Word of the Day:
la musica clasica- While this might connote Mozart to some Nicaraguans, for many, it's "classic rock."
la pista- a track, ie for karaoke
The Ministry of Education's English Song Festival is a pretty big deal here. Students learn a song in English and then perform it, using only a karaeoke track. It's funny how you sometimes can't get anyone to pronounce anything in class, but suddenly, when you hand kids a microphone, they are all over it.
I spent a lot of time preparing students for the competition, during recess, during a special trip with my counterpart to a restaurant in town that has karaoke microphones and even at my house, where a bunch of girls stopped by with questions about how to pronounce songs by various artists featured on "Rrrrrrrrrrradio Disney" and love ballads of the "musica clasic" genre that were probably popular in the States before my birth.
Being that we are the only native speaking English residents of San Miguelito, it fell on my sitemate Christina and I to judge the competition. We figured there would be at least another Nica judge, but no, it was just up to us to decide, which was slightly daunting, because I didn't want the entire town's wrath upon us if we chose a singer they didn't like. It was quite fancy though; they gave us our own table, complete with water bottles and fancy champagne glasses. I felt pretty absurd trying to drink water out of a champagne glass while essentially watching a glorified karaoke battle.
All of the students did a pretty reasonable job. There was some great pronunciation and not so great singing, and some great singing with marginal pronunciation, but students managed to nail both.
It was a tough decision, but ultimately, we decided that 2 girls who rapped and danced to Justin Beiber's "Never Say Never" would get 1st place, followed by a dramatic rendition of Toni Braxton's "Don't Break My Heart." 3rd place went to an amazing singer who is less talented at English, who sang "I Will Always Love You" by Whitney Houston.
We'll see what songs those darn kids come up with next year!
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