Studying at home, alone, after a day of lessons at Maltalingua is highly useful but definitely boring especially for those who like to socialise. Maltalingua’s leisure team tries to hit two birds with one stone: combining fun events with academic activities.
There are many activities that go down well with our students. Karaoke and the Monday Munchies (which is a welcome party for new students and a get-together for students already in Malta) are the top two. Many people prefer a relaxed evening and a conversation over a drink or two in a quiet bar or restaurant. It is a great way for practicing English, although conversations tend to be limited. This is why we decided to create an event that stimulates enthusiastic arguments and conversations, in a relaxed atmosphere, so a regular quiz night found its way on our social calendar.
Preparation is the key for anything that needs to be done, but especially for an activity such as this. Thanks to encyclopaedias and search engines on the internet, I managed to compile two quizzes of 25 questions each and another quiz of 50 questions. I must admit it was quite fun for me to make up the questions. Rather ask, than answer! But I tried to find interesting questions about topics that not only everybody knows about, but also encourage students to discuss in English, thus practicing the language in an enjoyable way. The quiz includes questions about music and general knowledge amongst other topics. Questions related to music are definitely popular, however many students argue about questions related to history and science. This is where the competitive streak shines through the students.
Students often contradict each other, making the event more colourful and vivacious. Some are louder than others and most of the time the atmosphere can easily be compared to a sports arena. It is entertaining, I must say. Students express themselves in ways they themselves never thought possible and this goes to show how a friendly relaxed atmosphere can bring out the best in people.
Sometimes I find it hard not to laugh when opinions vary but everybody wants to be the one with the right answer, even when the right answer is the wrong one, while the presumed wrong answer is the right one. It may sound confusing, I must admit that it sometimes is, but this doesn’t take away the entertainment that a quiz night makes.
So! Silence please and on for the first question: Penny, Lucy, Eleanor and Jude are names of women a particular band loves to sing about. Which band is this? Is it a) The Rolling Stones, b) The Darkness, c) The Beatles or is it d) The Who?
written by Katrin Risiott
