Every year the French classes participate in an international music competition called “Manie Musicale.”
“It’s a bracket-style music competition similar to March Madness for basketball,” French teacher Cathy Gilmore (staff) said.
Manie Musicale involves French teachers and students around the world.
“Two french teachers, Michelle Fournier and Stephanie Carbonneau … make a bracket of popular French songs from not just France but all over the world from French-speaking artists and countries,” Gilmore said.
While Manie Musicale is a fun project, it is also a great learning experience for students.
“She’ll (Gilmore) have us do, like, you learn each lyric. To do one song in French, you learn each word of it, and then you move on to the next lyric. Eventually … you’ll learn the chorus,” Izzy Eisenmann (11) said.
This year is Eisenmann’s first year participating in Manie Musicale, but the highest level French students love it just as much.
“One of my favorite moments is, um, going through the brackets, like, making your own bracket, because it’s fun to predict … you use, like, past brackets and you’re like, ‘Okay what song did really good last year?” Marina Fowler (12) said. Fowler is in French IV.
Another enjoyable moment from Manie Musicale is the reveal and dance videos. These videos are made to show the winning song from each round, build suspense and show different participating schools from around the world.
“I like watching the really bad dance videos that they do before (revealing the song),” Leah Gilmore (12) said. L. Gilmore is also in French IV.
The competition helps all levels of French students learn.
“We memorize, like, the lyrics and what they sound like. You get the song stuck in your head,” L. Gilmore said.
The students use special websites like Roxxem to learn the lyrics: “It becomes easier to hear different words, like to hear the separate words in the songs, when we, like, go through and, like, listen to each lyric …. you can really hear the pronunciation,” Fowler said.
In order to learn a world language, students learn actual application of the language through music.
“(Students) get to see the language they’re learning in class in a real-world context. The tune of something, it never leaves you … it helps the language stick in their heads,” C. Gilmore said.
With real-world application, word definitions can be altered.
“It changes the way it’s used in context, because you learn the definition of a word, but when you use it in a sentence, it changes, like, the meaning,” French IV student Emily Irwin (11) said.
