On Saturday, October 24, three teams represented Linganore at French language and culture day event hosted by Alliance Francaise de Frederick.

During the event, speakers such as Thomas DeWayne Cash and Mukendi Tambo, who represented Ambassador Francois Ballumuene, spoke about how the French language and culture affected their lives.  Later French cuisine was served; various dancers and musicians performed; and various middle school and high school teams competed in a trivia competition as well as a fable competition.

Three teams represented Linganore in both competitions.  The first team consisted of four French Advanced Studies students, sophomores Sofia Schuller and Thomas Moyer, juniors Madeline Frick and Valerie Coblentz.  Three French 3 students, senior Alyssa Mattison, junior Elizabeth Gaudlip, and sophomore Madison Reeley, formed the second team.  French 1 students freshman Joe Armacost and Katie Lehman, sophomore Samantha Iorio, and junior Micah Hewitson formed the third team.

Out of sixteen teams, the Advanced Studies students won first place during the trivia competition, and the French 3 students tied for third, but ultimately placed fourth after a tie-breaker question.

“The trivia was a lot of fun and I got to learn some new things,” said Reeley.

During the fable competition students chose a fable written by famous french poet Jean de la Fontaine.  Students then had to present their interpretation of the poem on stage, in French, and were graded on creativity and understanding of the poem.

Even though the French 3 students didn’t place in the the top three teams during the trivia competition, they finished in first place during the fable competition with their interpretation of the fable the Lion and the Rat.  French 1 placed third in the fable competition, presenting their poem the Ant and the Grasshopper.

“We did a puppet show and I think it went alright. There was a little bit of confusion during the actual performance because we didn’t know what to do with the mic,” says Hewitson.