Linguavision 2025 Wrapped
And just like that it’s a wrap on Linguavision 2025. But what a night!
Thanks to everyone who came out to help us celebrate 10 years of the Linguavision Song Contest, a singing contest for language learners at Carleton University. This year, we had a formidable cast of performers – 19 entries in 7 languages – and probably our largest audience ever!
For those of you unfamiliar with Linguavision, the contest is an opportunity for our Carleton language learners to take their language outside the classroom, to push their boundaries, and to create some memories, both for themselves and for the audience.
Students must sing in the language they are learning, and they are judged for musicality, performance, and language by a panel of judges drawn from the Carleton and Ottawa communities.
This year’s panel featured returning judge and local jazz musician Carlos Alberto Santana, Carleton music student Manami Lemieux, former contest prizewinner Alice Chia, representatives of the Embassy of Italy, Francesca Bruzzese and Filippo Ceccotti, along with five other judges both new and returning.
New this year was the American Sign Language (ASL) Spotlight segment, where a group of third and fourth-year ASL students introduced the audience to the expressiveness and beauty of Deaf poetry. In addition to the content of their presentation, students’ language skills too were on show as they presented entirely in ASL, their commentary voiced for hearing members of the audience by two professional sign language interpreters.
And, while the primary objective of the contest is to participate, there are also some cash prizes up for grabs.
This year there was only one entry in the original song category, a category intended to incentivize people to write their own songs in a language not their own. Congratulations to ESLA student Hatem on winning with his original song “The Devil in Me.”
Meanwhile, in the open category, prize winners came from Korean, French, Italian, Spanish, and Japanese.
Archie, singing in Japanese, won first place prize for his performance. Alma took second place for her performance in French, and Elena claimed the third place prize for her performance in Japanese.
This year, I Bagnini Cantanti (The Singing Lifeguards) won Audience Choice for their lively performance.
Heidi, singing in Spanish, and Naomi, singing in Japanese, received Honourable Mentions this year for their performances.
Rosie, singing in Japanese, and the Heysawon Girls, singing in Korean, were recognized as Judges’ Choice for their performances.
Long-time Linguavision organizer Mike Barker, CALL Consulting Analyst in the School, had this to say about the evening’s excitement:
“Linguavision is always a high point of my year! Seeing language make its way out of the classroom and onto the stage. It’s a risk. It’s a thrill. And it’s been 10 years! How did that even happen?! It feels like a lifetime ago. I hope everyone who has participated has taken away fond memories from the experience. I sure have! And to all you audience members and volunteers, thanks so much for taking the time to be part of the night. Your positivity and support is always one of my favourite parts of the whole event!”
Thanks again to everyone who came out for Linguavision 2025! Language instructors, classmates, friends, family, and more filled the theatre. Photo credits to Don Myles, Rosa Soliman, Camille Barrette, and Heidi Kisuka. And, of course, a great big hand to our team of volunteers who kept the evening flowing, to the KM Theatre staff for their exceptional professional support, and to the School of Linguistics & Language Studies for their continued financial support and enthusiasm for the contest.