Students taking foreign language classes competed in academic and non-academic areas at the twenty-ninth annual APPLES Foreign Language Festival at Indiana University of Pennsylvania to show what they have learned about each language.

Students got to go based off their grade in the language class and based on how well they understand the language. The benefit for the students was to gain a learning experience.

“I thought it would be fun to come to the competition, and I was excited to compete against other people,” ninth grader Christopher Perez said.

Perez went to the competition for Spanish and competed in speaking proficiency.

“I thought that this competition would be a good learning opportunity, and I like Spanish so I was excited to go,” ninth grader Sarah Graham said.

Graham went to the competition for Spanish and competed in reading and writing.

“Coming to the competition I was tired because we had to get up early but I was excited,” ninth grader Lily Porter said.

Porter went to the competition for German and competed in reading and listening.

“I was excited to come to the competition because I thought it would be fun and I couldn’t wait to see all the different things,” ninth grader Darrian Berkheimer said.

Berkheimer went to the competition for Spanish and competed in reading and writing.

“The competition was different than I expected because I thought it would be harder,” Perez said.

For the speaking proficiency event students had to have a conversation in their chosen language with an official at the competition.

“The competition was different than I expected because I thought I was better at Spanish than I actually am,” Graham said.

For the listening event students had to listen to a recording of a person speaking their chosen langauge and answer questions about the recording.

“It was different from what I thought it would be because I was competing against less people than I thought I would be,” Porter said.

For the reading event students had to read a paragraph aloud in their chosen langauge.

“It was different than I thought it would be because there were a lot more people there than I had expected,” Berkheimer said.

For the writing event students were given a prompt and had to write an answer in their chosen language.

“The competition was fun because we got to walk around the campus and I also won,” Perez said.

Perez won second place in the speaking proficiency competition.

“It was fun because it was a good learning experience and in our down time we watched Law and Order SVU,” Graham said.

Once the students were done competing they had nothing else to do for the rest of the day, so they got to walk around campus.

“It was fun because there was good food,” Porter said.

There were snacks throughout the day and the students got a free meal at the campus’ cafeteria.

“It was fun because I got to be with my friends all day and we got to tour the campus,” Berkheimer said.

Over four hundred students attended the competition from eleven different districts.