Germantown Academy had 10 winners in the annual Oral Proficiency Contest organized by the Montgomery County chapter of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.

“Participating in the MCATFL Oral Proficiency Contest each year is an excellent opportunity for students to showcase their confident and fluid speaking skills while connecting with other ambitious modern language students from schools all over Montgomery County,” said Jarrett Anderson, 6-12 Modern Language Department Chair. “GA’s Modern Language teachers applaud their students’ willingness to take risks and challenge themselves to put to the test all the language lessons they master in the classroom. As the results make clear, our program fosters language excellence and confidence, and we are very proud of all our student participants and medalists!”

GA students are selected after a round of preliminary interviews with GA modern language teachers, and the winning students go on to represent GA at the competition by completing a series of proficiency interviews with native speakers and language professionals at the MCATFL contest. Ten of our student participants won gold or silver medals at their respective level of proficiency.

Congrats to the Upper School contest winners – Josh Wangia ’25, Level 4 Chinese (gold), Nathan George ’26, Advanced Chinese (gold), Jessica Ma ’28, Level 2 French (gold), Ava Dalton ’26, Level 4 French (silver), Anshul Shah ’28, Level 2 Spanish (gold), Chole Zhou ’26, Level 4 Spanish (silver), and Utsav Mittal ’25, Advanced Spanish (silver).

Congrats to the Middle School contest winners – Anvi J. ’29, Level 1 Spanish (gold), Damisi O. ’29, Level 1 Chinese (gold), and Damini O. ’29, Level 1 Chinese (silver).

As students move through the Upper School, their language proficiency can also garner honors at the national level by being inducted into modern language honor societies, which takes place in the spring.

In addition to language accolades, students also have the opportunity to travel abroad to use their language skills in countries where the target language is spoken. For example, seven students are currently packing their bags to fulfill a Spanish Exchange Program with GA’s sister school in Sevilla in April and May, while eighteen students will head to China in June for a two-week trip organized by GA’s sister School, Capital Normal University High School.