They are not in secretive  A cappella groups. There are no beat boxers. But they still try to be pitch perfect — and pronunciation perfect.

Spanish teacher Virginia Leskowski’s Spanish IV class and French teacher Christele Poppas’s French IV class competed in a sing-off during second period in the student center on Dec. 15.

Principal Brent Daniels, Assistant Principals Eric Mapes and Ginna Meyers, Spanish and French teacher Christelle Hutin-Lee, Spanish teacher Joanne Guillén Donohoe and junior Onyx Yskamp-Long adjudicated the competition, awarding the trophy handmade by Leskowski to Spanish IV.

“We looked at both songs, we saw the quality of the singing, the interpretation and we recognized that Señora Leskowski’s class was much larger than Señora Poppas’s class, but the enthusiasm that Señora Leskowski’s class had, the voices and the harmony — everything was just beautifully done,” Guillén Donohoe said.

Leskowski suggested trying a sing-off for the first time this year to Poppas for fun.

They intended for their classes to sing their songs memorized and without any recordings playing.

“[Singing is important] for the pronunciation: focusing on the sounds of the words and not on the grammar or meaning of the words,” Poppas said prior to the sing-off. “I hope they will get out of their shells, not be intimidated and have fun.”

Spanish IV sang a romantic 1940s song called “Quizas,” which means “Perhaps,” by Cuban songwriter Osvaldo Farrés. Leskowski said she chose “Quizas” for its cultural popularity in the Spanish-speaking world.

“For me personally, [‘Quizas’] is a special song and I’ve been singing it since I was a little girl, so to hear that version, because that’s not the version that I’m used to, was very pleasant,” Guillén Donohoe said.

French IV sang “Je cherche un Millionaire,” a 1930s song by Mistinguett about a woman searching for a wealthy lover, French student junior Meredith Aebi said.

“My favorite part is when we have a little duet between two of our classmates,” Aebi said, referring to juniors Julia Kelly and Saam Jalinous.

Leskowski played the bass guitar and junior Maddie Copeland played the banjo to accompany Spanish IV, junior Jackson Parker said.

“I [was] excited to see everybody who’s friends with me in the French IV class try to compete with us,” Parker said. “I [was] also excited to see which class has the better singing voice.”

AP Mandarin and French II sang and danced for each other and Spanish II and French II sang for each other on Dec 15 as well.

Junior Elie Docter suggested to Poppas that her French III class sing ‘Je cherche un Millionaire” last year.

“The 30s was an era where Paris was fascinating to the New World, to America,” Poppas said.

Because the sing-off happened the day after the juniors’ 20s Night, Poppas asked her students to bring their era-appropriate clothes from that event to school for the sing-off.

In addition to French IV’s a cappella practice, A Cappella teacher Joseph Piazza visited them during class and gave them tips, Poppas said.

Spanish IV students enjoyed spending 15 minutes twice a week practicing, Spanish IV student junior Maret Sotkiewicz said. However, she was not excited about being on stage.

“It’s going to be slightly embarrassing for everyone involved,” Sotkiewicz said before participating in the sing-off.

Hearing about different genres of French music by singing with her class is fun for Aebi.

“It’s a lot more interesting than just sitting there and cracking open a textbook,” Aebi said.

Poppas’s classes sing every Monday and she anticipates having her first and fifth period classes sing for AP French and AP Mandarin, respectively.

Leskowski hopes to give her classes repertoire in folders to learn like Poppas does because singing reinforces pronunciation and grammar in a desirable way using repetition that reading cannot.

Other singing activities in Spanish IV and French IV classes have included caroling, singing about the rain on rainy days and guessing missing words and phrases in songs.

“All of my students burdened with the reading and the difficult part of writing are all of a sudden my top people because they’re singers and they have a different connection,” Leskowski said.