Middle School Students Find Connection Through Languages of the World

“Veseli Se Srpski Rode (Be Happy Serbian People)” is a popular Serbian song that celebrates the country’s history, and it's one his mother would play often in the car on the weekends.

Zemon decided it would be the perfect song to perform at the second annual Multilingua, a middle school event that gives students the opportunity to share a language they speak at home or are learning at school.

“I felt that because Serbia is not such a well-known country, I wanted people at Masters to know what Serbia is,” Zemon explained. “I picked it because it's one of the most important songs to Serbian people.”

And that is at the heart of what Multilingua wants to achieve: an understanding of cultural diversity through language. Hosted by the Middle School DEI Club and emceed by co-chairs Angus McCallum ’29 and Jules Jorsling ’29, the event welcomed 11 acts to the stage in Doc Wilson Hall last week. There were songs, readings and skits in Spanish, French, Hebrew and Korean. Individual acts included Chineo Onochie ’29 reading a poem in Igbo, a Nigerian language, and Stella Imamichi ’29 singing Franz Schubert’s “Die Forelle (The Trout),” in German.

“When we share a language, it's a great opportunity to learn and a window into other people’s cultures,” McCallum shared. “Even if you don't take a whole lesson in that culture, you can hear what their language is and that will give you a lot of insight into what that culture is about.”

Middle school Latin teacher Brittany Farrar and her sixth grade advisory agree. It was the impetus for the students to sing the pop music hit “Levitating” by Dua Lipa in Latin, with Leon Chilton ’31 and Oliver Buck ’31 accompanying them on guitar and tenor saxophone, respectively.

“It pushes students out of their comfort zone in a new way, and there is a real team effort in the group numbers to help one another and to do justice to the song or skit being performed,” Farrar said. 

“Ms. Farrar translated the song for us, and it was really fun to sing,” Fern Montana-Hill ’31 said. “It took us a little while to learn because the syllables didn't match up perfectly in Latin but luckily it all worked out.”

Head of Middle School Tasha Elsbach enjoyed the variety of ways in which students shared their languages and appreciated the courage it took to do it in front of an audience. She said, “It was a true celebration of what makes us a wonderful community — we all want to learn about each other and love that we each bring something different.”