The hall of St Benedict College Boys’ Secondary School, Kirkop, erupted with joy when it was announced that the Maltese entry was the winner of the mini-European Song Festival organised recently to celebrate the European Day of Languages.
The school festival featured students singing songs in English, Italian, Spanish, French, German and Maltese, while three student comperes made their announcements in Maltese, English and French.
The festival generated a lot of enthusiasm, with students studying the respective languages supporting their song. There was a lot of flag waving, applauding and clapping, but also a lot of learning, as the lyrics were shown on a big screen so that everyone could better appreciate the words, besides the beauty and musicality of the different languages.
This celebration of multilingualism reached its peak when students following courses leading to the BTEC certificate in IT were presented with certificates by college principal Carmel Micallef to mark their achievement.
At the end of the show a voting process was held whereby representatives from each ‘country’ read out the votes of their juries – in their ‘native’ language – leading to the surprise winner.