events were poetry recitation, tableau, quiz, cartooning and cafe set-up. During the awards ceremony we were pleased to find that we had won the first prize in the French quiz event!

Apart from the quiz I was able to organize myself very well, I brought a backpack only. But for next time I’d want to participate in more things….Overall, my participation and the times leading up to it were enjoyable and the stay itself was something I would personally recommend.

  • Miheer MYP 4

We all worked hard to make our school proud. The tableau was hard because I had to stay in the same position for 5 minutes but we won first place, which I was very happy about because we all worked very hard towards a goal and achieved it through teamwork. We made our school happy through our winning and hopefully the French we learned will help us through our studies. Our organizational skills were very good and it showed through our work. I think I personally could have signed up for one more competition because I do have the capabilities and drive to push myself further. Overall we had a fun experience and learned a lot.

  • Savera MYP 3

I participated in the Tableau, a depiction of a famous French scene from history, communicating through our setting. I think that preparing for this event was taxing, as all props and costumes had to be arranged, and had to fit into the criteria too. I collaborated with other students to make the props and find costumes, therefore gleaning the significance of teamwork and commitment to the project.  I feel that it was an inspiring experience overall, motivating me to learn more aspects of French and be able to speak and write French more efficiently.    

  • Shreya M Y3

To prepare for the quiz competition, Miheer and I created a question bank, which required a lot of in-depth research on the topics, so regardless of the result we had learned a lot!   I think we benefited from having such a wealth of information.

For things outside the competition, I feel that next time I should 1) participate in more competitions, and 2) socialize more.   I feel that I could have talked to more students from other schools. Aside from that, it was a good effort and we learned a lot from the experience.

  • Ishir Y4

I was part of the cartooning, where I had to create a cartoon in French. I realised that there were a lot of people in the same competition, this made me slightly nervous. But when I was halfway through I felt better and more confident in my idea. It was interesting to see how so many students came together with the shared passion of art and French in order to compete in activities. Even though I was not able to secure a winning position in the competition, I was still able to learn different perspectives from people around me as well as learn more about my ideas when I have to create something under a time limit. To me being engaged in the activity was very important too.

I was able to interact as well as look at other ongoing competitions which were very engaging. Thinking about how so many people were able to come together for the shared love of language was important to comprehend. Individually I could have been more attentive and tried a bit more harder when practicing for my activity as well as tried to take part in more variety of activities instead of sticking to what I am comfortable with. Overall, it was a successful event in terms of learning outcomes and initiative.

  • Shreya J Y4

From the 18th – 20th of January, a group of French learners went to Aamby for the “Romance Fest 2018”. There were several competitions. My classmate Anjali, and I participated in “Poetry Recitation”. Individually, we had to pick a poem, memorize it, and practise in order to recite it with as much emotion as possible. I chose a poem called “L’araignee”. I think I was very prepared and confident to present my poem to the judges.

As the event came closer, I was quite nervous and excited, but most of all curious about the other participants’ poems. Watching a few students recite their poems made me realize how much more expression I could have put into it, but in the end, I presented my poem as best as I could, making no mistakes.

As a group, most of MBIS also participated in the “Tableau” event, where a scene is depicted by five people (who are frozen in place) and a narrator, explaining the event. We had prepared quite a lot for this event and we even had a narration in French.  Overall, I think that both of the events that I took part in went quite well. I had managed my time very well and took all the feedback from teachers to improve my poem.

A few things I could have worked on and improved for next time:

  • Even though the poetry recitation went well, I feel that I definitely could have chosen a poem that was longer, had more meaning to it and could be expressed in many different ways. The poem that I picked was quite short and there were not too many emotions that could have been put in. Next time, choosing a longer and more meaningful poem will help me present the poem better.
  • Next time, I would like to participate in more events as I realized that there were many events that I would enjoy doing and where I know I can do well.

Overall, this trip was very exciting. We made some new friends, got to know people from different cultures, saw a lot of talent in many languages and even won some awards. I am looking forward to going on another field trip like this, filled with learning and fun.

  • Prisha Y3