The Institute of English Philology at the University of Wrocław organized another edition of the Linguistics Marathon on September 20. The competition, aimed at students from upper-secondary schools, was held as part of the Lower Silesian Science Festival. Thirty-nine three-person teams from across the region took part.
Bolesławiec’s I Liceum Ogólnokształcące was represented, among others, by a team of second-year students: Michał Żak, Filip Pająk and Paweł Piotrowski. They took part in the Wrocław Linguistics Marathon for the first time and immediately came second. What is more, they scored the same number of points as the winning team from I LO in Legnica. “The time decided the victory for the Legnica team,” they emphasize. “They submitted the final task just one minute faster than we did.”
Although none of the Bolesławiec competition laureates intends to link their future with English philology, they all agree that a fluent command of Shakespeare’s language will certainly prove useful. They are considering studying abroad and taking part in student exchange programs. Next year, they will have a chance to repeat the success of Diana Filipowicz, Aleksandra Idzik and Kamil Pawłowski, who won first place in the marathon for I LO in 2007.
“I am proud of these boys. The WMJ is a competition that requires not only knowledge of the language, but also intelligence, resourcefulness and a sense of humor. They lack none of these qualities. They performed brilliantly,” says Katarzyna Cieślak-Ostrowska, an English teacher.
“It gives me great satisfaction when I see how much my students enjoy themselves during this competition,” the teacher continues. “It is a unique event. I like unconventional competitions, and in my opinion the WMJ definitely deserves to be called unconventional.”
(information: ii)