A Fun Time at the Language Olympics
The American Sign Language (ASL) team shows off their American-themed apparel.
May 31, 2023
On May 12th, the Edsel Ford Language Department hosted the Language Olympics. All the different languages offered at Edsel Ford competed in various events during 5th and 6th hour that day. All language classes competed in different challenges including an Arabic stone game (like the game Jacks but with stones), a sombrero toss, a German stein holding competition, a soccer ball goal kick, a basketball toss, and a server tray challenge.
The classes completed in teams and the individual winner of each event won a point for their language class. It was fun getting to see my fellow classmates compete in each event for their language. All teams did incredibly well, but Spanish ended up winning first place. 2nd place was a tie between German and Arabic. Next was ASL and then French.
All the language classes got dressed up in clothing based on their language’s culture. Since my language was American Sign Language (ASL) we dressed in red white and blue with stripes and stars. It was a fun new experience going to my first Language Olympics.
I interviewed the Spanish teacher at Edsel Ford High School, Senora Chavez, about the Language Olympics.
C: What was your favorite part of the Language Olympics?
Chavez: “Watching all the students being excited about their language and competing against the other languages. Then of course that Spanish kept the trophy once again.”
C: How did this tradition start?
Chavez: “I would say about 10 years ago the French teacher Mrs. Katzman saw this online that other schools were doing it around the country and we decided to join and start doing it as well.”
C: How did you prepare your students for the Language Olympics?
Chavez: “I let them know what the different competitions were and we did a little training and spent 2 weeks practicing and training and getting students prepared.’’
C: How did the Spanish team end up winning?
Chavez: “I think my students were very driven and just really wanted to win to show improvement. Spanish is number 1!”
C: Why should students join a World Language course at Edsel Ford?
Chavez: “ We live in a global society today. Yes we live in what many would say the best country in the world but it’s a global society. We are competing with people all over the world for different jobs and most of the country’s kids start learning languages in elementary school so we need to be able to compete with them too.”
