The International Language and Culture Olympiads
The Olympiads, a competition held annually since 2003 and currently in its twelfths year, is not an event only for people living in Turkey but is the venue of a marvelous show involving 2000 students from 165 countries. The Olympiads are organized by the International Turkish Education Association (TÜRKÇEDER).
The theme for last year, when 115 countries attended, was “We speak the same language” This year’s theme is “Converging Hearts.” Now Olympiads are called The International Festival of Language and Culture because the mission of festival is to contribute to linguistic and cultural diversity of Uganda by encouraging and motivating students in primary and secondary schools to showcase their knowledge and skills of the Turkish language and its culture in a friendly contest, and to develop understanding and respect among cultures.
The show, involving students singing in Turkish or the language of host countries, reading poems or dancing to Turkish songs, took place in a big theaters. The International Festival of Language and culture took place three different countries in this year; Ethiopia, Romania and Germany were the three host countries for this cultural fest. This year as we are Light Academy schools, we have participated the competition in Ethiopia and Germany. Light Academy Secondary school’s dance group performed a very beautiful Turkish dance in the many different stages in Germany. Their performance has been awarded to second position among many other performances and brought back silver medal to our country. Our other group went to centre of African Union Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
