The "Déchiffreurs de Langues" competition blows out its second candle
The second edition of the "Déchiffreurs de Langues" competition came to a close on June 4, having enabled over 500 high school students to explore unknown linguistic and cultural horizons. Organized in two rounds, this educational competition revisits the Linguistics Olympiad, with linguistic puzzles of progressive difficulty. The questions are designed to challenge the majority of participants - they are accompanied by clues that high school students may or may not use - and enable them to make discoveries and learn on their own.
The fact that we're in teams and that there are clues makes us want to push ourselves. We have to understand and think together to find the answers.
A high school student
This observation is shared by the secondary school teaching teams, who also emphasize the relevance of this competition, the originality of its format and the appropriateness of the questions: demanding yet accessible, they encourage a deductive approach on the part of the students. "It's amazing to see our students working so independently and with so much motivation, in a studious yet relaxed atmosphere," emphasize Nayra Garcia-Suarez and Mathilde Bouligant, teachers at the Lycée Galilée in Gennevilliers.
From Manchurian to Inuktitut, from the Caucasus to Thailand, not forgetting Laari and Vurës, or a detour through Georgia and Abyssinia: during the two rounds of the competition, students had the opportunity to travel around the world's languages and cultures. A decentering approach encouraged by the discovery of certain minority and under-represented languages, which is fully in line with the values promoted by Inalco and by the Cordée "Langues et Cultures du Monde".
It was interesting to discover how to count in other languages, and to see the similarities and differences with the way we count in French.
A participant
This linguistic adventure culminated in the competition's closing ceremony: some 100 finalist students had the opportunity to meet linguist Nicolas Quint (LLACAN/CNRS), to discover field linguistics and question with him the issues involved in the hierarchization and disappearance of languages. It was a great opportunity for the students, with their own linguistic and cultural backgrounds, to share and exchange ideas with a specialist. The birth certificate, perhaps, of a few vocations.
Linguistics is not taught in secondary schools, so it's difficult for students to become aware of the existence of this field of knowledge. Yet today's young people are tomorrow's linguists.
Nicolas Quint
This year, four students from Lycée Galilée (Gennevilliers) were rewarded for their linguistic rigor and talent: Balli-Kemba Aaliyah, Xu Sophia, El Aoumari Yanis, not forgetting Zhu Loïc, already a winner in the first edition. To recognize the students' participation, a winning team was also chosen in each participating high school, and all received a book from the Asiathèque's "80 mots du monde" collection, to extend their reflections on linguistic and cultural diversity through reading.
The morning ended with the screening of the documentary Sur le bout de la langue by Vincent Bonnay, which features a young Frenchman with a passion for the Eyak language, an Inuit language he learned on his own, before moving to Alaska to pass it on in turn. A fascinating documentary that tackles the issues of language disappearance in relation to cultural identity.
I used to want to learn languages for their usefulness, but this documentary made me want to take an interest in other languages for the cultural aspect.
A finalist
By offering every student the chance to work in teams to open up to new languages and knowledge, the "Déchiffreurs de Langues" educational competition echoes the values of La Cordée de l'Inalco, which aims to enhance students' linguistic and cultural wealth through discovery, experimentation and sharing.
***
The competition topics were made possible thanks to the work of Aurore Montebran (Lattice/ENS); Raphaël Otho (doctoral student at Inalco) ; Marc-Antoine Mahieu (teacher-researcher at Inalco); and especially Daniel Krausse (post-doctoral fellow at Lattice/CNRS) and Florian Targa (educational engineer/Service REVE). Their time, work and ideas were invaluable.
The proofreading was carried out by a team of volunteer proofreaders, students (undergraduate to PhD) and teachers, while the competition was coordinated by Gabriel Lecarpentier.
The competition will be organized on a larger scale next year. People interested in contributing to this educational and linguistic adventure are invited to get in touch: Click here to show mail address
