It ended on April 19th the second phase of fifth edition of the Spanish Olympics. An edition that saw more than a thousand students from first and second level secondary schools from various Italian regions, from Veneto to Calabria, at the starting line.
After two rigorous selections, based on grammar and oral expression tests, 82 students from 20 different schools got through to the finalwhich will take place in Bari, on 24 and 25 Mayin the spaces of the organizing body, theDicunt Association – Centro de Estudios Lingüísticosin collaboration with theDepartment of Culture of Bari.
The overall winners of the junior and senior categories will win a study trip to a prestigious Spanish school for foreigners in Spain. They will succeed in the register of the event the SS “Oxford Group” of Lecce and the IISS “Da Vinci – Majorana” of Mola di Bari, which triumphed in the last edition respectively in the junior category (lower secondary school) and in the senior (secondary school).
The competition, organized by Dicunt, an international language, culture and research association from Bari, in collaboration with the Italian-Spanish association Acis-Bari and the Centro de Estudios Lingüísticos of Bari, was born in 2019 to encourage the study of the Spanish language in 1st and 2nd grade secondary schools and enhance talents by rewarding excellence.
The patronage of the Instituto Cervantes of Madrid gives further prestige to the event. The Scientific Committee that supervises the event is, in fact, chaired by the honorary president Miguel Marañón Ripoll (Instituto Cervantes de Madrid), and boasts among its members Patricia Fernández Martín (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid), Maria Antonella Sardelli (University of of Foggia, President of DICUNT), Manuel Martí Sánchez (Universidad de Alcalá), Julia Sevilla Muñoz (Universidad Complutense de Madrid) and Rafael Negrete-Portillo (Universidad Complutense de Madrid).
The grand final will not only decide the overall winners of the Junior and Senior categories, but also the winners of the seven categories into which the Olympics are divided, offering scholarships for Spanish courses at the Dicunt Association and for Spanish language certification exams.” Dele” and “Siele”, official exams of the Instituto Cervantes certification body.
The satisfaction expressed by Nicola D’Alessandro, representative of the Dicunt association, was great: «We are very proud of the results obtained this year. The Spanish Olympics are increasingly becoming a central event in the scholastic activities of secondary schools and the level of participants becomes higher every year. This year the participation was even larger and a great final is expected with students from Veneto, Campania, Lazio, Campania and Calabria, as well as obviously from Puglia. Special thanks go to the Culture Department of the Municipality of Bari, in the person of Ines Pierucci, for her support in view of the final.”
The Honorary Consul of Spain in Bari, María Ángel Lobato Rodríguez, in office since last October, will also be present at the final to wish the finalists good luck before the final round: “I am enthusiastic about this initiative – states the consul – which highlights the growing interest in the Spanish language and culture in Italy, even in the school context. I greatly appreciate the commitment of the Dicunt association in promoting the spread of the Spanish language and culture since its foundation.”
STATEMENTS OF PROF. GRAZIANA MASTRONARDI (TEACHER OF SPANISH LANGUAGE AND CULTURE, IISS “dA VINCI – MAJORANA” OF MOLA DI BARI):
“The excellent result achieved by some of the students of our Institute in the last edition of the Spanish Olympics is a source of pride for our school community. Furthermore, their enthusiasm encourages us to always do better and makes our profession, which is too often mistreated, wonderful. Special thanks go to the Dicunt association which, with extreme professionalism, makes important initiatives like this possible.”
