American Culture week began on Tuesday, November 29, and it was impossible to miss. Students decorated the third floor corridor with colorful posters advertising the week and its upcoming events, and educating each other about the themes of each day: Country Studies, Holidays, HIV/AIDS, Food and Nutrition, and Music. Every afternoon, students had the opportunity to compete against one another and show off their academic and creative talents. Some students dazzled with their knowledge of trivia or their ability to recite a poem with proper phonetics and emotion, while others showed off their skills in the kitchen and on the stage. It’s hard for me to say which day I enjoyed the most, but I think my favorite activity was the cooking competition. Students prepared brownies, apple pie, crazy cake, burritos, roasted chicken, and the biggest hamburger I’ve ever seen in my life! Everything was delicious, so it was impossible for the judges to declare a winner. All we could do was sit back, relax, and give our taste buds a treat.

As a whole, I think American Culture Week gave students a wonderful opportunity to practice their English outside of class and to have fun with the language. However, the week wasn’t all fun and games. We also touched on some serious topics, namely the problem of HIV/AIDS. Thursday, December 1 was World AIDS Day, and all of that day’s activities were devoted to the discussion of this very real problem. In class, students learned about the danger of HIV/AIDS, how to defend themselves against it, and the truth to the many myths related to this disease. In the afternoon, we watched Philadelphia, a touching film starring Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington about one man’s fight against AIDS and against the discrimination associated with it. I think all of the students who participated in this day were given a lot of food for thought, and some of them even went the extra mile and wrote essays about the topic.

American Culture Week ended on a festive note with the Gala Concert held in the Assembly Hall. The students put on a great show; all of the contest winners received “Oscars”, and the best performers of the week were asked to treat us again to their skits and poetry recitations. Most of all, the concert was filled with music: singing, dancing, guitar playing, and even beat-boxing! I enjoyed myself tremendously, and judging from the smiles and laughter of the students sitting around me, I think I wasn’t the only one.

The gala concert concluded with the performance of an original skit by group 441. In their skit, the students imagined what would have happened had the trial featured in their home reading, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, taken place in the 21st century. They wrote a short scene in the style of Mikhalkov’s masterpiece 12, showing us how a modern jury might react to the problems of racism and justice. For me, this skit was a perfect example of what English Week should be: a combination of classroom learning, student creativity, and of course, fun!

I think this year’s American Culture Week was a resounding success, and I hope that there will be many such activities in the future!