OBJECTIVE
On November 16, 2023, the Biden-Harris Administration launched “Being Bilingual is a
Superpower,” an initiative by the U.S. Department of Education to promote multilingual
education and bolster high-quality language programs and a diverse multilingual
educator workforce across the country. Inspired by this great news, the theme of our
2024 competition is "Language Is My Superpower". We expect to see students
sharing how learning the target language and culture has had a magical impact on their
school and personal lives.

WHAT
An essay/talent show video competition.

WHO
For all the middle school and high school students in the Pacific Northwest region.

FORMAT
Two ways to participate:
1. An essay of 400-800 words regarding this prompt:
"Language Is My Superpower"
Calling all young superheroes to unleash their creativity in our exciting WLL competition!
Explore the enchanting world of the target language and culture as you share how
mastering a language has transformed your life. Let your words paint a vivid picture of
the superpower that is learning a language. Join us in celebrating the beauty, richness,
and transformative power of language in this inspiring contest. You may replace
“language” with the specific language you are learning. For example, “Spanish is my
superpower”.
​
OR
2. A cultural performance video of yourself or your group 
RULES
Essay
- Limit of 1 entry per contestant 
- The work should be completely original and presented in either English or your target
language.
- Contestants will be judged by certified teachers and professionals looking for
superior ideas, stories, messages, and content.

Video
- Minimum length 1 min but should NOT exceed 4 minutes, in high-resolution, and
recorded horizontally.
- All performance videos need to be appropriate in content and demonstrate talent in
representing the target language and culture. Performances may include but are
not limited to, songs, rap, traditional musical instruments, folk dance, martial arts
performances, folk art, poetry recitation, etc. Subtitles are not required but are
recommended.
- Contestants will be judged by certified teachers and professionals looking for
preparation, creativity, and quality.

PRIZES
Separate prizes for both categories
1st Place: $100 (1 winner)
2nd Place: $80 (3 winners)
3rd Place: $50 (5 winners)
Finalists (top 10%):
Certificate of Excellence

 
Timeline
After your submission, you will receive a confirmation email. We ask that you
add president@whylearnlanguages.org to your trusted list of senders, contacts, or
address book. If you do not see an email from president@whylearnlanguages.org in
your Inbox, our email may have mistakenly been sent to your spam folder. Award
ceremony video will be published on the YouTube channel of the "Why Learn
Languages" organization by May 31st. We will announce the winners in the video.

We also offer an Outstanding Contribution Award to a teacher or an organization who
has demonstrated dedication and support to the competition by encouraging the
greatest number of participants. The award carries a cash prize of $100. Please make
sure to include your teacher’s name on the registration form.

​

WHEN
SUBMISSIONS DUE April 30, 2024
Questions? Email us at president@whylearnlanguages.org

SUBMISSIONS

Option 1:
Fill out the registration form HERE and enter a shareable URL link that does not require
judges to sign into. Save your file with the name WLL2024_Category plus your name
(first name and last name). 
For example: WLL2024_Essay_Erika_Williams
​
Option 2:
Upload your file to the registration form HERE with a Gmail account. ​
 

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to email us!