Inspired by the NCAA March Madness bracket, French and Spanish classes across the country are participating in Manie Musicale and March Madness Música to help students learn about the music and culture of the languages.
The brackets each feature 16 songs from French and Spanish speaking countries and the winners of each round are voted on by students across the world, until a winner is declared.
March Música began in 2013, but Spanish teacher Siri Campbell introduced it to school in 2015.
“I jumped on board because I love music and music is the international language,” Campbell said. “Everybody has their feeling of what they like and dislike, and it’s music speaks to everyone in all cultures and languages.”
French teacher Denise Smith continued the tradition from previous French teachers. Smith enjoys getting to see her students form opinions and relate to each other through music.
“I think students really start to show their personality, because music brings something out in everyone, it can bring people together,” Smith said. “It’s neat to see when students who I know are very different on the personality spectrum, but yet then share a genre of music.”
Participating also allows students the opportunity to take a break from the busyness of the day. French III student junior Gwen Kline enjoys this aspect.
“We don’t have to do any classwork, so you can just relax, have fun, listen to music videos and watch them,” Kline said. “[And] I think you get a prize if you win.”
While the brackets are a nice way for students to unwind, Smith believes they are an opportunity for students to practice the language in a less conventional way.
“Music is always at a faster pace than spoken language, so they’re having to really tune in on their skill of listening to try and understand what is being said,” Smith said. “It also gives them awareness for cultural differences and how global the French language is.”
Kline has seen how participating has enhanced her listening skills.
“I like to listen to what words, and I’ll be like, ‘Oh, I know that word,’ and I can kind of understand what they’re saying,” Kline said. “So it’s definitely helped with really hearing and listening to those French words.”
Both March Música and Manie Musicale are staples for all levels of French and Spanish but the purpose can change depending on the level. Campbell likes to have different levels focus on different aspects.
“Particularly for the upper levels, the lyrics they can dive into that a little bit more,” Campbell said. “With the lower levels it’s more looking at sort of the culture in there’s certain rhythms that are typical for Spanish or Latin based songs, so we look in the and just kind of what’s popular, so it’s just more looking into the culture and having fun with the music.”
