On March 16, French IV students showcased their knowledge of French culture, grammar and vocabulary, winning four out of the seven awards in an all-East Bay competition.

Eleven juniors from French IV participated in the event, where they were asked by a panel of judges to answer questions in a conversational format.

There were three total rounds; six proceeded to the second and four were given awards in the final: juniors Stefan Zukin (1st place), Devan Joseph (2nd Place), Maggie White (2nd Place) and Claire Reichle (3rd place). They will receive their prizes in a Remise des Prix (prize ceremony) on April 23.

This is the first year Poppas has given students strong incentive to participate, assigning the competition as an alternative to an interview project.  “There’s so much packed into that French III level,” Poppas said. “In French IV, it’s actually kind of nice to let go of the grammar and just use what we know.”

This emphasis on culture and vocabulary rather than syntax and structure is for her ultimate goal of being able to talk and reflect in French.

“I think this makes us realize where our ability to communicate is limited and allows us to make up for it and learn how to express things even when we don’t know a direct translation of the phrase,” junio Stefan Zukin said.

Zukin said he did not know what he was getting into.

“We knew the questions that they were going to ask. There were about six of them, stuff about music, films, family —that stuff,” Zukin said. “But we had no idea how much time we would have, whether we were answering all of them or only one, or how the judging would work.”

He feels that his confidence in French speaking and listening has soared.

“I wasn’t sure how difficult it would be to understand accents and sort of slurred speech, but it wasn’t that bad,” Zukin said. “It was a little scary when they asked me a question, and I wasn’t quite sure what they said but I got the gist of it.”

To Zukin, the best part of the competition was the bonding experience with his classmates.

“People would be called in, and have the competition for like 10 minutes, and then come out so there was lots of hype and asking questions after each person came back,” Zukin said. “It all made for a very supportive and fun experience with the entire class.”