On Friday, 22 May, the Instituto Cervantes in Belgrade hosted a Spanish tongue twister competition – Trabalenguas.

The competition was organised across three categories. The first was open to lower primary school students, who performed tongue twisters in a non-competitive showcase. The second category, for upper primary school students, involved randomly assigned tongue twisters judged on accuracy and fluency of pronunciation. The third category, for secondary school students, presented a more complex challenge: competing in teams, they were tasked with creating entirely new tongue twisters, judged on creativity, originality, linguistic accuracy, and coherence.

The competition was first held in 2018, founded as a volunteer initiative by the Association of Spanish Language Teachers of Serbia, the Faculty of Philology at the University of Belgrade, and the Instituto Cervantes. This year’s jury comprised Ana Jovanović and Ivana Vučina Simović, professors at the Faculty of Philology, and Ana Reguillo, Head of Teaching at the Instituto Cervantes.

Our Grade 6 student Vukašin Ivanović claimed 1st place in the second category, thoroughly deserving his win with impeccable pronunciation, a strong command of Spanish prosody, and impressive composure throughout the competition. ¡Enhorabuena, Vukašin!

Text by Milica Mastilo